Atlanta Braves Clippings

Monday, November 16, 2015

Braves.com

Aybar among haul from Angels for Simmons

Two top pitching prospects and cash also headed to Braves

By Mark Bowman / MLB.com | @mlbbowman |

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- The Braves traded shortstop Andrelton Simmons to the Angels early Thursday evening, receiving veteran shortstop Erick Aybar and the Angels' top two prospects -- left-hander Sean Newcomb and right-hander Chris Ellis -- and $2.5 million. Minor League catcher Jose Briceno also is headed to the Angels.

Braves general manager John Coppolella understood that Simmons was one of his club's most popular and valuable assets. At the same time, he viewed the talented shortstop as the best piece he had to make a trade that would further enrich his club's future.

Before exiting the General Managers Meetings on Thursday morning, Coppolella discussed how the Mets (2012 trade of R.A. Dickey) and Royals (2010 trade of Zack Greinke) advanced to this year's World Series via the value they gained from trades that were initially deemed less than popular by their fans.

Aybar, who will be eligible for free agency after the 2016 season, provides the Braves a talented short-term fix at the shortstop position. There is at least an outside chance top prospect Ozhaino Albies could be ready to serve as Atlanta's shortstop in 2017.

Newcomb, MLBPipeline.com's No. 19 prospect, was selected with the 15th overall selection in the 2014 Draft. The 22-year-old southpaw posted a 2.38 ERA while combining to make 27 starts at three different Minor League levels this year. He produced a 2.75 ERA and recorded 39 strikeouts in 36 innings after being promoted to the Double-A level in August.

Ellis is a powerful young hurler who has battled command issues since being taken in the third round of the 2014 Draft. He produced a 3.90 ERA while pitching at three different levels for the Angels this past season. He posted a 3.92 ERA in the 15 starts he made at the Double-A level.

Simmons has five years remaining on his contract. While his defensive excellence has never been questioned, there remains some reason to wonder how he will progress offensively. He is owed $11 million in 2018, $13 million in 2019 and $15 million in 2020. Concerns about his bat and potential defensive decline with age provided the Braves some concern about his cost during the final three years of his deal.

With trade, Angels eye postseason, Braves rebuild

By Jim Callis / MLB.com | @JimCallisMLB | November 12th, 2015

The Angels and the Braves stayed true to their current missions Thursday. They engineered a five-player deal that sent Andrelton Simmons and high Class A catcher Jose Briceno to Anaheim and Erick Aybar and pitching prospects Sean Newcomb and Chris Ellis to Atlanta.

The Angels, who haven't won a playoff game since 2009 and finished a game out in the American League Wild Card race in 2015, are in "win now" mode. They added baseball's best defensive player in Simmons, who is signed through the next five seasons for the very reasonable total of $58 million. Acquiring the two-time Gold Glove winner did cost an already-thin farm system its two best prospects in Newcomb and Ellis, who were first- and third-round picks, respectively, in the 2014 Draft.

By contrast, the Braves are rebuilding with an eye toward returning to contention when they move into their new suburban ballpark in 2017. Since naming John Hart president of baseball operations last October and promoting John Coppolella to GM last month, Atlanta has focused on stockpiling pitching prospects -- and now adds two more.

Newcomb, 22, immediately becomes the Braves' top prospect. The 15th overall choice in 2014, he surpassed Jeff Bagwell as the highest-drafted player in University of Hartford history. The left-hander reached Double-A during his first full pro season while ranking second in the Minors in strikeouts (168), third in strikeouts per nine innings (11.1) and eighth in opponent average (.199) and 18th in ERA (2.38).

Newcomb has a pair of potential out pitches: a 92-96 mph fastball that can reach 99 and a hard curveball. While his changeup is a work in progress, and he needs to polish his control and command, he profiles as a front-line left-handed starter. Newcomb's 6-foot-5, 245-pound frame is built for durability, and he also could make a dynamic late-inning reliever if starting doesn't work out.

Ellis' ceiling isn't nearly as high, but the 23-year-old right-hander is a possible mid-rotation starter. A University of Mississippi product, he also advanced to Double-A during his first full year as a pro. In 26 starts between that level and Class A Advanced, Ellis posted a 3.90 ERA and 132/63 K/BB ratio in 140 2/3 innings.

Another strongly built starter at 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, Ellis works primarily off a lively low-90s fastball. His slider and changeup show flashes of becoming solid offerings but lack consistency. Though Ellis generally throws strikes, he ran into control issues in Double-A.

Parting with such a gifted defender and affordable player as Simmons underscores the faith the Braves have in low Class A shortstop Ozhaino Albies, their best position prospect. It wouldn't be surprising to see them flip Aybar, a former All-Star and Gold Glove winner coming off the second-worst offensive season of his decade-long big league career, for more youngsters.

Briceno changed addresses for the second time in 10 months, having joined the Braves via the Rockies as part of a deal for David Hale in January. The 23-year-old Venezulean is a backup at best. Briceno led the Class A Advanced Carolina League by throwing out 36 percent of basestealers this year, but he also hit just .183/.215/.267 with four homers in 88 games.

The Angels now have baseball's most barren farm system, though they won't worry about that if the Simmons trade sparks a return to the playoffs in 2016. The Braves continue to demonstrate that no one on their team is untouchable if they can add quality arms in return.

Trade shows Braves committed to building around arms

Coppolella maintains focus on pitching with acquisition of Newcomb, Ellis

By Mark Bowman / MLB.com | @mlbbowman | November 13th, 2015

ATLANTA -- Braves general manager John Coppolella knows that his club scored the fewest runs in the Majors this past season and the second fewest in 2014. Still, over the course of the past year, he focused on using the big bats he had -- Jason Heyward, Justin Upton and Evan Gattis -- to create what now stands as baseball's top crop of pitching prospects.

When Coppolella traded Andrelton Simmons to the Angels on Thursday, he furtherenhanced this crop with the additions of Sean Newcomb and Chris Ellis. The deal also provides a short-term fix at shortstop in the form of former All-Star and Gold Glove Award winner Erick Aybar.

"The focus for me is to get really good talent," Coppolella said. "I'd be happy if we got arms in every deal. We're built around pitching and defense. The more arms we can get, the better off we're going to be."

With the addition of Newcomb, Atlanta gained a potential ace who now stands as its top overall prospect, per MLBPipeline.com. Ellis ranks ninth on the list, which is dominated by arms.

Pitchers account for 11 of the top 14 spots on the Braves' Top 30 Prospects list. Ten of these pitchers have been acquired via trade or the Draft since the conclusion of the 2014 season. Lucas Sims, an Atlanta native and 2012 first-round selection of the Braves, has been one of the most impressive pitchers in this year's Arizona Fall League.

"If you want to get an ace-type guy, you better get them while they're in the Minor Leagues," Coppolella said.

While Newcomb's command has created some concern, as he has issued 4.9 walks per nine innings through his first two professional seasons, some scouts still believe he will develop into an ace. The strong left-hander possesses a fastball that sits around 95 mph. Newcomb has drawn comparisons to Jon Lester, but some talent evaluators believe he needs to show more polish before drawing this lofty comparison.

Still, it's impossible to overlook the 11.1 strikeouts per nine innings that Newcomb has produced while posting a 2.75 ERA through 33 career starts at the professional level. He might begin the 2016 season with Double-A Mississippi, but the Braves believe he could reach Atlanta at some point next year.

"I think there are a lot of things our guys liked [about Newcomb]," Coppolella said. "There are obviously areas where he could improve, but we feel he can pitch at the very top of a rotation."

Don't sell Braves short on Andrelton deal

It is far too early to know how Atlanta made out by trading star shortstop

By Terence Moore / MLB.com | November 13th, 2015

ATLANTA -- OK, I'll confess: I'm the world's biggest Andrelton Simmons fan. He's peerless at shortstop with his glove and his arm, and he's wonderful around the clubhouse and everywhere else. Simmons' offense needs work, but when you've spent the past three years with 94 defensive runs saved and the next-closest guys at your position are at 30, who cares about your bat?

If I'm the Braves, I would've kept Simmons forever.

That said, the combination of "Simmons, forever and the Braves" ended Thursday, after five years. They traded the game's top defensive player -- regardless of position -- to the Angels for veteran infielder Erick Aybar and pitching prospects Sean Newcomb and Chris Ellis. They also put Minor League catcher Jose Briceno in the deal, and the Angels relinquished $2.5 million for the difference between the salaries of Aybar and Simmons.

All that those in Braves Country care about is that their 26-year-old rising superstar is gone, along with his two National League Gold Glove Awards. And I understand their frustration. Simmons received the Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Awardearlier this week. That was after voters for the Fielding Bible Award made him their unanimous choice last month for the third consecutive season.

As for hitting, Simmons isn't awful. He finished 13 points above his previous career average this year at .265, which was more like .365 when you consider he boosted Atlanta's scoring differential against opponents with his glove. No player in baseball history joins Simmons with three consecutive years owning a Defensive WAR number of 3.5 or higher.

So, the howling continues among the choppers and the chanters who hug the Braves tightly, but you know what? History says the three men (John Coppolella, John Hart and John Schuerholz) who comprise Atlanta's brain trust could become prophetic with their Simmons trade.

Two words: Joe Morgan.

Actually, here are several more ... Cesar Geronimo, Jack Billingham, Denis Menke and Ed Armbrister.

"What did they do to my Big Red Machine?" I thought after the 1971 season, when the Reds had the audacity to trade fan favorites Lee May and Tommy Helms to the Astros for those people. Just like that, the right side of the infield that helped power the Reds into the World Series the previous year was off to Houston. I had sort of heard of Morgan, but the others were basically folks only known to their close relatives and friends.

That was until that collection joined holdovers Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Tony Perez to grab back-to-back World Series championships and lead the Reds to more victories than anybody during the 1970s.

Geronimo became a perennial Gold Glove Award winner in center field. Armbrister was among the game's clutch pinch-hitters. Menke allowed Perez to switch from third base to his natural position of first. Until Madison Bumgarner came along, Billingham had owned the best ERA in the history of the World Series (0.36 ERA in 25 1/3 innings to Bumgarner's 0.25 ERA in 36 innings).

Oh, and Morgan is a Hall of Famer.

If you want a recent example of what can happen along these lines, let's go straight to the top: The Royals. They've won the past two American League pennants, including a victory in this year's World Series, and they've done all of this with shortstop Alcides Escobar and outfielder Lorenzo Cain.

Escobar and Cain? Didn't they produce yawns around Kansas City after the Royals did the unfathomable in December 2010, when they dealt away homegrown ace pitcher Zack Greinke and his 2009 Cy Young Award trophy -- along with all of his potential at 27 -- to the Brewers for a bunch of unknown prospects. So, you know where I'm going. Now everybody knows Escobar and Cain, and not just around the land of barbecue.

Escobar finished the postseason for the Royals with four doubles and three triples and a homer among his 23 hits in 70 at-bats (.329). He also won the AL Championship Series Most Valuable Player Award after he ripped the Blue Jays at the plate with a .478 batting average. Escobar won a Gold Glove Award at shortstop this season and made the AL All-Star team.

Then there is Cain, the ALCS MVP in 2014, when he hit .533 against the Orioles with a slew of great plays in the field. Cain just continued what he began earlier that postseason against the Angels, and he foreshadowed his brilliant defensive show to come during the Royals' loss to the Giants in seven games in the 2014 World Series. This isn't to say Cain was a no-show this October after he reached his first All-Star Game and posted a solid regular season (.307 batting average, 16 home runs, 101 runs scored, 72 RBIs). He helped the Royals clinch a World Series title over the Mets in Game 5 with three RBIs.

Speaking of the Mets, their Greinke was R.A. Dickey, with a few differences here and there. Dickey was a seasoned pro of 38 when he was traded by the Mets to the Blue Jays after he won the NL Cy Young Award in 2012. And, unlike Greinke, Dickey didn't begin his career with the same team that shipped him away after grabbing such a huge honor.

The Mets were Dickey's fifth team. Even so, that didn't ease the headshaking among some around the Big Apple after Dickey left in a deal that included Noah Syndergaard -- you know, among the group of hard-slinging pitchers who pushed the Mets into the 2015 World Series. Syndergaard hits 100 mph so often on radar guns that his nickname is Thor.

Which brings us back to the Braves and their prospects.

Newcomb, who is now Atlanta's top prospect, also throws hard. He isn't the next Thor, since he hovers near the mid-90s in velocity, but Newcomb still is an imposing left-hander on the mound at 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds. No wonder he has fanned 186 batters in 150 1/3 innings during his Minor League career. At 22, Newcomb figures to be around a while. So does Ellis, a 23-year-old right hander who is noted more as a location pitcher. However, the Braves had a couple of guys like that named Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine who eventually reached Cooperstown.

I'm not saying either Newcomb or Ellis is Hall of Fame bound.

I'm saying, who knows?

I didn't know about Morgan.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Defensive whiz is dealt: Braves trade Andrelton Simmons to Angels

By David O'Brien - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Braves’ shortstop extraordinaire is gone.

One day after Andrelton Simmons was named the best overall defensive player in the majors, he was traded to the Angels on Thursday night for a package of players including veteran shorststop Erick Aybar and the Angels’ top two pitching prospects, left-hander Sean Newcomb, 22, and Chris Ellis, 23.

The Braves are also sending minor league catcher Jose Briceno to the Angels, and the Angels are giving the Braves $2.5 million to offset the difference in salaries of Aybar and Simmons.

In the first trade made since John Coppolella was promoted to Braves general manager, they gave up the best defensive shortstop in baseball, and got back a solid one-year placeholder for the position and two starting pitchers who they believe could work their way into the top half of the rotation for many years to come.

“It’s a very tough trade for us, a painful trade, as there have been other tough, painful trades,” said Coppolella, who, as assistant general manager, worked alongside president of baseball operations John Hart when they traded away a half-dozen other of the team’s best and most popular players during the past 12 months.

“We did not want to trade Andrelton Simmons, but we felt this was too good for us to pass up. We felt like we were getting so much talent back in this deal, that if we didn’t make this trade it would be tough for us going forward with our plans.

“Andrelton is a very special player, one of my favorite players. He’s a pure joy to watch play, and he’s a great person, too. But with where we’re at, with a team that lost (95) games, we need more talent. And sometimes you can’t get that talent right here, right now. But we think that all three players in this trade will have an impact on our major league team in the 2016 season.”

Newcomb, was 9-3 with a 2.38 ERA in 27 starts at three levels, and had 168 strikeouts with 76 walks in 136 innings. The Massachusetts native began the season in low Single-A and finished at Double-A Arkansas, where he had a 2.75 ERA in seven starts with 39 strikeouts and 24 walks in 36 innings.

Newcomb was rated the Angels’ No. 1 overall prospect at midseason by Baseball America, one spot ahead of Ellis. BA editor-in-chief John Manuel said the publication would move Newcomb to the No. 1 spot on the Braves’ prospect list.

Ellis was 11-9 with a 3.90 ERA in 26 starts last season in high Single-A and Double-A, with 132 strikeouts and 63 walks in 140 2/3 innings. The Birmingham, Ala., native was a third-round draft pick from the University of Mississippi in 2014.

“It may not be opening day for those two arms, but we think that they have a chance that they will be up at some point this year and that they will be big-impact players,” Coppolella said. “We’re also thrilled to have Erick Aybar, who was an All-Star in 2014, a former Gold Glove winner, .276 lifetime hitter. A very, very good player. He will be a real good add to our team.”

The switch-hitting Aybar, 31, is signed for $8.5 million in 2016, the final year of his contract. An American League Gold Glove shortstop in 2011, he batted .270 with 34 extra-base hits (three homers), a .301 OBP and 15 stolen bases in 2015. He has a .276 average, .315 OBP and 141 stolen bases in 10 seasons, all with the Angels.

Aybar will handle shortstop duties in 2016 for the Braves, whose future at that position is Ozzie Albies, a 5-foot-7 dynamo who has a .328 average and .395 OBP in two minor league seasons. Albies has not played above Single-A and won’t turn 19 until January, but the Braves believe he could get to the majors quickly. Coppolella didn’t want to put any pressure on Albies, but said he not only could be up by 2017, but perhaps even at some point during the 2016 season.

Simmons, 26, had five years and $53 million left on his contract. He has not developed offensively as the Braves thought he might after a 17-homer season in 2013. He hit .265 with a .321 OBP and four homers in 2015, and has a .256 average and .304 OBP with 76 doubles, 14 triples and 31 homers in 499 games since arriving two months into the 2012 season.

He ranked 13th among 19 qualified shortstops in on-base-plus-slugging percentage (.660) in 2015, but defensively Simmons is on on a level all his own. Since the beginning of the 2013 season, he has 94 defensive runs saved (DRS), while no other major league shortstop has more than 30 in that span.

He’s the only player in history to have three consecutive seasons of 3.5 or better Defensive WAR.

He won the Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Award on Wednesday, and was a unanimous winner of the Fielding Bible Award last month as the best defensive shortstop in the majors – the third consecutive year he won that honor by a unanimous vote of the 12-member panel.

Trade rumors began to circulate late Wednesday, and the Braves insisted they weren’t looking to trade Simmons but were willing to listen. After the deal was finalized, Coppolella said they had been talking to teams for about three weeks, but that things heated up this week at General Managers meetings.

The Braves, one of the bottom-half payroll teams, were determined to upgrade their roster going forward without spending a lot more now.

“We probably talked to about 15 teams throughout the process,” Coppolella said. “There were maybe three or four that really got serious. There may have been some that may have thought we just wanted to move Simmons because of money or because of, you know, a lack of offense. But we didn’t want to move Andrelton. Of the teams that really wanted to step forward and made really strong offers, we felt that this was the best of those offers.”

Simmons signed a long extension with the Braves during 2014 spring training and was under contract through 2020, with salaries escalating in that span from $6 million in 2016 to $15 million in 2020.

Trading popular players has become something of a norm for the Braves since November 2014, when they began a frenzy of deals soon after the firing of former general manager Frank Wren.

Others traded in that span included Jason Heyward and Justin Upton, who were dealt with one year left on their contracts before free agency; closer Craig Kimbrel, who was traded the night before opening day in large part so the Braves could dump the contract of Melvin Upton Jr., in that deal; slugger Evan Gattis, who had four years left on his contract but was deemed a better fit for an AL team, and pitcher Alex Wood, who was traded to the Dodgers along with relievers Jim Johnson and Luis Avilan and top infield prospect Jose Peraza in the deal that brought Hector Olivera.

The Braves also traded popular veterans Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe in July.

Now, Simmons, whose acrobatic plays and remarkably strong throws were a treat for fans even if the team was losing.

“I am not afraid (of the public reaction),” Coppolella said. “Look, fans won’t like this trade because they all love Simmons. I love Simmons too, he’s fun to watch play. But we need more talent, and this trade helps us do that.”

Simmons trade another gut punch for many Braves fans

By David O’Brien

For a big portion of Braves fans, trading Andrelton Simmons, the best defensive player in baseball, was a gut punch similar to what they felt when Craig Kimbrel was traded on the eve of Opening Day.

To some, it was even harder to take, given that Simmons is an every-day player, signed for five more seasons, and quite literally the kind of player who was worth the price of admission because there was a good chance he was going to make a spectacular play or two at any game you attended.

A dad could take his kid to the ballpark and say, “Tonight we’re going to watch the best shortstop you’ll ever see. So watch closely.”

The defensive whiz is gone now, having been shipped off Thursday to the L.A. Angels for a solid veteran shortstop, Erick Aybar, and the Angels’ top two pitching prospects, lefty Sean Newcomb and Cliff Ellis. By all accounts both pitchers are elite prospects, with the 6-foot-4, 245-pound Newcomb a potential ace if he can improve his command and secondary pitches.

We’re talking 94-97 mph fastball topping out at 99, folks – from the left side. Special. Newcomb, 22, was 9-3 with a 2.38 ERA in 27 starts at three minor-league levels, and had 168 strikeouts with 76 walks in 136 innings. He finished in Double-A, and could join the Braves rotation at some point during the 2016 season.

John Manuel at Baseball America tells me his publication immediately moved Newcomb to the No. 1 spot on the Braves prospect list, ahead of the likes of Ozzie Albies, Max Fried, Matt Wisler, Lucas Sims and Hector Olivera, who had been BA’s No. 1-rated Braves prospect last month.

Ellis, 23, a Birmingham native who pitched at Ole Miss, is a potential middle-rotation starter. He’ll be very high on the Braves’ prospect list as well.

Aybar is a former All-Star (2014) and one-time former Gold Glove winner under contract for one more season, and the Angels sent $2.5 million to the Braves to cover the difference in his $8.5 million salary and Simmons’ $6 million in 2016 (do you get the impression that every dollar, literally, is important to these Braves?).

