Impetus: The Atlanta Braves trade catcher Evan Gattis to the Houston Astros for three prospects.
Between Jason Heyward, Justin Upton and now Evan Gattis, the Braves have now traded away the bats that have been responsible for 114 of the team’s last 304 home runs over the last two years. Sure, home runs aren’t necessarily the appropriate measuring stick for talent, but they certainly are popular. And maybe 114 doesn’t sound like a lot, considering it’s a little over 30%, but those 304 home runs in the last two seasons took 40 players each year to accumulate. Now take away three guys that made a large chunk of those home runs happen, and you’ve got a team that isn’t going to show up on any highlight packages any time soon.
Needless to say, the MO of the Braves organization right now is to punt on 2015, and hold their breath and hope that the prospects that they’ve traded away several of their most valuable assets to acquire will develop into talented stars, and lead the team back into contention at a later date. Unfortunately for Braves fans, that means a very likely scenario of really bad seasons in 2015, 2016 and if the prospects don’t pan out (which they probably won’t, because most prospects don’t), and in 2017 too.
It’s a tried and true process that pretty much every team but the Yankees have done before, where they trade away all their assets (expensive players) for prospects (not expensive players), and keep payroll nice and low while they hope for the cheap players to mature and develop into actual talents that they can then spend money and try to build something around. Teams don’t like to use the word, but it’s called rebuilding.
Unfortunately for the Braves, rebuilding has meant saying goodbye to arguable three of the most popular players on the team in Heyward, Upton, and now Gattis. Heyward was a massive loss, because he was the prodigal son, raised in Georgia, grew up a Braves fan, and performed pretty decently before he was traded to the Cardinals. Fans loved that he was a local guy, homegrown and exciting. Justin Upton was a massive loss because he was the tried and true talented acquisition, where he’d been good prior to becoming a Brave, was good while he was a Brave, and was traded to the Padres for highly-touted prospects, because the Padres think he will be good for them. Fans loved that he was reliably good, and no matter how much everyone else slumped, Justin Upton usually slumped less.
But Evan Gattis is a massive loss on many more fronts. Gattis was the storybook tale that fans and non-fans can admire; the guy who gave up on baseball, lived a nomadic life for a few years before realizing that he wanted back in, took the long way to get here, but mashed his way into the hearts and imaginations of all baseball fans. Gattis was the guy who was lumberjack strong, and hit home runs off of damn near everyone within moments of arriving in the big leagues, from Roy Halladay, Stephen Strasburg and Cole Hamels. And Gattis was the guy that had marketability, with a nickname adopted from Venezuela and embraced by Americans all over Braves Country – El Oso Blanco (the white bear).
Fans loved him because his story, and that he destroyed baseballs. Kids loved him because of his name. The team loved him for his production and his marketability.
But now he’s gone too, despite the fact that he wasn’t set to make that much money (relatively speaking) in 2015 or 2016, but because he was seen as a commodity that could be flipped for several more guys that wouldn’t make that much money, for much longer.
I’m cool with it though, because I’m a salty old man that doesn’t like other people. And Turner Field has been too full of other people over the last few, more successful years. But I have reasonable cause to believe that such is not going to be the case in 2015, and hopefully 2016, because the Braves are in all likelihood, going to absolutely suck.
I’m talking about 90+ losses suck. The kind of suck that makes fairweather Atlantans stay home and not just watch the game alternatively, but ignore the Braves outright, because they don’t want to acknowledge that they support a loser.
And that’s what I’m looking forward to so fervently – when the Braves in all likelihood do suck, Turner Field will be deserted, and the ballpark will once again be a nice place to go to.
It’s terrible to applaud failure and losses, but frankly the whole notion of “Braves Country” becomes incrementally more insufferable based on the successes and expected successes of the Atlanta Braves. Tickets go up. Parking goes up. Everything in the ballpark develops this obnoxious sense of entitlement or importance, based on how the team is doing which duly controls the influx of people at the venue. You can’t stand around, hobbyists like me can’t snap a few pictures, and seat Nazis police your seats, regardless of how many available seats are surrounding you.
I’m going to give it until May before the realization that the 10-18 Braves probably aren’t going to get any better throughout the season. Attendance will plummet until the school year ends, and will recover a little bit when it does. When the first wave of minor league callus occur in early June because the Braves are cheap and why not debut minor leaguers on the magic date*, something may occur, but since the 2015 Braves will be the 2015 Braves, it’s only a matter of time before the losing ways settle back in. By July, the team will more or less officially suck, and the park will be attended as such. In August, Braves marketers will be scuffling, trying to come up with gimmicks and promotions to entice people out to the ballpark, since a .412 team isn’t going to, and Turner Field will be subject to Star Wars Nights and Dollar Dog nights, the easiest ways to boost attendance, for the remainder of the season.
*the date in which the team gets “a free year” from the minor league player based on a convoluted process that involves games played before they’re considered eligible to earn major league money
Sounds miserable, but honestly, I can’t wait. This is more or less pretty much what I need to renew my enthusiasm about going to the ballpark.
In 2008, the Braves went 72-90, which was the worst season they had since 1990, yet it was one of the most fun summers of my life, immersing myself in baseball. There came a point where everyone knew that the team sucked, so the pressure valve was released, and there were no more expectations from the team. Losses were likely, but any wins had, were always welcome and celebrated; especially if they came against top-tier squads or pitchers.
When the pressure is off, baseball is at its most enjoyable.
In 2014, the Braves won just 79 games, which was pretty putrid in its own right, but the difference was that that wasn’t expected. The Braves had a squad that was easily capable of winning 90 games, but they didn’t, because of underperformance, injuries, and the simple fact that their hitters couldn’t hit and alternatively struck out all the time. But it was a shit season that made me abandon the game more or less, because the insufferable fanbase and ballpark experience ruined everything. Failed expectations only led to disappointment and apathy, and I frankly didn’t want any more part of it, beyond collecting my requisite bobbleheads.
With the 2015 season on the horizon, and the team devoid of all popular talented players (save for like Freddie Freeman and Andrelton Simmons), there is no hope for a 90-win season. There are no expectations for wild card #2 contention. And there’s very little reason to believe that this squad is remotely going to be any good. At least there shouldn’t be, in any of these circumstances.
The 2015 Braves are going to suck, and I can’t wait.
It’s going to be a great season.
