Memo to the Braves: $95 million doesn’t go as far as it did
Johnny Damon has signed with Detroit. This should surprise no one, least of all us Atlantans. Damon will make $8 million for one season’s work, and ESPN.com’s Buster Olney reports that none of the money is deferred.
The Braves made an overture toward Damon. They offered rather less than $8 million, with some of the money believed to be deferred. This is the way the Braves have come to operate.
They traded Javier Vazquez because he was due to make $11.5 million. They signed Troy Glaus because he was available and has a history of being productive, but also because he came cheap. They re-upped Tim Hudson because he seems healthy, yes, but also because he offered a hometown discount.
If we credit the Braves for resolutely holding their payroll under $100 million — Baseball Prospectus projects it at $95 million for this season, though other estimates put it around at $90 million or less — we must also debit them for slipping further behind the ol’ curve. Times change, and $95 million doesn’t go as far as it once did. According to John Perrotto of BP (link requires registration), that figure would put the Braves 13th-highest among 30 big-league teams.
And here’s the rub: The Braves’ payroll on Opening Day 2000 was similarly $95 million, according to Baseball Chronology. That put them second to the Yankees. But it’s a decade later and the Braves are still trying to function the way they did when they were winning their division every year, and that’s one reason they haven’t won their division since 2005.
Can you reasonably expect to be a serious contender in the year 2010 while spending roughly as much as you did 10 years ago? Of the eight teams that qualified for the 2009 postseason, seven are projected to outspend the Braves. (Colorado is the exception.) Even the Minnesota Twins, long a paradigm of small-market fiscal sanity, figure to spend more on personnel in 2010.
Every year Braves chairman Terry McGuirk issues his boilerplate assertion that Liberty Media will spend as much as is necessary to compete, but with every year it becomes more apparent the money just isn’t there, at least not to buy ballplayers. There was no reason to trade Vazquez other than money, and Vazquez became the guy to go only because Frank Wren couldn’t find someone willing to take Derek Lowe for $15 million.
No, you can’t just buy yourselves a World Series title. If you could, the Yankees would have won every year for a decade. But there hasn’t been a real small-market champion since Florida in 2003, and the expanse between the haves and the have-nots continues to grow. When the mid-market Cardinals — they were mid-market then, if not now — won in 2006, their $88 million payroll put them 11th; today they’d be 16th.
And here’s the worst part: Wren has demonstrated no Billy Beane-like facility for winning big on a budget. (Billy Beane hasn’t lately, either.) In Wren’s one season as general manager of the Orioles, he signed Albert Belle to the biggest contract in franchise history. In his second offseason as Braves GM, he signed Lowe and Kenshin Kawakami for an aggregate $83 million over four seasons and seemed to develop buyer’s remorse overnight.
To be fair, even John Schuerholz needed a big budget to amass all those first-place finishes. And last month Schuerholz told Mark Bowman of MLB.com that the Braves’ 2010 payroll would be roughly the same as in 2009, the president’s point being that his club had bravely resisted the urge to cut costs. But when, if ever, will it increase them? And if, as seems manifestly clear, the Braves are under orders to spend only so much, why won’t they say exactly how much?
Maybe this season will be different. Maybe Wren will stand revealed as the Value King of baseball. But will coupon-clipping cut it in it a division where the Phillies and the Mets are spending $140 million apiece? Will we ever see another sub-$100-million team in the Fall Classic?
At last check, Scott Boras hasn’t opened a kiosk at Costco. If he does, we know who’ll be first in line.
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147 comments Add your comment
TommyP
February 22nd, 2010
9:27 am
Smoltz fan: He was drafted in the 22nd round by the Tigers.
Smoltz fan
February 22nd, 2010
9:28 am
Who hired Wren?
Had I known of the Belle deal, I would not have.
Good baseball man?
No same fool he was with the O’s.
Smoltz fan
February 22nd, 2010
9:29 am
Well if u r correct, my Topps rookie card is wrong but 22nd is still pretty late. How many rounds then?
TheMe
February 22nd, 2010
9:30 am
Hey, TheAntiMe. It’s you’re complaining to and not your complaining to. You big dummy!
TommyP
February 22nd, 2010
9:32 am
I believe the Rays were in the Series just two years ago with a $43 million payroll.
Minnesota is in the thick of the playoff chase EVERY year with a payroll in the bottom third of the majors.
Colorado made the playoffs with a very small payroll.
siskel_god
February 22nd, 2010
9:33 am
Albert Belle was a beast for years before Wren signed him and he was pretty good in 99 and 00 offensively. Give him credit for convincing anybody to move to Baltimore. Belle averaged about 40 homers a year with around 300 ba and was an rbi machine. You can’t predict injuries. Wren is doing a good job in Atlanta most fans want the Braves to build from within and add a piece here or there and that is what they are doing now. By not trading Escobar, Heyward, or Hanson for Peavy last year should prove that. Give another year or two and this team will be World Series contenders.