Although Simmons had a higher OPS (.660) than Aybar (.639) in 2015, Aybar had a .700-.617 advantage over Simmons in 2014 and has been a better overall hitter, with a .276/.315/.378 slash line in 10 seasons compared to Simmons’ .256/.304/.362 in four seasons.

That’s why Braves GM John Coppolella disagreed with a reporter who said during a post-trade conference call that some fans would look at this again as the Braves dumping salary and moving a popular player for nothing more than additional pitching prospects, albeit high-level prospects.

“No. I would just say this: You can make an argument that we are actually a team that can win more games with Aybar,” Coppolella said. “Aybar is a career .276 hitter; Simmons has never hit .276 in a full season. Aybar’s a switch-hitter, 18 months back an All-Star, he can hit (first or second in the order) for you. I mean, Aybar’s a really good player. I think we traded defense for offense in this trade. The fact that we got two huge-upside arms is great, but as far as for 2016, I don’t think that’s a big step back for this Braves team.

“I think where it will hurt is more in 2017, 2018, if Aybar ends up as a free-agent player. Maybe we can sign him long term; I think we need to find out more about him, he needs to find out more about us. But at the end of it, he’s a really good player. He was a huge part of this deal. This wasn’t just some kind of prospect trade. This was a value-for-value trade that had some really good prospects in it.”

Coppy continued, “We can’t have a year like we had last year. That’s why we had to get back major league value. Since we made the trade two or three hours ago, we have gotten three calls on Aybar already, from teams that want to trade for him. He’s a really good hitter, somebody that can play short. Somebody that our staff really liked and our scouts really liked. He’s a good player. So we’re very happy to have Aybar.”

If I were to look at this clinically, strictly from a baseball standpoint, the Braves may have gotten the best of this deal, and they could “win” the trade in a big way if Newcomb becomes an ace or something close to one, and Ellis becomes at least a contributing major league pitcher.

I certainly get it. I understand how they justify trading one of their most popular players, a player so great defensively that he was becoming a Braves icon despite being a mediocre-at-best hitter.

I understand, but wouldn’t have done it. For the same reason that I’m sure the Padres regret trading Ozzie Smith, even though they got back Garry Templeton, who was a good shortstop for another 10 years for San Diego.

Ozzie went on to take his legacy to the St. Louis, cementing his reputation as the greatest defensive shortstop of the modern era. Which he had been in the view of almost everyone, at least until Simmons came along. Folks, Andrelton is the best defensively since Ozzie, and might well be better because of his arm. In my opinion there’s no question that he’s the best since Ozzie — yes, better than Omar Vizquel.

And now, if Simmons goes to L.A. and plays another six, eight or even 10 years — which he definitely could — there’s a good chance that he’ll be regarded more as an Angel than a Brave when folks look back and talk about the greatest shortstops who ever played. The way that Ozzie is regarded as purely a Cardinals icon by just about everyone outside of San Diego.

But that’s not the reason I wouldn’t have made the trade. You can’t worry about a player’s legacy when making deals like this. No, a big part of why I wouldn’t have made it is because Simmons and Freddie Freeman are the last two fan-favorite players left on the team, the kind of players whose names you see on the back of countless jerseys and T-shirts at every Braves home game, and scattered around road stadiums when the Braves are in town, too.

Fans want to know they can become attached to players and that not every one of them is going to be shipped out. But if a fan got attached to a particular Braves player during the 2013 or 2014 seasons, that player is most likely gone now.

Jason Heyward, Justin Upton, Evan Gattis, Craig Kimbrel. All gone. All moved in a 4 ½-month span capped by Kimbrel’s shocking trade the night before the season began, when most fans had begun to get over the Heyward-Upton-Kimbrel trades of the offseason and were excited about the new season beginning with Kimbrel heading up the bullpen and the team coming off an energized spring training.

Several more popular players — Alex Wood, Kelly Johnson, Juan Uribe, Jonny Gomes — were dealt in the second half of the season, along with middle-infield prospect Jose Peraza, who already had quite a fan following, but who also had been surpassed on the prospect list by Albies.

We all get that the Braves felt it necessary to tear this thing down in order to rebuild the farm system via trades and draft picks (some acquired via trades), and that the only way a team with such payroll constraints could get back to being a consistent contender – not a wild-card hopeful, but a division contender year after year – was by filling the pipeline with young talent.

But they also said they wanted to be a contender when they moved into their new ballpark in 2017, and this Simmons trade would appear to make that less likely, unless one or both of the pitchers they got is a rotation stud by then and the Braves have Albies or someone else playing solid defense at shortstop.

And isn’t it important to establish some momentum during the 2016 season before asking fans to purchase season tickets and get excited about the 2017 season in a new ballpark? Maybe the Braves will use some of their freed-up payroll to sign or trade for a slugger before or during the 2016 season, and use their stockpile of pitching to plug a hole. But right now, I can see where fans and others would question how this team plans to avoid another 90-plus-loss season in 2016.

It was clear why they made the Kimbrel trade – to dump the onerous contract of Melvin Upton Jr., the only way they were likely to get out from under that deal that hung over the organization. And in the end, that trade worked out well for the Braves, who got Cameron Maybin and Matt Wisler as well as the 41st pick in the June draft. They used that pick to take third-base slugger Austin Riley, the best power-hitting prospect they’ve had in quite some time and right there with Ozzie Albies as the top two position-player prospects in the organization.

But this Simmons deal, with him signed for five more years and no bad contract being shed in the deal? It’s a tougher one to sell to the faithful.

Did we mention that Thursday’s trade paved the way for Albies, 18, to move into the Braves’ shortstop position in the not-too-distant future? When I asked Coppolella late Thursday if Albies might be up as soon as the 2017, Coppy said he didn’t want to put any pressure on Albies to get here by 2017, but quickly added that the Braves wouldn’t rule out bringing him up even sooner – during the ’16 season – if he shows he’s ready.

But getting back to why I wouldn’t have traded Simmons. He’s the best defensive player I’ve ever seen. Yes, slightly better than even Andruw Jones, and I didn’t think I’d ever say that after watching Jones patrol center field for so many years. Simmons also is the most intuitive baseball player I’ve ever seen, with Greg Maddux probably the only other I’d even put in the same sentence.

Every night, every ball hit to Simmons, you stopped typing in mid-sentence to watch him handle it, or at home you ran back your DVR to see him turn a double play or pass the ball behind his back – remember when he did that, like a basketball player, but shoveling it glove-to-hand? – or jump and throw either across his body or from 20 feet into left field with his momentum taking him away from first base, and somehow fire a perfect throw to Freddie Freeman.

I dare say I’ll never see his kind again on a nightly basis in my lifetime. Angels beat writers and Angels fans will, though.

So what if Simmons was an average or below-average hitter on a team that craved improved offense? You find a way to get that elsewhere, in my opinion. And if Newcomb develops into an ace, well, OK, then you can justify any trade that yields a long-term ace. But it’s certainly no sure thing that he or Ellis will avoid injuries and become frontline major league pitchers, and if they do, then how many years will the Braves get out of them before they trade them because they became unaffordable via arbitration?

Simmons was a known quality. And I don’t mean just known as in a fan-favorite for a team in need of those if it hopes to avoid another decline in attendance to a low not seen in a quarter-century. I mean a known commodity as the finest defensive shortstop in baseball, and arguably the best defender at any position (he just won an award Wednesday as the best overall defensive player in the majors for 2015). And defense rarely slumps, while offense frequently does.

You knew what you had with Simmons. You could’ve moved Albies to second base and had the best middle-infield duo in baseball, and Simmons could’ve won 10 Gold Gloves as a Brave and perhaps continued making strides working with hitting coach Kevin Seitzer, after showing during a couple of extended stretches last season that he could indeed hit a lot better than he has for much of his major league career.

Seitzer told me at the very end of the season that he had a plan, video and workouts to give Simmons for this offseason, to help him keep up his progress. He believed that Simmons could keep hitting for a higher average and also again unlock the power he showed during his 17-homer season in 2013.

If he does, he’ll do it for the Angels. Meanwhile, he’s going to keep making those plays that leave jaws on the floor and everyone, including opposing players, shaking their heads in disbelief and admiration.

Simmons was a one-of-a-kind defender. Now he’s an Angel in Anaheim, Calif. (that’s where they play, not L.A., despite the name). And a Braves fan looking to buy a jersey for his kid this Christmas is left with a limited selection that starts with Freeman and includes, well, who? Shelby Miller and Julio Teheran?

And are you confident any of them will be around long enough for your kid to outgrow the jersey? Hell, plenty of leery fans aren’t even sure those guys will still be Braves by Christmas.

• Where it stops, nobody knows: How much have major league salaries increased in recent years? Consider that outfielder Colby Rasmus and catcher Matt Wieters accepted $15.8 million qualifying offers Friday from their respective teams, the Astros and Orioles.

Now consider that John Smoltz, a first-ballot Hall of Famer who retired after the 2009 season and spent 20 of his 21 seasons with the Braves, had a peak salary of $14 million, and that was the only season he made as much as $12 million.

Smoltz won a Cy Young Award, had over 3,000 strikeouts, had 55-save season, pitched more than 225 innings in eight seasons and more than 240 innings in four seasons, was the only pitcher in history with as many as 200 career wins and 150 saves, and was arguably the greatest postseason pitcher ever.

Again, he retired after the 2009 season, not 1980.

Colby Rasmus, 29, hit .238/.314/.475 with a career-high 25 home runs last season in one of the most hitter-friendly ballparks in the majors. He has a .245 career average and .313 OBP in seven seasons, had never hit 23 homers before 2015 and has driven in as many as 70 runs once.

Wieters, 29, hit .267 /.319 OBP/.422 with eight homers and 25 RBIs in 75 games in 2015, and was limited by injuries to 13 homers and 43 RBIs in 101 games and 394 plate appearances over the past two seasons combined. He has a .258 career average, .320 OBP and .423 slugging percentage in seven seasons, with 100 homers, 371 RBIs and two Gold Gloves.

To repeat, Rasmus and Wieters will each make $15.8 million in 2016.

Then there is Yovani Gallardo, who rejected the $15.8 million qualifying offer from the Rangers. Gallardo, 29, was 13-11 with a career-best 3.42 ERA in 33 starts (184 innings) in 2015, and has a 102-75 and 3.66 ERA in nine seasons.

He’s pitched as many as 200 innings twice in his career, and never as many as 210 innings.

But times change, of course. Salaries grow in sports a lot faster than they do in other sectors. And pitchers are practically considered iron men for going 210 innings these days.

Gallardo turned down the offer because he’ll likely make more per season in a multi-year deal that gives him security well into his 30s.

By the way, he made $14 million last season, matching Smoltz’s career-high salary.

Simmons gone, Braves’ offseason already looking like last one

By Jeff Schultz

Just when you thought there was nobody left for the Braves to dump, John Hart and his little sidekick, John Coppolella, looked down the roster and found Andrelton Simmons. He should have been easy to spot. He was one of the few players left whose name wasn’t written with a black Sharpee on white tape above his locker last season.

It’s a new offseason.

This is a new offseason, isn’t it?

Because it’s already feeling like a year ago, when Hart and Coppolella – the ruling scrub brush and bleach bucket in the Braves’ front office – sought to wipe clean every reminder of the previous team and the previous regime. Among the jettisoned: Jason Heyward, Craig Kimbrel, Justin Upton, Evan Gattis and B.J. Upton.

Next on the launching pad: Simmons. He has won two Gold Gloves in his three full seasons at shortstop. He’s now a member of Los Angeles Angels. Simmons probably didn’t hit as well as the front office had hoped, but when you’re possibly the best defensive player in baseball and you play for a team that neither hit nor pitched particularly well in 2015, defense is kind of important, isn’t it? Especially at shortstop?

In return, the Braves get a 31-year-old shortstop, Erick Aybar, who hit .270 last season. That’s exactly .005 points higher than Simmons batted.

The Braves also get two pitchers, Sean Newcomb and Chris Ellis, who are – wait for it – prospects.

Excuse me. GREAT PROSPECTS.

They’re all GREAT PROSPECTS.

Excited? Please be excited. The Braves have so many tickets to sell.

Newcome is 22 years old, Ellis is 23. So the good news is they’re old enough to drive.

The early reviews aren’t positive. Here’s an excerpt of a trade story from the Washington Post:

But Simmons, as long as he continued to play elite defense, seemed affordable: $6 million in 2016, increasing annually to $8 million, $11 million, $13 million and finally that $15 million in 2020. With revenues and salaries increasing every year – and with the Braves set to move into a new suburban ballpark in 2017, $15 million could well seem like a bargain for a linchpin shortstop.

Isn’t that the kind of player the Braves are going to try to find once they are ready to win again (presuming that they will be)? (Only slightly related: What the heck were the Braves doing signing Nick Markakis last offseason?)

So the gold, for the Braves, must lie in the pitching prospects. And the concern about Newcomb is obvious: In 150-1/3 professional innings, he has 82 walks. (Even in college, at the University of Hartford, he walked 75 in 165 innings.)

One scout’s evaluation: “Newcomb will always be a high-pitch-count starter who will end up in the pen because he doesn’t throw quality strikes even though he can touch 96 [mph] and he’s left-handed.”

For the record, again, I have nothing against prospects. Player development is the lifeblood of any major league organization.

But Hart and Coppolella just traded one of few known commodities in their everyday lineup, and probably their second most important player behind Freddie Freeman (who might want to hold off if he was thinking of buying a new house, at least in Atlanta). Maybe Newcomb and Ellis develop and provide the Braves with some needed starting pitching down the road. Or maybe they don’t. Or maybe it’s a really long road, which would fit into everything else Hart and Coppolella have done since taking over.

Last season, Hart did a wonderful job spinning the media and the public before the season on his intent to walk “parallel roads” and build the Braves for both the present and future. But when you deal Andrelton Simmons from an already starved lineup, there is no road on the left to the immediate future. It’s all on the right, far into the future.

Say what you want about the Braves, but they are not afraid

By Mark Bradley

Not to say I told you so, but … I kind of did. The Atlanta Braves have traded Andrelton Simmons, one of the two best defenders in baseball, to the Angels for more young pitching. (About a year ago, the same Braves traded the other best defender in baseball to St. Louis for Shelby Miller and Tyrell Jenkins.)

Earlier speculation held that the Braves were talking with the Padres — yes, them again — about Simmons, and the Mets admitted they’d had similar discussions but the Braves had asked for Matt Harvey or Jacob deGrom in return. (Good for the Braves, I say.) And I know a lot of you are upset that they’ve traded Simmons anywhere, but here’s where I say …

I love their audacity.

I’ve gotten to know John Coppolella, who’s the architect of this grand redesign, a little, and this I can tell you: The guy is fearless. (He’s also very, very bright.)

I wrote a little something about the Braves last month and noted that the Royals traded Zack Greinke a year after a Cy Young season and the Mets dealt R.A. Dickey a month after he’d won a Cy Young. I didn’t cite those cases idly. I knew Coppolella saw them as templates. And, when last I checked, the final baseball game of 2015 involved the Royals and the Mets.

There’s no man on this roster Coppolella won’t trade for the right price. The Braves really like Simmons, but they also like Ozzie Albies, who’s not quite ready for the big leagues but is getting close. And they love-love-love young pitching.

I’m not to tell you the Braves are locks for the 2018 World Series. I will tell they believe in what they’re doing. They have a plan and they’re executing the heck out of it. Last season wasn’t pretty and next year won’t be, either, but they’re doing what they feel they have to do to get where they want to go, which is the World Series.

Maybe you don’t like what they’ve done. Maybe you even hate it. But I’m ready to bank on brass and brains. I’m willing to give the New Braves the benefit of every doubt.

The Braves’ audacity inspires … well, awe

By Mark Bradley - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The “A” on the cap now stands for “audacious.” The Braves are moving at a rate unusual to baseball and maybe unprecedented. They hated what Frank Wren had done — even as that general manager built a team that won 91, 89, 94 and 96 games over four seasons — and they appointed John Hart and especially John Coppolella to undo it. And boy howdy have they.

A list of Braves jettisoned over the past 13 months: Andrelton Simmons, Jason Heyward, Evan Gattis, Justin Upton, Craig Kimbrel, Melvin Upton Jr., Tommy La Stella, Chris Johnson, Jordan Walden, Alex Wood, Aaron Harang, Ervin Santana, Emilio Bonifacio, Luis Avilan, David Hale, Cory Gearrin, Anthony Varvaro, Tyler Pastornicky, David Carpenter, James Russell, Jose Constanza, Ramiro Pena, Gerald Laird, Ryan Doumit, Gus Schlosser, Juan Jaime, Ian Thomas, Cody Martin and Chasen Shreve.

We add to that number Alberto Callaspo, Eric Stults, Trevor Cahill, Jim Johnson, Kelly Johnson, Juan Uribe, Jonny Gomes, Jason Frasor, Sugar Ray Marimon, David Aardsma and Ross Detwiler, all acquired and then shed by the new regime. That’s 40 names. That’s essentially a 40-man roster turned over in barely a year. Astonishing.

Maybe you have a different A-word to describe what the New Braves have wrought. Maybe your word is “asinine.” Maybe it’s “appalling.” I understand the sentiment — change is never easy, and this change has been epic — but I’m sticking with “audacious.”

We won’t know for a while if these Braves are tracking a path to greatness. We don’t know for sure that they’ll break .500 anytime soon. They’re risking everything in the attempt to win it all. After the Simmons trade was announced Thursday night, I sent Coppolella — officially he’s only in his second month as general manager, but I consider him the architect of all that has happened — a message: “You are fearless, sir.”

Never far from his phone, Coppolella responded within seconds: “We are going to win by being bold.”

Again we cite the Mets’ trade of the newly minted Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey to Toronto for Noah Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud, who would form the starting battery in Game 3 of the 2015 World Series. Also the Royals’ trade of Zack Greinke, one year removed from his Cy Young season, to Milwaukee for Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar, the MVPs of the 2014 and 2015 ALCS. Also the trade that sent Wil Myers, the No. 3 prospect in baseball, to Tampa Bay while bringing pitchers James Shields and Wade Davis to Kansas City. Shields helped lift K.C. to the 2014 World Series; Davis recorded the championship-clinching out earlier this month. Those teams rose to the pinnacle by swallowing hard and making what were wildly unpopular moves.

In Simmons, the Braves gave up a once-in-a-generation shortstop. As a hitter, he’d become substandard. He just compiled the 13th-worst OPS among qualifying big-league hitters, and that wasn’t a one-year blip. He’d been sixth-worst in 2014. If you’re saying, “The Braves need hitters,” you’re absolutely right. But Simmons isn’t one.

There’s also this: Great defenders tend to peak early. As Branch Rickey, patron saint of GMs, famously said: Better to trade a guy too soon than too late.

In the left-hander Sean Newcomb, the Braves landed the No. 1 prospect in the Angels’ chain, a 22-year-old the Angels themselves considered promoting to the majors last season. The Braves believe Newcomb might well be the No. 1 prospect in their restocked farm system, and they can envision this rotation when they move into SunTrust Park in 2017 — Shelby Miller, Julio Teheran, Matt Wisler, Newcomb and Lucas Sims. (And that’s with Touki Toussaint, Max Fried and Kolby Allard working their way through the minors.)

I understand why folks are apoplectic. (Another A-word.) But the Braves were convinced they’d gone wrong under Wren, and mere tweaks wouldn’t set it right. Bold action was required. Bold action has been taken, again and again. As the ancient saying has it: Faint heart never won fair maiden. Say what you will about these Braves, but faint of heart they ain’t.

With Simmons trade, Braves boot benefit of the doubt

By Michael Cunningham

This is what I get for giving the Braves the benefit of the doubt.

I was wrong; Ken Rosenthal was right.

The Fox Sports writer worried that the Braves were trying to trade Andrelton Simmons as the latest part of their scorched earth rebuild. He wondered: When is it going to end?

I figured the Braves were trying to find a sweet deal for their great-field, light-hit shortstop that netted them major league talents who can hit for power because, you know, they were the worst offensive team in baseball this year. “They won’t just give him away” is how I put it.

I won’t say the Braves gave away Simmons to the Angels. They got veteran infielder Erick Aybar, who is an OK stopgap. They also got—spoiler alert!—two top pitching prospects to add to the pile of top pitching prospects they acquired in earlier trades.

But they didn’t get what they need: major league players who can hit. Well, I thought that’s what they need because I assumed they intend to at least compete in the final season of Turner Field and then contend in their first season at Cobb Taxpayer Park. These assumptions are becoming more shaky with each veteran-for-prospect swap.

