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

[striker42]

Doesn’t matter.

It’s obvious the Braves cheated and cheated horribly. Why should we be able to keep the players we broke the rules to sign?

The egg is on Atlanta’s face, not MLB

First, every team breaks the rules as far as international signings go. Pretty much every one of them signed has a deal in place with a team prior to signing day, often for years. MLB is aware of this and lets it happen because teams need to be able to allocate their money and plan ahead.

Bundling is where you get in trouble. It's what we did this year but it's not what we did in 2016. We had no need. So declaring guys from that class free agents would be based on other violations. Violations that generally don't draw a penalty of declaring the prospect a free agent.

Additionally, MLB doesn't look great no matter what. They've created a terrible system that encourages rule breaking. We should already have an international draft.

[mqt]

The worst part is after all this cheating they didn’t really get international classes that were that much better than other organizations.

They got Maitan and a bunch of meh.

I don’t know what’s worse, that they broke all the rules, or that they did it for so little benefit.

To be fair, they couldn't have known Gutierrez would fall off a cliff at age 15.

[Enscheff]

To be fair, they couldn't have known Gutierrez would fall off a cliff at age 15.

Still, if you are going to be the worst rule breaker in the history of international signings, get better results.

Going by the order of events, it’s apparent MLB wasn’t going to be too harsh until Blakely came forward and spilled the full can of beans.

Hart fired Blakely to save his own ass, and couldn’t get him to sign an NDA as part of the severance package. Blakely lawyered up, then went to MLB to blow the Braves out of the water. Once the new info was released, corporate fired Hart, and now the Braves look to be seriously screwed.

[nsacpi]

Still, if you are going to be the worst rule breaker in the history of international signings, get better results.

Going by the order of events, it’s apparent MLB wasn’t going to be too harsh until Blakely came forward and spilled the full can of beans.

Hart fired Blakely to save his own ass, and couldn’t get him to sign an NDA as part of the severance package. Blakely lawyered up, then went to MLB to blow the Braves out of the water. Once the new info was released, corporate fired Hart, and now the Braves look to be seriously screwed.

Blakely also rescinded his resignation a few hours after he gave it. But Braves refused to let him return to work. Hell hath no fury like an aggrieved scout.

[GeorgiaGirl]

Still, if you are going to be the worst rule breaker in the history of international signings, get better results.

Going by the order of events, it’s apparent MLB wasn’t going to be too harsh until Blakely came forward and spilled the full can of beans.

Hart fired Blakely to save his own ass, and couldn’t get him to sign an NDA as part of the severance package. Blakely lawyered up, then went to MLB to blow the Braves out of the water. Once the new info was released, corporate fired Hart, and now the Braves look to be seriously screwed.

That's exactly what I read over on the other board. Blakeley at first tried to save his butt and the franchise and once he figured out that he had no future in MLB, he was pissed and went back to the MLB and spilled the beans on everything. That's why this investigation wasn't completed earlier, and why Hart was quietly pushed out of the organization.

[chop2chip]

First, every team breaks the rules as far as international signings go. Pretty much every one of them signed has a deal in place with a team prior to signing day, often for years. MLB is aware of this and lets it happen because teams need to be able to allocate their money and plan ahead.

Bundling is where you get in trouble. It's what we did this year but it's not what we did in 2016. We had no need. So declaring guys from that class free agents would be based on other violations. Violations that generally don't draw a penalty of declaring the prospect a free agent.

Additionally, MLB doesn't look great no matter what. They've created a terrible system that encourages rule breaking. We should already have an international draft.

Whataboutism

The Braves have apparently come forward and said they broke the rules to sign these players. Of course MLB is going to void those contracts. What other recourse do they have?

The system is terrible and it needs to be fixed, but that doesn’t give teams carte blanche to break the rules.

At the very least, it appears we will keep the draft pick which has always been the worst case scenario. Today is bad, but realistically it’s not going to amount to anything more than a bad trade given the attrition rate of teenage prospects. If this is what had to happen to bring AA on board, then I’m glad it happened.

[chop2chip]

Heyman:

Braves ruling expected today. Kevin Maitan will be freed ($4.2M signing, infielder). Others may be too.

[chop2chip]

Good luck to the kid... but for my own sanity of ever enjoying baseball I hope Maitan fizzles out sooner than later.

It’s going to be a constant kick to the groin if he pans out like he could.

[mqt]

I'd ****ing die laughing if they all agreed to stay.

[striker42]

Heyman:

Braves ruling expected today. Kevin Maitan will be freed ($4.2M signing, infielder). Others may be too.

I don't think Maitan being declared a FA was ever in doubt. The second MLB heard about violations they zeroed in on declaring Maitan a FA. It's not about actually punishing the Braves for a violation, it's about making a showy splash.

There is very, very little precedent for declaring a prospect a FA when the prospect wasn't part of a bundle and when the prospect wasn't officially signed when under age. Neither apply to Maitan.

[Enscheff]

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

[UNCBlue012]

Unless there was a big change in what we expect, I could care less about losing most of the guys we aren't expected to lose. But Maitan might really really hurt longterm.

[chop2chip]

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

Go find a different corpse to ****

Today is not the day to gloat

[Enscheff]

Heyman:

Braves ruling expected today. Kevin Maitan will be freed ($4.2M signing, infielder). Others may be too.

And to think, if Hart wasn’t so quick to push Coppy and Blakely out to save his own ass, Maitan is still likely a Brave.

There was no scapegoating though. No sir!!

[chop2chip]

I don't think Maitan being declared a FA was ever in doubt. The second MLB heard about violations they zeroed in on declaring Maitan a FA. It's not about actually punishing the Braves for a violation, it's about making a showy splash.

There is very, very little precedent for declaring a prospect a FA when the prospect wasn't part of a bundle and when the prospect wasn't officially signed when under age. Neither apply to Maitan.

Wasn’t the whole point of this investigation is what the Braves were doing was unprecedented?

[mqt]

I'm going to be pretty pissed off if the only justification for losing the 2016 guys was agreeing to deals too early. There had better be some explosive allegations.

[GeorgiaGirl]

Hart was never innocent. It was just like the "Coach-2" stuff with Rick Pitino. He can deny all he wants but he knew everything and didn't care.

[mqt]

Hart was never innocent. It was just like the "Coach-2" stuff with Rick Pitino. He can deny all he wants but he knew everything and didn't care.

Yeah, from the start the only two options were being complicit or grossly negligent.

[Southcack77]

MLB is so dumb. If you want to curb this stuff you barely punish the Braves and let it be known firing the GM gets you out of trouble. Make GMs know their jobs are on the line if they do this.

Dear Baseball -- we have rules.

If you break them, you might be caught. But don't worry, if you are caught just fire your front office and everything will be fine. You get to keep all the players you cheated to get and bear no further penalty. Better luck next time in not letting your front office cheat.

[striker42]

Wasn’t the whole point of this investigation is what the Braves were doing was unprecedented?

Not that's been reported. It's not like we had come up with new and exciting ways to cheat. Maybe the scale was larger but the violations were pretty standard.

I'm interested to hear the justification for cutting Maitan loose that MLB spins. My guess is that it will be one tenth truth and nine tenths spin. I'm predicting the violations with Maitan are fairly run of the mill but that MLB will try to make is sound like we locked him in an iron maiden until he signed.