I Need Less Of Terence Moore

I have read Peter King's MMQB for the day and I am very excited about tackling it. Unfortunately, today is not that day because it has snowed, so I don't have work (the South is filled with a bunch of people who are VERY scared of snow) and I also am sick. I would not give the column its proper due and so I have decided to wait until tomorrow, when it is a day old and stale, to write about it. I will just pretend I am writing for a paper and describing things that occurred 24 hours ago.

Terence Moore, who I generally respect, doesn't like the way Atlanta Braves do business. Nothing to argue with there, they have embraced mediocrity lately, and while he is not as bad as Furman Bisher who wrote a whole article a couple of months ago saying the Braves had depleted their farm system, though they have 2 of the top 5 prospects according to Baseball America and are consistently in the top 5 in farm system rankings. Moore is not that bad, but this article comes close.

Every city has their own Terence Moore, a well respected columnist who also happens to have a lot of friends in the baseball business so he takes some time to air grievances. Even though this is about the Braves, consider it about every city that has a major league baseball team that dares to not sign its own free agents. If it were up to him the Braves would re-sign every free agent they have and sign more free agents like Ken Griffey Jr.

OK, I’ll give you one. Maybe two or perhaps three. But when the list of those opting not to join your baseball franchise during a given winter flirts with reaching double digits - ranging from the significant likes of A.J. Burnett to Ken Griffey Jr. - it’s not them.

Everyone has probably read my pathetic eulogy for John Smoltz by now so I won't even link it, I have felt this way as well, but I think it has something to do with the Braves not offering enough money for these players, which is not always a bad thing...so I am over it.

A.J. Burnett went to the Yankees after the Braves declined to give him $82.5 million for 5 years. I don't have to tell you about Burnett's injury history or what usually happens when a player has one of his best seasons in a contract year. Let's just say Burnett is injured a lot and it was his contract year, so we could expect his numbers to inflate a little. At the time, it was disappointing because the Braves had 2 spots in their rotation filled, but to say he was a risk for that amount of money was not a stretch. Ken Griffey Jr. is still a decent hitter but him playing LF for the first time AND not ever being able to take a day off to DH, could have and would have been an interesting disaster to watch. There is a reason teams weren't jumping to sign him.

Just ask John Smoltz, among those significant likes who will play somewhere other than Atlanta next season.

John Smoltz, again, has been threatening to leave for a couple of years now. He got more guaranteed money from the Red Sox, so he went there. I love John Smoltz, but to take another chance on him, when he is 41 years old and coming off his 3rd or 4th major arm surgery was not a wise investment. If he wanted a contract that was incentive laden, that is a different story, but he wanted guaranteed money. He also can't pitch again until June. The Red Sox could take a chance on this, the Braves could not. It's pretty simple.

“It’s a philosophy for the Braves that worked for 14 seasons in the middle of a run to division titles. I just think that, now that it isn’t their automatic right to go to the playoffs anymore, it’s not as attractive to people to always take less. Ask yourself: Why is it that (players) always leave for more money?”

Because the Braves don't offer as much money generally. Though they did offer Kawakami and Derek Lowe enough money to play for them. Maybe ask yourself: "Why did the Braves pay other players that were younger more money?" John needs to search his soul to find this answer.

The Braves do act like a small market team when they are not, I am not going to dispute that, but the Red Sox were one of the few teams willing to pay Smoltz that much money guaranteed and Tex was never re-signing with the Braves, he wanted to be a free agent.

Good question. Added Smoltz, “I didn’t leave the Braves, by the way. You leave when you’re given a choice.”

Apparently $5 million dollars in guaranteed money is not a choice. Smoltz is being a drama queen here. The Braves did not feel comfortable giving him that much guaranteed money, so Smoltz signed with a different team. It's pretty much that simple. Choosing to not resign with a team is a choice.

Whatever the case, Smoltz isn’t here anymore. Neither is Mike Hampton, who bolted for the Houston Astros once he got healthier.

Hampton was one of the biggest wastes of Atlanta Braves money ever. Considering this was a team that signed Raul Mondesi and Brian Jordan when they were over 35, that is saying something.

