Braves.Today.Com

UPDATED 12:27 P.M.

By Bud L. Ellis
braves.today.com

ATLANTA — By its nature, baseball is an emotional game, one where allegiances and loyalties are built through the years and passed from generation to generation.

The players who fill out the uniform take on larger-than-life status. Even in this day and age of players changing teams almost as often as they change their underwear, it doesn’t take a fan base long to latch onto a guy who dons the uni of their favorite team.

So when a player who has spent the past 20 years wearing one team’s colors reportedly is poised to sign with another, it’s natural the reaction is going to be fueled by emotion. In situations like these, rational reasoning takes a distant back seat to words and thoughts driven straight from the heart, and not the head.

Nobody will ever dispute what John Smoltz has meant to the Atlanta Braves, the team’s fan base, and the city of Atlanta. In a town where Hank Aaron and Dominique Wilkins did their thing for most of their pro sports careers, the argument can be made Smoltz surpasses even those two iconic figures on the mountain of Atlanta sports greats.

The reports breaking early this morning suggesting Smoltz is set to take a one-year, incentive-laden offer from the Boston Red Sox doesn’t change at all what the 41-year-old, surgically scarred right-hander accomplished in two decades of wearing a tomahawk across his chest. Just think what Smoltz has done for the Braves since he made his debut during the 106-loss season of 1988.

We can reminisce all day long about Smoltz’s meteoric rise from struggling youngster to icy-cool standout during the second half of 1991, the 24-win Cy Young season of 1996, the dominance he showed in moving to the bullpen in 2001, his amazing resurgence as a dominant starter in 2005-07, his 200th career victory, his 3,000th career strikeout, all the great moments in the postseason …

But at this moment, let’s shove the love and the emotion aside.

If you are the Atlanta Braves, you have endured perhaps the worst 10-month stretch any professional sports team has suffered through in recent memory. You watched your starting rotation of veteran 20-game winners march one-by-one to the disabled list. You watched your young cornerstone struggle so poorly, you banished him to Class AA, and then rushed him back to the bigs after just three days. You lost one-run games by the bucketload. You watched the bullpen get overworked and overused. You lost the two voices of this generation, one who died suddenly, one who retired. You were stifled at every turn this offseason, embarrassed and jilted by one player after another.

Now apparently, comes this: your franchise icon, gone in the night for three million more bucks.

So, how to process losing John Smoltz, if indeed the reports are true and the future Hall of Famer is heading to Boston?

First and foremost, you have to remove the emotion.

The Braves have yet to speak about Smoltz’s imminent departure. But when they do, it’s my best guess they will tell their enraged, frothing fan base the organization was unwilling to offer a large guaranteed salary to a pitcher coming off a fifth major surgical procedure, one in which the doctors were surprised at the amount of damage found in Smoltz’s shoulder, a pitcher who – despite impressing in the throwing he’s done so far – is not guaranteed to be physically able to help this team on a consistent basis in 2009.

With time running down before pitchers and catchers report for spring training at Lake Buena Vista on Feb. 14, and with only Derek Lowe left on the open market as a bona-fide ace the Braves so desperately need, it’s likely Atlanta gave Smoltz a one-year offer (reportedly valued at $2 million guaranteed – with incentives that would’ve pushed that total a little higher), hoping he would accept it. But whether they admit it or not in front of the free world, the Braves brass also had to realize there at least existed the chance Smoltz would get more guaranteed money from somebody (the Boston offer reportedly is $5 million guaranteed, with incentives pushing the total closer to $10 million).

The shock value to me is that Smoltz actually would leave, that he would take more guaranteed cash from another team to leave an organization he joined way back in 1987, when the playoff-pushing Detroit Tigers shipped the Michigan native to woeful Atlanta for Doyle Alexander. Time and time again, Smoltz has publicly stated how much he loves playing in Atlanta, his respect for Bobby Cox, the thrill of being reunited with Tom Glavine. While most of the reaction today has been negative toward the Braves for not doing whatever needed to keep Smoltz with the Braves, some folks are upset that Smoltz would bolt, especially given the fact he pitched in a career-low six games last season and still had a chance to – if healthy – to have a spot either in the rotation or in the bullpen.

