As my sobriety has been restored, my sadness with the John Smoltz situation has turned into downright anger. This is a situation that could have been completely, 100% avoided. The fact that Smoltzie is member of the Red Sox is completely the fault of the man pictured above, GM Frank Wren.
I had my doubts about Wren's ability to do the job when he was hired, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt because I figured, good enough for homeboy upstairs, good enough for me. I had read the stories about his downright arrogance when he was fired the last time a team was dumb enough to hand him the keys to the franchise.
I normally don't call for the firing of anybody from their job. I have decided to make a special exception because the incompetence that Frank Wren has showed in his relatively short time on the job, giving a once proud franchise black eye after black eye.
Let's just talk about the Smoltz mess for a moment. The Braves offered Smoltz the same amount of guaranteed money that they were willing to offer Mike Hampton. Think for a moment how absurd that is. Today's quote from the front office perfectly illustrates how this situation was handled: "We’ve offered him a package that would get him in the $10 million range, if he were to pitch a full season and pitch well. For him to walk away from that and to go to another place, I’m just shocked and surprised." Nobody in their right mind thought Smoltz was going to be able to pitch the whole year. Every single report has targeted him to return in June, and that's if things keep progressing well. The Red Sox seem to know he won't pitch until June. The Braves watched him pitch on their mound on December 5. This wasn't a guy with his arm in a sling, they were impressed with his bullpen session. They knew he was going to come back to pitch, but to give him incentives based upon him pitching the whole year is ludicrous and illustrates how the front office does business.
The issue at hand, is this is a person who publicly stated the Braves have $40 million to spend this offseason, who has spent $11.5 million on the greatness that is Javier Vasquez and $1.5 million on David Ross. Math not being my strong suit, I'm pretty sure that still leaves plenty of money left over to resign a living legend. $3 million was the difference in guaranteed money between the Braves 'offer' and the Red Sox offer in addition to the major difference in incentives. Smoltz was lowballed, plain and simple. That's what doesn't sit well with me. This isn't a case of the Braves being strapped for money, and not wanting to give it to a 42 year old coming off of shoulder surgery. I would have at least somewhat understood that. It wouldn't have been right, but I would have understood. It happens all the time. It happened to another future Hall of Famer not so long ago, Greg Maddux. Smoltz has taken less money to stay with the Braves multiple times before, but this latest 'offer' was a downright slap in the face, and in Smoltz's only comments thusfar, he basically said as much.
This is just the icing on the cake of incompetence. Just in this off season, there has been the botched Jake Peavy trade talks, and then the finger pointing afterwards. There has been the failure to seal a free agent deal with AJ Burnett. The major debacle of the off season prior to Smoltz leaving was the mess that was the negotiations with Rafael Furcal, which heaped in with everything else, just adds to the ineptitude. Then came the finger pointing the blame elsewhere afterwards. Sensing a pattern ?
The aftermath of failing to sign Smoltz will surely be felt for years. Chipper is pissed, because he sees the writing on the wall. I have never, ever read a quote like this from Chipper " I don’t know how it’s going to end with me. This is my last year under contract with Atlanta. And this last 24 hours certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed by me. I haven’t been offered an extension. If we’re 15 games out in July or August, I doubt they’re just going to let me become a free agent and get nothing in return.” That's always what you like to hear your best player saying before the season even starts. Glavine is now saying that he is no longer interested in just pitching for the Braves, and will explore other options.
All this crap for pocket change, relatively speaking of course. I'm hardly the only one who feels this way. Other thoughts from around the blogosphere:
Braves Journal: 'This is just wrong'
Rowland's Office: 'Frank Wren, arrogant prick'
Atlanta Journal Constitution: 'Smoltz deserved better'
When Sid Slid: 'A Sad Day in Braves history'
Talking Chop: 'Offseason black eye gets blacker'
Petition Online: 'Fire Frank Wren'
Braves Nu World : 'Are the Atlanta Braves crumbling?'
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