Shut up, Scott Boras

Scott Boras may be a good agent for the players he represents, even though a lot of GMs don't like him - and rightly so, I think. But when did he get it into his head that anyone cares about his opinions on the game itself? First there was the whole nine-game World Series with two games in warm weather, "neutral" sites, presumably so that Boras' clients could have more games to showcase themselves (and the warm weather so they could hit better in the playoffs). All told, it was clearly self-interested, and possibly the worst idea associated with baseball since the White Sox threw the 1919 World Series.

Boras' latest "brainstorm" is less offensive, but about as stupid.

"We need to give the fans something to identify brilliance defensively," Scott Boras said.

Boras proposes the "EP," for exceptional play. The official scorer would be asked to distinguish between an exceptional play and a routine one in the same way he is asked to distinguish between a hit and error.

Seriously? Seriously. This is retarded. First of all, how many more things do we need to farm out to the official scorer to make a judgment call on? He already has to do it on hits and errors, now he'll have to do it on every play? And this is going to be way, way more controversial, since it seems to me that the definition of an "exceptional play" is going to vary widely.

Also, as anyone who knows anything about baseball should be aware, plays that look the most exceptional can often be the result of a fielder with less range. For example, if you're not good at moving to your right, and a ball is hit to your right and you have to dive for it, and then you get up and make the play, that might look exceptional. But you are not a better fielder than someone who makes the play easily because they can get to their right quicker. In fact, you are a worse fielder. Over the long run, this statistic will probably just overinflate the perception of someone like Derek Jeter - by virtually all accounts a mediocre fielder whose awesome-looking plays are sometimes attributable to his lack of range - while further devaluing fielders who aren't flashy because they don't need to be.

Of course, then you have someone like Andruw Jones, who does make legitimately great plays on a fairly routine basis. The interesting thing about Jones is that offensively, he's having a terrible year - .211, with an OPS of just .720. He'll have about 30 home runs and 105 RBI, but for a guy who went 51/128 in 2005, that's not that impressive. But then, Andruw Jones' biggest selling point is that he's a defensive stalwart in center field. Hell, check out some of the plays that guy makes! If only we had some sort of, I don't know, made-up statistic that counted up the exact number of awesome - no, exceptional - plays that he makes in a year. Why, a quantifiable stat like that would really drive up his market value despite a down offensive year, wouldn't it? And hey, it just so happens he's a free agent after this season! And it really just so happens that his agent is - wait for it! - Scott Boras.

Guess what? I've just made up a stat. It's ShaF, which is short for "Shamelessness Factor." Right now Scott Boras is working on a ShaF of about 68.2.*

*For reference, the highest lifetime ShaF belongs to Pete Rose, who recorded a 97.4, mostly between the years of 1992 and 2007.