The Braves shitty corporate ownership won't give them the money. They got stung by keeping Chipper Jones about 3 years too long with him chewing up 1/4 of the payroll. That and the squabbles they ended up getting into when Smoltz and Glavine were toast and didn't want to accept it soured them on the idea of career Braves. Tim Hudson being allowed to leave as well is a bigger deal than people outside the south prolly realize. Even though he didn't begin with the Braves, he was a southern guy and popular due to his charitable work. They're both going to be missed, but at this point you have to be realistic and realize that unless you're the Yanks or Phils or a couple of other teams, you're going to have to play Moneyball to stay competitive. The Rays and A's stay in the playoffs while continually cycling through players, buying low and selling high. Andrew Friedman is going to put 3 starting players on the field in 2015 with the package he's about to get for David Price. So goes the new arithmetic
He restructured his deal to put more money at the back end. Thats part of the reason they ended up paying him $18mil a year at the end. Not that I personally think it's bad. I'm actually of an opposite pov. I think it makes it look good to prospective free agents when you're good to your players and the players feedback by doing things like that for the team. Tom Brady is a good current example. It almost makes you wonder how the Patriots have ended up with such a dearth of peripheral talent, but that's another debate. The Braves ownership, being a corporate entity, doesn't respect the deal but instead lament the fact that they ended up being at his mercy for a few years at the end where he was a shell of the player they were paying for. As a game, baseball is increasingly turning its back on that sort of commitment to players and having players as a brand. The brand is the uniform now, with the players being increasingly more anonymous. For every Evan Longoria or David Wright, there's 50 Bartolo Colons. To pile on a little more, I don't think the current Braves regime really knows what type of team they're building. They're actually a sad example of the old way not working. The Braves lineup would be awesome if they could somehow teleport themselves back to Coors Field circa 1997. Boppers that strike out a ton aren't as hot a commodity anymore. I'm gonna be worried if they can't scrap Struggla and get BJ back on track. It's a small miracle they made it as far as they did with those 2 batting under .200 all fucking year. I wouldn't bet on that happening again
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Assuming he stays healthy.
they are removing collisions at the plate from the game.
Fuck you buster posey and your leg of glass.