Matt Harrington story

Nice ESPN OTL piece on Matt Harrington, a former top pitching prospect who turned down millions ... again and again.

Today — instead of playing in the majors or at the very least living a comfortable life -- he works on cars at Costco.

Talk about a cautionary tale.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=090423/harrington

 

Can't say I feel sorry for this guy. Drafted FIVE times and never signed. Sometimes you gotta take what you can get. I hope every young prospect reads this story (*cough* Bryce Harper *cough*)

 

This story moved a while back, yet it is a great, great piece -- one that hit home. I covered Matt in high school, not during the senior year circus; I had moved on by then, but earlier.

A buddy of mine covered him that year and afterward. What a clusterf***.

The biggest mistake he made was hiring a C-level agent like Tommy Tanzer, who was clearly in over his head here.

 

I can understand not wanting to play for the Rockies since Coors Field has ruined better pitchers than him...

But what a fucking idiot...

 

One more reason why I was glad the Nationals were able to sign the kid from SDSU.

 

The story did miss one basic points. Of the series of offers made to Harrington one was a straight signing bonus of $3.6 million. The first $600,000 was to be paid the day the deal was signed. The remaining $3 million would be paid one year after that and it would be paid with 10 percent interest so that the second payment would have been $3.3 million, which means within 12 months of signing he would have received $3.9 million. When that offer was turned down and the claim that the Rockies had agreed to the $4.9 million came, the Rockies came up with the offer mentioned in the story.
By the way, have any of you noticed the number of young players who have agents who say their client will only sign for x, the kid gets drafted just the same and signs for y? Can we start with Stephen Strasburg?
I feel sorry for the kid but it comes back to allowing an outsider who the family doesn't really know to make lifetime decisions for you.

 

I kind of got the impression that his dad had a pretty strong influence on the negotiations. Sad if that's the case. I hope he truly is happy like he claims he is but you never really know. But I don't see how anyone can pity this guy. Yes, his agent may have been a scumbag and yes, his dad may have been too involved with it all. But in the end, it's HIS decision to sign on the dotted line and time after time, he refused.

 

There are a lot of times where agents tell players, "Look, this may get ugly, but you have to trust me on this one..."

I understand holdouts and there are definitely times where I think the player is in the right over the team (Andre Smith right now, to name one)

But especially in baseball where the success rate is much lower than in other pro sports, you have to sign that contract.

I haven't read the story, but I hope that agent isn't working...

Did all of Boras' players sign before the deadline?

 

That story could have been good. Seems the kid is pretty happy with his life. Says he is in the story. Allows them to take a bunch of pics of him at a job that the story wants you to feel is beneath him. Yet his dad is torn up about it. I think the dichotomy of their feelings about what happened should have been introduced much earlier. The last few paragaphs seemed tacked on to try to make it Paul Harveyish -- and now you know the REST of the story. But it comes off to me more like, "Oh, by the way, this kid's doing pretty well with all this."

 

This story has been told many times. A few times better.
It's the ultimate tale of woe and caution that even those inside baseball's circle use near and around the draft.
Like in the movie Kingpin, when someone absolutely crashes and burns it's termed a "Munson." This is a "Harrington."

 

The Harrington story is great. This Harrington story was not great. How many quotes from Matt himself? Not many. I never fully grasped how the kid felt.

 

SI had a feech on him recently.

Don't really feel bad about his situation. Guy had the world at his fingertips and pissed it all away because he was selfish.