Ripken Baseball

Think what you want of Scott Boras, but he gets his job done. Better than anyone else in his industry.

He always gets top-dollar for his clients, and in the case of Matt Holliday’s recent signing with the St. Louis Cardinals, Boras has elevated his status to another level.

Not only did Holliday’s contract blow away Jason Bay’s—who you could argue is the better player of the two biggest free agent outfielders of this off-season—but in the end, Holliday finds himself in a much better situation than Bay.

Bay is certainly getting paid, having signed a $66 million, four-year deal with the Mets. While he’s getting close to top-dollar, he’s also now playing for a team that lost 92 games in 2009.

Over in St. Louis, Boras landed Holliday a seven-year deal for $120 million with the Cards, a team that typically doesn’t delve deep into its pockets for free agents.

In the end, both Bay and Holliday will be making comparable money on a yearly basis: Bay at about $16.5 million per year, Holliday at about $17 million per year.

Boras’ super agent ability is what makes the real difference though. Bay will be playing for a struggling franchise trying to rebound from a dismal season, while Holliday finds himself returning to a team that just came off a playoff run and has a very good chance to return to the playoffs in 2010. Not to mention the fact that Holliday finds himself in the same lineup as Albert Pujols, and the reality that St. Louis is a much more relaxed playing atmosphere than New York.

Who has the better chance of bringing home a World Series Championship during the life of their new contract? That’s a no-brainer.

Looking beyond fiscal numbers, there’s no doubt Boras got Holliday the best deal possible.

We all know Boras always seeks top-dollar for his clients, regardless of where that money comes from. But with the Holliday deal, Boras has achieved perfection. He placed his client in the best possible atmosphere and earned him the biggest paycheck, and that’s never easy when you’re looking for top-dollar in the major leagues.

With the Winter Meetings concluded, a lot of the big-name free agents still remain on the market. Not Randy Wolf though, and I think he deserves a lot of credit for how he handled his free agency.

Randy didn’t let his eyes wander around the league, looking at all the other deals being made or discussed. He knew what he wanted, he found a situation and an offer that fit him well, and he jumped on it. Good for him. There aren’t many guys around anymore who will go into free agency and accept the first fair deal that comes their way. No, they’ll test the waters and wait for some team to hurl up an enormous offer.

Raul Ibanez made a very similar deal last year. The Phillies made him a fair offer coming out of the ’08 Winter Meetings. Ibanez took it and he went out and played quality baseball for a great team.

Take a fair deal and go play your game.

The Wolf deal should serve as a heads up to the remaining free agents, an example they should consider following. Don’t get too greedy, don’t worry about anyone else in the league, and don’t wait around for the absolute perfect deal. That’s not to say the $30 million that Wolf is going to get over the next three years is anything to shake a stick at, but many guys in his position might have turned down the Brewers’ offer in favor of finding an even better deal – something that may never have come along.

It was a two-way street. The Brewers didn’t step beyond their means. Instead, they stayed within themselves and filled their need for a quality left-handed starter, and they accomplished that goal early-on in the off-season.

My advice to the remaining free agents – worry about yourself, ignore all the other deals being made and just look for one that fits you. You don’t need a blockbuster deal to find your place on the diamond.

With the recent announcement of the candidates for next year’s Hall of Fame ballot, I want to talk integrity – and I’m not talking about the players.

In their first year of eligibility, Robbie Alomar and Barry Larkin deserve to get in, no problem. But that takes me to the voters. This is the time and the class of prospects where you’ll hear the nagging terminology, “He’s a Hall of Famer for sure, but not on the first ballot.”

Excuse me? In my world, you’re a Hall of Famer or you’re not. I don’t care about the number of ballots it takes. If you think a guy deserves to be in the Hall, vote that way. That’s why it bothers me to no end when voters refuse to vote for a deserving candidate in their first year of eligibility. “I won’t vote because I don’t want it to be unanimous,” they’ll say. “Not in his first year, I’ll vote for him on his second ballot.”

For those on the Baseball Writer’s Association of America who think in those terms, your right to vote should be revoked. The ballot asks a simple question, are these players Hall of Famers or not? By voting no one year and yes the next, you’re trying to make a statement to get your own name in the paper, and you’re not doing your job as a voter. You’re destroying the integrity of the Hall itself while trying to preserve the integrity of your own irrelevant grading system.

It’s at the heart of the game itself: call it like you see it. Is it a hit or an error? Does he belong in the Hall or not? I despise hypocritical voters for the same reason I can’t stand it when people complain that a close play should go as a hit just because the batter happens to play for the home team. Or when the scorekeeper marks a borderline hit as an error, just because the pitcher has a perfect game through six innings – then he makes a change in the books afterward when that pitcher gives up an undeniable hit in the seventh. It lacks integrity and it’s despicable.

To the voters on the BBWAA: it is what it is. Is he a Hall of Famer or not? After all, once a player gets in, everyone will remember him as a Hall of Famer, while you’re still stuck on how many ballots it took.

In the past, Derek Jeter has given Cal a lot of credit for paving the way for a much bigger generation of shortstops, creating the baseball setting in which Jeter now thrives. Perhaps I’m biased towards my brother, but Junior always seemed to do everything right–on the field and off–and Jeter exemplifies that same greatness of character. He plays hard every day, and is just as impressive a person outside the foul lines as he is an athlete between them.

Coaching at the World Baseball Classic this year, it was the first chance I had to spend any significant time with the Yankee shortstop. In that setting, he didn’t disappoint. He put forth the effort day in and day out, treated everyone with the utmost respect, and always maintained a professional manner.

Now he’s got a ring on five of his fingers—the epitome of a superstar—but you wouldn’t guess it by his attitude and workhorse mentality. Over the course of my career, I’ve met plenty of other “superstars,” and many of them would be better compared to a horse’s rear-end, if you ask me.

It’s no wonder he goes by Captain at one of the most storied franchises in history. There’s no doubt Jeter is the leader of the Yankees.

Greatest Yankee of all time? That will always be up for debate.

But Sportsman of the Year? No doubt Jeter deserves it, he’s been doing the same great stuff since he first came to the big show.

I can only ask Sports Illustrated, “What took you so damn long?”

We’re all looking forward to a lot of eating, some moderate drinking, watching football and napping the afternoon away on the couch tomorrow.

At least that’s how everyone pictures Turkey Day.

But my guess is you won’t see a guy like Theo Epstein all tryptophan-ed out on the couch tomorrow. With the Red Sox being dismissed by the Angels in the first round of the playoffs this year—by way of the sweep no less—and the Doc Halladay rumors buzzing, you just might find Epstein down in Odessa, FL, carving a bird with the Jays’ top righty.

As Doug Miller points out on MLB.com today, Epstein and the Red Sox have already inked deals around the Thanksgiving holiday with a couple of aces. He sat down to dinner with Curt Schilling in 2003, and then the Sox obtained both Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell in a Turkey Day deal in 2005.

The Sox GM married in 2007, so he may have some trouble getting away from the in-laws this time around. But you may just wake up on Black Friday and discover Walmart isn’t the only place making deals and doing business on a big scale. You may just find one of baseball’s best has become the newest member of the Nation.