What Is This, a Braves Blog?

Man, for a bunch of guys (mostly) from the Bay Area we sure do write a lot about that little team from Hot-lanta. We should probably put our focus a little more on the rest of the league, right? Right.

So, now that I've got that out of the way, let's talk about the Braves a little more. But first, let's back up a minute.

Anyone who knows anything about baseball knows about the July 31st trade deadline. The hot stove rumors swirl as the date approaches, and inevitably desperate GM's swing blockbuster deals, mortgaging the farm for an over-rated veteran in an attempt to win a championship. It is an exciting time, and will no doubt bring about a few head-turning deals this season (Matt Holiday, Erik Bedard... etc).

However, there is a new deadline that has arrived. It has quietly snuck up on the sport, but is making as big of an impact as it ever has over the last couple of seasons. It is that sneaky June 1st deadline, the giant elephant in the front office of any team with less than a $100 million payroll.

Why is this date significant, and how has it risen to prominence in the last couple of seasons? Well, it works like this: If a team leaves a top prospect in the minors past the June 1st date, the season doesn't count as a year of service time for arbitration and free agency. So, if a team waits to bring said prospect up until after June 1st, they earn an extra year before they have to go to the arbitration table to pay medium bucks, and another year before the star hits free agency and prices himself out of the market.

Now, this rule has been part of the baseball CBA for while, but only recently has it come to prominence. If Curt Flood is the one we can credit/blame for baseball's free agency salaries, we can assign the same responsibility to Ryan Howard for our current situation.

It used to be that players who entered their arbitration years would sit at the bargaining table, counter-offer something slightly higher against their club's offer, and usually come to an agreement at far less than the free-agent market value would be. It was understood that this was how the game was played- that in a few years, the money would be more than made up for on the open market. Then, in the off-season leading up to 2008, Howard decided he wanted to get paid immediately. It was certainly understandable- the man had just gone .268/.392/.584 with 47 HR and 136 RBI while making $900,000 after going .313/.425/.659 with 58 HR and 149 RBI the year before. He was entitled to more. That just wasn't the way things worked.

The Phils offered him $2 million in arbitration, a significant raise. Howard countered with $10 million. Philly scoffed at the move. Howard won. And so we enter our brave new baseball world.

When the Rays left Evan Longoria in the minors last year, the fans jeered until management was forced to make a gutsy call. They avoided the whole arbitration and free agency process, offering a guy with just a handful of at-bats an eight-year deal. The Brewers did the same with Ryan Braun. It is a reaction to the new landscape of money in baseball. Which finally brings us back to the Braves.

The Braves unceremoniously cut their former ace yesterday. Of course, Atlanta never had any intention of bringing back Tom Glavine this year. Did they need another arm to bolster their rotation so they could make a run at the playoffs? Probably. But they already had one sitting in Triple-A with Tommy Hanson. They just needed to make sure they waited until June with him, to save a year on his contract. Frank Wren came out and declared "This was not a business decision, this was a performance decision," about his choice of young Tommy over old Tommy. While that is not an untrue statement, it was also a business decision, and a wise one at that.

Hanson has done, well, this so far this season (12.2 K/9, 0.86 WHIP). Glavine made a nice rehab start in Single-A and proclaimed himself ready to go again. Thanks, but I'll take the 6'6", 22 year-old with the absurd ratios.

The Braves patience has allowed them to bring in Nate McClouth, an exciting, toolsy player who might just be able to spark Atlanta's offense back to respectability (as of today, the 26-26 Braves have scored 4.4 runs/game, worst in the division- even lower than the cellar-dwelling Nationals). They save roughly $5.1 million on the Glavine/Hanson swap ($1 million owed to Glavine if activated, $4.5 in contract money minus roughly $400,000 league minimum salary for Hanson). Plus, McClouth is locked up at a reasonable price through 2011, having just signed a modest three-year deal in the off-season.

So, what does it all mean? It means that Frank Wren appears to be at least up to speed on, if not ahead of the curve when it comes to the new money rules in baseball. It also means young superstars are either going to be given huge contracts depsite being almost completely untested at the big-league level, or left to toil in the minors for the first few months of their potential breakout seasons. I'm sure it will all be addressed in the next edition of the baseball CBA, but until then be on the lookout for more of the same.

My bold prediction from all of this fallout: Glavine, spited by Atlanta, unites with Howard, the man whose actions (indirectly) created this predicament in the first place, providing a veteran, stabilizing force for the Phils who beat the Braves to the playoffs. Everyone claims retribution for Glavine.

In 2010, Hanson wins 16 and fans 200, McClouth is an All-Star and everyone realizes that hey, it's just business, and the Braves are back in it.