House That Hank Built
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Atlanta Braves trade away promising OF Randy Ventura

By Alan Carpenter

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - MAY 29: A bat and gloves in the Atlanta Braves dugout before the game against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park on May 29, 2015 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - MAY 29: A bat and gloves in the Atlanta Braves dugout before the game against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park on May 29, 2015 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images) /
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CINCINNATI, OH – JUNE 8: Billy Hamilton #6 of the Cincinnati Reds slides into the legs of Jhonny Peralta #27 of the St. Louis Cardinals while trying to steal third base in the fifth inning at Great American Ball Park on June 8, 2016 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hamilton was called out as St. Louis defeated Cincinnati 12-7. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)
CINCINNATI, OH – JUNE 8: Billy Hamilton #6 of the Cincinnati Reds slides into the legs of Jhonny Peralta #27 of the St. Louis Cardinals while trying to steal third base in the fifth inning at Great American Ball Park on June 8, 2016 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hamilton was called out as St. Louis defeated Cincinnati 12-7. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images) /

The Possible Reasons

Here’s the best ideas I can come up with from the Braves’ perspective… roughly in order of likelihood:

  • The Latin scouts found somebody that *really* want.  The only explanation for acquiring international spending power – especially now that the major part of the signing season is done – is that they want/need to spend the money.  This also suggests that despite Baseball America’s tracker, the Braves have probably spent most of their allotment already.
  • Lack of progress?  In theory, more power could still come later from Ventura, but at 5’9″, it’s honestly a crapshoot, but perhaps the Braves were looking for more from him than a singles hitter.
  • Duplication?  Future blockage?  Possible.  Suddenly, there’s several outfield candidates budding in the minors, so perhaps Atlanta made the call that cashing him in now was a good play.
  • A disciplinary issue?  Possible, but I’d honestly say “not very likely at all“.  For one thing, the Reds would have to be informed and if the Braves had opted to dump him, then it’s questionable whether any other club would want him under such circumstances.

More from Tomahawk Take

On the other hand, the Reds might be seeing a timing thing in their own system and chose to acquire someone who might have the chance of replacing Billy Hamilton in a few years.  So it may very well have been Cincinnati taking the aggressor role here in targeting Ventura.

As noted, we still don’t know exactly how much of Cincy’s pool that Atlanta acquired today.

The maximum possible pool acquisition for this year would be $3.56 million and change, but I kinda doubt we’re talking about anything like that.

Getting $1 to $1.5 million (that range is my speculative guess) still would be significant… and would give Atlanta a chance for anything between perhaps 5 to 12 more players or so.

Note that getting this additional spending power means absolutely nothing unless it is actually used.

MORNING UPDATE:

Next: A Mottely Addition

So while we simply do not know all of the details, we’re left to hope and trust that the International team that has done so well in the past few years are still doing great work in the Latin realms of baseball.

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