More Alvarez links

Are you sick of these things yet? I am

Kevin Goldstein breaks down a history of Boras draft shenanigans at BP (subscriber only). It is a fascinating read and it really gives you an idea how smart Boras is and how much he's affected the draft. This kind of stuff is exactly why players hire him: he's always a step ahead of baseball on stuff like this. There are two conclusions to take from it that I think are worthwhile: even when Boras loses, he wins and in the past, even when arbitrator's have decided in Boras's favor, they often let the MLB exec board (the owners) decide what to do with the players in question. That certainly bodes well for us.

In that same vein, Goldstein was on the Baseball Digest Daily podcast over the weekend talking about the grievance.

And the union is now trying to argue that the Pirates got a special favor because of Coonelly's past work in the MLB offices.