Mets land Glavine with three-year, $30 million deal
Sigh. The Mets? He’s making a mistake. The Phillies I could see, but the Mets simply aren’t going to score enough runs for him to succeed, plus they’re a bad defensive team. Good luck to Tom, but he probably just cost himself a shot at 300 wins. It’s not even all that much more than the Braves offered, though it’s all guaranteed.
I don’t know what the Braves will do next. Nothing much seems to be going on on the Maddux front, but if they don’t go after him I assume they’ll trade for a pitcher. The Expos almost have to trade one, if not Bartolo Colon then Javier Vazquez or Tony Armas Jr.
Well I guess Tommy has something new to look forward to, looking up in the division standings! I hate to see him go and in particular the way it happened with him seeming very bitter towards the Braves organization(I wonder if that means he’ll go into the Hall as a Met? I certainly hope not!).
I guess realistically the best case scenario was to keep just 1 of the two pitchers.
Sigh! On the bright side atleast this gives us more payroll wiggle room to sign/trade for a first baseman or outfielder(if we move Chipper back to third.) Maybe even sign a reliever to take Remmy’s spot.
Go Braves!!
In case there was any doubt that Tom was in this for anything but money, signing with the Mets should settle the matter. As Mac says, this will clearly hurt his numbers and eliminate any chance he has at 300 wins. Plus when the Mets sputter next season, the New York media will probably rake him over the coals.
Just a terrible, terrible decision by Tom. Although it seems that his only goal was to get as much as he could, so I guess this is a success for him.
It’s not even that much more money! From what I can tell, the biggest difference between this and the deal that the Braves offered is that the third year is guaranteed. Now, either Tommy doesn’t think he’s going to be any good in 2004, or he took the Mets’ offer for $1 million more a year. $1 million isn’t chump change, but when you consider the difference in tax rates between Georgia and New York/New Jersey/Connecticut, that basically everything is more expensive there, the cost of moving, and the situation with his family… I’d be surprised if he actually gets anything more out of this.
Given that, I think he’s doing this out of obligation to the MLBPA. It makes the most sense. Tom won’t wind up any better off, but some other players will by him setting the market at the highest he could.
Well, let’s sign Greg and watch him win his 300th game, huh?
Sorry, it’s more like $2 million a season now that the details are out, maybe $2.5M. It’s the money.
It’s the end of an era for Braves fans. Too bad he has to go to a division rival. I remember going to Fulton County Stadium in 1991 and seeing Glavine pitch that year. The stands were crowded (something I had never seen there in all my previous visits) and there was excitement in the air that year. I think Neyer said something during the World Series like “it only takes one great year to make a baseball fan for life”. Well that was my year; I was 11 years old that year and Glavine was my favorite player because he was left-handed like me. Sorry to see him go.
As much as I appreciated what Tom did for our team, there is a chance that he is about done as a top pitcher. I know he started the year well, and some could argue that the blister problem hurt him the second half of the year, but the reality is that he may no longer be a number one Caliber starter. I think JS knew this and wanted to let Tom go without insulting him. He had to make an offer out of respect and i think it was intentionally small with the knowledge that Tom wouldnt except. Tom expected the Braves to come in at the end with a winning offer (a la Smoltz), but that never happened.
Basically, I think Tom would have stayed, but the Braves did not want him anymore. This will probably prove to be the right decision, but the Braves will get some bad PR from it for the next few days. OH WELL!
As a baseball fan it is kind of sad to see an end of an era. The Braves staff of the 90s seemed like it would be around forever. I hated the Braves but really respected them. It will be interesting if losing and Glavine and (probably) Maddux will expose the poor job Schuerholz has done building an offense. I think it might. But still, the Braves did not want him back for the $$$. I don’t blame them because he is due to fall off in 2004 or 2005. The Mets suck and will suck regardless whether Galvine maintains his current level of performance next year.
Bad PR Mathew? It’s already started! That idiot Mike Bell(from SSR on FSN & 790 AM in Atlanta) who said about a month ago that the Braves should let both Maddux and Glavine go, came on tonight saying that “The Braves didn’t make much of an effort to resign Glavine.” In other words criticizing the Braves front office.
Well isn’t that what you wanted Mike (Dumb)Bell? The Braves made an effort, but obviously not as good a one as the Mets made.
Still when your talking that much money, a difference of about $2 million a year(the Braves offer compared to the Mets) isn’t that big a difference.