But maybe above all else is this: Smoltz realizes he’s got one shot left. Given the gaping holes the Braves possess at the top of the rotation and in the power department, the bearded one knows his odds of returning to the one place he longs to be – the postseason – are better in another locale other than Atlanta.

Fair enough. Until the Braves come out with their side of the story, I won’t cast judgment either way. Perhaps the Braves decided they need every free dollar to chase Lowe, and/or to sign Adam Dunn and his 40-homers-a-year for left field and the cleanup spot. Perhaps Smoltz never gave the Braves a chance to make a counter offer.

Or perhaps the Braves made the very difficult decision – a decision they knew would not be understood by the fan base and would create a PR firestorm – that bringing back John Smoltz was not in the best interest of the team going forward. The questions surrounding how effective he could be in 2009 outweighed the benefit of having him occupying space on the payroll and a spot on the roster.

It’s a shocking move, indeed. I never thought I’d see Smoltz pitch for somebody else. I wrote out of sheer emotion earlier this morning (see below), after first seeing the news shortly after 3 a.m. I honestly woke up at 5:45 a.m. wondering if I’d dreamed about Smoltz leaving.

But after giving it some thought, and removing emotion from my thinking, I’ve decided as hard as it is to see Smoltz go, it’s probably the best move for the Braves to make.

—30—

UPDATED 6:49 A.M.

By Bud L. Ellis
braves.today.com

ATLANTA — According to published reports this morning, the legendary run of John Smoltz in an Atlanta Braves’ uniform appears finished.

The bearded icon of the franchise for 20 years is set to sign a one-year, $5.5-million deal with the Boston Red Sox, according to reports from MLB.com and ESPN.com.

The news, which broke overnight, comes as a shock to the Braves and their beaten down fan base, which has seen bad news overrun this team since spring training last season.

Still, the news that Smoltz may be leaving is a jarring blow, much more so than the Jake Peavy deal falling through or A.J. Burnett picking the Yankees or Rafael Furcal and his agents playing dirty pool, or any of the injuries or one-run losses that derailed the 2008 season.

This one shakes you to the core. This one hurts like no other. Hell, we’re talking about John Smoltz, the iconic figure of this franchise, the only player who’s been with the Braves for their entire run of postseason appearances. He made his Atlanta debut in 1988, a season in which the Braves lost 106 games. Three years later, he won the game that clinched the NL West title, won Game 7 of the NLCS in Pittsburgh, and started Game 7 of the World Series in Minnesota, all of this after being nine games under .500 at the All-Star break and on the verge of being demoted to the minors.

Smoltz has become the symbol of the Braves. We’ve marveled at the way he’s bounced back from four major arm surgeries, and many fans held out hope his recovery from June’s surgery would fill the void at the top of the Braves’ rotation.

Doesn’t appear that will happen now. And I’m stunned. Shocked. I keep saying with every calamity that happens to this franchise that we’ve reached rock bottom. But Smoltz in another uniform — any uniform — is simply unthinkable.

But it appears the unthinkable is about to happen.

To a certain extent, I can’t blame Frank Wren. Hard to invest guaranteed money on a pitcher who may not be able to pitch. To a certain extent, I can’t blame Smoltz. He, and apparently the Red Sox, believe he can pitch, and he’s got the right to pursue what he thinks is the best situation for him.

I guess I’ll dive more into my feelings on who is to blame for letting the future Hall of Famer finish his career in a uniform that does not feature a tomahawk across its chest.

For now, I’m just stunned. The man who personified this franchise since my sophomore year in high school reportedly is leaving. And that’s just too much to process at the moment.

—30—

Trackback URI | Comments RSS