Normally it’s difficult to evaluate trades because you don’t know if there were better options. In this case, though, GM John “Coppy” Coppolella says that about 15 teams inquired about Simmons and four emerged as serious suitors. He says some of those teams assumed the Braves were moving Simmons because of “a lack of offense,” which means they must have been willing to send the Braves proven hitters for Simmons. And it’s not as if the Braves were desperate because keeping the best defensive shortstop in baseball and his club-friendly contract would be just fine.

This means Coppy got the deal he wanted. He said he didn’t want to trade Simmons but “if we didn’t make this trade it would be tough for us going forward with our plans.” So there you have it: the plans moving forward won’t pay off until far in the future, if at all.

One day, when some of these pitching prospects mature, the Braves may have a formidable starting rotation. They could supplement the pitching by dealing prospects for hitters and with the major payroll increase everyone is convinced is coming, though even that seems up in the air. Writes AJC colleague David O’Brien: “The Braves, one of the bottom-half payroll teams, were determined to upgrade their roster going forward without spending a lot more now.”

Now the Braves are without Simmons, one of the players who makes them worth watching until the Grand Plan comes together. Might as well trade Freddie Freeman for prospects, too. The slugger probably wouldn’t mind after the club pulled the rug from under him last season and again with this Simmons deal.

The Braves won’t fool him–or me–again.

Would Braves trade Freeman? No

By Mark Bradley

It was only last Thursday that a similar question headlined a different post, and I offered a different answer: “Would the Braves deal Simmons? Sure.” Not nine hours later, the Atlanta Braves traded Andrelton Simmons.

Contrary to the latest round of rumors, I would be shocked if the Braves trade Freddie Freeman. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports — who had previously ripped the Braves for even considering trading Simmons — reported that “the Braves are shopping everyone owed money,” a grouping that included Freeman, Julio Teheran, Cameron Maybin and Nick Markakis.

Here’s my rating of the likelihood of that happening: Maybin’s a “maybe,” having had something approaching a career year; Teheran’s a “possible but not probable”; Markakis is a “probably not,”seeing as how the Braves like — and I mean really, really like — what he’s giving them on the field and in the clubhouse, and Freeman is a “no chance” unless the return is Mike Trout.

I know some of you believe the Braves are stupid or crazy or both. They are none of the above. They have a plan. There’s a chance the plan might not work, but they are executing the plan. I understand if you don’t like it. Nobody likes following a losing team, and the Braves are going to lose a lot in 2016. But the Chicago Cubs lost 101 games in 2012 and 96 in 2013; in 2015 they won 97 and played in the NLCS. The Houston Astros lost 416 games from 2011 through 2014; this year they made the playoffs and were five outs from eliminating the the team that wound up winning the World Series.

The Braves could have kept Frank Wren’s holdovers another year and won 85 games, but new management had decided that team wouldn’t have gone anywhere worth going. The decision was made to tear it down before Jason Heyward and Justin Upton left as free agents and thereby accelerate the rebuilding that would have to happen anyway.

In a year’s time, the Braves have remade their farm system. The trouble with that is that Atlanta fans don’t often get to see the Class A clubs play. Those games aren’t televised nightly. And fans aren’t known for their patience. Being he world’s least patient person, I understand. But once a team has decided its minor-league chain can’t sustain winning at the big-league level and that same team is unwilling to pay $100 million for the big-ticket free agents, there’s really no choice but to start again.

The Braves have started again. The big-league team could well get worse before it gets better, and the 95 losses of last season were bad enough. But the Braves now project a starting rotation of Shelby Miller (acquired for Heyward), Teheran (a Wren holdover), Matt Wisler (acquired for Craig Kimbrel), Sean Newcomb (acquired for Simmons) and Lucas Sims (another Wren holdover) when they move to Cobb County in 2017, with Mike Foltynewicz (acquired for Evan Gattis) and Manny Banuelos (acquired for David Carpenter and Chasen Shreve) possibilities.

There’s a second wave building: Touki Toussaint (acquired for Phil Gosselin and money), Tyrell Jenkins (acquired for Heyward), Max Fried (acquired for Justin Upton), Kolby Allard (Round 1 pick), Mike Soroka (Round 1 pick obtained from Ervin Santana signing with Minnesota), Ricardo Sanchez (acquired from the Angels in a trade almost nobody noticed) and Chris Ellis (acquired for Simmons). That’s 14 young pitchers, 12 acquired over the past 12 months.

Back to our premise that the Braves aren’t stupid: Having just watched their big-league club finish last in the majors in runs, they know they need hitting. That’s why they traded Hector Olivera, whom they envision as a middle-of-the-order complement to Freeman. And that’s why they’re not trading Freeman. They need him to anchor a lineup that is otherwise unproved at best and awful at worst. (As noted in Sunday’s AJC, Simmons is a fabulous defender who had regressed as a hitter.)

I heard the rumor that the Braves were shopping Freeman early Friday but dismissed it. You’ll note that I did not dismiss the previous day’s Simmons rumor. I’d been led to believe by a credible source that Simmons was no longer deemed indispensable. I’ve been led to believe that Freeman still is.

Braves fans react to Simmons trade

The Braves' trade of Gold Glove shortstop Andrelton Simmons to the Los Angeles Angels was met with some resentment and acceptance from the faithful.

Below is just a sampling of the more than 400 comments readers posted to initial report detailing a the move which Simmons to the Angels in exchange for veteran shorststop Erick Aybar and the Angels’ top two pitching prospects, left-hander Sean Newcomb, 22, and Chris Ellis, 23.

I just don't get it... I've been following the Bravos since my childhood (over 40 years now) and the trades they've made in the last couple absolutely befuddle me. If there weren't a new park on the horizon, I'd swear the ownership had intentions of moving the team to a new city soon. I honestly believe the nice young lady who does janitorial duties where I work could make better decisions regarding the team's future, and she only recently gained her citizenship (although she speaks no English, and has no idea who George H. Ruth was). I for one eagerly anticipate each new season with the hope that this band of newcomers will exceed all expectations, but on this November 12th, I'm not so certain about the 2016 season. My new bride is from Houston, and even though she is/was a Braves fan, it may be time to find someone else to support. Absolutely nauseating.- Aubieman

John Hart has built 2 different WS contending teams. I think he knows a little more than you do. - kerryb

An aging 2b who will give up more runs with his defense than he will drive in with his bat. And pitchers who are 2-3 years away from making it to the bigs. Once they make it and have a little success, they will be traded away as well.- Yuuup

This is a good trade. Everybody calm down. Love Simba but offensively he can't hit. We get Angels top 2 pitching prospects and a veteran 2b.-Harry the Hawk

What in the heck!?!?! Have the Braves brass lost their minds? Can't wait to hear the justification behind this brainless move. How do you take an All Star SS, who's on payroll for a reasonable price, and trade him for good for nothing, unproven players? I get it, they think that Winter of 16 they start offloading all this "young" talent for a full team and contend in 17 but it won't happen that way. Look how long it took the Royals and Astros! Dumb, dumb, dumb!!!!!!! Quit sending me emails and letters about season tickets until you have a new owner, GM, and Manager. - RD77

I have never seen a franchise trade away virtually an entire team in two years and expecting to be a contender (in 2017). Funny thing is they had a lot of talent to begin with. They didn't pay McCann to stay, so they now suck at the catcher position. They have nothing at 2nd base, now at shortstop. nothing at 3rd base and one outfielder who has 1-2 good seasons left. Someone please tell me how we are going to transform this into a contending ball club in two years. NO WAY will this be done. Enjoy the new stadium lol. - MURedhawk

You all will be eating crow and packing the seats in a couple of years. - kerryb

The Braves of the 70's annihilated their farm system in hopes to have a couple of good years. By the late seventies they finally decided to stop being idiots and build for long term success by trading away questionable vets for promising players. It took a while but the Braves had a 20 year run because of the same type of move as above. Simmons was my favorite remaining Brave and it sucks to lose him, but there is wisdom in these moves. Would you prefer they just sit still and continue to fall further behind the Mets, Marlins, and Nats?- KeepinItSimple

Just finish it off and trade Freddie Freeman for another young pitcher coming off Tommy John surgery.- Jetiredo

FREE FREDDIE! - DawgDadII

Memories of bus crash still fresh for Braves minor leaguers

By David O'Brien - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

GLENDALE, Ariz. — The death last week of 29-year-old former Braves pitcher Tommy Hanson was a reminder of how fleeting life can be. But for a group of Braves minor leaguers, something occurred last summer that already made them appreciate that axiom.

A bus carrying the Braves’ advanced Single-A Carolina Mudcats team ran off a road into a ditch and flipped on its side during the early morning hours May 12 in Columbus County, N.C. The harrowing accident sent seven players and an athletic trainer to the hospital and eventually landed six players on the disabled list, including top pitching prospect Lucas Sims and third base/outfield prospect Dustin Peterson.

Pitcher Tyler Brosius missed the rest of the season with a concussion and unspecified arm injuries, while the others eventually returned from the DL. The injuries forced the Braves to scramble and bring up players from low-A Rome to fill in, setting back both teams for some time.

Still, the Braves and Mudcats, who had 33 of their players and staff members on the ill-fated bus, felt extremely fortunate no one was killed or severely injured.

“I had my first DL stint and went through rehab for a hip contusion,” said Sims, who spent six weeks on the DL, then pitched better after returning than he had before the accident. “I just had to make sure it was all OK because of all the muscles that are connected through there. But it was more about, you learn that there’s bigger things in life. It could’ve been worse. Everyone was OK.

“You look back at (the accident) and one weird movement, something could have happened and my career could have been over.”

Sims, a first-round draft pick out of Brookwood High School in 2012, is among a group of those bus-crash players who’ve been back playing together in the Arizona Fall League for the past month. The Braves sent seven players — pitchers Sims, Dan Winkler, Mauricio Cabrera, Andrew Thurman, outfielder Connor Lien, shortstop Johan Camargo, catcher Joe Odom — to play for the AFL’s Peoria Javelinas.

The only one of the group that didn’t play for the Mudcats last season was Winkler, a Rule 5 draft pick who made his major league debut in September after coming back from Tommy John elbow surgery. Most of the others were sent to the AFL for more at-bats or innings after having their season disrupted by the bus accident.

The crash, which happened at about 3:45 a.m. while most on the bus were asleep, is a frequent topic of discussion among the Mudcats contingent in Arizona.

“I was fortunate enough to just come out of there with a couple of bumps and bruises,” Lien said. “We were all fortunate enough to get out of there alive. It reminded me of baseball and how quickly it can humble you. You can be on top of the world one day and be out of baseball the next, so it just makes you appreciate every moment we have between the lines.”

Winkler has shared a rental house in Arizona with Sims, Odom and Thurman. At 25, Winkler is a few years older than most others in the AFL. He’s been impressed by the maturity of the players who were on that bus and thinks what they went through together impacted them.

“They talk about it a lot,” Winkler said. “The mental aspect, just missing that much time and having to be here (in Arizona) now, it is a grind. Especially for guys who’ve gone through a whole season, it’s a grind. Mentally, to just get over that hump, I think it’s very impressive. They talk about (the accident) a lot, how scary it was.”

Odom said, “It was crazy how quick it happened. We were standing on the side of the road and guys were saying how lucky we all were. We had a couple of guys like Brosius who was pretty injured, and some guys that we really put it into perspective that we were all very lucky just to come out with minor scrapes and bruises.

“It made you realize, this is a great opportunity that we have, and it can be taken away in a split second. So, make the most of it while we’re here.”

Most players were asleep and woke only when the bus had left the road and was rolling on its side.

“(Sims) said he was coming out of the restroom when the bus just flipped,” said Javelinas pitching coach Gabe Luckert, the Braves’ low-A Rome pitching coach last season. “He didn’t know what was going on, and all of a sudden. … He said, ‘I thought we were going down somewhere.’ It’s something you don’t want to go through.”

Sims recalled the accident and the immediate aftermath.

“I called (my parents) and said, hey, don’t freak out, I’m OK, but I’m in the hospital right now,” Sims said. “They hadn’t heard about it because it was so late. I got to the hospital probably about 4:30, 5 in the morning. It was a mess.”

Some players described it as a surreal, confusing, terrifying moment. Six months later, the memories remain fresh. As does their belief that they were more than fortunate the accident didn’t end tragically.

“My head was against a window on the side of the bus the crash was on,” Odom said. “When I came up and came to, I was standing on dirt because the window and everything had blown out. It was a wild experience, for sure. I actually came away with nothing (no injuries). The wind got knocked out of me and I had contusions, but other than that it was nothing.

“So, like I said, definitely God’s hand in that.”

Said Luckert: “I heard a story of Connor Lien, how when they flew out to the Fall League, Connor was scared to death. When they landed here, they asked him and he said, ‘I was trembling, I kept thinking about that bus crash in Carolina.’ But Connor was the one that told me, ‘Once we got out of the bus, we were like, OK, we’re alive. We get a second opportunity.’”

Braves prospect Cabrera brought 102-mph heat to Arizona

By David O'Brien - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

PHOENIX — Hard-throwing — make that extremely hard-throwing — Braves prospect Mauricio Cabrera created some buzz in his first few outings in the Arizona Fall League. But it was during an Oct. 28 home game in Peoria when scouts really started scribbling notes and sending texts about what they were seeing.

Pitching for the Peoria Javelinas, Cabrera didn’t just hit triple-digits with his fastball. He threw 102 mph multiple times during a perfect inning with two strikeouts against the Salt River Rafters. At least one scout clocked a 103-mph pitch from Cabrera that day and others have reported 103-mph readings from him on a few other occasions.

“Oh, yeah, he got guys’ attention,” said Gabe Luckert, the Braves’ Single-A Rome pitching coach, who has served in that capacity for Peoria this fall. “He struck out the first batter on four pitches and three of them were fastballs — all 100 miles an hour. You could look back and see all the scouts looking at each other and checking the radar guns. It was great. It was amazing to see.”

Former Phillies scout Therron Brookish, who has filed weekly scouting reports from the AFL for Baseball America, was at Peoria that day.

“Scouts at the Arizona Fall League get used to seeing pitchers throw in the mid-90s, especially right-handers,” Brookish wrote. “When Mauricio Cabrera unleashes his first pitch at 99 mph, that gets some attention from scouts in attendance. Cabrera sat at 100-102 mph in his outing Wednesday against the Rafters. Built similar to Joba Chamberlain, Cabrera is a strong, thick-bodied righthander with a power arm. Throwing effortlessly from a three-quarters slot, he dialed up 102 on four to five pitches, routinely reaching triple digits.”

One unofficial count had Cabrera with 32 pitches of 100 mph or higher through eight AFL appearances entering the weekend and the final week of games. That was about three-quarters of the total number of triple-digit pitches thrown by all pitchers in the prospect-laden league.

Cabrera has, in the baseball vernacular, “easy gas,” He throws very hard and does it without maximum effort.

“He can be unreal,” said Lucas Sims, one of the Braves’ highest-rated pitching prospects and a Peoria teammate this fall. “Just like all the guys here, if we had it figured out, we’d be in the big leagues. But we don’t, so … he’s been working hard. It’s been fun to watch.”

Cabrera, who turned 22 in September, has pitched five minor league seasons since signing with the Braves as a Dominican teen, including four seasons in the U.S. He reached Double-A for the first time last summer, his progression slowed by command issues. The Braves moved him from starting to relieving in his third season.

He has a 4.35 ERA in 113 career games (50 starts) in the minors, with 275 strikeouts and 174 walks in 322 2/3 innings. His strikeout rate has climbed as he’s grown and last season he had 53 strikeouts and 35 walks in 48 1/3 innings in 36 appearances, including 13 at Double-A Mississippi.

“He’s a special arm,” Braves general manager John Coppolella said. “He’s 98-102 (mph), but there’s not a lot of effort. He’s easy. It’s like he’s playing catch and, boom, 102.”

He’s still a work-in-progress, as his 6.97 ERA and .298 opponents’ average through Saturday against tougher competition in the AFL could attest. But when Cabrera is locked in and throwing strikes, his potential seems limitless.

After allowing six hits, five earned runs and one walk with only two strikeouts in 2 1/3 innings over his first two AFL appearances, Cabrera in his next six gave up six hits and three earned runs with four walks and 10 strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings. He said he’s gained a lot from side work with Luckert.

“I’m working here on my fastball command, pitching down (in the zone),” Cabrera said, “and working on my breaking ball.”

Luckert said: “We’ve been working on minor stuff — staying closed in his delivery, direction to the plate and his fastball command, which is obviously something that he needs to improve. But he’s way better now than when he was during the season. He’s developing a breaking ball. He hasn’t been able to accomplish that in the past two years. He’s trying to develop a consistent breaking ball that can go along with the changeup.”

Cabrera’s changeup is a good one and the separation between his fastball and changeup is about 10 mph — a good range for most pitchers. But when you throw as hard as he does, it means his changeup is fastball velocity for many pitchers.

The Braves believe an improved curveball can be a difference-maker for Cabrera.

“Mostly, it’s to give him something a little softer, to take hitters off-balance a little more,” Luckert said. “The fastball runs 100 miles an hour and the changeup is 90-93, which is great, but we want something a little slower. Not that it’s going to be way slow, but in the games that he’s thrown it, he’s been around 83, 84 miles an hour. So that will give him a little bit more differential and a different view of the changeup, too.”

Liberty Media’s game plan: sell stock in Braves

By J. Scott Trubey and Tim Tucker - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Investors — and baseball fans — will be able to buy and sell shares of stock in the Atlanta Braves next year under an unusual plan unveiled Thursday by team owner Liberty Media.

Liberty, a publicly traded company with a range of media and entertainment assets, said it will create a tracking stock that will provide a way to invest in the Braves’ financial performance separate from the rest of the conglomerate.

The Colorado-based company will continue to control the Braves under the plan, but the new stock — expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange in the first half of next year — will make the Braves one of the few sports franchises with publicly listed shares allowing for direct investment.

“It’s a Brave new world,” Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei said in announcing the plan to investors.

The tracking stock, designated as the “Liberty Braves Group,” will include the Braves and the team’s interests in the new SunTrust Park and adjacent mixed-use development in Cobb County.

J.C. Bradbury, a sports economist at Kennesaw State University, said some investors could view the stock as a play on the real-estate project and others could see it as an extension of being a fan.

“Fans could say, ‘Hey, I own a piece of the Braves,’” Bradbury said.

Liberty said its current shareholders will get corresponding shares in the new Braves stock and two other tracking stocks also announced Thursday.

Liberty said it also plans to raise $200 million from a rights offering of additional Braves shares. That money will be used in large part to repay approximately $165 million borrowed by the Braves from Liberty for the stadium project, the company said.

Initial share prices haven’t been determined.

The Braves have been part of publicly traded companies for decades — first Turner Broadcasting, then Time Warner and since 2007 Liberty Media. But this will be the first time the Braves have been a stand-alone stock, meaning more extensive financial disclosures about the team will be made to Wall Street and the public.

Among the few publicly traded sports franchises are basketball’s New York Knicks and hockey’s New York Rangers, both part of Madison Square Garden Co., and English soccer powerhouse Manchester United. Shares of the Green Bay Packers have long been publicly owned, but those are not tradeable and fall more in the category of fan support than investment.

Shares in baseball’s Cleveland Indians, basketball’s Boston Celtics and hockey’s Florida Panthers have been publicly traded in the past, but no longer are.

Long-time Braves season-ticket holder John Shafer said he would be interested in buying shares in the team.

“This would really give me and others an opportunity to be a part of the Braves organization,” Shafer said. “You’re not going to have a voice or anything like that, but it would be fun more than anything else. My investment would probably be minimal, but I would welcome the opportunity.”

Liberty Media, controlled by legendary dealmaker John Malone, is well known in the investment world for its complex financial maneuvers.

In addition to the Braves stock, the company plans a tracking stock tied to its 60-percent ownership stake in satellite radio provider Sirius XM and another tied to its stakes in Live Nation Entertainment and other assets.

The plans are subject to approval by Liberty Media shareholders and other conditions.

The Braves declined to comment on its owner’s plans.

David Damiani, a partner at Atlanta-based independent investment advisory firm Balentine, said tracking stocks are relatively rare, but allow companies to try to “unlock unrecognized value within the organization.”

“This is a classic example of the parts being greater than a whole,” he said.

Damiani said his firm doesn’t recommend specific stocks, but as a sports fan he’s intrigued by Liberty Media’s move.

“This is probably more a novelty than a pure long-term investment,” he said.

But Malone, Liberty’s chairman, said the financial potential of the Braves’ stadium and mixed-use development project shouldn’t be overlooked.

“Let’s don’t underestimate that this is a pretty material real-estate asset that is attached, which could get larger,” Malone said.

Liberty suggested the Braves are worth more than the $1.15 billion recently estimated by Forbes.

