Atlanta Braves postseason bumps annual revenue to $404M

"As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do. Andrew Carnegie"

Who’s that under the bus?

In their interview with Jeff Schultz for the Athletic (subscription required and recommended), the GM danced around the payroll number, claiming (correctly) that revealing it damages his bargaining position. The interview turned into a public relations disaster as soon as it published.

Anthopoulos said the goal was not just to be good but to be good a long time.  That’s a statement no one can argue with and one Crash Davis might have had in his book of clichés. It seemed hollow then; more so today.

McGuirk followed the GM’s statement with something I took as supportive at the time… but now I’m not so sure.

"Spending now is about winning. It’s not about building as much. Alex’s mandate is to advance the ball from where we were last year in the playoffs . . . that we can take (payroll) to $126 million and put it on the field, plus an appreciable move beyond that, is unprecedented for us. We’ve been a bottom-10 payroll team . . . we want to get to the middle, and I think this year begins to get us (there) . . ."

I could easily read that as saying, ‘He can spend what he wants to move towards a median size payroll. He hasn’t brought me a deal so he hasn’t seen one he likes. I’m not a baseball guy, it’s up to him.’

The GM’s New Spin

In 2011 Michael Bedard called Alex Anthopoulos the Spin Master when he tried to convince Bedard that his draft was a success even though he failed to sign his first-round pick.  Wait . . . that sounds familiar. . . It’s not surprising that he jumped into action to put a bandaid on the public relations wound he and McGuirk caused in that interview.

In a follow-up, “we-have-to-fix-this-mess interview” later, Anthopoulos said the fans didn’t realize how much the Braves spent since the off-season began, then he listed those expenditures.

I think we do, and we know what were aren’t spending that we were last year. (All last year contract amounts from COTs)

* To pick a few nits, Flowers and Markakis have one year, $4m deal with an option year that has  $2M buyout giving them a $6M guarantee this year. Without that guarantee, he’s spent only $51M.

Gausman and O’Day don’t count. We traded for them intending to keep them, and in O’Day’s case we knew that cost, and it isn’t a new cost.