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Reports have Alex as the leading candidate to take over the Braves.

Good talent base for him to work with. If their ownership has the patience to endure another couple down years, they could be quite competitive down the road.

We'll see if Alex has the patience to endure a bunch of down years.

happy for AA

I am curious to see if Alex is the type who wants to build a young team from the ground up or whether he is the same guy who would trade any prospect with a pulse if it meant a better chance at short term success. I really don't know what to make of him as a GM. His first three years in Toronto and his last three might as well have been two different GM's given how different they were.

Tanner wrote:I am curious to see if Alex is the type who wants to build a young team from the ground up or whether he is the same guy who would trade any prospect with a pulse if it meant a better chance at short term success. I really don't know what to make of him as a GM. His first three years in Toronto and his last three might as well have been two different GM's given how different they were.

Well, he starts with a lot of young talent. In the farm, he has MLB's #5, #21, #30, #33, #38, #50, #82, and #94 rate prospects. So that's eight of the top 100, enough to go in almost any direction. He has a new stadium, so getting fans out to watch a building team is not the urgency. Of the five teams in the division, only the Nationals look both better and set for 2018. The Marlins seem intent on rebuilding. They have some nice young talent already on the major league roster. Johan Camargo. Prime Freddie Freeman, Ender Inciarte. Dansby Swanson was expected to be the starting SS by now, but has struggled at the plate. Still, it's hard to give up yet on a 23 year old first overall pick.

He also doesn't have to deal with a Roy Halliday or Vernon Wells contract situation.

So AA could do a faster rebuild, because the team seems well positioned for it. But if he stood pat, he has an exceptional prospect pipeline to work with. With eight of the top 100 rated prospects, at least a couple of them ought to be solid adds in the next year or two.

AA dealt his prospects because he had prime Bautista/Encarnacion on dirty value contracts, not because he was impatient. Ownership was never going to let him deal them so he picked a direction and went hard towards it.

It's amusing how he's reveled for his work at the 2015 trade deadline when really that was some of his worst stuff because it seems he pretty much knew he was finished here and decided to just go for it. His work prior to that was mostly excellent, although the Dickey trade really hurt and was bad from the get go. Marlins trade ended up bad but wasn't so absurd generally. Just didn't work out well.

He's an excellent GM and probably my favourite Toronto GM ever. Masai's a close 2nd.

Good for him. Wish him success.

dagger wrote:
Well, he starts with a lot of young talent. In the farm, he has MLB's #5, #21, #30, #33, #38, #50, #82, and #94 rate prospects. So that's eight of the top 100, enough to go in almost any direction. He has a new stadium, so getting fans out to watch a building team is not the urgency. Of the five teams in the division, only the Nationals look both better and set for 2018. The Marlins seem intent on rebuilding. They have some nice young talent already on the major league roster. Johan Camargo. Prime Freddie Freeman, Ender Inciarte. Dansby Swanson was expected to be the starting SS by now, but has struggled at the plate. Still, it's hard to give up yet on a 23 year five overall pick.

He also doesn't have to deal with a Roy Halliday or Vernon Wells contract situation.

So AA could do a faster rebuild, because the team seems well positioned for it. But if he stood pat, he has an exceptional prospect pipeline to work with. With eight of the top 100 rated prospects, at least a couple of them ought to be solid adds in the next year or two.

Atlanta's ownership might not prove to be any more patient than ours was, but hopefully they give him the latitude to build as he sees fit. The Kemp contract is enough of a millstone at their payroll level -- and enough of their best talent is still a couple years away -- that it's probably not worth trying to force anything. Tyler Flowers is a FA after 2018, and he'd fetch a decent bit of value for a team that weighs catcher framing stats (where he graded out as the best catcher in baseball last year). Julio Teheran is inconsistent enough that I wouldn't hesitate to move him, but would probably be desirable on the market as a young innings-eater with three reasonable years left on his deal.

But with their fancy (and largely empty) new stadium they might want more immediate results.