“Valuing teams is not a simple process,” Maffei said. “The numbers have gone up substantially recently. … Traditionally they have been valued at certain multiples of revenue … and with our new stadium we’re going to substantially expand, we believe, the revenues we have as a team.”

Maffei said Liberty’s goal is to reduce the discount at which it believes its stock currently trades in relation to the value of underlying assets, as well as to provide greater investor choice and to raise capital in a targeted way.

A tracking stock isn’t quite a spinoff where a new publicly traded company is created, experts said. The stock is still joined with that of the parent company, which maintains operational control it wouldn’t have if it created a completely new public firm. But it allows investors to more closely follow the performance of the business unit separate from the overarching corporation.

A company also would take a tax hit in spinning off a company that it wouldn’t incur by creating a tracking stock.

Jeff Francoeur recalls game against Brookwood

By I.J. Rosenberg - For the AJC

Jeff Francoeur won four state championships at Parkview High School, two in baseball and two in football. But his most memorable game came as a junior in football during a regular-season game in 2000 against rival Brookwood.

The game was played Oct. 20 at Brookwood, and at the time the Panthers were ranked No. 7 while Brookwood was fifth. Both teams were 6-0.

“I remember they had to close down Five Forks Trickum Road for that game because there were so many people coming to the stadium,’’ Francoeur said. “I remember walking down the hill to the field for the game and seeing all those people. We had the game won, but they came back late and kicked a field goal to tie it.”

Before more than 11,000 people in Lawrenceville, the game went into overtime tied at 10-10, with Francoeur dominating as a junior on offense and defense. The overtime rules then were two five-minute overtimes and if the score was tied at the end, the win would go to the team that had the deepest penetration in the opposition’s territory.

Brookwood had two possessions and scored first and made the extra point, going up 17-10. Parkview, also with two possessions, then converted on a fourth down in its own territory on its second possession and drove to the Brookwood 10. On second down a Broncos defensive back dropped an interception in the end zone.

Then on fourth-and-goal from the 10, Parkview quarterback Clint Simmons rolled right and out of trouble and threw a pass that bounced off the shoulder of a diving receiver Joey Sturdivant and fell into the arms of tight end Kirk Alexander in the end zone.

Said Brookwood coach Dave Hunter at the time, “The Brookwood people say it hit the ground. The Parkview people say it hit a helmet or something. I don’t know.”

Parkview had to go for the two-point conversion because Brookwood had the deepest penetration. The Panthers would score on a play where Francoeur crossed with Alexander, who would catch the pass for the win.

“I remember on that last play Kirk spiking the ball,’’ Francouer said. “We had pulled the game out of our butts. I remember the Brookwood fans in overtime ready to storm the field because they thought they had it won. It was very gratifying to beat those guys like that.’’

Catching up with Jeff Francoeur

By I.J. Rosenberg - For the AJC

What he did: When it comes to the best high school athlete ever to play in Georgia, a strong case can be made for Jeff Francoeur. Sorry Herschel Walker fans, Francoeur not only led his team to state baseball championships at the highest level but also did so on the football field.

Growing up in Gwinnett County and the Parkview High School district, Francoeur began going to Panthers football games when he was in the fifth grade.

From 1999-2002 at Parkview as an outfielder and pitcher, he led the baseball team to two state titles, his junior and senior seasons and holds school records in career at-bats (404), runs scored (159), home runs (55), total bases (378) and second in hits (179). In his senior season during the final best-of-three championship series against Lassiter, he had six hits in seven at-bats, with four home runs and seven RBIs. He scored five runs and also collected the win in both ends of the doubleheader as he came on to pitch relief in the last two innings of each game.

Now on to football at Parkview. As a receiver and defensive back, he also led his team to state championship titles his junior and senior seasons. Against Harrison in the state title game in 2000 as a junior, he caught a 69-yard touchdown and had two interceptions in the 13-0 win. Then came his senior season against Northside-Warner Robins, when in a 12-7 win he caused a fumble late in the game to preserve the victory.

While most colleges offered him scholarships in baseball and football, Georgia was one of the schools that was late to the table, and Francoeur signed with Clemson. But it was apparent that he would never play college ball, as he was drafted by the Braves in the first round of the 2002 MLB Draft (23rd overall) and went to the club’s advanced rookie league team in Danville, Va., where he hit .327 in 38 games with eight home runs and 31 RBIs. He quickly advanced through the minor league system, going to Single-A Rome in 2003, then high Single-A Myrtle Beach, Double-A Greenville and then Double-A Mississippi to start the 2005 season. He was named the top prospect in the organization and was called up to Atlanta in July 2005, along with close friend and catcher Brian McCann. He had a tremendous debut, hitting a three-run homer against the Chicago Cubs in his first game and hit .360 in his first 37 games.

On Aug. 9, 2005, Sports Illustrated put him on the cover of the magazine. In 67 games his rookie season, he hit .300 with 14 home runs and 45 RBIs. A free swinger, he didn’t get his first official walk until his 128th plate appearance. He had 13 outfield assists despite playing less than half the season and finished third in the rookie of the year voting.

During his first full season in 2006, the first of two consecutive seasons playing all 162 games, he hit .260 with 29 homers and 103 RBIs and in May hit a walk-off grand slam against the Washington Nationals. He played in the World Baseball Classic on Team USA that year, along with Braves teammate Chipper Jones. The next season he hit .293 with 19 home runs and 105 RBIs and won the Gold Glove for his work in the outfield.

But in 2008, he began to slump at the plate and in July was sent to Double-A Mississippi to work with his old hitting coach Phillip Wellman. He was quickly called back, but couldn’t get his stroke down at the plate, ending the season hitting .239 with 11 homers and 71 RBIs.

It didn’t get much better the next season and he was traded July 10, 2009, to the Mets for outfielder Ryan Church. He did hit .311 in 45 games that season with the Mets, but is remembered most in the Big Apple for becoming the second player in major league history to hit into a game-ending unassisted triple play, which he did Aug. 23 against the Phillies.

Since the Mets, he has played for the Rangers, Royals (hit .285 with 20 homers, 87 RBIs and 22 stolen bases in 2011), Giants, Indians and Padres, where he spent most of his time at Triple-A El Paso and almost decided to retire.

But last November, he signed a minor league contract with the Phillies and played in 119 games in Philadelphia in 2015, hitting .258 with 13 homers and 45 RBIs. He also came on and pitched in relief in one game.

Where he lives: Francoeur lives in Suwanee with Catie, his high school sweetheart and wife of eight years. They have a daughter Emma Cate and just recently a son Brayden.

What he does now: Francoeur, now 31, would like to play four more years and then said he expects to stay in baseball, hoping someday to become a manager. Also, he is a very good golfer, holding a 2-handicap.

On playing high school football at Parkview: “This is such a football rich state, and Friday nights are so big. I remember going to every Parkview football game from fifth grade until I graduated. Our team stayed together the whole time, and there were not a lot of schools like that. I think you see that in places like Colquitt County, and we had a special bunch. Then playing in front of 10,000 people was incredible. Those three hours we played on Friday night were something special, and that rivalry we had with Brookwood was hard to beat.’’

On not playing football in college: “That is one thing I have never regretted. I do wonder what it would have been like playing in front of 90,000 people, but I have got to know a lot of football players that played in college and the NFL and a lot of them have a hard time walking, so I think I made the right decision.’’

On why Georgia didn’t offer him a scholarship: “They got in there late. It was weird. Not sure why, but by the time they jumped in I had all my visits lined up. My visits were Clemson, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, North Carolina and Florida State. I went to Clemson, Tech and Notre Dame and didn’t make the other two because by then I decided it would be Clemson. But I told (coach) Tommy Bowden that I probably was going to play baseball.’’

On being the hero in his last state championship baseball game of his high school career: “What I remember most about that last game is when I went out to the outfield for the last time I saw Pat Gillick (then Seattle Mariners general manager and now Phillies president) sitting behind center field and after I hit my final home run I saw Braves scout Al Goetz standing behind home plate.’’

On being drafted by the Braves: “It was so cool growing up in Atlanta and then getting taken by the Braves. I had been going to games for years and now I had the chance to play for Bobby Cox and play with John Smoltz. The whole thing was sort of surreal.’’

On his favorite moment with the Braves: “It was the chance to go to the playoffs when I was 21 (2005 against Houston). I would also say that walk-off grand slam home run I hit off Washington (in 2006) because that was the only time that my grandfather got to see me play with the Braves. In fact, we were getting beat and my father and grandfather were going to leave early, but my father talked him into staying.’’

On being of the cover of SI: “It’s hard to explain how exciting that was … really is.’’

On being traded to the Mets: “I was slumping and it’s a business and I understood. Look, I would have loved to stay and play my whole career in Atlanta, but it didn’t work out that way. I know when I was playing in the American League it was tough because we didn’t come to Atlanta, but last year in Philly we got the chance to come twice, which was nice.’’

On almost retiring after the 2014 season: “I was at Class AAA El Paso getting up and taking 6 a.m. flights. It wasn’t any fun anymore, I had lost some of my love for the game, and I came home last summer and thought about hanging it up. But it was my wife that kicked me in the butt and told me to get back out there. I started working again and had a good season. I started having fun again.’’

On how many more years he will play: “I don’t know. I will be 32 in January. I would like to play four more years and I want to stay in the game, whether it be broadcasting and manage some day down the road, but not right away.’’

On his well-documented close relationship with his father: “It is so different now. We used to always talk about the games and at-bats, but he is 64 now and has six grandchildren. It’s more buddy-buddy now. But every once in a while he will ask me why I swung at that pitch.’’

911 call: Tommy Hanson’s dog let friends know something was wrong

By Alexis Stevens - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Early Sunday, Tommy Hanson was asleep and snoring in a basement room in his friends’ Coweta County home. One of the homeowners went downstairs early to let Hanson’s barking dogs outside, she told a 911 operator.

It was one of those dogs that sent Clare Jordan back downstairs, where she noticed Hanson didn’t look right.

“I just came down here again because one of his dogs was barking and I wanted to make sure everything was OK,” Jordan told the operator. “And he just didn’t look right.”

Jordan’s frantic call to 911, released Friday, offered few clues to what may have caused the former Braves pitcher to lose consciousness and later die, the following night, at Piedmont Hospital. But it detailed the horrifying minutes after Hanson was found, and his friends’ efforts to revive him.

Hanson, 29, was spending the weekend with his friend, Brandon Bond, when he was found unresponsive Sunday morning. It was Bond’s girlfriend, Jordan, who called 911 to report Hanson’s face was discolored and his hands were cold.

The 911 operator instructed Jordan to begin chest compressions on the 6-foot-6 Hanson, and Jordan is heard sobbing while following the directions.

“Keep pushing, OK?” the operator said.

Jordan told the operator she knew Hanson had been drinking alcohol the night before, but that he appeared fine earlier that morning when she went downstairs.

A Coweta County sheriff’s deputy and paramedics arrived at the Potts Road home, near Newnan, within minutes Sunday. Hanson was first taken to Piedmont Newnan Hospital and then Piedmont Hospital’s main campus in Atlanta, where he died late Monday.

A preliminary report released by the sheriff’s office listed “overdose” as the possible crime, but had no details. On Wednesday, the sheriff’s office said there was no indication or suspicion of foul play.

“While at the emergency room the reporting officer was part of a conversation with emergency room personnel which led this officer to believe an overdose was a possibility,” the sheriff’s office said in an emailed statement. “Law enforcement acknowledges this will have to be determined by medical personnel as to the cause of death.”

The GBI conducted an autopsy on Hanson, but the results will not be released until toxicology testing is completed, which could take up to 12 weeks.

Hanson’s funeral was held Friday morning at Cathedral of Christ the King on Peachtree Road in Atlanta. Among the friends and family members attending were several former and current Braves players, including Freddie Freeman, Brian McCann and Kris Medlen. Former Braves manager Bobby Cox, current manager Fredi Gonzalez, pitching coach Roger McDowell, former general manager Frank Wren and current general manager John Coppolella also attended.

Infrastructure support for Braves stadium will cost millions

By Dan Klepal - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

As the concrete and steel of SunTrust Park rises in the Cobb County skyline, the amount of taxpayer funds that will be invested on the ground around the stadium is coming into sharper focus.

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution examination has found that the baseball stadium and mixed-use development will require tens of millions of additional taxpayer dollars for roads, bridges, public safety and foregone property taxes — expenses beyond the roughly $400 million for construction and maintenance.

In fact, road projects in Cumberland conceived since the stadium announcement will amount to more than $41 million. Those expenses — and others — will be paid by a combination of local, state and federal money.

And that is an incomplete total that does not include the $3.4 million for buses or $1.2 million annual operational expense for a new people-moving tram around the stadium area; and only allows $9 million for the bridge over I-285 for pedestrians and the circulator.

The AJC has reported that construction of the bridge alone could exceed $9 million, and has identified additional expenses with that project not included in the estimate — $3.5 million to reinforce a parking deck, $2 million for land purchases, and $1 million that has already been spent for design and engineering. The bridge project is currently on hold for further study.

When asked if there could be more infrastructure costs associated with the stadium between now and its opening in April 2017, Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee responded: “Do you anticipate more rain in April than we have had in November?”

There could easily be additional projects, some with big price tags.

For example, it is still unclear how the county’s $14 million commitment of special purpose sales tax revenue will be used. That money is in addition to the county’s funding for construction and is dedicated to infrastructure projects around SunTrust Park.

“To date, neither the infrastructure projects nor the funding sources have been … identified,” Cobb transportation director Faye DiMassimo said.

Then there is the $10 million in property taxes from the Cumberland Community Improvement District for infrastructure improvements. The Cumberland CID is a 6.5-square-mile business district that raises funds by taxing property owners there. The CID’s annual budget is about $5 million.

Tad Leithead, the CID’s chairman, said its contribution is being provided in annual $2.5 million installments directly to the Braves, and the team is not required to report back how the money is used. The district will make its second payment in December.

“Our requirement was that the funds be spent on purposes for which CID funds can be spent — essentially infrastructure … in public right of way and in keeping with our purposes,” Leithead said.

Unreported costs

Cobb isn’t alone in shelling out big money around a new stadium.

Harvard Professor Judith Grant Long’s 2013 book, “Public/Private Partnerships for Major League Sports Facilities,” found that infrastructure, public safety, operations, foregone rent and other “unreported costs” have added an average $89 million in public cash to each of the 121 stadiums and arenas in use during the 2010 seasons.

That’s an extra $10 billion in related costs not typically associated with the country’s biggest stadium projects.

“Public partners pay far more to participate in the development of major league sports facilities than is commonly understood,” Long wrote in the book. “… The partnerships underlying these deals are in fact highly uneven, with the public paying an estimated 78 percent share of the costs.”

Leithead acknowledged that much of the investments made in the Cumberland area will benefit the Braves, but said “the infrastructure is there for use by everybody, every day.”

“By making a $1.2 billion investment in the community over a three-year period, which is just unprecedented, that has had the impact of drawing a lot of economic development and a lot of additional infrastructure investment,” Leithead said.

In addition to the $672 million SunTrust Park, the Braves areprivately funding a $450 million mixed-use development called The Battery Atlanta.

Lee said the type of development originally zoned for the Braves site would have required similar, if not more, investments in infrastructure. But that assumes the entire site would have been sold and developed all at once.

“Infrastructure improvements associated with this development would have been required for any development on this site,” Lee wrote in an email.

The controversial $500 million bus rapid transit project is another example of additional spending that could happen because of the Braves.

One of the county’s contracts with the team requires it to use “best efforts” to secure funding for rapid transit, which would build new stations and a dedicated lane for buses down Cobb Parkway, past SunTrust Park and on to MARTA’s Arts Center Station.

The county would need a federal grant to cover about half the costs, and Lee has promised a ballot referendum before moving forward with the project. The county is currently awaiting the Federal Transit Administration to finish review of a report on rapid transit’s environmental impacts.

J.C. Bradbury, a sports economist at Kennesaw State University, said related stadium costs are difficult to count accurately because it involves projects that sometimes have been planned for years, but which take on greater priority when a stadium is built.

“But there’s no doubt that SunTrust Park is influencing the timing,” he said.

An example of that is the plan to build a $4.3 million firehouse in Cumberland. That project had been stalled since the Great Recession, but will now be constructed with 2016 special sales tax revenue.

“The station was planned since 2004 when we anticipated growth in the area, but due to the economic slowdown we held on to those plans,” Cobb Public Safety Director Sam Heaton said. “Now that we are seeing that growth, which does include the mixed-use around the stadium and additional offices and hotels, we need to add that station.”

Long counts foregone property tax revenue as a cost to municipal governments that help build stadiums. In Cobb, the stadium would generate about $7.9 million in annual taxes if it were not owned by the government, which is common in stadium deals.

John Vrooman, a sports economist at Vandervilt University, said it’s fair to count lost taxes as a cost, and he disputes the claim that the venues generate big payoffs in new sales tax.

“The total amount of tax liability in a local economy is constant and so the tax exemption for one firm results in the zero-sum increased tax liability for someone else,” Vrooman said. “It is also a fallacy to argue that the collection of sales taxes on incremental sales at the stadium that otherwise would not have occurred is money for nothing.

“Sales tax incentives … in one place are simultaneously sales tax disincentives someplace else.”

Derek Schiller, the Braves executive vice president for sales and marketing, said the development has already paid off for the community with increased property values and about $500 million in planned development.

Leithead, of the Cumberland CID, agreed and said the team’s mixed-use development will generate millions in revenue for the county and school district, because the Braves have not requested a standard 10-year tax abatement for which they would surely qualify.

“There’s a payback,” Leithead said.

Fox Sports

Braves trade star shortstop Andrelton Simmons to Angels

Atlanta traded the two-time Gold Glove winner to the Los Angeles Angels for an impressive prospect haul and veteran shortstop Erick Aybar.

By Staff

Andrelton Simmons is on his way to Los Angeles.

The Atlanta Braves traded their 26-year-old star shortstop, the two-time National League Gold Glove winner and arguably the top defensive player in baseball, to the Los Angeles Angels for two highly rated prospects and veteran shortstop Erick Aybar, the teams announced on Thursday. Braves catching prospect Jose Briceno was also sent to Los Angeles, while Atlanta received $2.5 million in cash.

The prospects included in the deal are Sean Newcomb and Chris Ellis, two highly regarded arms in the Angels organization. Both former college arms pitched at the Double-A level last season and were considered the top two prospects in the Angels organization — adding more depth to arguably the deepest pitching farm system in the majors.

"It's a very tough trade, a painful trade, as there have been other tough, painful trades," Braves general manager John Coppolella said on a conference call. "We did not want to trade Andrelton Simmons. But we felt that this was too good for us to pass up. We felt like we were getting so much talent back in this deal that if we didn't make this trade it would be very tough for us to keep going forward with our plans."

Newcomb is the headliner.

The 6-foot-5 left-hander rocketed up through the Angels system in 2015, posting a sub-3.00 ERA at each stop. The former 15th overall draft pick has drawn comparisons to Jon Lester and adds a rare southpaw to Atlanta's overflowing surplus of high-ceiling arms in the farm system. (Manny Banuelos and Max Fried, two pitchers who have undergone Tommy John surgery, are the only two left-handed prospects close to the majors for Atlanta. Kolby Allard, the team's 2015 first-round pick, has shown tremendous promise but is only 18 years old.) Newcomb posted 168 strikeouts in just 136 minor-league innings last season.

Ellis, a third-round pick in the 2014 draft, is a 6-foot-4 right-hander who posted a 3.92 ERA in Double-A last season.

Trading Simmons, one of the organization's last remaining pieces of a promising young corps along with first baseman Freddie Freeman and starter Julio Teheran, was never going to be simple. He's a fan favorite and perhaps the greatest defensive player of his generation at a premium position on a team-friendly deal.

Simmons was signed through the 2020 season, and while the contract escalates over time he was still a bargain given his season-by-season value.

The rebuilding move appears to be a clear indicator that Coppolella and Atlanta's front office had concerns over Simmons' bat. While the glove provided more than enough value at his current salary, the former second-round pick has hit below league average for three straight seasons — and for a team that ranks dead last in runs scored over the past two years, that's become an issue. The Braves simply have had too many holes in the lineup to bury a defense-first shortstop at the bottom of the order.

"Andrelton is a very special player. He's one of my favorite players. He's a pure joy to watch play and he's a great person, too," Coppolella said. "But with where we're at as a team, having lost 97 games, we need more talent. Sometimes you can't get that talent right here, right now. But we think that all three players in this trade will have an impact on our major league team for the 2016 season."

Simmons' departure will not leave a gaping hole to be filled by the Braves' farm system, however, thanks to Aybar, the 31-year-old shortstop entering the final season of his contract. In terms of value, Simmons and Aybar have lined up over the past two seasons — both have posted a 5.2 WAR over that span — and if Aybar hits near his career averages he could provide an offensive upgrade for the 2016 roster.

