Quote:
Originally Posted by Breslau
What happened to the Bravos?
They used to be a classy organization..
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As an Atlantan, I can tell you the Braves have no problems with cutting ties with a pitcher who has history with them. Remember, Glavine left us for more money in NY. That felt like betrayal to many fans here. If we let Smoltz go to the Red Sox (rightly so - how many games has he pitched for them for how many millions they gave him?), we obviously have no trouble letting Glavine go. My friend thought we should have given Smoltz what he wanted. I pointed out the age and injuries, and it was only until a month ago that my friend realized it would have been a HUGE mistake to give Smoltz an 8 digit contract. He hadn't even pitched! This situation, like Smoltz's, was a financially and organizationally sound decision. Would you rather we paid Glavine a million only to have him do as Smoltz is doing now... sitting on his rear? You can tell me he was getting ready to come back up from AAA ball, but that's what we heard earlier this season. April, in fact. People were getting tired, and what could we reasonably expect from him, anyways? 4th or 5th in the rotation, maybe win half the games he pitched. Best case scenario, imo. We should have let him go in April.
Maybe that's what you're questioning? Wren and Schuerholz already admitted they could have handled it better by treating their employee upfront about the situation, and they apologized for that. That's classy. Glavine himself said he had no problem with what they did, but only how they did it. My point is simply that giving a washed up pitcher a million just for nostalgic reasons is not obligated and not classy. That's not how a business runs. I'm sure in the future the front office will look to settle these things more quickly. But I'm not about to call the Braves un-classy for one misstep they've already corrected, especially not after the last 2 decades.