Columnist Dean Juipe: Bad advice cost prospect rich contract

Dean Juipe

Friday, June 14, 2002 | 9:34 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

There's a lesson to be learned and at its most basic it's this: If someone offers you $4 million to play baseball, take it. Don't whimper, don't complain, don't do anything but ask "Where do I sign?"

Matt Harrington had the opportunity to sign a two-year contract worth $4 million and turned it down when the Colorado Rockies drafted him out of Palmdale (Calif.) High two years ago. Today Harrington, who recently established a residence in Las Vegas, is playing for peanuts for the Long Beach Breakers of the Western League and the millions he could have received have long since been cleared from the table.

He filed suit last week in Clark County District Court against his former agent on the grounds that the "negligent and reckless" advice he received from Tommy Tanzer is worthy of (undetermined) compensatory damages. A hearing date has yet to be set.

For the 19 local players who were taken in the June 4-5 amateur draft and for the 83 of the top 100 that had yet to sign as of Thursday, consider this: Harrington sets the example of what not to do in contract negotiations with a major league team. Don't overstate your value and don't lean too heavily on a third party who may have his own motivations.

Tanzer, 50, has 23 major league clients, yet, according to Colorado general manager Dan O'Dowd in a story published by Baseball America, "Matt was the vehicle for Tommy to create a market for himself and his career." At face value, Tanzer did Harrington a substantial disservice.

Tanzer, of course, also lost money in that he was to have received 4 percent of the value of Harrington's contract, yet, just as obviously, his career wasn't dependent on the contract getting signed.

From all accounts, Harrington was a hot pitching prospect -- 11-0, 0.54 ERA as a high school senior -- and was appropriately taken with the No. 7 pick in the 2000 draft. Tanzer corralled him and was adamant that they could get $4.95 million from the Rockies even though the No. 1 pick that year, Adrian Gonzalez, signed with Florida for $3 million.

Harrington had some leverage in that the option of attending college was viable and the University of Arizona was willing to offer him a scholarship. But negotiations between Tanzer and the Rockies were anything but amicable and a stalemate existed as O'Dowd tried to circumvent the agent and deal directly with the family itself.

The Harringtons needed the money, as shown by their admitted reluctance to unnecessarily run the air conditioner despite three-digit temperatures. Yet they balked at O'Dowd's invitation to take in a game at Coors Field and, soon afterward, the Rockies rescinded their contract offer.

Harrington passed on the Arizona scholarship and went back into the draft and was picked at No. 58 by San Diego in 2001. Again he did not sign, although this time the offer was $600,000.

Instead, he pitched for St. Paul in the independent Northern League, hurt his elbow and his shoulder and rang up a 9.47 ERA.

These days Harrington has no market value but he has an attorney in Las Vegas and one in Irvine who will represent him here in court. They, by the way, will get more than 4 percent if he prevails or there is a settlement.