FF vs Olson
- Thread starter msstate7
- Start date
VirginiaBrave
Well-known member
Another thing Freeman's a leader. The Braves sorely lack that at the moment. AA is just like the team. He's bought into his own hype. I have been preaching this for two years. Some players aren't replacable. When Freddie walked out the door they lost more than the best first baseman in the league. Same thing happened when JS and Kasten p----- Glavine off in the fall of 2002. That was the beginning of the end of the JS run even though they eeked out a couple more.
cajunrevenge
Well-known member
I will never get over letting Freeman leave. He was exactly the kind of hitter that could age well. Worst of all to see him go to the Dodgers.
We should have just given him whatever he wanted - he earned it
msstate7
Well-known member
2 1st round exits in the playoffs and now Olson's 1 tool being rendered useless with the new ball makes it even more damning
bravesfanMatt
Steve Harvey'd
The whole narrative that FF signed for less is disingenuous at best. The Braves and FF disagreed on years more than money. Then when the Braves bowed out he had one team left. So not only did the Braves push him to the dodger$, they did so at a discount too. FF wanted to be a brave and is agents and the team failed to get it done and now the team has an inferior player for the same money.
bravesnumberone
Well-known member
We don't need to go down the rabbit hole yet again and attempt revisionist history at the sequence of events. He should have been retained and been a Brave for life. I think he deep down wanted to go home. Olson's .602 OPS with RISP is unacceptable. You don't have to hit the ball over the fence to be effective in those situations. This great defense we heard about appears to be limited to him being lanky and being able to stretch and steal a handful of outs.
bravesnumberone
Well-known member
I would have given him the extra year. If he wanted to be a Brave that badly, he should have sacrificed the year. They could have easily resigned him to an end-of-career contract if he remained productive. I don't give a **** whose fault it was, it's that simple.
cajunrevenge
Well-known member
Haggling over 1 year was ridiculous. I can understand letting him go if he was one of these delusional players who thinks they deserve a 10 year contract at 32 years old because they think they will be great players until they are 50 but Freddie wasnt doing that. We then ended up trading a significant amount of our prospect capital to sign a player for the same amount of money.
Southcack77
Well-known member
If he wanted to be a Brave, he'd be a Brave.
I’m sure he was insulted the franchise he played for his whole career and persevered through terrible times was nickel and diming a figure first ballot HOFer in his prime.
VirginiaBrave
Well-known member
Same will happen with Fried. They will 100% give him a token offer they know full well he will refuse.
bravesfanMatt
Steve Harvey'd
I think it is a bit disingenuous to say AA doesn’t have equal blame in letting FF walk. I think his agents also screwed him by not keeping him posted or really trying to work a deal out but I remember reading that there wasn’t much negotiations from either side. Sure anyone can say if FF wanted to be a brave then he would be a brave. But in the same breath if the Braves want led FF to be a brave then they would have made him a brave.
AA decided that he didn’t like what was going on and went another route for a lessor player. I hope Olson hasn’t already started his decline but his long slow swing does worry me a lot.
AA decided that he didn’t like what was going on and went another route for a lessor player. I hope Olson hasn’t already started his decline but his long slow swing does worry me a lot.
This is year three? So almost half way. I don’t think anyone expected decline in year three.
We miss him though. When Acuna went down my first thought was this is not the 2021 team and that was primarily because Freeman (and Swanson too), but leadership is not the same now.
It was sad. The guy’s heart was broken, temporarily anyway. He is a great player and wanted to be here. So he should be. They should have gotten it worked out. 6th year vests if performance warrants? Something fair.
We miss him though. When Acuna went down my first thought was this is not the 2021 team and that was primarily because Freeman (and Swanson too), but leadership is not the same now.
It was sad. The guy’s heart was broken, temporarily anyway. He is a great player and wanted to be here. So he should be. They should have gotten it worked out. 6th year vests if performance warrants? Something fair.
Some franchises value their homegrown star and want to keep them.
With the benefit of hindsight it was obviously worth paying Freddie what he wanted. What many of us were saying at the time.
I think you and many others led the charge that freeman was getting close to decline. Well 3 years in and no sign yet.
cajunrevenge
Well-known member
I blame AA in that he should have got an extension done well before he got close to FA. When he had 3 years left he should have been offering 4 years 100 million extension with two team option years at 30 million. Maybe he turns that down and wants to "bet on himself" but I think it would have been hard to turn down given he had 3 years left and the potential at any time for a career altering injury.