re: ATL Thread 9/7-9 | 3 home games against the Nationals | We need to build some distance.

Assholes: clenched

Ow. Right in the kidney

Well I’ll be damned. Good job will.

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Broski

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Why are you always such a bitch? Can you not enjoy anything regarding this team?

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I love him too. And I don’t want to be negative regarding the front office myself, but how long before Ozzie and Ronnie realize they’re getting robbed. I know baseball players don’t have the leverage basketball players do, but at some point they’re gonna have to realize guys who they are clearly better than are making double or even triple what they are. They gonna be cool with that until their deals are up?

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I’m not a big fan of that line of thinking. They both grew up very poor and are making a ton of money playing the game they love. They will also be able to sign a second contract. It’s not like they signed a 15 year deal for 50mil. They basically cashed in early and signed the extension to make more now instead of waiting through their rookie deals.

It’s neither here nor there, but they also seem like best friends and get to play together for a while going forward. They can also get on some endorsement deals if they want to make some side millions. My last thought is they can fire their agent if they think they got fricked. Dont take it out on the fans and front office. They agreed to it.

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I’m not a big fan of that line of thinking. They both grew up very poor and are making a ton of money playing the game they love. They will also be able to sign a second contract. It’s not like they signed a 15 year deal for 50mil. They basically cashed in early and signed the extension to make more now instead of waiting through their rookie deals.

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I get all that, and I get why they did it. But Mookie Betts and Manny Machado both signed $300 million deals. And Ronnie has the same amount of home runs this year as Machado in 182 less ABs. And he has 5 more home runs that Mookie in 77 less ABs. 6 more SBs than Manny and 8 more than Mookie. And has a higher BA, OBP, and OPS than both as well. And he did all his damage at the 1st of the season with no protection because almost nobody else in the Braves’ lineup could hit their dicks. If he hadn’t gotten hurt, he’d be comfortably leading a 2-man race for MVP race with Tatis, Jr., anther $300 million guy.

Yes, the Braves paid him very handsomely and well before they had to, but times have greatly changed very quickly, and you’d have to think at some point he’s gonna look around and be like “wtf?” Especially after his injury. And seeing Trout’s. It’s no guarantee that $300 million will be sitting there waiting for him when he becomes a FA.

And he’s a corner OF. Ozzie is hitting at a level at 2B that we haven’t seen since who, Utley? Poidra? Kent? (Who was really a 3B whose at, was too weak to play there). Dude has hit lead off for a big part of the season and has 93 RBI. What does Lindor make at a middle infield position that has evolved into a much more offensive position than its 2B counterpart.

I get they’re young and having a great time playing together and life is great, but when they get married and start having kids, I think they’re gonna have a change in attitude and want what they’re worth. As we all would. I just know how the Braves should handle it. Ride it out and try to win while we have them on the cheap and move them for prospects when their deals are almost up? Or try to extend them and give them a raise closer to what their peers are making? Cause I don’t think there’s any way the re-sign if they make it to FA.

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My last thought is they can fire their agent if they think they got fricked. Dont take it out on the fans and front office. They agreed to it.

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I’m not saying they “got fricked.” Not saying the Braves did them wrong at all. I’m just saying the landscape changed drastically very soon after they signed, and they are getting sort of fricked by unlucky circumstances, not by some evil entity taking advantage of them. But still, they very well may soon feel fricked, and I wonder what that will mean for the Braves.

It’s very difficult to compete when your main competition to win the pennant has a payroll $150M higher than you do. Doing things like getting Albies and Acuña to sign the deals they did is more valuable than any trade/signing when you are working with a $140M budget and your completion is working on $250-$300M budgets. AA obviously gets an A+ for those deals.

Signing Will Smith and Ozuna to those long term deals were both big mistakes for a team with our payroll. Never, ever pay 30+ year old relievers big money on multi year deals and going big $/multi years for past performance rather than potential for a guy who cannot play a position is a big mistake too.

The key to me is developing talent and keeping it as cheaply as possible and then using the excess $ to plug the biggest holes and buy absolute premium players. It’s why giving up on our top minor leaguers in trades is so tough. They have so much surplus value if they can be good major leaguers. However I do think they probably should have more quickly evaluated some of the pitching so they could use it as currency and try and turn it into someone like Jose Ramirez or Ketel Marte. That is my biggest gripe with AA.

The Morton signing was very good, he is a top 25 SP in the game and it was our biggest hole. No brained and great value. Smyly was a big gamble but understandable with his underlying numbers from last year. Probably overpaid a little though. Ozuna was a big mistake. Duvall I am not big on as an everyday player but he is a great luxury piece on a championship level team. That is where the budget hurt us again. If you are truly going all out to win you don’t non tender him (he did not have a choice about going elsewhere for playing time as he was still arb eligible last offseason) and play him in good spots and use him defensively.

I also think AA has to be more aggressive on the waiver wire/minor trades when building a bench and especially bullpen. This year’s bullpen and bench construction were both horrendous due to the lack of $$ available after signing Ozuna and lack of creativity on the market.