December 17, 2008
Bad Winter for the Braves
The trade for Jake Peavy fell through. A.J. Burnett signed with the Yankees. Now, Rafael Furcal decided to stay with the Dodgers:
The Braves' winter of discontent continued Wednesday, when shortstop Rafael Furcal reached a contract agreement with the Los Angeles Dodgers -- two days after the Braves said they had an agreement with Furcal.
One week before Christmas, the Braves have coal in their stockings and something other than holiday cheer for Furcal's agent, Paul Kinzer.
"I think you have to be upset with the turn of events," Braves general manager Frank Wren said. "We usually don't do business this way. You don't expect people you have to deal with to do business that way."
Wren said he and Kinzer negotiated all contract details Monday night and the Braves sent a term sheet to the agent's office for Furcal to sign Tuesday morning. Term sheets are the final step, after an agreement is reached.
Wren said the term sheet was never returned.
"We were very surprised," he said. "After reaching an agreement on Monday night, and being asked to produce a term sheet for signature on Tuesday morning, which we did, we were surprised that they didn't return the term sheet. ... All of a sudden, they said they needed to go back to the Dodgers."
I'm guessing Kinzer won't be well trusted in the future.
As a Mets fan I'm not shedding any tears. I wonder if the Braves will try to sign Lowe now.
The Braves had better sign Lowe, who I think would be better than Burnett. But it does seem like free agents don't want to come to Atlanta anymore. Maybe due to the impending retirement of Cox?
This is one frustrating offseason to say the least.
The Braves are 0 for 3 in signing free agents. They whiffed on Jake Peavy and A.J. Burnett and then whiffed again on Rafael Furcal after thinking they had a done deal earlier this week. The Dodgers really needed Furcal at the top of the lineup. If they don't sign Manny Ramirez they will be back where they were at the halfway mark last season.
Lets be real here, the Braves have been in a steady decline for the past 4 or 5 years with basicly the same line up they have now. There seems to be alot of problem there and I believe we should start with the coaching staff.Futhermore, if I was a free agent and the Braves made me an offer I probably would settle for another offer from another team if the terms were close because the Braves only borrow players for a quick fix (Mark Texiera) instead of signing a player with any significants long term.
Andrew Godfrey -- You should really pay more attention to basic facts if you are going to offer your opinion in a public forum.
JAKE PEAVY IS NOT A FREE AGENT. Moron.
Good name calling - it really is a great reflection on your character.
If I ever state that a player under contract (and the subject of constant *trade* rumors) is a free agent, then feel free to call me a moron too.
The day internet commenting becomes about worrying about the feelings of people who say stupid things is the day I pack up my electrons and go home. Politeness is for my grandma.
I am sorry Matt, but you are wrong. When you're using the internet to communicate you should follow the same guidelines you would in real life. IE, you wouldn't call someone you never met that you were having a casual conversation with a moron for being factually inaccurate.
We don't know whether or not buddy actually thought Peavy was a FA or not. Yes, he said so, however, .... try to follow me here, but this IS the internet and sometimes people are hasty when posting on it. It would not be unreasonable at all to say the Braves have gone 0 - 3 in all attempts to make a substantial move this off season. That would be accurate. I think we all understood the jist of what the poster was saying, even if he stated 0 - 3 on FA's.
Politeness is not for your grandma. It is for everyday communications and the vast majority of civilized people. That you choose to ignore it when communicating online is your own perogative, but it is a poor choice and it is a direct look into your character and personality.
It's not about worrying about the feelings of people who make a mistake (which apparently, you have NEVER done seeing as how aggressively you jumped on buddy's back for doing so), but it's about treating each other fairly. And more importantly, DECENTLY.