Aybar's contract is worth $8.5 million next season.

"He was an All-Star player last year in 2014 and a former Gold Glove winner. A .276 lifetime hitter. A very, very good player and he will hit for us," Coppolella said of Aybar. "He will be a real good add for our team."

The inclusion of Aybar in the deal also buys the franchise one more year as it waits on top prospect Ozhaino Albies to develop in the minors. Albies could challenge for the Braves' everyday job at shortstop as early as 2017.

Trading young stars is difficult — and risky. If Simmons ever figures things out at the plate, he could become one of the most valuable players in baseball. That's the risk the Braves took on Thursday. Still, with two more promising arms in Newcomb and Ellis and a placeholder at short, Atlanta continues to compile assets for the future.

Braves GM Coppolella's first major move risky one in trading defensive wizard Simmons

Atlanta dealt Gold Glove-winning shortstop Andrelton Simmons to the Angels in a five-player deal that may define the early days of GM John Coppolella's career

By Cory McCartney

In terms of a first official deal as Braves general manager, it's hard to imagine John Coppolella pulling off anything more shocking.

Andrelton Simmons, the two-time Gold Glove-winning shortstop, who Wednesday received the Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Award, was traded a day later, shipped to the Angels in a five-player swap.

Coppolella already knows what you're thinking.

Less than a year after unloading Jason Heyward, Justin Upton, Evan Gattis and Craig Kimbrel, Atlanta has lost another one of its most recognizable faces in Simba, a perceived building block for its future and the reason babies are hoisted to the air in Turner Field while the 'Lion King' tune 'Circle of Life' blares.

The 37-year-old GM has a message.

"I am not afraid," Coppolella said by phone Thursday night. "Fans won't like this trade because they all love Simmons. I love Simmons too. He's fun to watch play. But we need more talent. We need to get better and this trade helps that happen."

Rumors started Wednesday night that the Braves were in talks with a National League West team, and considering Coppolella admitting after the season that the Dodgers wanted Simmons in the Hector Olivera deal, they seemed a logical fit.

They may have been among the teams in the mix -- there were 15 that the Braves spoke to -- but things only escalated with up to four of them. None of them, though, offered a big bat.

"Every single teams that called, the first words out of our mouths were 'We don't want to trade Andrelton Simmons and if we trade him we need to get exactly what we want,'" Coppolella said.

What they wanted was infielder Erick Aybar and pitching prospects Sean Newcomb and Chris Ellis, who Anaheim sent to Atlanta for Simmons and minor-league catcher Jose Briceno.

Newcomb -- a 6-foot-5 left-hander that had 168 strikeouts in 136 innings in 2015 -- is the game's 19th-ranked prospect per MLB.com, while Ellis -- 6-4 with a 3.90 ERA in 26 start last season -- was immediately plugged in as the Braves' eighth-best farm hand.

"It was really tough for us to us to trade away Andrelton, but we felt like we got so much talent back that we could not pass up this deal," Coppolella said.

What's undeniable is over the past three seasons, there hasn't been a better defender in baseball than Simmons.

His 77.5 defensive WAR over that span is more than 25 points higher than anyone else and with 94 defensive runs saved, he has 25 more than the next closest player (which happens to be Heyward).

But what's also undeniable -- and the long-standing narrative with Simmons -- is that his bat just hasn't caught up to that all-time glove.

Since his breakout year of '13, when he hit 17 homers, he's backpedaled, hitting seven in '14 and four this past season. While '15 did include a .265 average and .321 on-base percentage, which were his highest in any full major league season and he's never walked much, with a 6.1 career rate.

Coppolella was clear, though, that Simmons' offense -- or lack there of -- played no part in the level of return Atlanta expected for him.

"There were some teams that felt like they could sweep in and the fact that Andrelton wasn't hitting .300 or wasn't hitting.40 homers or anything like that, that they could get him at some sort of a lesser value," Coppolella said.

"We just wanted to show that we really value this player. We think he's a really good player and we wouldn't have sold low on him or trade him just to trade him."

Aybar, 31, was an All-Star in '14 and has hit at least 30 doubles in each of the past five seasons. The switch hitter had a .270/.301/.338 slash line this past year with 80 wRC+, but in the past three seasons he's had a positive dWAR just once, with a 14.6 in '14, and was at minus-0.4 in '15.

He can also become a free agent in 2017, while Simmons -- signed to a seven-year, $58 million deal -- is under club control until '21.

But for the here and now, Coppolella believes the risk is worth it given that Aybar brings what Simmons has yet to consistently deliver.

"You can make an argument that we are a team that can win more games with Aybar," Coppolella said. "He's a career .276 hitter and Simmons has never hit .276 in a full season. ... I think we traded defense for offense in this trade. The fact that we got two huge upside prospect arms is great. As far as 2016 I don't think this a big step back for this team."

Whatever impact Aybar makes, this was ultimately about further strengthening a farm system that entered the day ranked No. 2 by some services. Now? It may be the game's best.

To put into context how much the Braves have impacted their system in the last 12 months, eight of their top 10 prospects -- all but shortstop Ozhaino Albies and righty Lucas Sims -- were acquired in that span.

Albies, Coppolella said, could be up at some point in '16 despite his entering his age 19 season. But as for Opening Day, there will be a very different reality for the Braves at shortstop. It's one that, whether Simmons ever puts it together offensively in L.A. or not, or whether Newcomb and Ellis become key MLB pieces or not, will be tied to the nascent days of Atlanta's new GM.

Give John Coppolella this: he's already made his presence felt.

"If you want to start it out with a big trade, as it worked out that way for me ... I'm fine with that baptism by fire," he said.

Who did the Braves receive in return for Andrelton Simmons?

The Atlanta Braves received a big haul from the Los Angeles Angels for Andrelton Simmons.

Matt Kartozian / USA TODAY Sports

In the first blockbuster of the offseason, the Atlanta Braves swapped Andrelton Simmons to the Los Angeles Angels for shortstop Erick Aybar, two prospects in Sean Newcomb and Chris Ellis and $2.5 million cash.

To trade a player like Simmons, the Braves had to get a big haul: It was reported that the Braves were asking the New York Mets for either of their young arms plus outfielder Michael Conforto when discussing the All-Star shortstop.

Simmons has club control through the 2020 season and is owed $53 million over these next five seasons for an average annual value of $10.6 million. Taking into account the increasing free-agent contracts, that's a bargain for a player who is 26 years old and widely considered to be the best defensive player at a premium position.

Trading for prospects is always risky, but it seems as though the Braves did very well in this trade as Newcomb and Ellis were the two top prospects (pitching or otherwise) in the Angels system.

Newcomb, the Angels' first-round draft pick in 2014, is a 6-foot-5 lefty who has drawn comparisons to Chicago Cubs starter Jon Lester. Newcomb spent his first full season in the minors in 2015 and he absolutely dominated, pitching to a 2.85 ERA with 168 strikeouts in 136 innings across three levels, topping out at Double-A Arkansas.

The biggest knock against Newcomb is his control. Over those 136 innings, he walked 76 hitters including 24 in 36 innings in Double A. Still, his size, strength and mid-90s fastball all translate to a No. 1 or 2 at the top of the rotation.

Ellis was the Angels third-rounder in 2014 out of the University of Mississippi. He performed well in 2015, owning a 3.90 ERA in 26 starts, pitching 140 2/3 innings while striking out 132.

Of course, the Braves also received Aybar to fill the role at shortstop, although he is only under contract for the 2016 season. The 2014 All-Star has been with the Angels for parts of 10 years and is one of the more consistent hitters in the game, batting at least .270 with 30 doubles in each of the last five seasons.

With that one season under contract, though, it provides an interesting option for the Braves: Do they roll with Aybar for 2016 and hope top prospect Ozhaino Albies is ready to take the reigns in 2017? Or do they flip Aybar and sign another shortstop?

It's an intriguing situation for the Braves, but there's no doubting the potential of the two pitchers they received.

It should also be noted that it's been reported that Freddie Freeman is probably there to stay in Atlanta.

The Macon Telegraph

Andrelton Simmons trade part of Braves' rebuilding process

BY BILL SHANKS

It's never easy to trade a popular player. The Atlanta Braves have done that a lot in the past year. And as hard as it is for some to accept, they've made the right call each and every time.

Two seasons ago, the Braves were expected to do well. They had a stacked lineup, full of power and strikeouts. Injuries to Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy in spring training derailed the pitching staff. It turned out to not be a good mix of players, with the mediocre results showing in a 79-83 record.

The general manager, Frank Wren, was fired. The situation was bad. The farm system was depleted, and the Braves were saddled with numerous contracts of players who would never likely lead them to a World Series.

So they started over. The Braves told us they wanted to be competitive and yet restructure the organization from top to bottom. Well, the first part didn't go so well, as last season's team won only 67 games. The Braves had their worst season since 1990.

But the second part is a work in progress. They never used the word "rebuild," but that's exactly what's going on here. The Braves are rebuilding, which is something many fans have never been through in their life. They're been used to the Braves winning, not rebuilding.

That's what the Andrelton Simmons trade Thursday night was all about.

Simmons was a very popular player in Atlanta. He smiled all the time. He played hard. And about once a week, Simmons would make a defensive play that made us all go, "Wow!" We'll miss that.

Plus, Simmons was one of the remaining players people really believed they knew. There are not many players left who have been around for a while. With Simmons gone, 14 players from Atlanta's 2015 opening day roster are now gone. And of the players on the 2014 opening day roster, only two (Julio Teheran and Freddie Freeman) remain.

The players we've watched for years are now gone. Players kids looked up to are playing somewhere else. I had a friend with an 11-year-old son ask me Thursday night after the Simmons trade, "Who is going to be left that my son will actually know?"

Sure, that's hard to accept. But it's not like John Hart and John Coppolella broke up the 1927 New Yor Yankees. The group of players who had been assembled simply didn't work. So, they started over.

The Braves maintain, and I believe them, they did not want to trade Simmons. But when teams started calling, wondering if a team that is still a year or two away would need more talent, they had to listen. When the Angels offered their top two prospects -- both pitchers -- the Braves jumped at the deal.

And they should have. If they are going to rebuild, pitching has got to be at the forefront of the process. That's what the Braves did when they rebuilt the organization in the late-1980s. The results were 14 straight division titles and one World Series championship.

You can never have enough pitching. That's not my mantra; that's something everyone in baseball believes. The Braves are trying to test that theory by accumulating as many young pitchers as possible.

Atlanta got Sean Newcomb, a big left-hander who is compared to Jon Lester, and right-hander Chris Ellis in the deal. Ellis is considered a potential middle-of-the-rotation starter. Plus, veteran Erick Aybar will either replace Simmons at shortstop or be spun off in another deal for more young talent.

Simmons is a great defensive player, but his offensive issues limit his overall potential. The Braves simply took advantage of the tremendous value he had to get more players who fit what they are trying to do in their rebuilding project.

They are trying to be great again -- consistently great -- like the Braves teams were in the 1990s. This franchise hasn't won a postseason series since 2001, and all of the trades of the past 12 months have been made to try and break that streak. But to do that, we'll all have to find some new favorite players who will wear the Braves' uniform.

Baseball America

As Busy As They’ve Been, Braves Have Work Left To Do

By J.J. Cooper

Around baseball over the past decade, the Kansas City Royals have often been called the Atlanta Braves West.

The Royals general manager Dayton Moore came from Atlanta, as did some of his front office officials. And in the early years when the Royals were bereft of talent, many a released Braves minor leaguer found himself picked up by the Royals for a second chance.

Now the Braves are trying to follow the Royals’ recent path.

Coming into the 2011 season, the Royals had what was called the greatest farm system in memory. They were the first team to ever place nine players on the Baseball America Top 100 Prospects list. Those prospects, helped by some excellent trades and free agent signings, were the core of the team that won the World Series this year.

Atlanta is in the second year of a massive rebuilding project that in many ways resembles the construction taking place on the team’s new stadium in suburban Cobb County. Atlanta has traded most of its veteran stars, as well as worked to unload as many bad contracts as possible.

The latest move was the trade of shortstop Andrelton Simmons to the Angels for a commodity the Braves desire—young pitching. The 26-year-old Simmons is considered the best defensive shortstop in the game. He’s in the prime of his career and he’s signed through 2020 to a deal that will cost only $25 million over the next three seasons.

In return, the Braves got a stopgap shortstop (Erick Aybar) and the Angels’ top two pitching prospects (Sean Newcomb and Chris Ellis).

The moves add to what has become the deepest group of pitching prospects in the game. Mike Foltynewicz, Matt Wisler, Williams Perez and Manny Banuelos have already reached Atlanta. In the minors, Kolby Allard, Touki Toussaint, Max Fried, Mike Soroka, Lucas Sims, Tyrell Jenkins, Newcomb, Ellis and more are coming up behind them.

But if the Braves are planning to contend again in 2017 (when the new stadium is scheduled to open), the team is going to have to figure out a way to speed up the process. When it comes to position players, the best is still a ways away from Atlanta.

Ozzie Albies is Simmons’ eventual replacement at shortstop—he’s not the defender Simmons is, but he is a potentially better hitter—but it’s not certain he’ll reach Atlanta next season. Austin Riley is a very interesting young hitter, but he’s yet to play full season ball.

Thanks to these trades, first baseman Freddie Freeman is the only current Atlanta position player who has shown signs of being a franchise cornerstone. Even if Hector Olivera makes an impact next season, Mallex Smith takes over in center field and Christian Bethancourt exceeds all reasonable expectations behind the plate, the club still has too few current answers to glaring holes at spots in the infield and outfield.

Yes, Atlanta will spend big on the international market next July, but those signees won’t help for four or five years at least. Picking No. 3 in June’s draft, Atlanta will get a chance to add a significant piece.

All of that seems to point to a team that could be very interesting in 2018 and beyond, not 2017. If the Braves are going to follow the Royals’ model of building through the farm system, they can’t help but notice that it takes time. That 2011 Royals’ farm system arrived in Kansas City in 2011 and 2012. They started winning in 2013 and didn’t make the playoffs until 2014.

If Atlanta wants to open the new ballpark with a contender, the Braves’ busy offseason is going to have to get even busier.

ESPN

Braves take on the risk as they deal Andrelton Simmons to Angels

David Schoenfield, SweetSpot blogger

The trade: The Atlanta Braves trade SS Andrelton Simmons to the Los Angeles Angels for SS Erick Aybar, Double-A LHP Sean Newcomb and Double-A RHP Chris Ellis.

The dismantling of the 2013 Braves is almost complete, with Thursday's trade of the two-time Gold Glove shortstop to the Angels. Anybody want Freddie Freeman?

Rebuffed in their reported attempts to acquire Matt Harvey or Jacob deGrom from the Mets, the Braves instead settled for the Angels' top two prospects plus a one-year stopgap at shortstop in Aybar. Newcomb is the big guy in the deal, both literally and figuratively. A monster 6-foot-5 left-hander who was more heavily recruited out of high school as a tight end than a pitcher, he was the 15th overall pick in the 2014 draft out of the University of Hartford. Ellis is a 6-foot-4 right-hander, a third-round pick in 2014 out of the University of Mississippi.

Newcomb's calling card is a big fastball that led to 168 strikeouts in 136 innings in the minors in 2015, mostly in Class A. He allowed just 97 hits but walked 76 batters. If he can refine that control he could move quickly, and has top-of-the-rotation potential if everything comes together. Like Newcomb, Ellis reached Double-A, where he posted a 3.92 ERA in 15 starts with 62 strikeouts and 43 walks in 78 innings, suggesting he was some work to do. He throws a sinker in the lows 90s, a slider and a changeup regarded as plus, although left-handers hit him hard in 2015.

That 2013 Braves team won 96 games and was one of the youngest in the league. To look where this squad is now has to be viewed as a huge letdown for Braves fans. Atlanta had the majors' worst offense in 2015 but has spent the past year focusing on acquiring young pitching. While Shelby Miller had an excellent season coming over from the Cardinals (ignore that win-loss record), Julio Teheran had a rough one, and Mike Foltynewicz, Matt Wisler and Manny Banuelos didn't impress all that much in their rookie debuts. Newcomb and Ellis will join fellow prospects such as Max Fried, Touki Toussaint, Lucas Sims, Kolby Allard and Tyrell Jenkins as potential rotation starters of the future.

That's a group with a lot of upside but some health issues, and none of them have put up numbers yet in the upper minors. Jenkins, for example, finished with an 88/61 strikeout/walk ratio in 138⅓ innings between Double-A and Triple-A. Sims had a better strikeout rate in reaching Double-A but walked 54 batters in 92⅔ innings. It's certainly an intriguing collection of talent, and the Braves are hoping that quality comes from quantity.

The offense, however, is a complete mess. Freeman is the only guy currently on the 40-man roster who looks like a cornerstone piece, and the farm system doesn't have much beyond shortstop prospect Ozhaino Albies, who is probably a couple years from the majors. The Braves acquired Hector Olivera from the Dodgers to play third base but suddenly decided he can't play third and will try him in left field. The rest of the outfield is Nick Markakis, coming off a three-homer season; Cameron Maybin; and washed-up vets Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn, whom the Braves are trying to dump. Other than possibly Maybin, who has one season plus a team option on his contract, none are likely to be around when the Braves are good again.

As for the Angels, they have holes in left field (the worst production in the majors in 2015), third base (David Freese is a free agent) and arguably second base (Johnny Giavotella was adequate at the plate but an adventure on defense). They instead used their top chips in a very thin farm system to find a long-term answer at shortstop. Aybar is coming off a bad season and has just one season left until free agency, so he wasn’t going to be the answer beyond 2016.

Simmons once looked like a potential two-way star. In his first full season, in 2013, he hit 17 home runs with excellent contact skills. But his offense hasn’t developed, as he hit .265/.321/.338 in 2015 with just four home runs as he simply pounded too many balls into the ground.

Still, while Brandon Crawford beat him out for the Gold Glove, Simmons an elite defender, with 25 Defensive Runs Saved in 2015, tops among shortstops for the third consecutive season. While he’s not going to get better in the field -- defense tends to peak early for shortstops -- he’s going to be a plus defender through the life of his contract, which runs through 2020 at $53 million total. Simmons has a high floor of value; even with minimal offense in 2015, he was worth 4.0 WAR. That’s a big drop from the 7.0 in 2013, but that’s an All-Star-level player.

My take is I like this deal from the Angels’ perspective. They’ll have a positive asset for the next five seasons, while the Braves gambled on two pitchers who just add to a similar stockpile. Ellis doesn’t look at all that interesting to me, so this might end being Newcomb for Simmons.

Hey, maybe Newcomb turns into a Harvey or deGrom. If that happens, kudos to Atlanta general manager John Coppolella and president John Hart. If not, this will be a deal the Braves regret.

Braves' return for Simmons fair, but not overwhelming

Keith Law, ESPN Insider

I'm a little surprised by the Andrelton Simmons deal. In a market that values defense so highly, with Simmons the best in the game at the most important position, Simmons seemed like a player that the Atlanta Braves would keep to build around unless they got an overwhelming offer for

him. Instead, the Los Angeles Angels sent back a return that seems fair, rather than lopsided in Atlanta's favor, so it's a good baseball deal but not the kind of home run Simmons' many fans in Georgia were hoping to see.

The Angels' side is costly, but fair: They got the best defensive shortstop in the game -- innumerate postseason awards be damned -- but gave up their top two prospects for him, which hampers their ability to make any other significant moves this winter without spending a lot of cash. Shortstop is locked up in Anaheim for the foreseeable future, as Simmons' glove alone makes him an above-average regular; the advanced fielding metric UZR (found at Fangraphs) has had him saving 57 runs over an average shortstop over the past three seasons. The next highest total at short, by J.J. Hardy, was 27, meaning Simmons' defense (by that metric) was worth about a win a year over the second-best shortstop in the majors.

At the plate, he doesn't bring much to the table, making a lot of contact but sacrificing on-base ability and, outside of a brief stretch in 2013, not hitting for much power either. There have been other players who, like Simmons, were glove-first shortstops who didn't hit but rarely struck out and later developed into good hitters for average, and if Simmons is done trying to pull the ball into the seats, I think he has a chance to develop like that in the next year or two. If he doesn't, he's still a three-win player who'll make $53 million over the next five years, underpaid in every year but possibly the last one at $15 million, and he makes the Angels a couple of wins better for 2016 (especially with several ground-ball pitchers in their rotation). That's all good, because the future is now for the Angels, whose farm system looks like General Sherman just marched through it. Twice.