WonderDawg
February 22nd, 2010
9:33 am
I’m fine with Wren and his moves. I don’t know what guys in the front office are making, but it seems no one retires. Wren is hired as GM and JS stays on as president. Is he still drawing GM money? Hank Aaron’s still drawing a salary? For what? Cox stepping down as Mgr but staying with the team as consultant or something. What’s he gonna make? Now Glavine’s back. Knowing him, it’s for big money. Maybe if the ownership would trim the fat in the front office, Wren could sign a power hitter. Just thinking …
TommyP
February 22nd, 2010
9:34 am
Smoltz fan: Not sure. I know Piazza was drafted in the 62nd round. Think they go 50 now.
PMC
February 22nd, 2010
9:35 am
I’m not crying over not paying Johnny Damon to come play an awful left field. It would be really nice if we could have any confidence whatsoever in these guys scoring runs in bunches.
I’m really hoping Prado stays healthy. McClouth will probably lead off. Yunel is much better I thought further down in the lineup. I am interested to see if Diaz gets more of an opportunity.
WonderDawg
February 22nd, 2010
9:36 am
What your stats tell me, TommyP, either the guys we have are overpaid (Lowe), overrated (Chipper), or mis-managed (Bobby).
Smoltz fan
February 22nd, 2010
9:37 am
You are right about the money TommyP.
It can be done with what the Braves are spending but Frank Wren runs out and kills his chances by getting his team committed to terrible contracts.
That then ncessitates trading Vazquez.
Mark is right about Wren.
He is in too big a hurry every time he somehows get a GM job. He does not deserve to the Braves GM after failing with the O’s.
His predicessor should have retired earlier instead of trading for Boras’ clients.
Smoltz fan
February 22nd, 2010
9:40 am
I am not going to pull against Vazquez.
It is not his fault Wren traded him to the Yanks.
I like someone who actually produces myself.
Seems to me the Yanks made great moves in the off season.
They upgraded to Granderson so they had no need at all for Melkey anymore.
Savannah Seer
February 22nd, 2010
9:42 am
If Mr. McGuirk and “Rent a Wreck” Wren were running a stock on Wall Street, he would be under investigation and convicted of making false statements to the public. This team spends what it has to, in order to perpetrate a sham on Atlanta and the Southeastern fan base for its team.
Frank “Rent A Wreck” Wren has proven (yet again, Damon) that he has no faculties capable of running a major league franchise anywhere, except into the ground! If it were the contrary, do you think he’d get an endorsement from Cal Ripken, Jr in this lifetime or any other? Ask Peter Angelos what he thinks of the disaster known as “Rent a Wreck” Wren!!!
This article sums it all up. Overpay here, slash there, trade to save money consistently. Then lie to the public by saying that you have what you want and you have improved a team. THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES ON, PEOPLE !!!
There are people in federal prison who make “puffing” statements like that in order to keep investors, ticket purchasers, and television sponsors on board to spend their money on a FRANCHISE THAT IS LEAKING OIL BADLY. Why is there no oversite of this by Congress or by law enforcement? Don’t the Braves do business across state lines?
The laughable MO of Atlanta Braves baseball will continue until new ownership rescues this “organization…. er, tax write off” or when it is forced to because all of the key figures of this outfit, “The Hole In The Head Gang” ,are doing time in Federal prison for fraud.
Chop Chop
February 22nd, 2010
9:42 am
“Give another year or two and this team will be World Series contenders.”
Okay, siskel_god. I’ll give it another year or two. After that, they’re dead to me.
WonderDawg
February 22nd, 2010
9:45 am
So, with that rationale, Bill Bellichick didn’t deserve the Patriots job because he failed with the Browns? What if Lowe wins 18 games this year? You can’t judge Wren’s moves by looking at one season. He has held on to our prospects and got the Yankees’ best one. Got to give him time …
extremus
February 22nd, 2010
9:46 am
Here’s a suggestion that should please everyone, Mr. Bradley: Why not have Liberty Media sell the Braves to Arthur Blank or some other human owner who’s willing and able to keep the Braves’ core of talent intact and invest where needed to get to the next level? Then they could go buy the Rockies (whose payroll as you mentioned is lower than the Braves’: BONUS FOR THEM!!!) and they could have nice corporate boxes at the newly renamed Liberty Media Field in Denver for all of their faceless ownership.
Well, I guess everybody would be happy EXCEPT for the Rockies and their fans, BUT WHO CARES? Let Liberty give THEM a new meaning for “hometown discount”, I say!
