Karma Sucks, Doesn't It Mr. Boras?

Apparently the rumors that Scott Boras represented Angel Villalona was true: according to this article, Boras is threatening to sue the Giants over their signing of Angel Villalona, claiming that he had an agreement to represent Angel.

That sounds so familiar. He must have had an oral agreement with Angel and thought that the prospect would honor some long-held tradition between unofficial advisor/agent and prospect. Say, kind of like how the Giants thought they had an unofficial agreement with Matt White that he would continue to negotiate with them even though they didn't officially comply with the rules and give him an official offer, some officious paper-shuffling rule. But no, his agent, say, that same Scott Boras, said, basically, rules are rules, no offer means Matt's a free agent, and he took him to auctioned him off to the highest bidder, Tampa Bay, who paid, like, $10M to him to jump ship and, ultimately, be an expensive learning experience on the part of the newly formed MLB team as Matt White never even pitched a day in the majors, let alone be a journeyman pitcher.

The article doesn't give much hope to Boras, as the MLB noted that Boras has no recourse through the league or the players' association, his only recourse "would be to sue the player pursuant to any personal-services contract he may have with him. I doubt Boras will pursue that avenue since any litigation would have to be filed in the Dominican Republic."

I would have to agree. Rich American comes to poor country and tries to push around one of the locals and shake money off of the poor family? If that happens, he ain't going to get another Latin player to sign with him. They might sympathize with him over an "agreement" gone wrong, but if he flex his rich muscles and sic his lawyers on Villalona's family, that's about as bad publicity an agent could get.

And, in this case, bad publicity is not good in any way, competing agents would only have to whisper to the prospects family, "of course, he thinks he owns you if you sign with him, and you don't know if he might suddenly decide that you reneged on your agreement and decide to sue you too. Me, I am very loyal to my clients, I would never harm you in any way, it is ridiculous to sue, we have a good relationship, we can work everything out, I will treat you like family."

Nope, that's karma with a capital "K": the Giants lost a prospect to Boras long ago and now Boras has lost a prospect to the Giants. It would have been fully karmic if it was Tampa Bay he had offered $3M to Angel, and not Seattle, but I'll take it. But if the Devil Rays feel really bad about it, I'll be willing to accept Delmon Young from them as small compensation for their transgression and be the bigger man and call it even.

Of course, the point could be moot eventually, if Villalona turns out to be an expensive mistake. But for now, I enjoy the delicious irony that Boras is on the other side of an "understanding" gone wrong and we were the ones to have signed the player who crossed him.

And, of course, Boras will go to his vault and swim in his money, so it's like the old saying about laughing all the way to the bank...