SocraticGadfly: Unbelievable Scott Boras, more unbelievable Jon Heyman, on Kendrys Morales

June 05, 2014

Unbelievable Scott Boras, more unbelievable Jon Heyman, on Kendrys Morales

CBS Sports' Jon Heyman has long been accused of being little more than a mouthpiece for baseball überagent Scott Boras. (It's OK if you spell that with an extra "s" at the end, by the way.)

The saga of former Seattle Mariner first baseman/designated hitter Kendrys Morales is proof positive of that, both being a mouthpiece and as such, being unbelievable, at least until corroborated by another scribe.

Heyman claims the Yankees, Brewers and Mariners are all likely candidates to sign him. 

First, scratch the Mariners. Since they had him last year, they wouldn't have lost a draft pick in compensation to sign him again. The only way we shouldn't scratch the Mariners is if Borass suddenly caved in on his asking price, and that's highly unlikely. It's also unlikely that the M's caved that much out of nowhere, either.

Second, scratch the Yankees, even more than Heyman partially does. Carlos Beltran is back in the lineup.

Third, scratch the Brewers. They're an NL team, so they can't hide his fielding problems at DH. Besides, Aramis Ramirez is back off the DL, which means that Mark Reynolds can play just 1B, where he's clearly better than Lyle Overbay.

Heyman then indicates possible interest from the Rangers. Well, scratch them since Alexi Ogando has joined the mounting injury travails, and like Prince Fielder, whom Morales would replace, is out for the year, or at least possibly so. (Update, June 7: The Boras/Heyman duo have apparently suckered Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, with his "unnamed sources," to drink this Kool-Aid.)

He then talks about a "mystery team." First, this sounds just like a Borass PR line.

(Update: June 7: Surprisingly, there was a "mystery team." Actually, terms I would prefer, as politely noted in my new blog post, would be "head-scratching team" or "WTF team." The Twins DID drink the Kool-Aid.)

Second, given Heyman's one bit of absolute truth in his piece, that Morales is an AL-first player because of fielding limitations, beyond the already-scratched M's, Yankees and Rangers, I can scratch Toronto (no need with Edwin Encarnacion at 1B and Adam Lind at DH), Baltimore (no need with Chris Davis 1B/Nelson Cruz DH), Boston Mike Napoli/David Ortiz), Tigers (Miguel Cabrera/Victor Martinez); Angels (no need with Albert Pujols at 1B and Josh Hamilton back off DL), and the White Sox, with Jose Abreu back off the DL.

Other teams? Rays are out of it. Royals and Twins are price-tag challenged. That's pretty true for the A's, too. Astros are that, plus out of it. And, that covers the AL.

So, Mr. Heyman, at least in the AL, there's NO "mystery team." Period and end of story.

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