Freddie's Gone

I know there's a war in the Ukraine. I know gas prices are so high you have to take out a home equity line of credit. Or, if you're my age, a reverse mortgage. That's not to mention all of the other ills that plague our society.  I wish to address the most important news story in Atlanta this week.

Freddie Freeman has left The Atlanta Braves.

Not only has he left The Braves, but he also signed with The Los Angeles Dodgers, who need Freddie Freeman like Tom Brady needs another Super Bowl ring.

The saga of "Will Freddie Be Back" started after he caught the last out in the World Series when the Lord, in his great wisdom, blessed Atlanta with a championship because, let's face it, we were owed a couple.

All of his teammates said, "Pay The Man", meaning Freeman because Freeman was such a good player and such a positive example in the clubhouse. Of course, a good clubhouse is essential in baseball, but I remember the Oakland A's winning three straight World Series, and they spent all their time in the clubhouse shooting birds at each other. 

Frankly, the Braves lolly-gaged in their contract negotiations with Freeman through last season. The owners decided to lockout the players in December, which meant the Braves and Freeman could not negotiate a new contract in the off-season.

When the lockout ended, everybody (and by everybody, I mean people in the Atlanta area on Twitter) thought the first thing that would happen would be Atlanta signing Freeman.  

Wrong.  As we say down South, you see, what had happened was, was this:  the Braves signed free agent Matt Olson to an eight-year year contract for 168 million dollars, signaling the end of Freddie Freeman's time in Atlanta.

Matt Olson is a local boy from Gwinnett County and played first base for the Oakland A's.  If you can't have Freeman, Olson is as close to Freddie as you are going to get, plus he's younger.

Freeman was a little shocked, to be sure. Then, however, he turned around and signed a six-year 162 million dollar contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Adding Freeman to the Dodgers batting lineup is like adding Paul McCartney to Crosby, Stills, Nash, And Young.  The Dodgers are definitely the team to beat.

Braves fans were a little shocked, too. We thought Freddie would be like Chipper and stay a Brave forever, which is a little unrealistic.  Aaron didn't stay a Brave forever. Neither did Niekro. Neither did Murphy.  Neither did Warren Spahn. 

The Braves offered Freeman 135 million for five years.  That's not chopped liver.  Freeman wanted six years.  The Braves said bye.

It is rich that people are lamenting the loss of Freeman like they are sitting by the rivers of Babylon. The Braves will be OK. Last year, they won the World Series without a starting pitching staff and their best player.

Freeman will be fine too. After all, the Dodgers are going to win a lot, and Freeman lives in Southern California. 

It is a win-win for both sides.

It is interesting how people bring their politics into a story like this.  Liberty Media owns the Braves, and they make gobs of money (I don't know what standard of measurement a gob is, I know it is a lot).  Some people, like Jeff Schultz, think all a player needs to do is state a dollar amount, and Liberty Media will just come up with it like a magical corporate genie.

Even nameless, faceless corporations with gobs of money have budgets and hold their executives accountable to bring in a balanced budget.  That's where Alex Anthopoulos comes in at. 

On the other side, the baseball player has an opportunity to make as much money as he can while he can.  There's a small supply of people that can play major league baseball and a high demand for them.  Freeman was trying to get as much as he could from the Braves.  That didn't work out, so he went to the Dodgers.  Don't cry from him, Argentina. 

I'm with Jerry Seinfeld on this. 

"Loyalty to any one sports team is pretty hard to justify, because the players are always changing, the team can move to another city. You're actually rooting for the clothes, when you get right down to it. You know what I mean? You are standing and cheering and yelling for your clothes to beat the clothes from another city. Fans will be so in love with a player, but if he goes to another team, they boo him. This is the same human being in a different shirt; they hate him now. Boo! Different shirt! Boo!"

 

Freddie's wearing a different shirt, so Boo Freddie!  Look, I don't make up the rules.