Matt Harrington

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Matt Harrington (born February 1, 1982) is a pitcher in baseball and a former first round pick in Major League Baseball's First-Year Player Draft.

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[edit] Major League Baseball Draft

Harrington was considered good enough to be a possible first overall selection in the 2000 Major League draft, but excessive contract demands by his then-agent Tommy Tanzer caused him to slip to the seventh overall, at which point he was drafted by the Colorado Rockies. Acting on his agent's advice, he rejected the Rockies' offer of $4.9 million[citation needed], refused to sign a contract, and waited for the next draft. Meanwhile the inactivity caused him to lose speed and effectiveness in his once-prized fastball. The San Diego Padres, the next team to draft him, were aware of this and offered him barely $1 million, which was also rejected. Harrington was drafted three more times, each year slipping further down the draft board and offered substantially less money than the previous year. He played on various independent league baseball teams the whole time, and had a tryout with the Chicago Cubs in 2007, but was released and retired later that year.

He was able to salvage a portion of the baseball money he turned down, due to a settlement of an insurance policy he took out in 2000 and a lawsuit against his former agent. Tanzer, whose own career is defined by these botched negotiations, no longer represents baseball players and now lives in Utah.

A right-hander with a 95+ mph fastball, Harrington was considered one of the top pitching prospects in the 2000 Major League Baseball Draft. He was selected by the Colorado Rockies with the 7th overall pick. However, Harrington and his agent Tommy Tanzer were never able to come to terms on a contract. Tanzer asked for a $4.95 million signing bonus, which was 25 percent more than what the previous year's No. 1 pick Josh Hamilton had received. The negotiations proved acrimonious, with Tanzer accusing the Rockies of backing out of an alleged pre-draft agreement to sign for his stated asking price, and the Rockies denying that such an agreement ever took place.
The Rockies' final offer was $4 million and a guaranteed major league callup by the end of 2002. Harrington turned down the deal, sat out the season and re-entered the draft in 2001. While Harrington and his parents publicly supported their agent at the time, they ultimately fired Tanzer and filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against him for giving bad advice. Tanzer was replaced with super-agent Scott Boras, who also proved unsuccessful getting Harrington signed.
In the 2001 Draft, Harrington slipped into the second round, being drafted by the San Diego Padres with the 58th overall pick. The Padres offered him a $1.2 million signing bonus. Boras, who wanted twice that amount, rejected the offer and Harrington again declined to sign. He played in the independent leagues during the following season, putting up unimpressive numbers for St. Paul of the Northern League and Long Beach of the now-defunct Western Baseball League, going a combined 2-6 with a 6.75 ERA. He was released by Long Beach's manager Steve Yeager. Although the Padres were still free to make additional contract offers until the day of the 2002 draft, they chose not to after scouting Harrington in independent ball that May. They felt Harrington's skills had diminished, and notified him that they were not interested in signing him to a contract, and would not be drafting him again.
Despite his struggles in the independent leagues, Harrington was drafted again in 2002. This time, he was taken by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 13th round. Again, he failed to agree to a contract. Tampa Bay's offers ranged in the $5,000-$20,000 range, standard 13th round money.
In 2003, he fell to the 24th round of the draft (711th overall), before he was selected by the Cincinnati Reds, who were just offering little more than a chance to play.
In 2004, he would be drafted by the New York Yankees in the 36th Round (1,089 overall), who did not offer him a contract.

[edit] Professional career

For the past four years, Harrington has pitched for the Fort Worth Cats of the independent American Association. He has pitched well with the Cats, mostly as a middle reliever. He posted a 5-0 record during the 2005 season, and followed that up with a 6-1 mark and a 2.90 ERA in 2006. During the latter season, he increased his strikeout rate dramatically, and allowed just 6.7 hits per nine innings pitched. The improvement was credited to Harrington being in better shape and regaining considerable velocity on his fastball.

Because none of the 30 major league teams selected him after 50 rounds in the 2005 Major League Baseball Draft, Harrington became a free agent. This allowed him to sign a professional contract with any club in organized baseball, on whatever terms he can obtain. Harrington's improvement caused some major league clubs to again have interest in signing him. On October 10, 2006, he signed a minor league contract with the Chicago Cubs. He received no signing bonus, but attended the Cubs' 2007 spring training camp with the hope of landing a position on a Cubs minor league team; however, the Cubs released him on March 27, 2007.[1] After his release from the Cubs, he re-signed with the St. Paul Saints, his original minor league independent team. He is now retired.

In a recent ESPN the magazine article[2] it was reported that Harrington is currently working for the local Costco store, in the tire department, making $11.50 per hour.

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ [2]

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Harrington"