From The Windup is FanHouse's daily, extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.There is one name that strikes fear into the heart of baseball fans and it's not Rodriguez or Santana or Sabathia or Ramirez. It's Boras. Signing or drafting a Scott Boras client means that your team is going to be put through every wringer possible as Boras tries to hustle, hassle, and finagle every last dollar out by exposing loopholes in agreements that no one ever even knew existed. At best, it's annoying for the fans to deal with. But a guy like Boras is exactly what baseball needs.
If you're unfamiliar with the most recent Boras saga, allow me to get you up to speed (for all of the details, read Dejan Kovacevic's excellent piece at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's PBC Blog). In June, the Pirates drafted Pedro Alvarez with the second overall pick. After little contact the day of the August 15th deadline, the sides worked out a $6 million signing bonus on the cusp of the midnight deadline. Things got suspicious from there when Alvarez never reported to Pittsburgh for his physical or to sign the contract in person.
After nearly two weeks, word broke last Wednesday that the Pirates had placed Alvarez on the restricted list for not signing his deal and that the player's union (the MLBPA) was filing a grievance alleging that the contract had been signed after the midnight deadline. From there, the finger-pointing started between Boras and Pirates' CEO Frank Coonelly (formerly the MLB General Counsel in charge of draft slotting) with the Royals' first round pick, Eric Hosmer (who signed after the deadline with an extension from the commissioner's office) dragged into the feud.
There are some headlines I never expect to see when I'm flipping through the newspaper in the morning, or just surfing around the internet. It happened to me this morning in fact when I was reading the Chicago Sun-Times and found out that
As 
The August 15th deadline for signing draft picks has created some interesting drama in mid-August that didn't previously exist. With most high draft picks waiting until the 15th to sign, there was a ton of tension as midnight approached last night. One of the most interesting subplots, however, has been how Scott Boras has handled negotiations for his top prospects.
With the Kansas City Royals spending most of their recent years at the bottom of their division, attendance at Royals games over the years hasn't been that great. It's not bad by any means, but there is seldom a home game where plenty of empty seats can't be seen around Kaufmann Stadium.
Even when
Well, this is hardly surprising: something
