Braves again watch while Phillies sign Lee, spend millions
If the Braves win a World Series with Liberty Media as the owner, it won't be because they spent millions in free agency. (AJC photo)
Let’s start with the obvious: Baseball teams don’t win championships in December.
If they did, the World Series would be on a consistent rotation between the Yankees, Mets and Red Sox, often coming down to which team lost a pitcher to a hyper-extended elbow at the drive-thru ATM.
But December says a lot about aspirations and expectations, and the Braves’ owners, in the holiday spirit, once again look like Mr. Potter telling George Bailey to stick it.
The Philadelphia Phillies – whose team payroll already was about $58 million more than the Braves’ last season – just added Cliff Lee to their pitching staff. It gives them four pitchers (Lee, Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels) in their starting rotation who have combined for three Cy Young Awards, 13 All-Star games, two NLCS MVP awards and one World Series MVP.
It turns the Phillies — pending any other acquisitions of Albert Pujols or a Swiss Bank — into the overwhelming favorites to win the National League East, the N.L. pennant and the World Series, after which they can move onto other solar systems.
But this isn’t about a division rival adding one pitcher. It’s about the Braves being stuck with one owner.
General manager Frank Wren has conceded several times that he has to work within the confines of a budget, while trying not to step on the Bruno Magli covered toes of team owner Liberty Media. Fans may live for checkbook roster building in the winter, but the Braves don’t have that option.
This is Greg Maffei. He makes more than the entire Braves' roster.
Liberty Media doesn’t really care about you, or the product, or the fact that the Phillies’ team payroll has jumped from $89 million in 2007 to $142 million last season. They don’t hand out peanuts and foam tomahawks at stockholders meetings. They hand out profit-and-loss statements.
In sports, we want owners who are as passionate as the guy who’ll show up for the Tuesday night game against the Florida Marlins. Sorry. You get the owner whose luxury suite remains empty on a summer weekend.
A recent Wall Street Journal survey of the nation’s top 10 paid CEOs showed Liberty Media’s Gregory Maffei’s total compensation was $87.1 million, four times his financial take of the year before. The Braves’ total payroll last year: $84 million.
Question: Can Maffei play center field or hit leadoff, because the Braves are still a bit thin in those areas?
Somebody once said money doesn’t buy happiness but it enables one to pick their own misery. Applying that to sports: Money doesn’t guarantee the Phillies are going to win the World Series, but it gives them a significant advantage over the Braves when they go shopping.
Wren told our Carroll Rogers that the Lee signing, “really has no impact on the construction of our roster.”
What would you expect him to say? “Dang! We should’ve signed Carl Crawford!”
Wren robbed the Marlins of Dan Uggla. That strengthened their lineup and will enable them to move Martin Prado to either left field or third base. But they’ve still got issues. They’re banking on Chipper Jones being able to come back from a torn ACL, and he turns 39 in April. They’re banking of Freddie Freeman being ready at first base. Most of all, they’re banking on some combination of Nate McLouth and Jordan Schafer not being a train wreck again in center.
With the Phillies signing Lee, some are now screaming for the Braves to acquire Zack Greinke from Kansas City. But the Braves really don’t need another starting pitcher. The rotation of Tim Hudson, Tommy Hanson, Derek Lowe and Jair Jurrjens doesn’t have the marquee value of Lee-Halladay-Oswalt-Hamels. But it’s better than most. What the Braves really need is a proven center fielder and/or leadoff hitter and/or another bat (especially if Jones can’t come back). But the lack of cash flow precluded them from going after somebody like Crawford or even Jayson Werth in free agency, or absorbing a big contract in a trade.
Once again, the Braves must shop with coupons. Sometimes that works. But it’s not the way to build hope.
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312 comments Add your comment
Anthony
December 14th, 2010
11:55 pm
Jeff, you failed to mention the phillies letting Jason Werth go and using that money to get Lee. So they just didn’t open up the bank so to speak. Did you see this coming, no. Neither did anyone else. So how come the Braves messed up again. Cmon get out of town and go write for somebody you’ll be happy with. You’re depressing us with all this negativity. seems like no sports teams inAtlanta can never do anything right according to you. i gues that’s why you’re working for a newspaper and not running teams.
JYack
December 14th, 2010
11:56 pm
Atlanta fans should strike against going to the games next year. All Liberty Media is doing is taking our money and not investing anything back into the Braves. We strike until those idiots put money into the organization or get an owner that cares.
JYack
December 15th, 2010
12:00 am
And the idiot complaining about empty seats… If we sign Big Free agents maybe we will be excited to go see a game instead of our big FA acquisitions being Garrett Anderson and Troy Glaus the past 2 years… What a joke
braves70
December 15th, 2010
2:02 am
For those interested: A good article on who owns the Phillies: http://blogbatter.com/?tag=phillies-owners
Written in 2008 by a Phillies fan upset that they traded Cliff Lee in the first place.
