Tommy Tanzer

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Tommy Tanzer (born ?) is a baseball agent, who has represented Major League Baseball players such as Steve Finley and Shane Reynolds^[1]

[edit] Matt Harrington

Tanzer is known for botching the contract negotiations with star high school pitcher Matt Harrington, who was drafted with the eighth overall selection in the 2000 MLB Draft. Though he had several major league clients, this was Tanzer's first attempt to represent a draft pick, and his inexperience proved to be costly.

Harrington might have been selected as high as first, but Tanzer's asking price of nearly $5 million dollars scared off the first seven teams. When the Colorado Rockies selected Harrington, Tanzer understood it meant that the Rockies were willing to meet his asking price. When he realized that they weren't (though they did offer as much as $4 million), negotiations quickly became acrimonious.

As Tanzer and the Rockies fought, Harrington was sitting idle for almost a year. He opted not to sign with the Rockies and re-enter the draft a year later, but due to inactivity and signability concerns, he slipped to the second round by the San Diego Padres. By then, the Harringtons, who publicly supported their agent the year before, fired him and eventually sued him for offering bad advice. He ended up losing considerable velocity on his fastball, and spent five years pitching in independent leagues before signing with the Chicago Cubs in 2006 for nothing more than a chance to play. He was drafted three more times by major league clubs, slipping dramatically each time and being offered almost no signing bonus at all.^[2]