Atlanta has been extremely opportunistic since John Coppolella started making more of the decisions around the major league roster, and this deal is no exception, as they landed one of the top left-handed pitching prospects in all of baseball in Sean Newcomb, plus another starter prospect and one year of Erick Aybar's services. Newcomb is the key to the deal, a big lefty with three above-average-to-plus pitches and a very loose, easy arm. He doesn't repeat the arm swing that well yet, perhaps because it has been so easy for him to overpower opponents so far -- he was the Angels' first-round pick out of the University of Hartford in 2014, so his college competition was light -- which has led to below-average command and control. He has been very good at keeping the ball on the ground and he continued to miss bats in Double-A even when he wasn't otherwise effective. I'd project him as a No. 2 starter, because it's hard for me to assume he'll get from his present command level to where he'd need to be to qualify as an ace, and he's probably more than a full year away.

Chris Ellis was the Angels' third-round pick in 2014 out of Ole Miss. He's a big, three-pitch starter whose changeup seemed to be his best pitch out of the draft, although that hasn't been the case in pro ball as left-handed hitters got to him in 2015. He's built like a mid-rotation starter with the fastball and durability to work there if he can refine his secondary pitches, probably a good eighth/ninth-inning guy if he doesn't miss enough bats to start.

Aybar is just a guy at this point, overpaid at $8.5 million for 2016, a mediocre defender who hasn't posted an OBP of .325 or better since 2009 and was at .301 twice in the past three seasons.

If I'm with the Braves' front office, I'd keep him moving to one of the handful of clubs looking for someone to just stand at the position. I'd also want to take that money he's owed and look at adding a bat or two in free agency, as their lineup for the next year or two could be scary in all the wrong ways.

This isn't what Freddie Freeman signed up for

David Schoenfield, SweetSpot blogger

On Feb. 5, 2014, Freddie Freeman signed the longest contract in Atlanta Braveshistory, an eight-year extension worth $135 million that runs through 2021. The Braves were coming off a 96-win season, were one of the youngest teams in the majors, signed Jason Heyward to a two-year deal that same day, and the team had announced a new stadium project a couple of months prior. The future looked bright.

Less than two years later and Heyward is gone, Craig Kimbrel is gone, Justin Upton is gone, Brian McCann is gone, Evan Gattis is gone, Kris Medlen is gone,Alex Wood is gone and now shortstop Andrelton Simmons is gone, traded awayThursday night to the Angels for two pitching prospects. They'll move into their new ballpark in 2017 but the team moving in there isn't going to be any good.

As Buster Olney wrote today,

They are going to lose a lot of games -- and believe it or not, it's happening for the sake of winning.

Eventually. If everything goes according to plan. If they picked the right players.

At the very least, the Braves have managed to escape the worst possible place to be for any organization serious about pursuing championships now or in the future: They got out of the middle, which is where the Milwaukee Brewers,Cincinnati Reds, Seattle Mariners, Oakland Athletics and San Diego Padresresided at the end of the 2015 season.

Braves fans aren't happy about this, and it's a tough pill to swallow considering where the organization stood just two years ago. The move to the northern suburbs was made, in part, to improve accessibility to the park, since a lot of Braves fans come from Cobb County, but attendance -- which peaked during the dynasty days at 3.8 million and remained above 3 million through 2000 -- was down to barely 2 million in 2015. That's

going to fall even more with the trade of Simmons and a team that will lose 90-plus games again. As Braves blogger Martin Gandy wrote at the Chop County blog:

This one hurts. Damn the baseball analysis for a minute ... Andrelton Simmons was easily my favorite Atlanta Braves player still left on the team. I first saw him in Danville, Virginia, a month after he was drafted. At the time we weren't sure whether he would be a pitcher or a shortstop. What first caught my eye, in the midst of a 100+ degree heat wave, was his arm ... his cannon. On some throws to first I couldn't tell what was higher, the temperature or the speed of his throw. At the plate he was a scrapper, but one that could put the bat on the ball with relative ease. ...

From a business of baseball perspective, this was a decent trade for the Braves. Not great, maybe not even good, but decent. Like the [Hector] Olivera trade, this is another trade with a lot of risk based on the acquisition of unproven talent in exchange for proven talent. From a public relations and fan perspective, this was a horrible trade for Atlanta, as they seemed to unnecessarily give away a fan favorite player.

That leaves Freeman as the clear face of the franchise. And you wonder: Why not trade him as well? Freeman is a good player but not a superstar, and a lot of teams need a first baseman. He's still young and his future salaries ($20.5 million to $22 million per season from 2017 to 2021) are reasonable in today's market. Hey, stockpile more young pitchers if you want. Maybe you'll get enough of them to build that 1991 Braves-like rotation, or something resembling what the Mets have put together.

Freeman had been the first first baseman since Orlando Cepeda to have three 20-homer seasons through his age-23 season but his power hasn't really developed from there -- he's more of a line-drive guy than a lift-and-pull hitter -- and he's hit .300 just once, hitting .288 and .276 the past two seasons, respectively. So maybe the Braves evaluate Freeman, like Simmons, as a nice player but maybe a little overrated.

Look at some of the potential trade options:

Boston Red Sox: They plan on moving Hanley Ramirez to first base, but ifthey can trade Ramirez (the Red Sox would have to eat some of the salary), Freeman would be tailor-made for Fenway Park, slapping doubles off the Green Monster. The Red Sox also have a deep farm system, with position-player prospects like outfielder Manuel Margot that the Braves need to add to their haul of pitching prospects.

Pittsburgh Pirates: Freeman's salary may be prohibitive to the Pirates, but they could easily carry him at his 2016 salary of $12 million. Freeman would be an upgrade over Pedro Alvarez, who could be let go or traded to an American League team that needs a DH. The Braves could get first-base prospect Josh Bell as part of the deal.

St. Louis Cardinals: Matt Adams isn't a long-term solution to first base and the Cardinals need offense. Lance Lynn's injury puts a cramp in their pitching depth but maybe these two can come up with another win-win deal like last year's Jason Heyward-Shelby Miller trade.

Houston Astros: Chris Carter provides power but hit .199 and the Astros could use a left-handed bat to help balance out Jose Altuve, George Springer and Carlos Correa. They have plenty of room to add payroll. First-base prospect A.J. Reed, who hit .340 with 34 home runs in the minors between Class A and Double-A, may be the real deal but would be bait to get the sure thing in Freeman.

Cleveland Indians: The Indians should move Carlos Santana to DH and acquire a first baseman. How about Danny Salazar or Carlos Carrasco, or maybe a trade built around outfield prospect Bradley Zimmer, who hit .273/.368/.446 in the minors with 16 home runs and 44 steals?

Hey, if you're going to start over, start over. At this point, what's one more PR hit?

Braves taking 'lose now, win later' approach

Buster Olney, Senior Writer, ESPN Insider

A longtime executive chatted last week about how the Commissioner's Office could help some beleaguered front office types by educating some anxious, hyper-competitive owners about the merits of losing.

"They should arrange some sort of presentation and show how it can really pay off, if you’re patient," said the executive.

That useful lecture would include some words about weathering the discontent of fans, something that the Atlanta Braves officials will have to do this year and next year and maybe the year after that, as they follow the same general path taken by the Chicago Cubs and the Houston Astros. The Braves traded Andrelton Simmons for prospects Thursday evening, just as they traded Justin Upton,Jason Heyward and Craig Kimbrel last offseason. And in 2016, they are going to lose a lot of games -- and believe it or not, it’s happening for the sake of winning.

Eventually. If everything goes according to plan. If they picked the right players.

At the very least, the Braves have managed to escape the worst possible place to be for any organization serious about pursuing championships now or in the future: They got out of the middle, which is where the Milwaukee Brewers,Cincinnati Reds, Seattle Mariners, Oakland Athletics and San Diego Padresresided at the end of the 2015 season.

The Mariners are working to climb upward, making moves in recent days to build upon their core of Felix Hernandez, Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz and contend for the American League West title in 2016.

The Padres are the best working definition of residing where no team wants to be: They kept a subpar team intact at the trade deadline, and as currently constructed, have a dysfunctional payroll and are probably a .500 team at best, which means they probably can’t get to the postseason and, at the same time, they won’t pick near the top of the draft.

The Braves, on the other hand, will pick third in next summer’s draft and presumably will slot in with one of the first picks in 2017, after taking a step backward, strategically.

In the NBA, this would be called "tanking," and as mentioned here many times before, there is something ugly about that. But so long as Major League Baseball and the Players Association are OK with the strip-down and draft-up strategy, it is a time-honored path to success, especially for small-market and mid-market teams.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays, as they were known then, finished at the bottom of the standings year after year, and that netted them Carl Crawford, Melvin Upton Jr., Evan Longoria and David Price, among others, and Tampa Bay reached the 2008 World Series and contended annually for the better part of a decade. Joe Maddon and Andrew Friedman, armed with that great talent, had success and established reputations, for which they have been paid handsomely.

Royals GM Dayton Moore took over Kansas City in 2006 and, with the patient backing of his ownership, built a championship team with the help of players picked at the top of the draft. Zack Greinke, a sixth overall pick in 2002, was traded for Alcides Escobar and Lorenzo Cain. Mike Moustakas was the second overall pick in the 2007 draft, and Eric Hosmer was picked third overall in 2008. The Pirates had a similar rise, taking Andrew McCutchen 11th overall in 2005, and Gerrit Cole first overall in 2011, among others. If you consistently pick at the back end of the first round, the best talent will not be accessible to you, consistently. Any measure of the draft will tell you that. Your best chance to get the best players occurs if you pick early.

This doesn’t guarantee success forever. The Royals’ window will probably last for two more seasons, before Hosmer, Moustakas and Cain reach free agency, and then they’ll have to recycle. They’ll probably have to descend again, before rising -- if they choose the right players, as Moore and his staff have done over the past seven years, and if the owners are patient, as they have been in Kansas City and Pittsburgh.

But if the Royals, Pirates, Cubs and Astros are examples of the best of times, then what the Braves (and the Phillies, for that matter) are experiencing today are the worst of times. On Twitter Thursday evening, many Braves fans, tweeting in response to the Simmons trade, mentioned finding a new allegiance, called the deal stupid and asked if there was a plan.

There is, assuredly. The Braves have stockpiled an enormous wealth of prospects, with the newly acquired Sean Newcomb near the top; he throws a fastball in the 97-98 mph range. “Big arm, wild as hell,” one evaluator noted. When other teams asked about Newcomb before the July 31 deadline, the Angels insisted he was untouchable.

But new Angels GM Billy Eppler, seeking a long-term solution at shortstop, moved Newcomb for Simmons in a deal that he said hurt him in the gut. Now it’s up to the Braves’ minor-league and major-league staff to do what the Mets have done successfully with their pitching prospects -- help Newcomb and the others realize their potential.

If that happens, the disaffected Braves fans could have reason to climb aboard the bandwagon again in 2018 or 2020. When the Cubs eliminated the Cardinals in the National League Division Series last month, fans who hovered around Wrigley Field afterward probably didn’t fret about the terrible Chicago season of 2012, which resulted in the drafting of Kris Bryant the next summer. Those Cubs fans probably weren’t complaining about the frustration of 2013, which led to the drafting of Kyle Schwarber in the draft that followed.

If the Braves manage their assets the way that the Cubs and Astros have, there could be great days ahead. But those are probably years off, and the fans, like the Atlanta owners, would probably be well-served to steel themselves for some really bad days in the immediate future, because the Braves may not have hit rock bottom yet.

You can’t help but laugh about this: On the same day that the Braves swapped Simmons, they announced they will publicly trade team stock.

The Braves’ offseason is already looking like the last one, writes Jeff Schultz.

The Angels got a defensive whiz, but they paid a heavy price, writes Pedro Moura. They are constructing an outstanding defense.

Some notes from ESPN Stats & Information: The Angels as an organization have minus-26 Defensive Runs Saved from the shortstop position since 2012, 25th in baseball (Fangraphs.com). Since his debut season in 2012, Andrelton Simmons has been the best defensive shortstop in baseball and it's not even close.

From ESPN Stats & Info: We all know about Simmons' amazing defense, but if we look at just his offensive numbers from last season, he'd be a slight upgrade over what the Angels trotted out at shortstop last year. Simmons provides some offensive upside, too. He hit 17 home runs in his first full season in 2013, but he's hit only 11 total since then (four in 2015).

The Braves acquired Newcomb, the Angels' top prospect. Atlanta has been on a roll acquiring young arms, stockpiling a mess of young talent since the start of the last offseason. Since the start of last offseason, the Braves have acquired eight pitchers who are current or former top-100 prospects.

Sports Illustrated

Angels deal from position of strength to add Andrelton Simmons, boost D

BY CLIFF CORCORAN

Just 24 hours after receiving an award naming him the best overall defensive player in baseball in the 2015 season, Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons has been traded to the Angels along with a minor league catcher for fellow shortstop Erick Aybar, the Angels’ top two pitching prospects and cash. The deal finds the Angels trading from a perceived area of strength to shore up the defense behind their emerging young rotation and the Braves trading yet another established young regular in their continuing rebuilding effort, which is focused on the opening of their new suburban ballpark in 2017.

The two pitching prospects heading to the Braves, lefty Sean Newcomb and righty Chris Ellis, were two of the Angels’ top three picks in the 2014 draft and two of their top four prospects coming into the 2015 season per Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus. Newcomb, the 15th pick in the 2014 draft, is a big 6'5" lefty out of the University of Hartford who throws a mid-90s fastball, slider, curve and changeup and struck out 168 men in 136 innings across three full-season levels in his first full professional season this year.

The 22-year-old also showed significant control problems, but he has already had success at Double A (2.75 ERA, 9.8 K/9 in seven starts to finish the season) and could very easily be a part of the Braves’ rotation in 2017 with a major league debut in late 2016 a distinct possibility. Ellis, a third-round pick out of the University of Mississippi who turned 23 in September, is a slim 6'4" righty who preceded Newcomb in Double A this year. Ellis works with a variety of fastballs in the upper-80s to low-90s, which he compliments with a changeup and curve.

Baseball America listed Newcomb as the 37th best prospect in baseball in July and, at the end of the season, named him the best prospect to spend significant time in the High A California League this year. He’s a clear blue-chipper, even if he is projected as more of a No. 2 or 3 starter at the major league level. Ellis has a similar mid-rotation projection, but is considered a longer shot to reach that potential given his thin frame, lower velocity and comparatively limited repertoire. Indeed, while Ellis made 15 Double A starts to Newcomb’s seven this past season, he also had a much larger drop-off in his performance from High A to Double A with his strikeout-to-walk ratio dropping from 3.50 at the former level to 1.44 at the latter via both a sharp drop in strikeouts and a big spike in walks. Ellis worked primarily in relief in his first two years in college, and it wouldn’t be a shock to see him ultimately return to that role.

For the Angels, those two pitchers, plus $2.5 million to offset the 2016 salaries of Simmons and Aybar, were well worth acquiring a player who is indeed the best defensive shortstop in baseball and is under contract for just $54 million through his age-30 season in 2020 (an average annual value of $10.8 million).

Simmons didn’t deserve Wilson’s Overall Defensive Player of the Year award this season—that should have gone to Tampa Bay’s Kevin Kiermaier—but Simmons was deservingly named the best defensive shortstop in baseball this past season by Wilson and the Fielding Bible and ranked second to only Kiermaier in defensive runs saved this season. He saved 25 runs compared to an average shortstop, or nearly three wins. That was no outlying performance.

Simmons saved 28 runs in 2014 per DRS, tied for second behind only then teammate Jason Heyward’s 32, he saved 19 runs in just 49 games as a rookie in 2012 and he saved a whopping 41 runs in 2013, which stood as the defensive runs saved record at any position until Kiermaier scored a 42 this year. Those numbers aren’t a fluke of that particular system, either. Ultimate Zone Rating credits Simmons with 68.4 runs saved above average for his career, which works out to 22.2 per 162 games, and only Kiermaier, Heyward and Yoenis Cespedes bested his 17.3 UZR this season.

Thanks to his outstanding fielding, Simmons has been roughly a four-win player despite a lagging and inconsistent performance at the plate. Simmons put up a solid 101 OPS+ in 182 plate appearances as a rookie in 2012 and hit 17 home runs in his first full major league season in 2013. However, he posted an on-base percentage below .300 in both 2013 and ’14, he’s hit just 11 more home runs over the last two seasons and he hit a mere .265/.321/.338 (86 OPS+) in 2015, each of those rate stats being an improvement over 2014. In his brief minor league career, Simmons, a Curaçao native who was drafted out of Wester Oklahoma State College at the age of 21, hit for higher averages (.299 in 1,042 plate appearances) but not with more power (just six home runs) or patience. Given that Simmons just turned 26 in September, there is still some hope that he will mature a bit at the plate, but ultimately, the Angels acquired Simmons for his glove, and that seems likely to be well worth the price.

Ironically, this is in large part due to the work of the general manager of the rival Seattle Mariners, Jerry Dipoto, who resigned that same post in Anaheim in July. Thanks to Dipoto’s efforts, the Angels have an emerging young starting rotation that both made Newcomb and Ellis expendable and made the effort to improve team defense all the more logical. Over the previous two winters, Dipoto traded for Hector Sanchez, Tyler Skaggs, Andrew Heaney and Nick Tropeano while watching Garrett Richards emerge as a key part of the Angels’ rotation. The oldest of those five pitchers, Sanchez and Richards, will be 28 in the coming season, while Skaggs is set to return from Tommy John surgery at the age of 24 after a full 18 months of rehabilitation (he had his surgery in August 2014).

Heaney, a top-50 prospect prior to last season who’s coming off a strong 18-start rookie year, and Tropeano, who boasts a 2.86 FIP in 11 major league starts and one relief appearance, will both be 25 in the coming season and under team control through 2021. The arrival of Simmons increases the optimism associated with that young rotation, particularly Richards and Skaggs, who have the strongest ground-ball tendencies of the quintet. WithMike Trout, signed through 2020, and Kole Calhoun, the deserving AL Gold Glove-winner in rightfield this year, roaming the outfield and Simmons anchoring the infield in a pitcher-friendly ballpark, the Angels have an excellent foundation in place.

That doesn’t mean that new GM Billy Eppler doesn’t still have a lot more work to do. Leftfield, second base and third base are still question marks. Twenty-five year old Kyle Kubitza, acquired last off-season from the Braves for yet another highly regarded pitching prospect, small, teenaged Venezuelan lefty Ricardo Sanchez, could wind up winning the third base job, but he’s hardly a sure thing. Then there’s the fact that that young rotation is still being crowded by veterans Jered Weaverand C.J. Wilson, both of whom are entering the final year of their contract but also have some form of trade protection (Weaver has a full no-trade clause, Wilson can block deals to eight teams).

As for the two other players in this deal: Catcher Jose Briceno is a non-factor, a former Rockies farmhand acquired by the Braves in the David Hale trade in January. He hit .183/.215/.267 in High A at the age of 22 this past season. Entering the final year of his contract as well as his age-32 season, Aybar is a mere stopgap for Atlanta. He has been a below-average fielder in each of the last three seasons per DRS and didn’t even out-hit Simmons in 2015, batting .270/.301/.338, while his 15 stolen bases came at a weak 71% success rate. That translates to roughly a three-win swing in expectations at shortstop for these two teams, with the Braves taking yet another big step backward in the short term and the Angels making a huge improvement to their starting lineup even if Simmons doesn’t show any improvement at the plate in the coming season.

Whether or not that translates into a playoff berth in 2016 for the Angels will depend on their subsequent moves this off-season, but at the very least the 2016 Angels will feature a pair of players who have a significant claim to the title of the best defensive player (Simmons) and best all-around player (Trout) in baseball. That will be worth watching no matter who is playing third base for Los Angeles come April.

Yahoo! Sports

Braves trade SS Andrelton Simmons to Angels for Erick Aybar, top prospects

By Tim Brown

The rebuilding Atlanta Braves and the dormant Los Angeles Angels found each other Thursday, and as a result shortstop Andrelton Simmons is headed west in a trade that will bring the Braves veteran shortstop Erick Aybar and the Angels’ top two pitching prospects.

Simmons is the best defensive shortstop in baseball and, at 26, is under contract through 2020 for another $53 million. He also, last season, was more productive offensively than Aybar, who has a year and $8.5 million remaining on his contract.

The real gain for the Braves is in the pitchers. Sean Newcomb, 22, is a 6-foot-5 left-hander who many believed was the Angels’ ace of the future. The previous regime in Anaheim – first Jerry Dipoto and in the weeks leading to the recent trading deadline Bill Stoneman and Matt Klentak – frequently spurned offers for Newcomb in spite of deficits on the big-league roster that resulted in a third-place finish in the AL West. The other is Chris Ellis, a 23-year-old, 6-foot-4 right-hander.