Alex' overall record in Toronto was slightly above average (not outstanding), even though his 2015 playoff run re-energized the fan base. I expect Alex to be very active on the trade front with the Braves in the middle of lot of deals, both big and small. He's going to want to put his stamp on the Braves sooner than later.

I hope he takes Donaldson from us for a boatload of prospects.

Centre Court wrote:We'll see if Alex has the patience to endure a bunch of down years.

He initially had tons of patience with the Jays. I’m not sure if his direction changed because of pressures from ownership, he felt it was the right time to try and field a contender or he thought his job was in jeopardy but I don’t see him as a cookie cutter GM who only has one direction in mind at all times.

Some times new GMs like to poach their former players. He might have a huge wish list from Toronto. I wouldn’t be surprised if he made at least a run at a few Jays youngsters.

Jays should take advantage. The Braves are loaded with youth of their own too. We just gotta control the negotiations.


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Well, AA just lost a bit of the asset base he might have thought he had. MLB has declared 13 players signed by his predecessor to be free agent, punishment for signing violations. That includes top signee Kevin Maitan. They lose most of the 2019-20 Latin American signing bonus pool, and half the pool for 20-21, and their third round pick in the next entry draft.

The GM, John Coppolella, has been banned for life.

dagger wrote:Well, AA just lost a bit of the asset base he might have thought he had. MLB has declared 13 players signed by his predecessor to be free agent, punishment for signing violations. That includes top signee Kevin Maitan. They lose most of the 2019-20 Latin American signing bonus pool, and half the pool for 20-21, and their third round pick in the next entry draft.

The GM, John Coppolella, has been banned for life.

What did they do, exactly?

vaff87 wrote:

dagger wrote:Well, AA just lost a bit of the asset base he might have thought he had. MLB has declared 13 players signed by his predecessor to be free agent, punishment for signing violations. That includes top signee Kevin Maitan. They lose most of the 2019-20 Latin American signing bonus pool, and half the pool for 20-21, and their third round pick in the next entry draft.

The GM, John Coppolella, has been banned for life.

What did they do, exactly?

Among other things, they were funneling money to IFA signees outside their announced bonuses, as a means of skirting the rules. Players above a certain age were considered "foreign professionals", and thus not subject to the IFA rules, so they'd (as an example) sign one player in IFA for $1m, and a foreign pro for $500k, but $300k from the announced bonus for the latter was actually being routed to the former.

They also apparently attempted to do it with a draftee, offering them more money (paid under the table) in order to sign for a lower announced bonus, thus retaining more of their bonus pool.

Basically, it was baseball's version of money laundering, and Coppolella probably earned that lifetime ban.

Schad wrote:

vaff87 wrote:

dagger wrote:Well, AA just lost a bit of the asset base he might have thought he had. MLB has declared 13 players signed by his predecessor to be free agent, punishment for signing violations. That includes top signee Kevin Maitan. They lose most of the 2019-20 Latin American signing bonus pool, and half the pool for 20-21, and their third round pick in the next entry draft.

The GM, John Coppolella, has been banned for life.

What did they do, exactly?

Among other things, they were funneling money to IFA signees outside their announced bonuses, as a means of skirting the rules. Players above a certain age were considered "foreign professionals", and thus not subject to the IFA rules, so they'd (as an example) sign one player in IFA for $1m, and a foreign pro for $500k, but $300k from the announced bonus for the latter was actually being routed to the former.

They also apparently attempted to do it with a draftee, offering them more money (paid under the table) in order to sign for a lower announced bonus, thus retaining more of their bonus pool.

Basically, it was baseball's version of money laundering, and Coppolella probably earned that lifetime ban.

So what happens to the prospects they were stripped of? Can they return to the Braves if they want? Although, I believe the Braves were stripped of essentially all their pool money.

vaff87 wrote:So what happens to the prospects they were stripped of? Can they return to the Braves if they want? Although, I believe the Braves were stripped of essentially all their pool money.

It's a decent deal for them: they keep the bonus money, and go back into the IFA system, rather than becoming free agents.

It is only fitting that Alex goes to another team and that team immediately loses a dozen prospects upon his arrival.