Baseball Prospectus – Prospectus Triple Play: Atlanta Braves, Minnesota Twins, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
No, I don’t think the Braves are losing money, except on paper.
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Baseball Prospectus – Prospectus Triple Play: Atlanta Braves, Minnesota Twins, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
No, I don’t think the Braves are losing money, except on paper.
Use code “Journal” for a 5% discount.
I think they’ve botched the payroll figure. Badly. As though they forgot other people are paying Hampton. Or they used the 40-man plus benefits figure that’s used for “luxury tax” purposes for 2003 instead of the opening day payroll.
Opening day roster plus DL:
Maddux     14.75
Smoltz       10.0
Ortiz            4.4
Byrd            3.0
Hampton     2.0
Holmes         .7
Hernandez    .6
King              .6
Marquis        .368
Gryboski       .315
Ramirez        .3
Hodges        .3
Bong            .3
Dawley         .3
Jones        12.0
Jones        11.5
Sheffield    11.0
Lopez          7.0
Castilla        5.0
Furcal          2.2
Blanco         1.3
Fick             1.0
Franco          .8
Franco          .6
Bragg           .45
DeRosa        .34
Giles             .3165
Total      $91,139,500
Chipper, Andruw and Smoltz had signing bonuses that, if paid out over the life of the contract, would add $2.5MM to the total.
I remembered Dawley at the last second and forgot to add him to the total, so it’s actually $91,439,500.
Thinking about the Braves’ situation at third base if they don’t resign Vinny Castilla, why hasn’t anyone talked about the Braves trading for Aubrey Huff. He’ll be a FA after this season or next, so Chuck LaMar would probably be open to trading him if he could bring in something like Betemit and Bong/Hodges for someone he can’t afford to keep. He sucks on defense, but he can third base and first. Just a thought…
Interesting thought on Huff, Rob. I think he’d be a great fit with the Braves, but don’t know if they could get him, or whether JS would even consider pursuing him.
Regarding the payroll figures, seems like I remember seeing (though I’m too lazy to look it up now) that the Braves were budgeting Hampton’s numbers based on his average (the ~$8m/yr) rather than actual cash outlays. It makes sense, but it also makes me wonder if they aren’t doing it for the ‘double dip’ effect–that is, I suspect they are using the higher average now, but then you’ll hear the $14m, $15m and whatever other number, come up all the time over the last years of the contract (even with the additional $ already accounted for).
I don’t really have a better place to post this, so it’s here…Barry Lamar just hit into a 6-5-3 double play. How often do you see that one? The shift cracks me up (if only they could station a guy in the RF stands).
Although, on the replays, he was clearly safe…
is there any way to get braves radio on manhattan?
JH and Rob,
This is Aubrey Huff’s third full year in the majors, which means he isn’t eligible for free agency for three more years. Now, it’s possible the D-Rays will non-tender him when he’s eligible for arbitration after 2004 the way the Tigers did Robert Fick last year, but I doubt it. If I’m the D-Rays, an outfield of Crawford-Baldelli-Huff is one of the few building blocks that franchise has.
The Rays might shop Huff, but I doubt it. I don’t think Hessman would be any worse than Vinny for one or two years.
Bonds hit into a 6-5-3 a couple of years ago against the Braves, or maybe it was a 4-5-3. I’ll try to find it.
The only way I know of to get braves radio in manhatten is to pay MLB for their streaming service. I’ve paid the last two years and have been pretty please. Especially useful for day games at the office.
I think the team might even resign Vinny since he won’t be offered much anywhere else and we’re now waiting on Andy Marte since Betemit doesn’t seem to be panning out. I’m not even sure how much Wilson would garner in a trade anymore. Huff would be great, but I don’t see Lou letting Chuck trade him.