Angels phenom Mike Trout was given a contract renewal for $510,000 by the Angels. His agent, Craig Landis, orchestrated a game of "Good Cop Bad Cop" wherein Trout said all the nice, right, wholesome, purebred, squeaky clean hero things that a hero throughout the land says when there is a smidgen of controversy that might indicate a fissure in relations has arisen.
Of course, someone had to be the bad cop in this game and that fell on Landis. He said all the wrong things on purpose to give Trout a platform to say all the right things.
TROUT (the "Good Cop"): "My time will come, I just have to keep putting out numbers and concentrating on one thing, and that's getting to the postseason."
LANDIS (the "Bad Cop"): "This contract falls well short of a fair contract."
TROUT: "I'm just happy to be in the lineup."
LANDIS: "As when he learned he would not be the team's primary center fielder for the upcoming season, Mike will put the disappointment behind him and focus on helping the Angels reach their goal of winning the 2013 World Series."
TROUT: "When you're an outfielder, you should be able to play all three. I think it's going to help me get reads off the bat. It's going to be a fun adjustment for me."
LANDIS: "I have voiced this to the Angels throughout the process. Nonetheless, the renewal of Mike's contract will end this discussion."
Meanwhile the Washington Nationals have given Bryce Harper a raise to $750,000 for the 2013 season. Wait a minute, why is that? Do the Nationals pay for performance and the Angels for service time? Not necessarily. Harper was represented by Scott Boras, who got automatic salary raises put into young Bryce's contract.
So what we have here is not a failure to communicate, but a failure of an agent to be any good to start with and to emulate bad crime drama acting strategies to compensate fir his failure to do his job.
Your screenplay would never fly in Hollywood, Landis, what makes you think it can land in Anaheim?