The silly season didn’t get a gradual beginning this year. Oh, no, it went straight to hardcore mode. Nowhere is that more obvious than the players’ union executive director, Tony Clark, starting an investigation into statements made by Alex Anthopoulos during a conference call with the media. I’ll get to why the investigation isn’t completely unwarranted, but Clark’s description truly is ridiculous. Though Anthopoulos would do Clark a solid and apologize for misspeaking, it takes…
There is an old idea with organizations – never leave any unspent allocated money at the end of the year. If you do, your bosses will think you can manage your workload on less money. As a result, they’ll allocate a smaller chunk of change to your organization the following year. Now, that might not apply to the baseball business all that well, but by adding $5 million to the 2019 payroll yesterday in a…
It was Options Day for the Atlanta Braves. Having already declined Billy Hamilton‘s option, the Braves still had three option decisions to make on pitcher Julio Teheran, catcher Tyler Flowers, and outfielder Nick Markakis. They also had to decide whether or not to extend Josh Donaldson a qualifying offer. I’m just kidding – that required zero thought. There is a sub-1% chance Donaldson takes the offer, but the Braves cover themselves if the slugging right-handed…
Ozzie Albies didn’t win a Gold Glove yesterday at second base. And that’s okay. I’m a huge fan of Ozzie Albies and have been for years. Ignoring his offense, which was a huge improvement in 2019, his push to become the best defensive second baseman he can be has been amazing. Of course, we all know about the work he puts in with Ron Washington to improve. The results are definitely there. He’s one of…
Welcome back to the Exit Interview series. I planned on getting this out before the weekend, but it’s been a busy week. Nevertheless, here is a look at eight players running the gamut of bullpen figures to a former Cy Young and two Gold Glove-caliber center fielders. As I said before, I am utilizing the arbitration estimates recently published by MLB Trade Rumors for any arbitration-eligible player. The Braves 2019 Exit Interviews Series Part 1:…
The other day, I started a series focusing on “Exit Interviews” with the active Braves roster. Essentially, a look at their 2019 season with a peek at what 2020. What role could they play? Do they have salary obligations? And so on and so forth. Today, I’ll get into another group of players – seven, to be exact. They run the gamut of potentially non-tendered to franchise cornerstones. As I said before, I am utilizing…
I started this list a month-and-a-half ago after putting the list together before the season. I now finally review the next five players on the list. So, that may show you how prolific of a writer I am. Either way, here is my attempt to look at the Top 50 players in Braves franchise history. Today, among the five I center on are a phenom that never really lived up to the hype and the…