Maybe the Braves will interest some oil mogul in Dubai. Then other fans would contribute to our success every time they put gas in their car to drive to a game.
Hopefully there will some day be a movement for the outside teams to refuse to play the Red Sox, Yankees, Mets, Phillies, etc. Let’s see how much money they can make off of a four team league where they play each other 54 times per season.
Staraight Jacket
December 15th, 2010
4:14 am
Wild card at best! Can’t win now with bargain basement players and washed-up and over-paid Chipper!
For Phils ace, happiness trumps extra money – Cherry Hill Courier Post | I NEED HAPPINESS !!!
December 15th, 2010
4:36 am
[...] About Cliff Lee, The Yankees, And Other Yankees MovesPinstripe AlleyPhiladelphia Inquirer -Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) -Toledo Bladeall 2,922 news articles » [...]
BraveFan
December 15th, 2010
5:16 am
THE OWNERS ARE CHEAP FKS
LJ
December 15th, 2010
5:50 am
Where do you stop with the money? There should be a salary cap. Also baseball is’nt fair anyway untill all playing fields are the same dimensions. Why should a flyball out in some parks be a homerun in another? How about the foul area being different?
JSS
December 15th, 2010
6:35 am
Gotta love Braves fans, they joined the delusional state of college football fans…
How many times does it have to be spelled out for you? Ted Turner is out of the sports ownership game. Go watch his interview with “This Week with Christiane Amanpour.” He’s moved on…
As far for Blank, he has a stadium to try to pawn off on the already over stressed tax payers of North Georgia. Until that happens, he won’t be leading any group buying the Braves…
Why are people cracking on the age of the heart of the Phillies line up? Sorry, you guys are going gaga at the thought of that broken down Edsel being back sometime next Spring… Can somebody bring back “Cash for Clunkers?” We need an incentive to put the old nag down!
Winger
December 15th, 2010
7:07 am
Of course money can buy happiness. What else can it buy?
UGA fan
December 15th, 2010
7:12 am
waaaaaaaaaaaa waaaaaaaaaaaa waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
I’ll never stop crying and making excuses.
waaaaaaaaaaaa waaaaaaaaaaaa waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
What?
December 15th, 2010
7:13 am
JYack – WHAT A STUPID IDEA!!!
No fans = no money coming from the gate = Liberty trading off our few high priced players and slashing the budget.
Do you even have a clue?
Seriously
December 15th, 2010
7:14 am
How do those poor Braves do it? With an average salary of only about $3.6 million each ($90 mil / 25 players)?
Get a grip Jeff – that’s enough.
Whatever
December 15th, 2010
7:32 am
I love it. I hope the Phillies win the Division.
E-6
December 15th, 2010
8:28 am
Braves 70 – Read the piece on Phillies ownership. Read like it was written in crayon from a padded room. Bottom line, Dave Montgomery and Bill Giles still call the shots as to the Phils operations.
Tech Sucks
December 15th, 2010
8:29 am
They absolutely have to get another big bat. In the freaking OUTFIELD.
Marvin Mangrum
December 15th, 2010
8:36 am
Im sorry but I quit reading you, your article kinda whizzes me off. First you gotta play the games. Once you play all the games you check and see whos qualified to be in the playoffs. Now the best I can tell, is pretty much that is all that matters. If the new guy is as stupid as Bobby we dont have a chance, if hes smarter, then Im assuming, right now, in the dead of cold, that the Bravos, my team for over 50 years will be in the playoffs. And altho Im getting old, it seems to me that the greatest team in the NL didnt even make it to the World Series last year. You have to play the games all of them. Without Bobby Ill take my chances.
Take a Deep Breath
December 15th, 2010
8:37 am
Jeff-
Let’s all take a deep breath here before we concede the World Series to the Phillies. The combined records of Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee in 2010 was 37-33, not exactly Hall of Fame statistics.
Marvin Mangrum
December 15th, 2010
8:42 am
Im sorry, I read some of the comments on this site. I gotta say if I were from Philly I would be excited for my gain of living near Atlanta, altho living in Atlanta is about like living in Philly, but really, if you dont like the Braves, if you dont like Atlanta either move or shut the freak up. Really its creeps like you that makes the northern US seem like such a wonderful place to be away from.
Richard Dawson
December 15th, 2010
9:00 am
Dang, I just hate to see business owners exercising fiscal responsibility.
Chopper
December 15th, 2010
9:41 am
I think all Braves fans should flood Liberty Media with complaints.
Here’s the “contact us” link for their website:
http://www.libertymedia.com/contact-us.aspx
Show them your displeasure!!!
vermont 39
December 15th, 2010
9:47 am
I don’t agree with this Mr. Schultz’ position. Money does not buy championships. Teams win with a cooperative effort. Money can bring in talent for sure…but there are NO guarantees. I like our team and the Phils can be had. SF showed that. Halladay et al. didn’t man up as we were lead to believe they would…HA!!!
