Please read the site note at the bottom of the post.
Everyone has at least one friend like this: the guy that lets himself get walked all over by that one girl. It’s usually his first “love”, and he’s usually WAY more in love with her than she is with him. While he’s convinced she’s “the one” she eventually gets bored and lets him down, brutally. He mopes around for a while, but eventually settles back into a groove with someone new. The problem is, though, that he never really figures out how to let go of her.
Then, after a few years, she calls him up and cries that she wants him back. He, of course, is ready to dive back in head first, right back to being the sucker. He promises to do whatever it takes to make her happy. She likes the attention, and she knows that he will do ANYTHING she wants, so she slips right back into taking advantage of him. You try to warn him OVER AND OVER, but he doesn’t listen. THIS TIME, it will work, he says! Well, despite all of your warnings, and despite all of his blind ignorance, it happens for good this time. She found someone else, and now she’s getting married. It’s the worst way to be let down. She used him when it was convenient for her, and she threw him away when she didn’t like the idea of a long-term commitment with him.
Welcome to that club, Tom Glavine!
And to the Atlanta Braves I say, “SHAME ON YOU!”
It’s one thing to be up front with a guy and tell him that it’s just not going to work out. It’s another to string him along for many months, making him believe that he had a chance, and then pulling the rug out from under him with some bogus excuse about performance not being up to par. Just admit it! It was about the money!
Frank Wren, the Braves General Manager, called on Tommy Hanson instead of Glavine, with claims that Glavine couldn’t show he had “the stuff” any more. He also says that “the pitching line is irrelevant when you’re pitching in low A-ball.” So what, pray tell, DO you use to monitor a pitcher, either up-and-coming, or on rehab assignment, Wren? Is it his haircut? The way he chews his food? What’s the indicator of big-league success?
In his three minor-league starts this year, Glavine has thrown 16 innings with a 2.25 ERA, 5 strike-outs, and only 3 walks, giving up a total of only 4 runs on 17 hits. That sounds like successful pitching to me.
Well, if the pitching line doesn’t count in low-A ball, then maybe it’s his fastball that was a problem. He must have lost some pop on his heater over the years, right? Wrong again. In his last start in Rome (Atlanta’s Class-A affiliate), he was clocked at above 80mph on his fastball. Wren, however, claims that the scoreboard was incorrect… convenient!
Could it have been attitude and confidence? I’m sure the Braves were very concerned that the winningest active pitcher in baseball, who has also won a World Series for the Braves, looked a little “shaky” on the mound. Nope, not that either!
So if it wasn’t the heater, and it wasn’t his pitching line, and it wasn’t confidence that raised the warning flags for Wren, what was it, then?! My answer is the money!
If Glavine made his start with the Braves, he would have been owed $1 million, and would have earned another $1.25 million each after hitting the 30 and 60-day marks on the active roster.
The Braves organization was scared that Glavine actually might get healthy enough to make the active roster, but wouldn’t STAY healthy enough to produce long-term for them. So, rather than have to pay $1 million to a guy they were afraid couldn’t stay healthy, they cut him with a BS story about performance problems that they can’t seem to ever actually label.
What the Braves did to Glavine was wrong. But don’t worry, buddy, there’s other fish in the sea!
Read the intro and Sport Geek’s opinion.
Tommy was the reason the Braves did as well as they did while he was in Atlanta. I must admit I stayed mad at him for awhile after he led the players union to strike, but I got over it. Tommy did deserve the truth from Frank Wren and/or John S. but I think there may still be some bad blood between them. Out with the old, in with the new!
I agree that everyone deserves the truth, but the Braves did not owe Glavine a chance.
I agree, out with the old, in with the upside!
Perhaps it could have been handled better! I certainly respect Glavine as a pitcher. But the Braves are in the business of trying to win games, not taking trips down memory lane.