Agents do occasionally “force” their clients into situations they don’t approve of; hell, just look at the A-Rod fiasco. And even if one believes that A-Rod told Boras to play hardball and then did his own deal as a PR move, there have been plenty of other instances of agent malfeasance in the past.

In fact, I’d argue that any time you see someone(‘s agent) asking for X, and then the agent gets fired and the player settles for less than X, it was the agent who was pushing the player into a corner. He certainly didn’t get fired for being unable to GET the player X if that happens, so it’s fairly self-evident.

Quick, name the last time a big-market team lost a Boras client they had an interest in keeping.

There in lies the problem with baseball. Your statement should be name the last time any team lost a Boras client that they wanted to keep. That’s not Boras fault but that is the problem that he is taking advantage of. Baseball is split into too many markets, MAJOR, Large, Middle, Small and the Marlins.

to the extent that he persuades his client to go to the open market no matter what. If he repeatedly shuns any legitimate attempts from team to sign young players to a Greinke-like extension (one that buys out FA years), and tells his clients that he doesn’t think it’s in their best interests, then the agent is definitely a big part of the problem. And I think that that is a common criticism of Boras. It’s why most of us were very concerned about Zack’s extension when it was rumored that he was going to switch agents and hire Boras. Granted, in a situation where a player has another agent and decides to hire Boras, it’s very likely that the player has made the decision to hit the open market himself. But when a guy like Boras gets his claws into a young player at the beginning of his career, it’s nearly a foregone conclusion that he’ll go to FA. In fact, I think there have been some cases where younger players fired Boras because, at least in part, they wanted to sign an extension and stay with the team that drafted them, and Boras likely kept browbeating them into hitting the market.

I agree, though, that a big part of the problem (probably the larger part) is the system that results in such a disparity in payrolls that forces smaller-market teams to not be competitive in trying to re-sign their own players.

Because he’s really, really good at his job. And fans don’t like their team getting squeezed for money by some agent.

Doubtful…He comes off as a slick slime lawyer. He is an older version of Rosenthal that’s why most people hate him. Steinberg did very well for pro QB’s and is well known and David Falk was well known as MJ’s agent and neither have the rep that Rosenthal or Boras have. They are viewed as arrogant and creeps that along with the team stuff is why people can’t stand them.