Play the game not the paper voodoo!!!!
just me
December 15th, 2010
10:04 am
Trade Lowe– get a lefty starter and another righthanded bat! Lowe to Texas– Lowe to the Yankees -Lowe to AA– just sayin
C'mon Man
December 15th, 2010
10:11 am
just me – Lowe wae probably the hottest pitcher in the NL down the stretch. If he continues that he will be well worth the money he is owed this upcoming season.
Katherine
December 15th, 2010
11:07 am
The crying is getting old and its not even baseball season yet…….
SECWasteManagement
December 15th, 2010
11:33 am
Why are we still relying on Chipper to produce!?
LawDawg
December 15th, 2010
11:41 am
Take a Deep Breath makes a good point: Hamels is average and Oswalt is aging. Lee is good, but I do not know when the espn-ized media decided he was the return of Sandy Koufax. I’d be surprised if he has more than 1-2 good years left. Obviously that makes the Phils the favorite for the next two years, but the WS last year “should” have been the yanks and the phils and look how that turned out.
Ted M
December 15th, 2010
11:42 am
because the Braves owe Chipper $28 mil!
Braves fan in South Louisiana
December 15th, 2010
11:55 am
All I have to say Jeff, totally agree. Where is the money for this team? Seems like Gregory B. Maffei could give up some luxury and still have plenty to spare.
chief pitchanono
December 15th, 2010
11:56 am
I agree Liberty doesn’t care about the Braves and its true the braves will will be in the middle of the pack budget wise untill were sold. The good thing is Wren and John have done a great job working with the money we do have. As far as the Phills are concerned if you take the unpredictables out and say both teams have no significant injuries next year.(not likely) It really then boils down to the offense of both teams, because starting pitching is pretty evenly matched. They probably have an edge as far a starters go, but we have the edge with the bullpen. This takes pressure off our starters and reduces the chance of injury and fatigue due to over use – phillies don’t have this option – so I say overall pitching is even. So it comes down to the offense – the phills had the better offense overall last year, even though it was inconsistent. They lost Jason Werth, a huge piece of their offense last year. The Braves got a glimpse of what their offense could be when they had that R handed power bat (Glaus) who was putting up Uggla type numbers, unfortunatley it was only for a six week period. When Glaus was hitting their offense was just as good as the phillies and they won allot of games. Now the Braves have Uggla who will bring that to the offense all season long. Even when Glaus was hitting and the Braves were winning allot of games, we still had no production in centerfield and chipper was struggling to the point of considering early retirement. Odds are that the Braves will be better in centerfield either by Nate getting it together or through some type of platoon and they proved last year when Glaus was hitting, that they can still have a good offense with whatever they get from Chipper. So I have to give the slight edge to Braves on offense, and if they happen to get a good year out of Chipper, and if Freeman just has a decent rookie season – then its a big edge because this will be a truly nasty offense no matter who is pitching. So don’t go handing anything (other than the wildcard, maybe) to philly just yet.
Kashi
December 15th, 2010
11:56 am
How much a team worth to buy back from Liberty Media? I will chip in $233 M, anyone here want to chip in? Lets make it a Fans Owner Club.
Kashi
December 15th, 2010
12:09 pm
LJ I agree with you 101% “Where do you stop with the money? There should be a salary cap. Also baseball is’nt fair anyway untill all playing fields are the same dimensions. Why should a flyball out in some parks be a homerun in another? How about the foul area being different?”
tom gonter
December 15th, 2010
12:09 pm
I think the Phillies overpaid for Lee. He was great in the post season for the Rangers but if you look at the last 2 years he has a record of 26-22 with a 3.20 ERA. If I am correct the vaunted Phillies lost to the Giants in the NLCS.
David Granger
December 15th, 2010
12:15 pm
A couple of thoughts:
You’re certainly right, Jeff, in that the Phillies continue to be aggressive in signing talent. Their team sure looks strong on paper, and I expect them to produce on the field, as well. As mentioned many times, it’s a big flaw in pro sports (baseball especially) that there is such a wide gulf between the “have” teams and the “have nots”. When Ted Turner owned the Braves, he was willing to spend what it took to improve the team (not that all his expenditures paid off until he got good “baseball people” in the front office)…so we’ve been on both ends of the see-saw.
It’s nice and refreshing to see Cliff Lee sign for less than he could have gotten elsewhere because he wanted to keep his family where they were happy. Considering the amount of money involved, it’s amazing that more players don’t do that. After all, what can you do with $25 million a year that you can’t do with $20 million a year? But some players in recent years sure have judged themselves by total dollar amount. Guess it’s a “macho” thing…
Kashi
December 15th, 2010
12:19 pm
Liberty Media CEO makes more then braves @ $87.1m ??? WTH.. Everyone STOP season ticket and going to Turner Field. Lets see how much Greg Maffei’s salary will drop.
