Megathread: Braves lose Maitan, Bae and 10+ plus International Sanctions.

[striker42]

Had to laugh at this from the Nats board regarding Manfred's statement....

Rob Manfred:

That's hilarious!

[Jay212033]

Clvclv

Every single team in MLB does the EXACT same thing! How do you think BA and other publications know who a player is "expected" to sign with WAY before the actual signing period?! This is some BS and the Braves BETTER file a law suit behind this crap!

[clvclv]

Considering the number of teams that do the exact same stuff (and people around the league admit that everyone is doing this) and the fact that other teams that have been caught have been slapped on the wrist, I don't think there's any way that the Braves got lucky here.

You can't enforce the rules and clean this *hit up if you don't come down HARD on someone.

It sucks that the timing is now, but we obviously were cheating everywhere we thought we could get away with it.

You keep saying you want to see MLB come down this hard on everybody that breaks the rules - somebody has to be first.

[Southcack77]

Unfortunately, what about X only makes sense to children and politicians.

Most other places you commit wrongdoing and get caught you suffer the penalty regardless.

[Jay212033]

They caught the Red Sox doing the same exact thing a few years ago but they didn't occur near the punishment the Braves occurred!

[Jay212033]

You can't enforce the rules and clean this *hit up if you don't come down HARD on someone.

It sucks that the timing is now, but we obviously were cheating everywhere we thought we could get away with it.

You keep saying you want to see MLB come down this hard on everybody that breaks the rules - somebody has to be first.

Why couldn't it have been the Red Sox?!

[jpx7]

You can't enforce the rules and clean this *hit up if you don't come down HARD on someone.

It sucks that the timing is now, but we obviously were cheating everywhere we thought we could get away with it.

You keep saying you want to see MLB come down this hard on everybody that breaks the rules - somebody has to be first.

Sure; and if a heap of other harsh penalties for other teams follow this, I'm sure most Braves fans will shut up.

But they haven't yet, and I'm skeptical they will. In fact, I'm skeptical MLB will even go looking as hard as it should (or as hard as it looked at the Braves).

[CyYoung31]

Why couldn't it have been the Red Sox?!

Because it’s the Red Sox.

[Southcack77]

Sox did not do the same exact thing. That penalty predates this one. Every reports says Braves were worse.

Braves were big cheaters.

So much for the Braves using a minor foible as an excuse to fire Coppy.

He was responsible for biggest penalty in Braves history.

[striker42]

I wonder how Coppy's lifetime ban might affect potential litigation. It definitely could affect the damages. Considering 6 weeks after his firing he wouldn't have been able to keep his job anyway, it might be hard to show he was harmed.

[Carp]

Remember when everyone on these boards were pimping how good the FO was?

Remember how you said Coppy was a scapegoat? The only silver lining in this is the egg all over your face.

[striker42]

You can't enforce the rules and clean this *hit up if you don't come down HARD on someone.

It sucks that the timing is now, but we obviously were cheating everywhere we thought we could get away with it.

You keep saying you want to see MLB come down this hard on everybody that breaks the rules - somebody has to be first.

If we see the commissioner's office come down with similar penalties on a dozen clubs in the next year, I might begin to agree with you. But I seriously doubt any team will see sanctions close to this heavy in the next half century.

[jpx7]

Remember how you said Coppy was a scapegoat? The only silver lining in this is the egg all over your face.

To be fair, this decision doesn't mean the Braves didn't try (and fail) to scapegoat the re-christened SVOD.

[Southcack77]

For the record, the Commissioner's statement did not suggest any of the penalties were a result of coming to handshake deals with prospects before the signing period.

[striker42]

So, MLB sets up a system for the international market in which a team playing by the rules would never be able to compete. Teams instantly start breaking the rules necessitating that every team start breaking the rules so as not to be hopelessly left behind.

MLB catches the Red Sox breaking the rules in the same manner everyone does and slaps them on the wrist.

MLB catches the Braves breaking the rules declares multiple top prospects free agents, bars the signing of a future top prospect, bans a guy for life, and imposes future signing restrictions.

Other teams continue to break the rules with impunity.

Yeah, this makes a lot of sense.

[striker42]

For the record, the Commissioner's statement did not suggest any of the penalties were a result of coming to handshake deals with prospects before the signing period.

I think Passan's article mentioned that.

[Enscheff]

Remember how you said Coppy was a scapegoat? The only silver lining in this is the egg all over your face.

Hart absolutely tried to use Coppy as a scapegoat. It backfired, and the end result was Blakely spilling all the beans and making the penalty 10x worse than it would have been.

But yeah, go ahead and keep with your storyline. Do you need the order of events laid out for you again?

[chop2chip]

I wonder how Coppy's lifetime ban might affect potential litigation. It definitely could affect the damages. Considering 6 weeks after his firing he wouldn't have been able to keep his job anyway, it might be hard to show he was harmed.

Unless he can provide evidence that he was coerced as a condition of his employment to break these rules by senior management, I think you are correct here.

Gordon Blakeley’s law suit is going to be incredibly fascinating to watch.

[Southcack77]

To be fair, this decision doesn't mean the Braves didn't try (and fail) to scapegoat the re-christened SVOD.

The scape goat take was pretty lacking in logic to begin with, but now it's an insane take.

Coppy was fired because he got caught cheating in an unprecedented manner that has cost the Braves four or five international signing classes.

No one would have survived this and his firing was soundly merited based on just this one thing and dismissing any other factor. Given he has a lifetime ban, it is a forgone conclusion that every single organization would have fired him in same circumstance.

To continue to try and suggest otherwise is just a pretty sad attempt to skirt around being totally and completely off base about something.

[weso1]

I don't mind the players being gone, because had Coppy not cheated we likely wouldn't have signed them anyway. Seems reasonable enough to me, and they were so young that fans really hadn't become attached to them.

I just don't see the point of the extremely harsh future penalties. I mean a ban for life is a pretty damn good deterrent.