Garret and Scott

Garret Anderson has a new BFF.  Anderson has hired Scott Boras as his agent.  Anderson was without a player representative since his previous agent, Chris Arnold, negotiated his contract extension with the Angels in 2004.  To me, Anderson's hiring of Boras means he's serious about his desire to be a fulltime player in 2009 and beyond.  I read a comment that it's now possible for Anderson to get a deal possibly in the 3 year range for a salary of $36M.  I think this is ridiculous...maybe. 

Can an agent create a market?  Obviously, the Angels didn't feel Anderson was worth $14M to return next season, or else they would have exercised the option they held.  Tony Reagins has stated that the Angels might be interested in having Anderson return, but at a significantly reduced salary and role.  Anderson ranked 18th out of 25 in Value Over Replacement (VORP) of the left fielders with at least 400 plate appearances last season with a value of 14.9.  In 2007, he ranked 14th out of 22 with a VORP of 22.1.  In 2006 his replacement value was 9.0, which ranked him 22nd (out of 27).  And in 2005 he was the 18th best left fielder of the 24 who qualified.  I realize it's just one statistic, but I believe it is a very good statistic to show a player's value.  In the last 4 seasons Anderson has never been above average, so why would a team feel he's worth giving significant playing time to?  Probably because Boras will talk them into it.  Boras will tell them last season, Anderson's batting average was higher than Ryan Braun's, Jason Bay's, Pat Burrell's, Adam Dunn's, and Alfonso Soriano's.  He'll tell them that Anderson has never accumulated less than 400 at-bats in 13 years.  He'll add that Anderson provides the type of "veteran leadership" a team requires.  And some General Manager will buy it.  Or I should say, a team's owner will buy it as they're the one's who are responsible for the signings.  So, getting back to my original question; can an agent create a market?  I don't think so.  The people running teams are very smart men and know the same things agents do, but agents tell them exactly what they want to hear.  Or at least what they think their fans want to hear.  If you're reading this blog, or any of the Angels' fans sites, you're not the typical fan.  If you stand out front of Angels Stadium and ask 20,000 of the fans going into the game if they think Garret Anderson is a good player, I'd bet at least 15,000 of them will say "yes".  And those are the fans that team owners cater to, not the few hundred die-hard fans who know the meaning of VORP or realize OPS is a better indicator of a player's hitting ability than batting average.  This is the only logical explanation I can come up with as to why a team will sign a player like Anderson.  They have the stats, and scouting reports, and people analyzing player performance to know who's valuable and who's not.  So I think a better question to ask -- Do teams sign players based on fan popularity rather than expected performance?  If so, that's the market a player's agent will exploit.  A market that doesn't need to be created, because the market is already there.

Daily Notes:

• Mark Teixeira has stated he'd like to sign his next contract before Christmas. 

  "I don't want to put a timetable on it, but Christmas morning, I want to know where I'm going to be for the next couple of years, so hopefully, by Christmas it will be done," Teixeira told ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews during the Miami/Georgia Tech football game in Atlanta on Thursday.

  This is good news for the Angels, and any other team looking to sign Teix, as an early signing will allow teams to move on to their Plan B options.  According to this article, the Angels Plan B may be C.C. Sabathia:

  The Angels, obviously, do not want to be in a similar place to where the Astros were after the 2004 season. That winter, Houston waited and waited for Carlos Beltran, a Boras client, to decide, and the center fielder picked the Mets in mid-January. The Astros had not secured their No. 1 target, and so much offseason clock had elapsed that their second and third choices had vanished, as well.

  "One thing I can tell you about (Angels owner) Arte Moreno is he won't get jerked around," a rival executive said.

  Translation: He will make a substantial offer to Teixeira with a time limit. I believe it is possible the Angels have told Sabathia's representatives to be patient because if Teixeira goes beyond that time limit, then the Angels will refocus on Sabathia.

  Sign Sabathia?  Cool.  But is he going to hit too because the Angels' batting order is going to look pretty weak without Teixeira or a decent replacement.  If they do get Sabathia, there won't be much money left over for a free agent hitter if the team maintains last season payroll amount.  Look forward to a lot of 2-0, 3-1 losses next season unless Tony Reagins can turn some of that pitching depth into an impact bat.

• The halos may lose another free agent, relief pitcher Darren Oliver has 10 teams kicking the tires on signing the lefty.  This is probably good news to the Angels, as Oliver is a Type A free agent meaning if another team signs him, the Angels will get that team's first round pick plus a supplemental pick.  There seems to be a few decent replacements on the free agent market (Joe Beimel - Type B or Will Ohman), or through a trade (George Sherrill - Bal).  Brian Fuentes would be an excellent addition, but would could at a big expense in both salary and draft picks since he's a Type A free agent as well.  The Angels have until December 1st to offer Oliver arbitration.
• Read this in the LA Times.  It looks like the Oakland Athletics are close to signing Rafael Furcal to a 4-year, $48M contract and according to ESPN's Rob Neyer:
  
  "If the A's do sign Furcal, this winter we're going to have to take them seriously as contenders in the American League West. Because the Angels can be beat."
  
  

  What?  No Halo love from Rob Neyer?  I'm shocked.  Actually, I kinda agree with him.  If Oakland does sign Furcal, and with the recent addition of Matt Holliday, the A's will be a much better team in 2009 than they were in 2008.