Can’t wait until that tax write-off ends…
PMC
February 22nd, 2010
9:49 am
when Terry Mcguirk says “compete” he means that they will employ the proper number of players… not that they will get a team capable of doing anything in the playoffs.
Steve C.
February 22nd, 2010
9:51 am
Mark,
I have to agree with some previous posters, I don’t believe we are at 95 million. I have not seen one calculation yet that would put us there. I think at maximum, we are maybe at 90, which would make the 4.5 mill offer to Damon make sense, if it were not for the deferred money. I think the payroll is at least 8 million lower now than where we were last year. Unforgivable to lose Damon, 8 million for one year for what he would give this lineup? That is a bargain for a guy who made 13 million the last 4 years.
steinmanberg7
February 22nd, 2010
9:54 am
Man, that Franky Wren is such a bum. He signed an aging, over the hill Albert (Joey) Belle over a decade ago in 1999. I guess he still likes making moves like that because he signed Lowe last year and, get this, he refused to pony up 8M or more to get that young buck Johnny Damon. Some people will never learn.
Mark, silly anecdotes like this are extremely pointless. Please try digging below the surface with the analysis occasionally before sobbing into the morning cup a joe one more time. I know it’s been a long winner, but sheesh!
Go Braves!
Najeh Davenpoop
February 22nd, 2010
9:55 am
Winning in sports in general comes down to making the most out of your draft picks. All these Billy Beane formulas and what not are secondary. Teams like the Marlins stay competitive on shoestring budgets by having tons of talented players coming up through the pipeline. Whether or not Wren is successful will depend on how well he drafts more than it will on his ability to keep players like Javier Vazquez.
AndyC
February 22nd, 2010
9:55 am
Attendance keeps going down so the Braves can’t afford a higher payroll. Liberty Media is running the team like a business and you can’t do that with sports franchises, not if you want to win. That’s why corporations should not be allowed to own teams.
Smoltz fan
February 22nd, 2010
9:58 am
Belichick may have shown his smarts in spite of being at the Mistake by the lake.
The problem with Wren is spending on the free agents unwisely with the O’s and now with us.
I like the Yankee’s plan much better.
They upgrade from Melkey to Granderson and then looked around trade Melkey to improve their pitching.
Wren supporters, if Vazquest struggles any in the toughest division in MLB, will say the trade was correct.
But there is no longer any way to know how he would have done here.
I hope he wins 20.
He earned my support by producing better than the rest of our pitchers at a lower cost too.
SoWhatsTheNEWS?
February 22nd, 2010
10:02 am
When was the last time the Braves were actually top 10 in payroll? No doubt you’d have to at least go back to the glory days of Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz and I doubt we broke the top 5 even then. To be quite fair…I was surprised the Braves were ranked in the top 15!!! This is certainly not a World Series caliber team but they should win about as many as they lose and could win around 90 games if things go their way.
95 Million?
February 22nd, 2010
10:03 am
Chump Change when looking at our current government deficits!
Jesse Stone
February 22nd, 2010
10:04 am
Shane,
Before you call someone dumb, do some research. Go look at baseballreference.com and search Melky. Look at numbers instead of listening to Yankees fans that like their “spunky’ player. His numbers have been very pedestrian and have NOT gone up in his 4 years. The only number that has gone up is his HR totals because he played half his games in Williamsport last year. He is Ryan Church. Look it up
Smoltz fan
February 22nd, 2010
10:04 am
I would bet on a repeat of last year.
I am more sure about the Yankees than I am the Phillies.
If I was a Yankees fan with a clue, I would have to be excited about their off season moves.
The Yankees’ fans hate to part with Melkey?
How many of the posters are over 12?
steinmanberg7
February 22nd, 2010
10:07 am
Correction from above post: “long winner” = long winter
Smoltz fan
February 22nd, 2010
10:08 am
What Frank WRen and the Red Sox are secretly worried about: Vazquez continuing to be a great pitcher and winning 25.
With the Yankees run support, it could happen.
However it is the toughest division.
If I needed a pitcher, I would certainly be glad to add him instead of subtract.
Wall Street Swaps
February 22nd, 2010
10:08 am
We are going to start selling swaps to major league baseball teams.If the players default and don’t perform we will pay the team off on their player insurance swaps…..that way taxpayers can bail out major league baseball teams when their players don’t perform..
Wren A Player
February 22nd, 2010
10:11 am
Anyone want to trade for J.Jurrjens before his arm falls apart?????
Miss Blondie
February 22nd, 2010
10:13 am
Dear Ted Turner,
You always said you regretted selling the Braves. Well, Ted. Here’s your chance to swoop in and buy a team on the cheap. Come back to Atlanta, Ted. Those bison must be getting pretty boring to watch. Heck, you can put a Ted’s Montana Grill at the stadium. I’d eat some bison burgers for the team. Nom, nom, nom… it’s a home-run for you and for Atlanta.
