The Atlanta Braves signed Nick Markakis for 4/45 - Never forget 12/3/2014
"Klay Thompson > James Harden" - Heyward
"Chris Bosh is the MVP of the Miami Heat" - Heyward
"Hibbert is better than Dwight Howard"- Heyward
"Steven Adams will be a top 10 center in two years - thethe
I think paying $63m up front for the a guy who is evaluated as the #5 - #10 prospect in the sport is a reasonable risk for $200m payroll teams (LAD, NYY, BOS), a questionable risk for mid-market teams, and some combination of crazy and impossible for small market teams.
Hart and Coppy inherited this international signing period while it was already in flight and significant money had been spent. It seems like their stop-gap strategy since taking over has been to sign as many young "lottery ticket" types as possible to replenish depth and hope you eventually hit on one or two of them. I am supportive of this strategy if step 2 ends up being signing multiple top tier talents in the next signing period that results in exceeding the pool limit. If that is not step 2, then I think they will have done a poor job adjusting to the realities of the current system.
Braves1976 (02-24-2015)
Again:
Rank Metropolitan Market Regions / Areas
1 New York
2 Los Angeles
3 Chicago
4 Philadelphia
5 Dallas-Ft. Worth
6 San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose
7 Boston
8 Atlanta
9 Washington, DC
10 Houston
Someone please tell me how Atlanta is considered a mid market team. I hate Liberty Media.
Why do people keep repeating this as if it's clever? Yes, us fans were wishing and hoping we would somehow land one of them, while knowing it was still a long shot. Yes, we sent some troops to go look at him, because why wouldn't we? No one declared we were definitely getting him. We were hoping, and then we got priced out.
I get that it's your shtick, but it's dumb.
mfree80 (02-25-2015)
The Atlanta Braves signed Nick Markakis for 4/45 - Never forget 12/3/2014
"Klay Thompson > James Harden" - Heyward
"Chris Bosh is the MVP of the Miami Heat" - Heyward
"Hibbert is better than Dwight Howard"- Heyward
"Steven Adams will be a top 10 center in two years - thethe
"Yes, I did think Aldrich was good UNTIL I SAW HIM PLAY. "- thethe
JohnAdcox (02-25-2015)
Did you just get back from somewhere with no internet? We have been attached to Lester, the Cubans, and a few others....it was all leaked in an attempt to spin after the Heyward/Upton/Gattis moves. We were never going to sign any of them......other than Nick Markakis of course..................
The Atlanta Braves signed Nick Markakis for 4/45 - Never forget 12/3/2014
"Klay Thompson > James Harden" - Heyward
"Chris Bosh is the MVP of the Miami Heat" - Heyward
"Hibbert is better than Dwight Howard"- Heyward
"Steven Adams will be a top 10 center in two years - thethe
Braves1976 (02-25-2015), goldfly (02-26-2015)
Yes, it was "leaked" we were looking into them. Why the hell wouldn't we? Would you rather we DON'T look into them? No one told us the plan was to trade Jason and Justin and sign these guys; that was the fans' hope. You said "it's what the Brave FO told us." Well, what did they tell us? That we were scouting players and meeting with some? I fail to see how that's a bad thing.
Ben Badler @BenBadler · 2h 2 hours ago
They've been one of the most aggressive teams on him. Wouldn't surprise me. RT @lolbarves chances Olivera ends up in Atlanta?
OH MY GOD is the Braves FO promising us Olivera????
Or can we speculate because they've scouted him?
If we don't sign him why did we scout him or try to sign him????
@Ken_Rosenthal: Sources: Cuban IFer Hector Olivera has taken physicals for a number of teams in recent weeks, including #Dodgers…
@Ken_Rosenthal: MLB has not yet declared Olivera a free agent, but teams want to be prepared when that moment occurs.
What I find amusing is the front office got ripped for not engaging Heyward in contract talks in the last year because of the difference in perceived value and what they wanted to pay. However, at the same time they are now being criticized for looking into guys who ended up getting paid a lot more than we wanted to pay.
Seems like the new regime will never get a fair chance from a portion of the fanbase.
Natural Immunity Croc
Yeah, I really don't understand this complaint. The FO never said "we're trading Heyward and signing a Cuban." They traded Heyward and did their due-diligence on the Cuban players, and were priced out. It's that simple. Should we ask they don't even bother looking into them? I'm confused.
Julio3000 (03-01-2015)
Did the Braves give the fanbase any reason to think they would sign Moncada? Olieviera is a different story.
Natural Immunity Croc