Freddie Freeman’s gone
Braves have picked up Matt Olson from the Oakland Athletics big LH power hitter who is a very good first baseman but we gave up three very good prospects to get him. I think it’s just sad that you won’t give a guy what he deserves after going through so many crappy seasons with the Braves he is the face of the franchise. The captain on the team when things are not going good. Just a sad day. Olson is a very good player don’t get me wrong but he’s a career 250 hitter going to hit about 30 home runs a year and strike out a lot so we’ll just have to come to grips with that
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Baseball isn’t about trying to win any more. It’s about minimizing expenses (especially salaries) and trying to squeeze out wins from younger, cheaper players. Which is why we just had the lockout; the players wouldn’t agree to the MLB proposal which would cut salaries even further (the recent trend in MLB payroll has been down, not up). Braves got their WS title, now ownership is trying to cut expenses. Same can be said of the Astros (unloaded Springer and Correa) and a few other teams.
It’s very much a business nowadays for sure. I’m watching MLB Network and there are deals swinging right and left looks like some of these teens are throwing in the towel with some of the players they’re giving up.
Comments here are some of the reasons I gave up MLB years ago.
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Freeman has had a lot happen to him in his personal life! I really like enjoyed watching him play for the Braves.
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I feel for the fans of the Braves. He was a great player and great for the city.
But, if Freddie Freeman wanted to be a Brave, he would be. I believe they offered him $140m for 5 years. I believe he could have lived very comfortably with that amount of money.
This is Albert Pujols all over again. The Cardinals made an offer but he wanted a few million more. I wonder if he thinks it was worth it today. There is a reason Wainwright and Molina are lifetime Cardinals. They chose to stay and accept less money.
Could the Braves have paid more? Sure, but Freddie Freeman is equally responsible for this. Just like Pujols was responsible for leaving St. Louis.
I’m just annoyed that the Dodgers are probably the team that is going to get him.
This one is from what I understand all about years. Freddie wanted 6 years Braves were willing to pay 5. I think that’s really sad because he has been making lunch money compared to the elite players of the game. He most certainly is one of them and he’s the face of the franchise, the stability in the clubhouse when things weren’t going so good. There is no way you should have let a man who has given you so much walk away because you did not want to pay one more year, it’s ridiculous and it’s sad but it is what it is. They can put someone in his space but they will never ever come close to taking his place.
They could have.
But, my point is Freddie didn’t care about the fans either. He wants the extra millions he can get from someone else. It is his choice, he wants the extra money, more power to him.
The Cardinals offered Pujols 250M for 10 years, he wanted $280M. Could the Cardinals paid more? Sure. But I blame Pujols just as much as the Cardinals. I blame Freddie just as much as the Braves for leaving.
Baseball has zero interest in pleasing the fans. It is all about money on both sides.
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Well in my opinion Freddie has given the fans in Atlanta an incredible portion of his life on all them crappy teams he played on for a long time making chump change compared to what other elite players were making. I think he is shown he cares a whole lot because he could have already left.
I don’t blame him for wanting to be treated like royalty for a change .They have been getting one of the best players in the game for literally nothing for the last several years.
The Braves have never spent money and never will. That’s why we’ve won only two World championships in 26 yrs. You better spend money if you want any realistic chance to win the World series unless everything aligns for you like it did for the Braves last year. I like the Olsen kid I think he has an incredible future but we’ve only got him secured for 2 years then what happens?? He’s going to demand a very high salary probably if he puts up a couple of great years. We will probably lose him too and if we do, we will have given up a young catcher who is Major league ready right now defensively and a young pitcher who throwing 102 miles an hour and was the number one draft pick 2 years ago and a center fielder who is the number one prospect in the organization who can play defense with anybody, all in all we gave up 4 of the top 14 prospects in the organization.
I just thought we should have treated him with more loyalty the way he did the city of Atlanta.
