At the time I started writing this, the Braves had just finished getting swept by the Phillies to open the 2019 season. Prior to the start of the season, Braves fans were treated to an offseason where the Braves performed their standard song and dance of crying poor and pretending like they don’t have the necessary money in order to pursue logical free agents and improve their chances at winning baseball games, but then business reports emerged that showed that the Atlanta Braves organization as a whole, had raked in record profits throughout the 2018 calendar year.
In typical Braves fashion, instead of just coming clean and admitting that the ownership has little interest in investing money into the team, they sent their stooges out blab a whole bunch of corporate-ese about the importance of financial responsibility, and extol their profits as if Bubba in Habersham, Cletus in La Grange and Ricky Bobby in Valdosta are going to give a flying fuck about the organization’s financial standing, when the team is losing games that they’d have a better chance at winning if they had some competent players.
And basically, personally, I’m at my wit’s end with it. As much as I feel like I’m always on the cusp of swearing off the Braves and declaring a disdain for them, I never really fully pull the trigger, because I like having a local team to root for, and when the day is over, I do want to see the Braves win and find success, even in spite of the fact that the organization itself is flagrantly ambivalent and doesn’t appear to care whether they win or not, just so long as they’re making investors money.
But as for this year, all it took was three games for me to confirm that this team is dead in the water, and to not really hold too much hope that there’s going to be anything remotely better than a first-round playoff appearance, at the very, tippy top best possible scenario. The Braves Way, an agonizingly cliché phrase the team uses to applaud the team’s tendency to favor and acquire over-the-hill veterans or post-injury reclamation projects at reasonable costs is the modus operandi of the team, and has pretty much been the case in almost the entire time that I’ve followed them, and they rarely drop any big money on anyone.
I understand that the last few times they’ve done so, they’ve ended up with stiffs like BJ Upton and Mike Hampton, but the unfortunate truth of professional sports is that every single team on the planet has dealt with free agent busts, and that it’s more of a surprise when a free agent deal doesn’t go sour, and that at least from a WAR standpoint, they don’t lose too much money in the life of a deal.
But it’s gotten to the point where the Braves just don’t spend any money when it comes to free agent, unless it’s extremely short term, or cases where they’ll get a guy that falls into the category of good if it works out, but if the team stinks anyway, they’ll still be a valuable trade commodity that they’ll unload and immediately go back to rebuilding, instead of trying to contend any further.
As much as the nerds would like it, and the baseball economist geeks would love it, baseball just doesn’t really work that reliably these days. Look no further than the team that just obliterated the Braves to start the season in the Phillies, who spent like they were owned by George Steinbrenner, and constructed a roster that not only will be expected to win the division, but gotten the Phillies their swagger back like it was 2009 all over again.
The Braves consistently try to get 100% worth of production and efficiency out rosters that only on their best day, most perfect, best-case scenarios, could accomplish, but over the span of 162 games, are probably no really better than like 80% good in the grand spectrum of seasons. Just look at their results historically, at a team that occasionally gets decent enough to always finish above .500, occasionally makes the playoffs, but never, ever advances past the first round.
It’s the teams that get way above 100% talent by virtue of free agent spending or several years of tanking, that have succeeded over the last decade, and there really hasn’t been any evidence to contradict it. The Cubs and Astros sucked for years, but then were lucky enough for all their draft picks to actually pan out, and then made some good strategic moves in order to achieve success, but then every other World Series was won by the Boston Red Sox or San Francisco Giants, two teams that have not shied away from dropping some money on talent.
When the day is over, the goal of the game is to achieve 100% success; and there’s absolutely nothing in the rules that state that a team is limited to 100% effort in order to get there. The difference is that today we have teams like the Phillies, Red Sox, Dodgers, and even the Padres who are spending tons of money, soaring past the luxury tax (salary cap) threshold, and dropping 200% effort to get 100% success, while teams like the Braves are convinced that they can compete with 80% effort and get the same results.
When the Braves faced the Phillies, I remember thinking it wasn’t going to be good, because they were trotting out Julio Teheran and two rookie starters against a Phillies team that was already full of talented mashers, but then over the offseason got JT Realmuto and Bryce Harper on top of it. And then sure enough, the Phillies hung 23 runs on them over the three-game series, primarily because the Braves simply don’t have adequate pitching; none of the starters pitched more than five innings, leading to the bullpen which was a glaring weakness in 2018 and received zero attention in 2019 was exploited to where I imagined Macay McBride, Chad Paronto and Chris Reistma all sitting on a couch together watching the Braves and scoffing and talking about how much their bullpen sucks.
All while both Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel are still sitting at home and very much available to whomever wants to hire them. I get that no team wants to get stuck in a bad free agent deal, but there’s no team in MLB that wouldn’t benefit from putting one or both of these guys into their pitching staffs.
It’s a moot point though, because every Braves fan knows that the Braves won’t pull the trigger on either of these guys. Organizationally, they’re way too risk-averse, and always wait until the problem is too large to fix before they try to address it, and by the time the team realizes they need a competent veteran starting pitcher to settle things down, Keuchel will already be on the Mets, and they’ll trade a valuable prospect for someone like Chris Archer who won’t be bad, but will already be thinking of his next free agent contract that the Braves won’t be willing to pay for. And by the time they realize that Arodys Vizcaino isn’t that good as a closer, Kimbrel will have signed with the Nationals and have ten saves.
The point of all this is that I’m just really sick of the way the Braves operate. Their ownership is way too full of corporate stiffs and investors who care way too much about money, and don’t have any understanding that investing in the team and achieving success actually is way more profitable, but they simply don’t want to take any risks and so it’s just more of the same year in and year out. But hey, as long as investors are making massive profits, why shouldn’t the fans be satisfied right?
I think when the day is over, I’d be happiest if the Braves sold to someone who actually cares about winning. Preferably, an individual who wants to keep up with the Joneses, and wants to be among his baseball ownership peers, as one of the more successful ones. And be willing to take some occasional leaps of faith and spending some money when the opportunities present themselves, and actually try to win baseball championships. But these are pipe dreams, because there’s no way Liberty will be willing to sell when the profits of owning the Braves in vanilla mode are already this profitable.
So I guess it’s just kind of a mindless hibernation of acceptance and existence for Braves fans, knowing the ownership will never really care about the team, and to expect mediocrity and low-expectations when their peers all around them want to win championships.
