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

[striker42]

Well free agency starts in less than 12 hours, hope the Braves secretly have the FO mapped out, know their penalties, and we just aren’t privy to it.

I think they know their penalties or at least have a very, very good idea of what they are. As for the front office, that's harder to get a read on. The only real news has been the Royals telling us we can't interview DM. Part of me still believes that it's just a matter of time with Moore. That the Royals are positioning to get compensation. The fact that we haven't heard of the Braves actually going after or interviewing anyone else (just rumors about people they might be interested in) makes me think that everyone knows it will be Moore.

[nsacpi]

It is interesting to speculate on why we might lose Maitan. It can't be because of bundling. We signed him when there were no restrictions on how much we could pay an individual player. But I'm guessing we provided him some money ahead of the signing deadline. And it probably is against the rules for us to pay for his housing in Florida ahead of the signing deadline as a means of hiding him from other teams.

[Chico]

You seem to be assuming that the Braves fired Coppy simply because of the investigation. You discount the possibility (probability) that Coppy told them exactly what was going on and that they canned him for it.

My guess is there were questions on why only a handful of teams would deal with us and word got around that Coppy was too obnoxious to deal with. Being that we're going in to the process of the rebuild where we will have to make some smart trades the scandal was a perfect way to can Coppy and try and lessen the blow to the franchise by giving MLb their pound of flesh.

[bravesnumberone]

Our man Shanks said his info is different from Crasnick's.

[Oklahomabrave]

Our man Shanks said his info is different from Crasnick's.

Haven’t seen him with much info at all. Mostly just standing up for JS and bashing Hart.

[BeanieAntics]

I swear if we actually trade something of value to acquire Dayton f@#*ing Moore, it will be the dumbest and most counterproductive thing in the history of our franchise. Even if its just a meh player.

[Oklahomabrave]

I swear if we actually trade something of value to acquire Dayton f@#*ing Moore, it will be the dumbest and most counterproductive thing in the history of our franchise. Even if its just a meh player.

Unless we trade Kemp, Markakis, and JJ for him.

[bravesnumberone]

Haven’t seen him with much info at all. Mostly just standing up for JS and bashing Hart.

Heard him on radio earlier that he will have reporting next week lol

[striker42]

It is interesting to speculate on why we might lose Maitan. It can't be because of bundling. We signed him when there were no restrictions on how much we could pay an individual player. But I'm guessing we provided him some money ahead of the signing deadline. And it probably is against the rules for us to pay for his housing in Florida ahead of the signing deadline as a means of hiding him from other teams.

The problem is that all of that stuff seems to be pretty much routine stuff in the international market. If you void Maitan's contract for that you set up a system where a ton of baseball's top prospects could rat out their team, become a free agent, and sign another big deal. The stuff alleged with Maitan is a lot different than bundling.

[striker42]

Haven’t seen him with much info at all. Mostly just standing up for JS and bashing Hart.

In all fairness I do think Shanks was the first one to report Coppy rejecting the severance and intending to file suit. That has been verified elsewhere now.

[CJ9]

I swear if we actually trade something of value to acquire Dayton f@#*ing Moore, it will be the dumbest and most counterproductive thing in the history of our franchise. Even if its just a meh player.

Trading prospects for Moore is an interesting way to make sure Moore can't trade all of the prospects for short-term assets when he gets here.

[CJ9]

Bowman expects fines, loss of prospects and draft picks. Says it's uncertain about Maitan.

We're about to get slammed.

[bravesfanMatt]

Bowman expects fines, loss of prospects and draft picks. Says it's uncertain about Maitan.

We're about to get slammed.

Even if only one player is forfeited, that should be grounds for an entire FO cleansing. There is NO WAY that Hart and JS didn't hear some rumblings about what was going on.. I would be willing to bet that they signed off on the wrong doings before Coppy executed them.

[BeanieAntics]

I could be wrong, but I actually don't expect the penalties to be as devastating as everyone else does. I don't think we will lose many, if any, of the 2016 J2 class. I think we may lose the 2017 class, but that wouldn't be that bad. I could potentially see us losing Waters, but I'm not sure if that is likely. If I had to guess I would say we don't. I definitely see us getting fines. Maybe we lose a draft pick or something. But I just don't see us losing much of our farm, which I think is the most important thing.

[nsacpi]

Will we lose Bae? That's my big concern.

[CJ9]

As long as we keep the #8 pick, I'm not too concerned about losing picks for the 2018 draft.

[striker42]

As long as we keep the #8 pick, I'm not too concerned about losing picks for the 2018 draft.

I'm concerned about the 8th pick. What better way to send a message. I swear if I had to watch such a crappy team play all year and don't get the 8th pick as a reward, I'll be furious.

[Southcack77]

Then why did no other FOs fire execs for breaking rules?

The obvious scenario is the old school dinosaurs in the Braves FO (including guys like Glavine) were fed up with Coppy running around like a brainiac know-it-all that never played the game. When word of this scandal broke, Hart seized the opportunity to send him packing immediately.

Folks are acting like it's common for GMs to get fired over rules violations like this. It isn't. The Red Sox didn't fire anyone when they broke international signing rules. The Padres didn't fire anyone when Preller got busted for sending bad medical info. The Cards didn't fire the GM when they broke federal laws hacking into the Astros databases.

The only team that fired a GM for rules infractions is the Braves. It is not normal, and he wasn't fired for breaking rules...which is why he is now suing the Braves.

The prior organizations were confident in their GMs. the Braves obviously were not.

It also stands to repeat that all reporting about the Braves violations suggests it was significantly worse than anything that had been punished before and extended both domestic and internationally. It's probable that the Braves had every reason to fire him with cause.

I tend to want to see Hart gone as well and that's my prediction as to what happens.

I would like for the organization to have a fully engaged person at the top of the organization chart that is carrying out one plan. I don't know that I much care what that plan is, but I would like to see it be consistent. This person should also have management skills and the ability to build rapport and respect with other organizational leaders. I don't need him to be an analytics expert, but I do want him to recognize its value and hire a good staff to focus on that and give that staff a strong input into decisions.

[Southcack77]

Even if only one player is forfeited, that should be grounds for an entire FO cleansing. There is NO WAY that Hart and JS didn't hear some rumblings about what was going on.. I would be willing to bet that they signed off on the wrong doings before Coppy executed them.

I guess I would like to know what the accusations actually are before trying to figure out if Hart would have known about them.

Either way, I don't see a need for Hart to stay.

[BeanieAntics]

I seriously don't understand people who still remain staunchly opposed to analytics. I don't even understand people who think analytics has a small amount of value, but still favors traditional methods. I think when you look at the current state of baseball, the organizations who go heaviest into advanced analytics are the ones who are having sustained success. The Astros, Indians, Dodgers, Red Sox, Yankees, and Cubs all have tremendous short term and long term outlooks. I just don't see a good argument against an objective, data driven approach to running an organization. Sure, things like building a good rapport with other organizations and agents has value, and you want your GM to be a people person, but if you want to build an organization that will have lasting success, you better get someone who knows and fully appreciates the data.