I respectfully disagree. They offered him a 5 year contract. It is not like they offered an unfair deal. At the end of the contract he will be 37. The odds of him being as productive from age 35 on is a crap shoot. Do you think the Angels were happy having Pujols on the roster the last 5-6 years? Why offer him 6? All you do is put your organization at more risk of having a very expensive player on the roster that may not be producing.
If Freddie’s only objective was to stay in Atlanta and do what was best for the organization, he could have done exactly what Adam Wainwright and Molina has done. Sign a 5 year contract, then gone year to year if he was still producing. He chose not to do this. Again more power to him, I might do the same thing.
Because he didn’t do this, it shows me that he was more interested in Freddie than the fans or the organization.
We do disagree i think to offer him 28 M(5/140 I heard 135 which would be 27M)) is under paying him! Seager 32.5 M Arenado 35 MI. Machado 30 M Rendon 35M Betts 30M he’s as good as any of these players,do you see my point??He has given his heart and soul for this organization and fans and was making 22M which was 28th in salary!! there aren’t 5 better players in the game,I bet you ask any pitcher who would they hate to face the most in the bottom of the 9th with winning run on 2nd and 95% would say Freddie.
He needs to be paid like one of the top 5 players and sadly the Dodgers(probably) will be glad to pay him like that for 6 yrs I pretty much guarnatee you. He has been underpaid for a long time and he just wanted the team he loved to pay him like he deserved to be paid after 11 yrs of loyalty I more yr would not have hurt them at all,they made a fortune off the WS but The Braves are cheap,always have been and always probably will be…This is a known fact so I am dissapointed in them I am surely not surprised…
Isn’t it fun to be talking baseball again!!! FYI, love hearing your opinions on things, love reading your post.
But, I think it is apples and oranges. He may be one of the top 5 players in the league today. All of those other guys you mentioned are much younger. I think a better example would be Paul Goldschmidt. (Can you tell I’m a Cardinal fan?). He is a similar age and stats. The Braves were offering Freddie more that what Goldschmidt is making. My whole point is the blame for Freddie not being a Brave is both management and Freddie.
I think it will be interesting to see what he ends up signing for. I think it is telling he hasn’t already signed with the Dodgers. If I was a betting man, no way is is paid as a top 5 player for 6 years. The only teams that might do it would be the Dodgers, Yankee’s, or Mets. Teams that don’t give a crap how much they have to pay.
Final point, I think you have to give the GM Alex a little benefit of the doubt when finding players for his roster. They have won the NL East 4 years in a row and a World Series. If he doesn’t make the trades for the outfielders last year, no way do they win. I think it was also a good move he didn’t match Minnesota offer Donalson a couple of years ago. I mean it’s not like they are the Reds or Pirates.
Thank you for the kind words and yes it is very much a good thing that we can talk baseball because I was having my doubts about these two clowns coming to an agreement.
Baseball is a business there isn’t a lot of loyalty in baseball anymore. There are few players that stay with an organization for 11 years like FF did. He went through some brutal years with the organization and said nothing just went out and put up big numbers every single year. FF is the epitome of what a major league baseball player should be, you watch him hit a ground ball to the pitcher and he will run a thousand miles an hour to first base because he knows he has young players on the team that need to understand what a pro looks like. I just think he earned the right to be a tad selfish in these negotiations because he has been well underpaid and I think anyone would agree with that looking at what he was making. I do like AA he can only do what he’s told he can do.He is very good about mixing and matching at the trade deadline if we need to get somebody and he’s doing a great job in the last 2 years of doing that.
But that’s over with now the Braves did sign Olsen today to an 8-year $168 million contract which is 21 million a year which is about the way the Braves do business they’re not going to pay these $30 million contracts. I just hope the kid can perform the way they think he can but I’m not going to be surprised if he doesn’t, it’s very hard to be consistent for 11 years like FF has been.
Go Hogs let’s be Vermont Thurs.
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