This is all on Liberty Media

rico43

rico43

<B>Director of Minor League Reports</B>
Adding up the parts, and learning from TV that there's no such thing as a coincidence, I've come to decide that every single thing we seem to be complaining about on this site is the direct fault of that silent but meddling ownership in Denver.

Liberty Media, once some greenlit signing Ervin Santana for the season, has been putting the screws to the Braves ever since. Consider the entire run of frustrations of the Uggla Situation. It is foolish to think Fredi or Frank Wren are behind keeping him on the roster, a virtually inactive 25th man who is the highest paid player on the team.

The Braves fully intended to DFA Uggla over the all-star break over his tardiness (if you read between the lines of the Twitters overnight). The one-game suspension and ridiculous jerking around of Gosselin reeks of Liberty meddling.

Read Bowman's recent comment that the Braves have no operating capital to go after someone like Peavy for the final months of the season. It was pointed out by a writer on MLBTR that the Braves gave the Astros another prospect in the Bourn trade to avoid paying his full salary. Any reason to think it was any different in the Upton trade with Arizona?

The last (and certainly least) indicator is this June's draft. Colorado is anything but a hotbed of prep talent, yet the Braves drafted three Colorado high school players, none of whom was any serious consideration to sign. Again, no coincidences -- Liberty Media is based in Denver; someone was thrown a bone by having Junior be able to say he was drafted.

The more I think about it, the more I wonder if dropping Santana's salary in the off-season will be what it takes for Uggla to be liberated, short of a trade.

I don't hate Liberty as much as I hated Time-Warner, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if both groups were in the same high-rise when the Big One hits.
 
rico43 said:
Liberty Media, once some greenlit signing Ervin Santana for the season, has been putting the screws to the Braves ever since.
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If Liberty just gave us an unlimited budget all our problems would go away!

rico43 said:
Read Bowman's recent comment that the Braves have no operating capital to go after someone like Peavy for the final months of the season. It was pointed out by a writer on MLBTR that the Braves gave the Astros another prospect in the Bourn trade to avoid paying his full salary. Any reason to think it was any different in the Upton trade with Arizona?
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Arizona didn't send us any money in that deal
 
Is drafting 3 kids from colorado who may be Liberty board members any different than drafting JS jr in the 8th round or whatever? We didn't take any of these kids til the 27th round. What are the odds of anyone taken in that round amounting to anything at all?
 
rico, I don't disagree with your overall sentiments, but this is the second or third time you've mentioned the draft picks from Colorado, which I don't think is an indication of anything. We drafted Paul Byrd's kid in the 39th round and there's no way he is going to sign, just like any of these kids signing is (soon to be was) likely. We drafted a veritable high school all-star teams between the 30th and 40th rounds in 2012 (Sam Gilikin, Ben Johnson, Braden Bishop, Gio Brusa, Sean McLaughlin, and Cullen O'Dwyer) and there was nary a peep from anyone.
 
I highly doubt a Liberty Media is throwing their weight around in baseball operations. Especially when the Braves are one of their lower annual revenue assets. Pretty sure they have bigger fish to fry
 
The concept of liberty wont eat Uggla salary is silly if true. We are already doing it even without cutting him.
 
There are two puzzling ideas connected to this situation:

1) That there is much of a financial element to the decision to release or not release Uggla. If you release him, the extra cost to the team is paying another player to occupy a spot on the 25 man roster. With a major league minimum of around 500K, that prorates to about 200K the rest of this season. De minimus. If you want to add next season, that's another 500K. Not a lot of dough either and if some savings need to be realized Wren would have the off-season to figure it out.

2) That replacing Uggla with another marginal bench player is going to make much difference. We're talking about the rest of July and August here, since with the roster expansion in September there will be more bench players. And of course, we will be able to leave Uggla off the post-season roster as we did last year. The 25th guy on the bench typically has a WAR of well zero. Or something very close to that. Let's not get overwrought about not replacing Uggla with a replacement level player.
 
I have no doubt the Braves would draft a Libert kid, but I really don't think Liberty is meddlesome. I think they set a budget and let McQuirck run it. I think the Braves are holding onto Uggla to see if they can package him with a prospect to trade his contract. It's the only way we can add a player.
 
weso1 said:
I have no doubt the Braves would draft a Libert kid, but I really don't think Liberty is meddlesome. I think they set a budget and let McQuirck run it. I think the Braves are holding onto Uggla to see if they can package him with a prospect to trade his contract. It's the only way we can add a player.
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That's my take on it too. It is a bit regretful that we are doing this since effectively we would be giving up a prospect(s) to get some salary relief. But we have done that in past trades.

So how about David Price for Peraza, Sims, Bethancourt and Uggla!
 
Tampa is even more frugal than us. They only would do that if we ate a lot of his contract and I mean a lot.
 
nsacpi said:
There are two puzzling ideas connected to this situation:

1) That there is much of a financial element to the decision to release or not release Uggla. If you release him, the extra cost to the team is paying another player to occupy a spot on the 25 man roster. With a major league minimum of around 500K, that prorates to about 200K the rest of this season. De minimus. If you want to add next season, that's another 500K. Not a lot of dough either and if some savings need to be realized Wren would have the off-season to figure it out.

2) That replacing Uggla with another marginal bench player is going to make much difference. We're talking about the rest of July and August here, since with the roster expansion in September there will be more bench players. And of course, we will be able to leave Uggla off the post-season roster as we did last year. The 25th guy on the bench typically has a WAR of well zero. Or something very close to that. Let's not get overwrought about not replacing Uggla with a replacement level player.
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Not a big difference, but as the season winds down, the long run becomes the short run and if we are going to be in a dogfight with the Nats, we need to use every tool at our disposal and right now we have a 24-man roster. I don't think Gosselin would come up and do a Hurricane Hazle, but he (or someone like him) could be the difference within a game or two or six. And, again, as the season winds down, each game takes on greater importance, especially in a close race.

Back to the MLB draft, the third day rounds are filled with favors to local scouts and sources. We were never going to sign all 40 guys we drafted and with the draft-and-follow far in the rearview mirror, I honestly don't care which unsignable kids they draft and when they draft them.
 
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