Mike PA
February 22nd, 2010
10:13 am
Mark love the kiosk line . you should copy right that before he actually does lol
Mark Bradley
February 22nd, 2010
10:14 am
The Braves and the Yankees were actually in a spending race back in the ’90s. But the Yankees kept going, and the Braves got sold to Time Warner. End of spending race.
Bigstack O' Pancakes. It is an Irish name.
February 22nd, 2010
10:14 am
It is clear that Liberty Media has no interest in building a winner with the Braves. I think the only reason MLB approved the sale to Liberty Media is because Liberty Media owns Directv and pays to have the Extra Innings package. These are the moves of the Pittsburgh Pirates not the Atlanta Braves. Liberty Media has to go A.S.A.P.
Smoltz fan
February 22nd, 2010
10:14 am
Swaps; that’s funny and clever.
Mark Bradley
February 22nd, 2010
10:14 am
Thanks, Mike PA. I probably should.
Smoltz fan
February 22nd, 2010
10:15 am
Mark do u agree that the Yankees addressed their needs and improved their already championship team?
After adding Granderson, who needs Melkey?
Fed Up With Wren (Again)
February 22nd, 2010
10:16 am
You’ve got to spend money to make money. If you are on a budget, you have to make smart decisions with your money, not dumb ones. I for one am boycotting games this year. It is the only way Liberty Media and Frank Wren will learn.
Bill
February 22nd, 2010
10:16 am
Mark you nailed it…thanks friend. The Braves are Cheap and the last three years prove it.
Mark Bradley
February 22nd, 2010
10:17 am
The Yankees do look better on paper, Smoltz fan. But when you spend $200 million, you’re bound to look good on paper.
Smoltz fan
February 22nd, 2010
10:17 am
Why did the Tigers trade Granderson anyway?
I forget what they recieved but I suspect the Yankees won another trade there too.
Bill
February 22nd, 2010
10:18 am
award 6.. whats your problem, IQ?
Smoltz fan
February 22nd, 2010
10:18 am
I hate making the Yankees look better even just on paper.
Smoltz fan
February 22nd, 2010
10:21 am
I do not think we should show any interest in Damon if we are not prepared to make a deal if the price goes higher.
Why bother?
We just help Boras again.
Smoltz fan
February 22nd, 2010
10:23 am
Mark you just explained why the Yankees have won so may times.
Outspending does not always work but it does enough to make a claim to be the best run franchise.
They waste a lot of money too with their share of blunders as well.
Greg
February 22nd, 2010
10:29 am
Thank you MARK!!!! I Dont understand what’s taken so long for *Wren to start FEELING THE HEAT* nothing he has done to this point inspires any sort of confidence.
Imagine where we are going to be when guys like Escobar, Hanson, Heyward start to hit their ARB years and his foolish moves (KK, Lowe, maybe even Hudson etc) cause our hands to be tied. We should hope that Liberty’s capital gains time threshold expires and they sell the team ASAP to an owner who cares (im being an optimist, I know).
We can only hope that Wren goes with McGuirk and the owners out the door. The way this team is run has become nothing more than a JOKE
Mark Bradley
February 22nd, 2010
10:34 am
I’m sure Wren is under heavy pressure to keep costs down, Greg. I’m just not sure he’s a shoestring kind of general manager.
todd grantham
February 22nd, 2010
10:41 am
And whatever happened to Greg Norton?
Sonny Clusters
February 22nd, 2010
10:45 am
We was offered a job at the AJC and they wanted to defer paying us. It reminded us a lot of Wimpy who would gladly pay on Tuesday for a hamburger today. But the AJC doesn’t pay on Tuesdays and we was quick to pick up on it. Now, we are doing some free-lance work here with Brad (Bobby Cox’s pet name for Mark). Clusters are ambidextrous and that means they can throw, hit, and write from either side. When we was little we would give our teacher fits changing hands when we would write. She thought we might be the devil but we gave her some candy on Teacher’s Day and she settled down after that. $95 million still goes a long way in Gwinnett County and we would like everybody to know that. Clusters don’t come cheap but Clusters are affordable if the Braves are looking for a leadoff hitter that can play the game.
Jethro
February 22nd, 2010
10:46 am
Spending more money doesn’t in and of itself buy a better team. Leadership is required, and Liberty Media is lacking in leadership. Then again, I’d be reluctant to give more money to a guy who spent all that money on Lowe and Kawakami. Then again, Lowe and Kawakami could rebound this year and quiet a lot of us.
I think that with a little bit of karma, this could be a very competitive team. No one wants to rely on or invest in karma. I think this team has a lot to prove, and I think Bobby’s got ‘em motivated, and I consider those to be intangible positives. Worry about Liberty at the end of the season. Right now, we got a pennant to win.