Boras Being Boras

Magglio Ordonez is batting .273/.347/.343 with a cool 82 OPS+. That's pretty shitty. Like really really shitty. Like should be benched shitty, and that's what the Tigers have done. OPS isn't the greatest stat as Harold Reynolds told us so eloquently, but bear with me here, Maggs ranks 163rd in the league there, Luis Castillo has him beat. That's not to say that the Tigers have a wealth of other OF options (Josh Anderson- .288 wOBA, Clete Thomas- .323 wOBA and in the minors now, Marcus Thames can't hit righties, and Carlos Guillen can't get on the field) but it doesn't mean that Magglio should play everyday or even any day. This would all seem moot since Maggs can just cash his check on the bench except if he reaches a certain number of plate appearances an extension for 2010 and 2011 kicks in for $33m total.

That's where Scott Boras comes in:

Scott Boras, the agent for benched outfielder Magglio Ordonez, unloaded on the Tigers Friday, accusing them of a "myopic" decision to remove a former batting champion from the lineup "for no compelling reason."

Boras indirectly made his legal case for challenging any decision by the Tigers to release Ordonez and escape responsibility for his 2010 and 2011 options, which would pay him $33 million spanning those seasons if certain numbers of plate appearances are reached.

"Remember who you're calling, because I do my homework," said Boras, who is based in Newport Beach, Calif., and who is acknowledged as the sports agent world's resident Goliath.

"You want to know how many RBIs Magglio had at this time last year with 216 at-bats and runners in scoring position?

"Twenty-six RBIs. You know how many he has this year? Twenty-two. We're four RBIs short and we're benching Magglio?" Boras asked, incredulously.

"Benching him because he's hit .301 in the last 30 days? You're gonna take a guy batting .275 (.273), who over the last 40 days is hitting .300 with runners in scoring position, and bench him?

"I admit to you that Magglio had a rough April (.240 batting average). But if you want to talk about why his production is down in 2009 it's about one thing and one thing only: His home runs are down by seven. I submit to you that's not compelling information for declaring failure."

I wonder how often Scott Boras has contradicted himself. He's using RBI as a means to showcase Magglio here, but what card did he play when negotiating with the Red Sox for Jason Varitek last year? Certainly not RBIs as he had only 43 RBI. I wonder when he deals with teams that have several of his clients if he told them one day "you shouldn't knock my client because of his lack of RBIs, we both know that's an overrated stat" and then the next day "listen

According to Boras the only thing that is down this year is home runs. That would have merit if we were talking about David Wright, who even though his homers are down he is being just as productive if not more so(.397 wOBA in 2008 and .415 this year). So there are ways to be just as productive with a loss of homers, its just that's not what Magglio is doing. Some would say the only thing that Magglio is doing the same is RBI, which as we all know shouldn't affect how we judge players production necessarily.

However, with that said I'm not really that anti-Boras. Boras can pick and choose whichever stats he wants that best showcase his player, that's simply Boras doing his job. Say what you will about Boras, he doesn't break the rules he takes advantage of them for his player. Plus, you'd have to be a pretty crappy agent to not try to argue what he is with Magglio because there might be a case to be made. I'm not saying it's a strong case, but Magglio could certainly still be used to hit lefties and he's been a very good hitter as recently as last year. All of this still doesn't mean you can't find some of the things Boras says as hilarious, because how easy it is to see through it.

Best case scenario for the Tigers they save themselves $18m, worst case scenario is the extension kicks in, or Boras files against the Tigers and they pay something less than the $18m. Right now Magglio isn't good enough to play, and the Tigers can justify that decision, and since they can stand to save $18m there's no reason to start him right now.