I think it's more likely than not that the Braves would have gotten off lighter had they not cooperated.
Had the Braves not cooperated, feel certain they would have lost their first-round pick this summer.
Possibly, though in that situation, MLB would be shining a giant spotlight on their lack of control. Not only are they struggling to get a handle on rampant rule breaking, they can't even get teams to cooperate. I think a lot would depend on how much solid evidence they had independent of the Braves.
He also had a hamstring tear throughout the majority of the season that he played through. He's looked incredible at offseason workouts, in shape as good or better than he's been since signing. Maitan's swings before they went indoors were putting notable impressions on the walls 350-400' away from home plate, as they were last offseason when the hype train really hit hard as Longenhagens had some big time reports on him from fall instructs. Working indoors, he's working to stay in on the baseball and use his incredibly quick wrists to put barrel consistent throughout the strike zone.
Gutierrez is the one to worry about right now as far as filling out based on how he looks at offseason workouts.
Gus: You don't know anything about scouting.
Johnny: Don't tell them that.
Overrated and filling out in a hurry. I like the bat, but it's more of a .280/20 homer top end bat than a big power, big average bat, and his best quality behind the plate is his positioning and framing, as his run game work and lateral movement is needing some big work, something that adding size low in his frame certainly won't help.
Gus: You don't know anything about scouting.
Johnny: Don't tell them that.
I hated losing Del Resario and Maitan but I am more excited that we kept Pache and W.Contreras. He was exciting at the plate and behind it.
I'm sure Coppy is sitting home stunned and amazed that his cheating and attempts to deny it left him banned from the sport permanently.
People that laugh at the idea of doing the correct thing and embracing consequences are often shocked when it catches up with them. Generally it does catch up to them in some way.
Last edited by Southcack77; 11-29-2017 at 11:27 AM.
Chopping With The Braves And Rolling With The Tide
What ramifications would that meeting have? McGuirk?
I've been surprised that Roy Clark or Brian Bridges haven't been mentioned in this. They don't have direct contact with Latin America the way that Blakeley did, but they are involved in amateur scouting so unless Blakeley went around them totally and directly to Coppolella I would guess they would have at least had some knowledge of what was transpiring. Of course, I've never worked in a major league front office, so I have no clear idea of the chain-of-command. The other angle is this could spell problems for our Latin American area scouts because those guys had to know something was up seeing they were involved in the negotiations.