In the 2014 draft, the Angels selected Newcomb in the first round and Ellis in the third. They both reached Double-A in 2015. Newcomb, in A, high-A and Double-A, had a 2.38 ERA and 168 strikeouts in 136 innings. Ellis had 132 strikeouts and a 3.90 ERA in 140 2/3 innings in high-A and Double-A.

The Angels sent the Braves $2.5 million to cover roughly the difference between the salaries of Simmons and Aybar in 2016. The Angels also received minor-league catcher Jose Briceno in the trade.

In essence, the Angels, who didn’t yet require a shortstop, acquired a better and younger shortstop, perhaps at the cost of who would pitch for them in 2017. The Braves, who had an excellent young shortstop under control for another five years and who could have been part of their return to relevance, sacrificed him to continue their stockpiling of pitching, likely with an eye on 2017, when they will open a new ballpark north of Atlanta.

It is the Angels’ first significant move under new general manager Billy Eppler, hired early last month after Dipoto quit three months earlier. By the time Newcomb and Ellis surface in Atlanta, it is possible the Angels’ rotation will consist of Garrett Richards, Andrew Heaney, Tyler Skaggs, Nick Tropeanoand a pitcher from among Hector Santiago, Matt Shoemaker and/or this winter’s strong free-agent class. Jered Weaver will be a free agent after 2016.

Three days before Eppler was hired in Anaheim, the Braves promoted John Coppolella to general manager. John Hart and Coppolella have pushed an agenda of young pitching in an organization that had grown thin in that area. The additions of Newcomb and Ellis, granted at the high price of Simmons, continued that plan.

While well regarded defensively, Simmons has not developed as many believed he would in the batter’s box. A free swinger who rarely walks or strikes out, Simmons hit 17 home runs in 2013 and 11 in nearly 1,100 at-bats since. His career batting average is .256, his on-base percentage .304. He is, now, an up-the-middle defender with whom the Angels will retool, in an offseason in which the priorities appeared to be left field, third base, bullpen and starting pitching.

The Braves could in turn trade Aybar, who turns 32 in January. He remains a good defensive shortstop, but suffered a down year offensively in 2015. Given they shopped Simmons in recent weeks, the Braves have a full understanding of who seeks help at the position.

Washington Post

Why would the Braves trade Andrelton Simmons?

By Barry Svrluga

His offensive numbers might not look impressive, and we know the Atlanta Braves aren’t preparing to contend for anything in 2016. But Andrelton Simmons is just 26, perhaps the best defensive player at the most important defensive position in the game. And more than that: He is under contract through 2020, when he will make $15 million – a figure that, by then, could seem cheap for a 30-year-old who can man shortstop better than almost anyone else.

But according to several reports Thursday night, the Braves parted with Simmons, trading him for a package from Anaheim that includes veteran shortstop Erick Aybar and two pitching prospects. This is a strong indication of two things: Atlanta must have soured on Simmons’s lack of progression offensively, and Atlanta’s John Hart will stop at nothing to completely overhaul a roster he inherited at this time last year.

Freddie Freeman, your thoughts?

For the Atlanta first baseman– owner of an eight-year contract signed in Feb. 2014 — they must be something like, “Man, what’s the Braves’ worst all-time record?” (Since moving to Atlanta in 1968, that’d be 106 losses in 1988.)

“I’m baffled,” one veteran American League talent evaluator said Thursday night of the Braves’ strategy.

How to pick this apart? Start with the acquisition of Aybar, a former Gold Glove winner and 2014 all-star who turns 32 in January and is the part of nobody’s future. He is due $8.5 million in 2016. He is a free agent after that. Yes, he can stand at shortstop and field the position and hit his empty .276/.315/.378 (his career numbers) next summer (or, worse, his .270/.301/.338 from 2015). But then he’s gone – if he’s not traded over the remainder of this winter.

The piece that matters here, for the Braves, is 22-year-old left-hander Sean Newcomb, a 6-foot-5 first-round pick in 2014 who posted a 2.38 ERA with 168 strikeouts in 136 innings across three levels in the minors this year, topping out at Class AA. And that would fit the Braves’ modus operandi under Hart, the team’s president of baseball operations, who took over for the fired Fran Wren last year: trade off whatever established products you have (Justin Upton, Craig Kimbrel, Jason Heyward, Evan Gattis, Melvin Upton Jr., Alex Wood, Jordan Walden) for an entire inventory of pitchers that might provide a modern-day Maddux-Glavine-Smoltz in, say, 2018. Chris Ellis, a 23-year-old right-hander, also reportedly goes to Atlanta.

Stockpiling pitching is a classic rebuilding strategy. But was this particular move necessary?

Look at Simmons. From the time he came up in 2012, only four shortstops in baseball accounted for more wins above replacement (according to FanGraphs), than did Simmons: Washington’s Ian Desmond, Troy Tulowitzki of Colorado and Toronto, Jhonny Peralta of Detroit and St. Louis, and San Francisco’s Brandon Crawford. (Aybar, meanwhile, was next on the list.)

Yes, most of that value is on the defensive side of the ball. Simmons’s career on-base-plus-slugging percentage of .666 ranks 26th among shortstops over that same period, and he generally hasn’t trended upward: He hit 17 homers and posted a .692 OPS in 2013, but had just 11 homers with a .639 OPS in the two years since.

What’s more: The strategy that drove Wren out of Atlanta was to lock up key pieces of the Braves’ core to long-term deals. Once Hart took over, he clearly wanted much of that roster inertia moved out.

But Simmons, as long as he continued to play elite defense, seemed affordable: $6 million in 2016, increasing annually to $8 million, $11 million, $13 million and finally that $15 million in 2020. With revenues and salaries increasing every year – and with the Braves set to move into a new suburban ballpark in 2017, $15 million could well seem like a bargain for a linchpin shortstop.

Isn’t that the kind of player the Braves are going to try to find once they are ready to win again (presuming that they will be)? (Only slightly related: What the heck were the Braves doing signing Nick Markakis last offseason?)

So the gold, for the Braves, must lie in the pitching prospects. And the concern about Newcomb is obvious: In 150-1/3 professional innings, he has 82 walks. (Even in college, at the University of Hartford, he walked 75 in 165 innings.)

[The top 12 hitters on the free-agent market]

One scout’s evaluation: “Newcomb will always be a high-pitch-count starter who will end up in the pen because he doesn’t throw quality strikes even though he can touch 96 [mph] and he’s left-handed.”

This, then, would not be the kind of player for which you part with Andrelton Simmons.

The Braves as a whole, then. On July 7 this year, they were 42-42. Over the final 78 games, they went an astonishing 25-53 (.321 winning percentage) and looked horrible doing it. Flash to Freeman, the two-time all-star first baseman who is just 26, is signed through 2021, with $118.5

million remaining to be paid. Now, he looks around and sees – what? A rebuilding project, for sure. But a more alarming version than he envisioned, one that appears willing to not only deal off valuable pieces – but deal off those that could have seen the other side of the rebuild and been part of the solution.

New York Post

After steep Mets demands, Braves ship Simmons to Angels

By Joel Sherman

BOCA RATON, Fla. — By the time Mets officials inquired with their Braves counterparts about Andrelton Simmons, Atlanta already was deep into talks with the Angels about trading the shortstop.

So the Braves figured why not make a huge request and asked for a young arm plus Michael Conforto. The Mets took the “young arm” to mean someone from their current rotation, such as Jacob deGrom or Steve Matz.

The Mets love Simmons’ defense — like every team — but not enough to accept an offer they had to refuse.

The Braves preferred not to trade Simmons within the division anyway. So they dealt him to the Angels for Erick Aybar (who will become Atlanta’s shortstop), $2.5 million to offset Aybar’s $8.5 million down to the same $6 million Simmons is due in 2015, plus arguably the Angels’ two best prospects, lefty Sean Newcomb and righty Chris Ellis. Besides Simmons, the Angels received minor league catcher Jose Briceno.

The Mets entered these proceedings late, after news had swept the now-concluded General Managers’ meetings that Simmons was available. Mets assistant GM John Ricco spoke with Braves GM John Coppolella Thursday morning as most executives were beginning to head for home from the meetings.

“It is going to take something substantial [to get Simmons],” Ricco said. “We would have to find out if it can be done without us moving our big four [deGrom, Matt Harvey, Matz or Noah Syndergaard]. The fact we are in the same division might be a factor, too.”

The Mets did not want to disrupt the strength of their team, especially because they have concerns about Simmons’ bat. By the way, so do the Braves, which is one of the reasons they made available a guy who won the Defensive Player of the Year award Wednesday.

The Mets have made it clear: Unless they feel it is a no-brainer move, they are not trading one of the young starters from their rotation. Meanwhile, Atlanta continues to try to assemble a future rotation that might look like the current fire-balling one of the Mets.

The Braves, in rebuild mode, wanted to capitalize on a weak free-agent market. Ian Desmond is, by far, the best shortstop available in free agency, and he is coming off a poor season and his erratic defense leaves questions whether he can stay at the position long-term.

The Braves move to a new stadium in 2017, and the Simmons deal fits into a pattern begun last year when they traded Jason Heyward, Craig Kimbrel, Justin Upton, Melvin Upton and Chris Johnson to either gain financial flexibility for 2017 and/or stockpile prospects — namely pitching prospects.

There were questions about Newcomb’s makeup and control when the Angels made him the 15th pick in 2014. The Braves believe the lefty has top-of-the-rotation abilities as do four other pitchers obtained in the last year via trade or the draft — Shelby Miller, who was in Atlanta’s rotation last year, plus Touki Toussaint, Max Fried and Kolby Allard.

Atlanta also has the third pick in June’s draft, and they are hoping that a combination of a lot of young talent and money will allow them to have a contender as early as 2017.

Simmons, 26, has five years at $53 million left on a contract that takes goes through 2020 and represents the first big move by new Angels GM Billy Epple, who previously had been the Yankees’ assistant GM.

Eppler’s philosophy is that he wants players who are exceptional at something — like Simmons is on defense — rather than a player who is in the majors because he has cobbled together a bunch of good skills.

There are questions if Simmons and his long swing can make the necessary adjustments to capitalize on the promise he showed in his first full season, 2013, when he hit 17 homers. The results have not been nearly as good since.

Still, the defense was good enough to move the Angels and Eppler to give up two of their best prospects. It was not good enough to make the Mets break up their strength or even consider trading Conforto.

NBC Sports

Braves CEO: “Baseball is not a widely profitable business”

By Craig Calcaterra

In the past year the Braves have dealt a lot of talent, trading away Justin Upton, Jason Heyward and Craig Kimbrel, among others. Late last week the Braves traded shortstop Andrelton Simmons to the Angels. Yesterday Ken Rosenthal reported that Atlanta was now shopping Freddie Freeman.

While most of the trades the Braves have made have resulted in nice returns in terms of either young talent coming back or big salaries going out, the process of tearing down and rebuilding has been a painful and, at times, confusing one for Braves fans. Partially because some of the players — particularly Kimbrel, Heyward and Simmons — were fan favorites who, arguably, had better futures in front of them than years behind them. The same would go for Freeman, in spades, if he were dealt.

It’s also been painful because the Braves won 190 games between 2012 and 2013 and were in first place midway through 2014. The team cratered after that, of course, and had some clear holes on the roster, but many Braves fans wondered why fixing those holes required tearing off the whole dang roof, knocking down the support beams and bulldozing dirt into the foundation. Especially given the fact that the Braves (a) had what had been advertised by management as a good young core which had largely been locked up in reasonable long term deals; and (b) the Braves played in the NL East which is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the toughest division in baseball.

Whether a complete and total rebuild was necessary continues to be a point of debate among Braves fans. Distracting from and complicating all of this is the fact that the Braves are leaving Atlanta after next season and heading for a new ballpark in the suburbs. A ballpark which many, including your dear author, likewise believes was unnecessary. Indeed, seemingly incomprehensible decisions, many of which appear unnecessary, is the general gestalt of Braves Country these days.

Into that fog walks Braves Chairman and CEO Terry McGuirk who, last week, gave an interview to the Atlanta Business Chronicle about the state of the Braves. He had a lot to say, and for context one should read it all, but this answer, in response to a question about whether Braves’ profits are reinvested in the club or, rather, sent back up to corporate parent Liberty Media, was quite a head-turner:

Basically, all of the money at the Braves. We’ve never really lost money with the Braves. Baseball is not a widely profitable business. If you took all of the free-cash flow of all of the 30 teams, it’s pretty much zero. That’s sort of a fairly well known fact. If you actually, do have free cash flow, you’re among a minority. We have always managed the team to at least break even on free cash flow or make a little. Sometimes we’ve made more than a little. But, that puts in a minority in this business.

There are a lot of ways to measure the financial health of a baseball team and cash profit is only one of them. Indeed, it may be the least significant part of the financial picture for a team. The real game is the appreciation of franchise value, and the Braves have certainly appreciated for Liberty media. When they purchased the team in 2007 the franchise was worth $450 million. This year Forbes valued the club at $1.15 billion. And that’s despite the fact that the Braves have one of the worst local TV deals of any club. Of course, based on what McGuirk is saying, the Braves are pursuing both tracks: watching the franchise value appreciate and doing its best to break even on cash flow “or make a little.” The best of both worlds if you’re an executive in charge of a division of a large corporation.

I am highly dubious of what McGuirk says about profitability but, in reality, I don’t think there’s any way for outsiders to assess whether or not what he’s saying is true. Baseball teams are notoriously opaque when it comes to financial matters and have, for almost all of baseball history, claimed to be money-losing operations. Usually for tactical purposes having to do with convincing cities to build them new ballparks, fending off scrutiny and regulation from governments and, most of all, negotiating with the players over salaries and benefits. Add in the fact that many owners engage in self-dealing, siphoning off revenues in the name of “management fees” and casting those as hits against profitability as opposed to money in their pocket, and it’s virtually impossible to know what’s really going on with a team’s cash flow.

I have no way of knowing what the true state of the Braves’ finances is. Indeed, absent better information I have to take Terry McGuirk’s word for it. But even if he is telling the truth — i.e. baseball is not very profitable for owners but the Braves are, against the odds, one of the few teams which turn a profit — it’s hard to feel anything but deflated by it.

Deflated because early-21st century sports owners and early 21st century sport fans have fallen into something of a rough bargain. It’s not a consciously-negotiated bargain, but it’s one that, through practice and example, fans and owners have realized is the sweet spot for our relationship. That bargain is this: we, as fans, will endure you fleecing taxpayers for stadiums, taking your games off of over-the-air television in favor of big money cable deals which raise our rates, pocketing money in “management fees,” and selling anything and everything that isn’t nailed down with a team logo slapped on it. In exchange, you will at least pretend to be interested in delivering a winning team and, in your utterances and actions, demonstrate that you understand that fans want to see an entertaining and, occasionally, championship-caliber product a million times more than we want to hear about the financial health of ownership and the business vision of the franchise. Obviously not all teams do this. But the teams with the happiest, most engaged fans and with the owners who are less-loathed than their brethren generally fit this description.

To the extent the Braves have made news in the past few years it’s been because they’ve (a) decided to abandon their relatively new ballpark in the city they call, for marketing and territorial purposes, home in favor of a taxpayer funded ballpark no one but wealthy white suburban people can get to (and even they can’t without difficulty); and (b) sent off all of the players which have excited fans in the past several years. Against that backdrop, the largely faceless CEO of a division of a largely faceless corporation which owns the team is claiming implausible but, I suppose,

unfalsifiable things about the business of baseball which read like a pat on the back for financial performance more than any sort of argument for the competitive prospects of the team (Q: “When can we expect to see the Braves in the top 10 in terms of payroll?” A: “I won’t give you a timetable, but you will start seeing major jumps 1/1/17”).

Given his job, it’s understandable that he does this. Given the ownership structure of the Braves, it’s understandable that he does this. Given that, as we so often have to remind ourselves, baseball is a business, it’s understandable that he does this. But given how thoroughly he and his bosses have sapped any semblance of baseball enjoyment from the Atlanta Braves and how thoroughly they have thrust the concerns of the team’s owners and their pocketbooks into the news and public discussion of the team, that rough bargain between ownership and the fans has been breached. Ownership hasn’t thrown the fans who care about anything other than five-year plans and prospect-fetishizing a bone in over two years and seems unwilling to do so any time soon.

In light of that, no matter how understandable Terry McGuirk’s position is, it’s far more understandable why Braves fans shouldn’t give a tinker’s damn about this club for the foreseeable future.

Atlanta Business Chronicle

Braves tracking stock could lead to spinoff, analyst says

Mark Meltzer - Executive Editor - Atlanta Business Chronicle

A move Nov. 12 by the Atlanta Braves’ parent company could set the stage for the team to be spun off, a securities analyst says.

Liberty Media Corp. (Nasdaq: LMCA), which owns the Braves, said Thursday it is creating a tracking stock for the Braves and for its two other principal businesses, Sirius XM Holdings Inc. and Live Nation Entertainment Inc.

“A tracking stock is actually not an official spin of the asset,” said Jeffrey Wlodarczak, founder and CEO of New York-based Pivotal Research Group LLC. “Basically a tracking stock is a tool for a company to highlight specific asset within the larger company.”

Liberty Braves will still be part of Liberty Media, he said.

“It does arguably set the stage for Liberty to eventually spin the asset out to shareholders.”

If a spinoff does occur, ownership of the Braves would pass from Liberty Media, which purchased the club in 2007 from Time Warner Inc., to Liberty’s shareholders. The team would be a standalone public company.

In an interview on Nov. 9, Braves Chairman and CEO Terry McGuirk was asked if he thought Liberty Media would own the Braves in 10 years.

“That one is such an enigma that I just worry about the next 18 months of getting from here to the opening,” McGuirk said. “… I just want to be successful each year that I operate this thing for them and I couldn’t be stronger in my belief that we will be.”

Later in the day, Liberty CEO Greg Maffei said at an investor conference in New York the company plans to raise $200 million to help pay for construction of SunTrust Park.

Atlanta Braves Chairman, CEO Terry McGuirk talks payroll, Liberty Media, relationships

Phil W. Hudson - Staff Writer - Atlanta Business Chronicle

On Nov. 9, Atlanta Business Chronicle sat down with Atlanta Braves Chairman and CEO Terry McGuirk to discuss the state of the club since it made the announcement it will relocate to Cobb County and build a new stadium — SunTrust Park. Part 2 is here. Part 1 follows:

Atlanta Business Chronicle: The Braves have diversified investments through the mixed-use development. How do you expect that to impact revenue?

Terry McGuirk: When we first started into this, we saw how St. Louis did Ballpark Village. It was 100,000 [square] feet and it was judged by baseball as the greatest thing anyone had ever seen. You have 100,000 right next door where you can entertain all of your fans and people who are interested in the game but not going in. As we saw that, we said, “Well, we can do a lot better than that” and that’s when we started thinking several hundred thousand feet. We ended up deciding that we wanted to own everything. It’s all owned underneath the Braves, so the Braves actually are in the mixed-use development business.

We wouldn't have done any of it unless we thought it would be profitable, obviously. We think it all will be profitable. Some of this is long-term payback and you have to be in these businesses a long time to harvest the value and we intend to be. We are going to be here 30 years. Our interest in making sure this works exactly right is paramount. We are not going to let this get into anyone’s hand or be second best or not operate

the way we want it. Those operations are more important to us than profitability because we are certain that they will carry themselves, but we don’t even talk about profitability when it comes to this thing. If we sell some of it, it will all sell at wonderful prices, but we aren’t thinking that way. The banks love it and are jumping on. They say, “This is really smart. We’ve never seen anything like this,” and we are having retailers come in and say the same thing.

To the extent that it is profitable, it will make us more of a factor in the world of whatever we are doing. You know what new ballparks have meant to home teams almost universally. I haven’t seen one in modern times that hasn’t had that halo effect. San Francisco has sold out 350 straight games. Philadelphia just hit the wall with a bad season, but they sold out for hundreds of straight games. The profitability from the halo effect from our new ballpark, and all of the services and the ascending team are going to be able to take care of itself. I think we are going to be able to spend more money on the ball team and on the experience than people ever dreamed of. Our goal is the faster we can get back to what we were doing in the early ‘90s, the greater the return is for everything that we are doing. You are seeing a fairly transformational process going on, starting a year ago to now and moving forward, with the ball team to mirror what we are doing transformationally with the actual physical plan.

ABC: If revenues increase like expected, will payroll increase?

TM: Absolutely. We are not going to be the Los Angeles Dodgers, which have become unsustainable. The Dodgers' operating theory is so unsustainable that they themselves have said, “We’re going to reduce $100 million of payroll.” It’s crazy what they did and they now know it. New owners do this. Almost every time baseball has a new owner they sort of go haywire and then they come back down. We’ve been in the middle of the pack as far as payroll — that’s not where we want to be going forward. We’re going to be much better.