Carl
December 15th, 2010
12:28 pm
Too bad some of our home based corporations e.g.,Coke, Delta, UPS will not get involved and try to purchase the Braves. I don’t think the Braves will ever be winners again until ownership is local.
C'mon Man
December 15th, 2010
12:32 pm
Probably not much. Most of Greg Maffei’s money comes from Restricted stock awards, Option awards, and Non-equity incentive plan compensation. His base salary is only around a million.
C'mon Man
December 15th, 2010
12:34 pm
Carl – Never be big winners again? The Texas Rangers payroll was around $55 million last year. The Giants were only at $98 million.
C'mon Man
December 15th, 2010
12:36 pm
and may i remind you without a Brooks Conrad Error the braves are up 2 games to 1 on the World Champs with 1 more home game remaining.
stew
December 15th, 2010
12:39 pm
Everyone seems to think that Lowe will perform like in September and October. That just ain’t gonna happen. We’re obligated to get rid of Lowe. I bet a lot of teams (Yanks especially) would love to have him. He gives us innings. But innings with a high ERA just means he gave up a lot of runs in a lot of innings. His ERA was lowered due to his strong finish. He’s just gonna get rocked and I prefer to use the spot for a younger pitcher (Minor/Beachy) and to free up 15 million dollars.
C'mon Man
December 15th, 2010
12:39 pm
Not to mention the Giants listened to how bad their offense was all last season but it didnt seem to bother them when they faced Cy Young winner Roy Halladay. He got roughed up for 6 ER and 14 hits in 2 games vs the Giants. Why are you all so worried about the Phillies? especially in December?
C'mon Man
December 15th, 2010
12:41 pm
Stew – We dont know what he will perform like, but the truth is no one will want to take on that salary either. The Braves tried last off season. Although he may have a high ERA at times the guy still wins, He is a hard worker and has good clubhouse presence. When the game is on the line he is one of the best. I wouldnt trade that for anything.
01HAWK
December 15th, 2010
3:21 pm
The reason the BRAVES will not win it all is not because of LIBERTY MEDIA. It is because of bad contracts, Free Agent Signings and trades.
1. KK
2. McOut
3. Texiera Trade……….Set team back alot.
4. DLOWE
Larry not the cable guy
December 15th, 2010
4:55 pm
IF JJ has a good first half, he will be traded for a outfielder, probably to the Yanks, hopefully for Gardner, DO IT FW, we have plenty of pitching & Gardner is good & affordable!!!!
wins-by-a-link
December 15th, 2010
5:16 pm
The Braves will never have a WS championship as long Liberty Media owns the team, Major League Baseball should never have approved the deal allowing LM to purchase the Braves whose stated goal at the time of purchase was strickly for a tax break, These people care nothing about winning games and or championships as long as the Braves muddle along and win a few games and make a little money LM will be happy and things will never change, Looks like the fans are stuck with a lousy Owner.
Necromancer
December 15th, 2010
5:36 pm
Schultz, you are spot-on with this article. The Braves need new ownership desperately.
Now, if you could get your colleague, David O’Brien, to realize this, then that would be good.
On THAT particular blog, you can’t go ranting about the bad ownership and bad contracts. There are so many “blind homers” and koolaid drinkers over there, that they will tear you up and not even think twice.
Well, the Braves could have a record of 1-161 and those folks, including O’Brien, would still responding with sarcasm and smart@ss remarks defending this rankness!
Well, just my opinion…I’m sure there will be someone who will dissect this….
Michael
December 16th, 2010
7:51 am
Buy the team or shut up.
yodaddy
December 16th, 2010
10:11 am
Braves, Hawks…have cheap owners…and then wonder why fans are flighty about attending games.
Just once, we want the owners to try something. Bring some stars to Atlanta on the sports teams and then maybe people will be enthusiastic about teams.
But constantly seeing other big cities like Philly, NY, Miami, Boston, Chicago, etc. acquiring big name players for big money and Atlanta teams constantly scraping the bottom of the barrel is discouraging.
Not saying our teams are a pack of scrubs or anything but can we get some excitement swirling like an Amare Stoudemire or a Cliff Lee signing would do? Can we make a move at the trade deadline every now & then? Can we do some real contending instead of hope contending?? I’d rather be going for it all then maintaining and hoping as far as sports go.
C'mon Man
December 16th, 2010
11:40 am
Jurrjens for Gardner, the Yankees would be getting the better end of that deal.
C'mon Man
December 16th, 2010
11:43 am
Jurrjens had a better ERA than Halladay in 2009. I think I would want more than a .268 Career hitter with no pop.