Scott Boras' take on the new collective bargaining agreement

A few days ago, baseball's most well-known and powerful player agent, Scott Boras, had a large forum and he sure used it.

Each year at the Winter Meetings, Boras makes an appearance and the media flocks in his direction. This year, I was part of the flock - one that featured reporters like me who cover just one team, as well as national reporters.

When the subject turned to Boras' take on the new collective bargaining agreement, he went on a lengthy rant that took several minutes. One that seemed to say baseball is losing good talent to other sports - both domestically and on the international front - because of salaries.

Here are some of Boras' comments, presented for your own interpretation and comments:

"Baseball only has so much earth where the game is played," the agent said. "We only have a few cultures that really, there is an opportunity to play baseball in the world. If you go back to the 1930s, the most popular sports in the United States were track and field, boxing, horse racing and baseball.

"Now we have baseball included, but three other sports - hockey, basketball and football - that have eroded the others. I think we have to be very cautious. If baseball is not out pursuing the best athletes in the world, you've got to really look at this and say, 'What are we doing?'

"The NBA has $4.5 billion in revenue and baseball is over double that. The No. 1 pick in the NBA draft got a bonus of over $12 million. In the NFL, the No. 1 pick got a bonus of $27 million guaranteed. In baseball, our bonuses are half that of the NBA and a third or a quarter of that in the NFL. And we are pursuing the best athletes? Why are we as an industry saying that we going to succumb to the other sports and not pursue the best athletes?

"And by the way, we have a grand disadvantage in something out of baseball's control and that is the number of college scholarships. You have 11,000 football scholarships, you have 3,000 in baseball. You have a young man who is 6-foot-6, he's 14 or 15 years old and their family is looking for immediate value. They are looking for a college scholarship or for a bonus. And with baseball being last in offering those scholarships, our industry has to look ahead and forward in getting the greatest athletes in the world.

"If we have an industry making $10 billion, should we really build the Berlin Wall to youth? We just cut off the American players and limited them well below the NBA and NFL. And now we are doing it with the Latin players as well. We are cutting off our soil.

"I would imagine FIFA is over in Venezuela because they have coveted South America, and they are building soccer fields as we speak in the Dominican. Because these athletes are going to turn to something that is better for them.

"We have to make sure as an industry that we're creating and protecting our product and getting the best athletes in the world to our game. And how do we beat football? How do we beat basketball and the other sports in the world and take advantage of our soil that produces these athletes to get the greatest players?"