To even put the fault on the Braves for not keeping Mike Hampton around is just wrong. There was no need to re-sign him. Zero. None.

He can't stay healthy for a period long enough to get 20 starts.

You also had that endless Jake Peavy tease.

Again, not the fault of the Braves. The Padres had an absurd asking price and that is the reason Peavy has not been traded yet. I like how Terence acts as if the Braves are the only team that would not meet the asking price of the Padres. The Padres wanted too much in return for Peavy and it really makes no sense to overpay for Jake Peavy when he is coming off shoulder surgery. I am really glad Terence Moore is not the General Manager for the Braves.

Also, none of these moves would have meant that John Smoltz would have resigned with the Braves, which is really what this article is supposed to be about.

Then Burnett jumped to the New York Yankees at the last minute for their free-agent offer. And what was that Furcal thing about? He was returning to the Braves, and then he wasn’t.

Hey, what do both of these players have in common? They are great players at their position when they are healthy, with the key phrase being, "when they are healthy."

Burnett left for $2.5 more million dollars and Furcal completely screwed over the Braves. Neither of those were the fault of the team completely.

The same goes for Andruw Jones.

Really? You are going to fault the Braves for not giving a guy who hit .158/.256/.249. Yeah, his slugging percentage was lower than his OBP. Terence Moore is friends with these players, that is the real problem, so he has the platform to air their grievances in his columns. It is very Mariotti-esque.

That was before the Griffey soap opera this week.

The soap opera reportedly caused by Terence Moore himself. His source was the one that said Griffey was coming to Atlanta, so it got reported. He wants you to ignore this though.

So we’re back to Smoltz, a master at putting things into perspective.

Yes, he has already said another team offered him more money. That was enough perspective for everyone to understand why he left.

“All I can say is that I made a conscious decision to stay with the Braves through the years, despite becoming a free agent four times, and that’s when nobody else who had become a free agent (with the Braves) had gotten re-signed,” said Smoltz, referring to Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Javy Lopez, Gary Sheffield, J.D. Drew, Jones and Furcal, among others.

Maybe a master of deception, as well as putting things in perspective.

What did Javy Lopez and Jones do after leaving Atlanta? Nothing. They got big contracts for little performance. To act if the Braves let all these players go in their prime is wrong. Most of these decisions to let these players go were good decisions. Also, Glavine and Lopez came back to the team once their price became more reasonable...and both failed last year to do anything positive for the team.

A team can't resign every single player that becomes a free agent. Some of these guys they should have resigned but did not. That happens to every team.

That leaves Braves ownership and management. “If I was a different person, and we had a different manager, I would have left the first time I became a free agent,” said Smoltz, referring to the winter of 1996, when the Yankees offered Smoltz “23 million” more than the Braves. “I’ve had so little communication with [Braves officials] over the years, I have no idea what it is [they’re doing].”

The Yankees would also have not resigned him in 2001 after he had to become a closer and then allowed him to spend four years in the bullpen to strengthen his arm back up so he could start. They have Rivera already and Smoltz would have ended up unsigned somewhere else, but the Braves took a chance on him. Like they did again in 2005 when they made him a starter again. He needs to realize he got the chances he received because he had built up goodwill in the organization.

If he required daily phone calls on the status of the team then he is going to find a rude awakening because not a lot of teams do that. I don't think the Red Sox are going to run all personnel moves by him first.

Also, why is it that Chipper Jones always seems to know what is going on but Smoltz doesn't? Maybe it is because Smoltz became very whiny as he got older.

Here’s what they’re doing: Little, when it comes to closing a deal. They’re anti-Smoltzes out of the bullpen.

They have signed several free agents this winter and are one of the most improved teams in the National League, where granted not a lot of teams improved, but they have gotten together a deeper pitching staff.

Terence Moore can't let this affect his thinking though, he is too busy calling his old friends from the team and allowing them space to air their grievances. I like Smoltz, but he needs to shut up and realize he is 41 years old so he is not a wise investment. Last year the Braves signed and resigned all those players Smoltz wanted resigned and it was a complete disaster. At the end of the year long relievers were starting games while Smoltz watched from the DL again. Maybe the Braves are smart for not making the same mistake twice.