I guess this means Terence “Hack” Moore will rip JS tomorrow since he wrote an article about a month or so ago saying that the Braves can live without the big two. That would be just like him to contradict himself ala what Mike Bell did!
Go Braves!!
So, looks like Tommy’s positioning himself for the big union job when he’s done pitching. 300 wins is less likely with the Mets, but if he’s willing to pitch until they tear the uniform off his back he’ll probably still get there. I just hope he remembers to wear his Braves cap when he goes into the HOF.
If the Braves use the free $$$ from this signing I think it can work out pretty well. Resign Maddux and plow the rest into a Kent, Fonzie or Olerud. I’ve got a secret wish for Pudge, but doubt he’s even on the radar.
Tim Kurkjian has been insisting that the Braves will offer Maddux arbitration and that he’ll likely accept, meaning he’ll be here at least one more year.
I think it’s premature to say Glav has lost his shot at 300 wins; I just don’t think he has a great shot during his Mets contract. Watch as he comes back to the Braves for a last hurrah drive for 300 during the 2007 season 😉
And check out Mark Bradley’s AJC column today. Just brutal on Schuerholz et al.
I think one AJC article says the Braves offered a 3 year deal at about $9m a year, no fourth year option, and asked him to defer some of the money.
Man, Thursday was a rough day for Braves fans in Tuscaloosa. At least Franchione’s departure makes sense, however poorly he handled it.
Glavine, however, has totally lost his mind.
Fricking Franchione. I don’t mind people who leave for more money, but I hate liars and I really hate hypocrites. Did you catch his TAMU news conference? It was all “loyalty” this and “tradition” that, plus he took the Bear’s name in vain.
I really hope that Kurkjian is right. That would be great for the Braves and maybe they could even get an extension for another year or two.
Mark Bradley’s column is ridiculous, but that’s no big surprise.
This is clearly all about the money with Glavine. There’s no other reason he’d choose NY over ATL and Philly. I’ve got no problem with him going for the cash, can’t blame him. But it bothers me that he’s trying to spin it as anything else.
It’s hard to imagine Glavine elsewhere, but I certainly don’t think this is a huge loss for Atlanta, assuming they use the cash to pick up a bat or two.
As stated on this board, he’s gonna have a hard time winning in NY the next few years, as their offense is abysmal.
Of course, the other thing the Braves get out of this, besides the savings, is 4 more draft picks in the 1st 2 rounds of next year’s draft (2 for Glav & 2 for Rem), which isn’t a bad thing at all.
Given his union position, I don’t think Glavine had any choice but to accept the highest dollar offer. These’s nothing wrong about rooting for 1 Met, is there?
The dynamics of multi-million dollar transactions are amazingly complex. I think it silly to suggest that Glavine signed with the Mets just because (or even primarily because) of his Union position. I suspect that he was more than a little miffed that the Braves offered him less money and fewer years than John Smolz despite having consistently been the better of the two pitchers and despite a much better track record of health.
Has Glavine’s chance of 300 wins really gone down? The Mets last year scored 4.29 runs per game; the Braves 4.40. Both teams were under the league average of 4.45. And is there any way that they could get worse performance from Burnitz or Alomar, among others? And Shea has consistently been a pitchers park, decreasing scoring by about 4-6% per year while the Ted is essentially neutral, increasing scoring by 1% or leaving it flat in each of the last five years except ’99. Take park effects out, and the Mets offense last year was at least equal, if not superior, to the Braves’.
Oh yeah ~ after the game calling versus Auburn and with the expectation that Carl Torbush will be named Head Coach, I wasn’t at all disapointed or surprised that Frenchtoast went back to Texas. Heck, its the home of the big bull, so he should fit right in!
Maybe if any of you airheads knew anything about Tom Glavine and the way the deal went down, you’d stop acting like he was just a big money grubber who chose the Mets for no reason other than cash.
Would YOU want to stay with a team that you had given your all to for 16 years, only to have that same team not show nearly the amount of interest than other teams show in you?
Glavine deserved the respect and contract he got from the Mets. The Braves wouldn’t give him the fourth year option, even to a guy that was the MVP of the city’s only championship has never been on the DL a day in his life. He would have taken a considerably less amount of money to remain a Brave.
Yeah, I’m sure money had something to do with it, but I think Glavine ultimately chose the Mets out of his own best interest and refused to lay down to the Braves, who owed HIM something, not the other way around.
The braves owed Glavine? Owed him more than the $70million they have paid him over his career, with a commitment that would have taken that number over $100million had he accepted it?