ABC: Can we expect to see a top 10 payroll team?

TM: I think that’s where we want to be. I think we would expect ourselves to be. The proof is in the pudding. We have to have all of this coalesce and work. Our confidence level is so high that it’s as close to being in our plans as we can get it right now as far as our operating plan and how everything we are doing.

ABC: When can we expect to see the Braves in the top 10 in terms of payroll?

TM: I won’t give you a timetable, but you will start seeing major jumps 1/1/17.

ABC: The Braves were profitable during the first nine months of the year. Does that money go to Liberty Media or is it reinvested in the Braves?

TM: Basically, all of the money at the Braves. We’ve never really lost money with the Braves. Baseball is not a widely profitable business. If you took all of the free-cash flow of all of the 30 teams, it’s pretty much zero. That’s sort of a fairly well known fact. If you actually, do have free cash flow, you’re among a minority. We have always managed the team to at least break even on free cash flow or make a little. Sometimes we’ve made more than a little. But, that puts in a minority in this business. Profitability is not what we want to be about. We want to be about generating revenue because people want to come there because we have a winning organization and everything about it is so exciting.

There are a lot of pieces of the puzzle that have to come together but you’re looking at the window at it. It is going to come together. On the player personnel side in the last year, we’ve had a lot of pain and the pain that we’re going through is purposely to get to the promised land.

I would liken what we were doing before we started into this, this time a year ago. We were in a process where we made moved away from the old Braves way in the early ‘90s of everything that Bobby Cox had built as a general manager was coming up through the system and was matriculating through the major leagues and boom there we were with a worst-to-first team. We got to the point after 2010 where we started building from the top down. We started looking for the last puzzle piece to make us a championship team. There’s nothing wrong with that, but we didn’t have a minor league team that was supporting that, but we kept pursuing that because our general manager at the time thought we were that close. Mid-year in ’14, we were in first place, but prior to that, you go back to the winter of ’13, ’14 John Schuerholz and I were talking and we really knew what was going on and what we had to fix, but the problem was we were winning and it’s had to fix when the fix is as drastic as we thought we needed to take place when you’re winning and we felt like we had to continue to play it out. By mid-year of ’14, we sort of knew we were hitting a wall and of course that team did with a terrible second half. So we got to Oct. 1 a year ago and that’s when we said, “OK, the catharsis is here. We have to make the changes to build this minor league system back.

Everybody — I don’t care if you’re the Los Angles Dodgers or the Yankees — you must have a top minor league system. It was sort of the magic bullet in the old days of the 14 straight division titles — I’m still not sure how we did it — but every year we drafted last and every year Baseball America would put us as a top minor league system. It’s virtually impossible, you cannot draft last every year and take what everybody passed by and then you have the best players who come to the Major Leagues. That’s what Bobby Cox and company were able to do during that period.

We’re going back to that as hard and as fast as we can. In the last 12 months, 15 out of our top 20 prospects are new to the organization. We did 15 trades that provided 20 new players — mostly pitchers, which are the coin of the realm. If you don’t have great young pitchers, you’re going nowhere and if you do have great young pitchers at the length and breadth that we do — it’s the great athlete theory in sports. You have the ability to use them in the trade market to get the pieces in ’17 you need to be that top team.

It hasn’t been without its pain as we’ve gone through this past year. We’ve all suffered. We don’t like to lose the players we’ve lost; we don’t like to lose period. But, we are as certain as we can be what the future looks like and where the glide slope of this team is and how it fits with all of the physical plan we were describing earlier I do think long term but that one is such an enigma that I just worry about the next 18 months of getting

from here to opening. And I know sort of the building blocks that move us forward out into the future. But I just want to be successful each year that I operate this thing for them and I think I’ve demonstrated that I couldn’t be stronger in my belief that we will be.

It’s not just the trades, it’s the draft choices — it really increased our ability to scout and player develop. This kid Riley that we got No. 41 is a stud and a big time hitter. To take a guy at 41 have that kind of talent and be a sure major leaguer— now we’re starting to get somewhere in this draft. And the international signings. We’ve been lax at being really efficient on our international signings — not any more.

ABC: How is the payroll set?

TM: As you know, I’m the control person of the team, which is in the coin of the realm of baseball is the person who has to make the decisions — no one else can make the decisions. That being said, I don’t think I’ve ever been in a better partnership than the one I have with the Liberty guys. We’re incredibly close. I’ve worked with John Malone now for close to 40 years. Everybody knows what kind of businessman he is. Greg Maffei, who is the CEO of the company, is a wonderful guy. They have no intention of getting involved at the decision making level of this organization. They are so confident in the people that they have here. I’m incredibly proud of team that you mostly know — our senior Braves group of the business side and the player personnel side is way stronger than needs to be to run a baseball team and it’s enabled us to do most of what we are doing here without any new management personnel [sic] it’s entirely being managed with the same people who have been managing the baseball team. Mike Plant, Derek Schiller, John Schuerholz. We had a retreat last week down in Sea Island at my home and we had our top 12 executives and player personnel people down there and spent three days thinking about the execution of everything we’ve been talking about. We have separate presentations on each of these fundamentals and how they grow through the next couple of year so they all hit the kind of glide slope we all want, certainly the physical plan — we know within minutes and days of when a brick is being laid or steel is going up and we then can lay in the player personnel decisions on top of that. That’s what we are doing. [Payroll] is my decision entirely.

ABC: When Ervin Santana was signed after Brandon Beachy and Kris Medlen both went down, the payroll was raised by $10 million. Who made that decision?

TM: That was my decision. It’s totally my decision. It’s so funny how people get interested in exactly how decisions are made. They’re made with confidence, trust and long-term experience. If I make a decision, everybody in the chain knows why I’ve made it. Because its in the good of the organization. The trust and the confidence is so large here that most of this decision making to build a new stadium was delivered to them as, “What do you think, but this is where we want to go. Any problems?” Those are really big decisions. We just spent a $200 million over here and it takes a lot of trust and partnership to do this kind of thing. I would say that would be the least of my worries and should be the least of your worries.

ABC: How are ticket sales for SunTrust Park going?

TM: They are going very well. We have the ability to electronically bring up renderings and sit you in any seat in the stadium. We started out with the higher priced tickets and we invited in people from the old stadium to come and have first dibs on the best seats because they have been loyal fans for so long— season ticket holders. They’re just about through that process and we are very soon going to open it up to the general fan base. We’ll be using this [The Preview Center] every business day for the next year. In the old stadium we had approximately 400 premium seats, in the new stadium approximately 4,000 premium seats. The great majority of those 4,000 seats are gone. Those are the seats that have food and beverage, clubs, air conditioning in the suites, bigger seats.

It’s interesting; the seating configuration that was the most popular was the little half-moon tables with swivel seats. They were gone within minutes. We are now trying to figure out where we can put more of these. It’s late into the process and we may not be able to get many more in, but it was a pleasant surprise. It’s hard to know what fans in this sort of new world are going to want in this stadium. We put 100 of these tables in and they just went on contact. They’re in front of the stadium club, up in left field; they’re in various places. We’ve kept the SunTrust Club, which is going to roughly mirror what we have today, it will be slightly bigger, and then a Delta Club, which will be right behind it. They’ll sort of function as the main body as two clubs. The Delta Club is sort of the encompassing one and SunTrust sort of sits under it and is a club within a club. To get in the SunTrust Club, you’ll walk in the Delta Club and you’ll have the use of that and then you’ll walk through and there will be another entrance in the Delta Club walking into your slightly more exclusive Club — the SunTrust Club. The new Cowboy stadium has this function and they’ve done it beautifully.

We won’t have a museum in the new stadium. The entire stadium is going to be a museum. We have art consultants; Populous has a division, which does all of the artifacts. I would say the closest to what we are going to do better is the new Minnesota stadium. If you’ve ever been in there, literally every hallway in the stadium has artifacts on it. It’s just beautiful and we fell in love with it the first time. We’ve been through it a number of times, as we have been with every stadium, stealing ideas. We’ve stolen ideas from every stadium under the sun. Even some arenas, even Madison Square Garden. We’ve stolen ideas from everywhere. Interestingly, during the buildup of the plans with Populous, we were able to insert every one of those ideas — like the 12 suites down low. We stole those from Miller Park in Milwaukee and there’s no other ones like it in baseball — they’re only 24 rows up and they’re big suites that sit there and are looking down on the field and up above, slightly lower than our suites today, you’ll have another set of many more suites. I won’t go through too many design ideas because when you see the stadium that will be part of the fun of it but we’ve included a lot of things in here that we’ve stolen from other places because they were great ideas. We did think a lot of it up, we were able to pick and choose and that’s the beauty of a clean sheet to build. We haven’t gone to market on anything beyond the top seats, but there will be an ability to still go to the game with a family of four for not much money. We are trying to mirror some of the pricing at the bottom end of the seat chart that we have in Turner Field.

ABC: What is the difference between your job and Braves President John Schuerholz’s job?

TM: He’s the president and I’m the chairman and CEO. As you can tell, John and I are very close. We’ve been great, great friends for a long time. John was the general manager and came to me years ago —several years before we actually made the change — and said, ‘I’ve been doing this for a long time and I’m thinking about getting out of the game because it’s burning me out.’ John is incredibly truthful and has his heart on his sleeve. You can only be the general manager for so long. It’s 24/7. Every player in the organization is on your mind. At that point, I was chairman, president and CEO. I didn’t need all of those titles. I said, “John, what do you think about being president? Would that keep you in the game?” He said, “Yeah. I’ve always wanted to be president.” What I’ve always said about John Schuerholz, even back when I was CEO of Turner Broadcasting, is that if John wasn’t the GM that he was, he would have been an IBM executive. He just has that mental capacity, he thinks that way. It just so happened that he got into baseball and had been at it for 48 years or something, so it didn’t surprise me that he had enough of what he was doing. I thought that having his mind in the same room with Mike Plant, Schiller, all of the things that go on on the business side of the organization, bringing that baseball knowledge. I’ve been around this team since 1976 and I’ve always observed that the teams that did the best are the ones that were able to unite the two threads of player personnel and business. There’s many organizations that they hate each other, the don’t work together, they don’t want anything to do with each other and they sit in opposite ends of the stadium and they never talk. To me, it looked like an advantage and an opportunity for John to bring his knowledge to the business side and to see where that went. It’s worked beautifully. John gets up every morning and is excited about the organization. He comes with me to the owner’s meetings. He’s on committees. He’s a very valuable member of the organization as a representative as president. He’s a great friend with Bud Selig so he had as many different ways we had to interact with the commissioner’s office. He and I worked hand in glove and had a wonderful relationship. Any of the long-term Braves, Bill Bartholomay being one, Hank Aaron being one, I’ve said to all of them, “As long as you want to, you will be a Brave forever. In fact, that’s my goal — for you to be a Brave forever.” All three of those guys are going to be Braves forever if I have anything to do with it.

ABC: How are the Braves going to handle military sponsorships moving forward following the McCain-Flake Report about “paid patriotism”?

TM: Frankly that was a bit of a surprise and frankly we think it was really erroneous — some of the stuff that was written about us. We don’t do that. That was completely wrong. [A Braves spokesperson said the sponsorship does not include the on-field events that the team has conducted for years.] If I thought any of that was true, I would stop it today. The money is de minimis. They do spend money for recruitment or retainment and they’re going to continue to spend money as advertisers and markets in the world of commerce. To the extent that they do that, I think it’s fair game for anybody to play in that world. But, the idea of us buying patriotism or however that was phrased is just so horrifying to me. I’m the kind of person that all of that stuff raises the hair on the back of my neck. I would really be upset if we were in the wrong place there, but I don’t think we are. The biggest moment I ever had at the stadium was years ago we got a bunch of companies of Marines to come to the stadium. They were way out in left field in the old stadium and they were doing chants back in fourth. That’s just fabulous stuff. I hope whatever this is doesn’t chill the idea of teams doing things with the military or getting them here. I want to get them here for free. I don’t want to charge anyone from Fort Benning money to come to our games. Frankly, I was as surprised as I could be when I read what I read.

ABC: We are seeing the redevelopment efforts kickoff for Turner Field. What would you like to see happen to it?

TM: I was down at Georgia State two weeks ago when I was introducing Hank Aaron for an award he was getting down there. Hank and I are very close and we have Mark Becker at our table and he spoke before I did to introduce me. When he got up there he said, ‘I hope these guys can figure out how we can get the new stadium.’ We don’t have anything to do with it, but I think Georgia State would be a great participant down there.

I don’t know how this will all transpire. We understand the economics of operating a stadium. We understand a lot about what exists down there. I don’t know that it’s been fully vetted and thought out. Frankly, we’ve bled more with those neighborhoods more than we could ever talk about. They’ve been neglected. They haven’t gotten what they need, so we’re very sympathetic.

I don’t think having a stadium there ever was good for those neighborhoods. I think if a stadium didn’t exist there, and that wasn’t the solution, and they did something different there that had to do with mixed-use and homes. They deserve something that is really good there. I set out once to try to figure that out with the mayor, but our answers didn’t work. Whoever comes next, we are going to be a cooperative as can be. We want that to be a success.

ABC: Do you think your plan to obtain new corporate partners for SunTrust Park has been successful?

TM: Our successes at corporate deals for the new stadium is so strong. We’ve hit a homerun at ever turn with our corporate sales and corporate marketing. Everybody we’ve been doing business with has totally embraced the new stadium. We’ve gotten all of the performance we are looking for from all of our marketing partners. Some of the new ballparks to me have been cluttered and not so pretty, I won’t mention any because you’ll probably say it if I did [laughs], but ours won’t be that way. We are spending a lot of time with Populous and art consultants to figure out exactly how the exterior of the stadium will look. Modern science has really helped us. We can really get a good view of how to make the stadium beautiful just from the renderings and the visuals that we already have.

ABC: Is Jenner Wood [SunTrust’s corporate executive vice president for wholesale banking] the biggest fan of the Braves?

TM: Yes. Bill Rogers will tell you, we wouldn’t have that deal without Jenner. Jenner had the vision and had the understanding that they were sort of in the midst of a major expansion of the bank on a national basis. They were looking for an identity. They were looking to coalesce all of their employees under one banner that made them a greater workforce. Bill Rogers said to me recently, ‘I underestimated how big this was to our success.’

When you think about it, two years before we open this ballpark, SunTrust signs on as a 25-year naming partner. Washington and Miami don’t even have naming partners, after years of operating. It is hard to do. You and another company have to have all of the same sensibilities and understanding of how you’re going forward. Bill Rogers and I spent a bunch of time together before we did this, because he had to go to his board,

because he’s not going to be chairman forever, and say ‘I’m going to commit many future chairmen to this, and you the board need to be comfortable with what I see and what I feel about the Braves. And we had a real coming together, two families, before that happened.

ABC: On opening night in April 2017, do you feel comfortable that everything will run smoothly?

TM: First of all we’re going to try to have opening night – it’s possible it could happen on a weekend. Baseball has basically said to us: Tell us how you want to open the stadium. It’s the most important thing happening to us, to baseball, in 2017. All of baseball will be focused on this. It may be ESPN’s opening night game. We’ve been thinking about it for a couple of months now, how to open the stadium.

ABC: Where do you see Liberty Media’s role in 10 years?

TM: That one is such an enigma that I just worry about the next 18 months of getting from here to the opening. I know some of the building blocks that move us out into the future, but I just want to be successful each year that I operate this thing for them and I couldn’t be stronger in my belief that we will be.

ABC: Who is Terry McGuirk outside of the Braves

TM: I’m a father and certainly a family guy. Family comes first. I have four children. They are all grown now — 28 to 34. The last one is getting married in December. Five grandchildren. The house is a cluster bomb of kids and fun.

I retired from Turner Broadcasting in the early 2000s partly because all four of my children were teenagers and I was about to take a bigger step in the Time Warner world where I was going to have to travel even more than I was traveling. I did it really so I could stay at home and go to every game and every ballet recital. Those were important things. I did it and I got to go. Taking over the Braves during that period wasn’t something I set out to do, but that’s how it worked out. It enabled me to do all of my dreams.

I’ve served on the Westminster board for 20 years and was chairman of the board for five years. I served on the Piedmont Hospital System Board for 16 or 17 years and was the vice chairman of that board. I’ve been on a couple of public company boards and I’ll probably be on more. I think it’s great to continue your education and experience and you learn a lot and have associations that help you in life. I come in and out of that world and will continue it.

Atlanta Braves Chairman, CEO Terry McGuirk talks SunTrust Park, development, vision

Phil W. Hudson - Staff Writer - Atlanta Business Chronicle

On Nov. 9, Atlanta Business Chronicle sat down with Atlanta Braves Chairman and CEO Terry McGuirk to discuss the state of the club since it made the announcement it will relocate to Cobb County and build a new stadium — SunTrust Park. Part 1 is here. Part 2 follows:

Atlanta Business Chronicle: It’s been two years since you’ve announced the team will relocate to Cobb County. How did the idea for SunTrust Park and the move come about?

Terry McGuirk: Rightly, we’ve been at it for about two years. We really go back about four years in the whole germ of the project of thinking about it. We always thought about a new stadium. We thought about the possibilities as we did the renewal with the city. It sort of culminates with the middle of ’13, we sort of begin to think that there is an opportunity to do something with Cobb County and we begin to have those discussions. Here we are in November ’15 and in November ’13 when this was announced we were anxiously about to try and make this happen because we always said we needed a firm answer of if we were going to do a new stadium by the end of ’13 because of the lead time of the planning and building. If didn’t have an answer by then, we were going to miss that opportunity. It would have been off the table and we would have been negotiating for something else.

This wonderful vision that we all had was under some timetable. The conversations begin with Cobb County in the middle of the year in ’13 and the announcement two years ago in November to the world that we are moving to Cobb County and we are going to build a new stadium. Nothing could be more exciting to this organization. It is the ultimate goal of all of us to create our own home, our own feel and touch and we all know that the four corners of Turner Field are fun to be in, outside the four walls there is nothing and there’s nothing for our fans to do. We’ve done enough surveying that we knew that our fans didn’t like driving down there, they didn’t like the parking, they didn’t like that there were virtually no hotels, entertainment and restaurants.

As we start into this, our goal was to build a new stadium, then we put it into our heads, let's try and provide the things that our fans want, which is the wonderful restaurants. Our first thoughts were maybe we can build a couple of hundred thousand feet of that kind of thing around the ballpark and by mid-year ’13 that’s what we were thinking. As we progress towards the end of the year, our interests and goals obviously got a lot bigger to where now we are looking at the first phase at close to a million and a half square feet of complete mixed-use city that will surround this ballpark.

ABC: What does the mixed-use development include?

TM: 550 apartments, 350,000 [square feet] of soft goods retail, the office building, the hotel with the Omni and 20 restaurants — The Battery. The restaurant piece of it has been the most surprising in a way because it is the most sought after. We probably have 40 restaurants chasing approximately 20 spots in this project that we’re doing. We have in mind basically all of the ones we are going to include. We’ve announced five

and there are 15 more that are likely to come in the near future. Pretty much all of them have been contacted and the deals are done or its in some form of paperwork trading, but we are pretty much there on all of the restaurants. That will all be coming out soon.

ABC: How has it been navigating this new venture?

TM: The pace has been furious. Of course, there were the obvious concerns — could we get this thing done on time, can we accumulate all of the things that go into the submarket issues. We have great partners, great submarket partners. We ended up getting far more involved at the development end than we thought we would. We will own most of the project as we finish it. The place where we have the least amount of ownership will be the hotel, which is a 50/50 partnership between Omni and us. All of the rest of them will be far higher ownership.

We have lots of financial decisions post the finishing of the project and how we will handle all of that downstream, but we are very excited. We will have the opportunity to design and put together the experience that our fans will have when they come to the game. At the same time, we have to build this and design this for 365-day use. Any of the retailers that we’ve talked to want to know how this place will operate when this is no ballgame going on. I think we’ve given them enough confidence in all of the things we’ve told them.

This is going to be a really exciting place to live. I think it will be a millennial kind of a place. I have a son who is a millennial and he said, “I wish I could live there! This is the greatest thing I ever saw!” The 550 apartments and the office building that will have 1,000 employees and the 275-room hotel are going to have their own vitality and drive their own people through the restaurants and the retail and so on. I think we are going to have a tremendous number of people that are going to come from the neighborhoods around.

ABC: How has the development impacted the surrounding area?

TM: Bob Ott, who is the commissioner here, has approved $1 billion of zoning requests for new building permits around here of things that are going up since we made the announcement and its mostly housing and some retail. The number of things that are happening is very exciting. We’ve sort of created a tipping point. We always knew the Cumberland area was a great area. There is more office space within a one-mile radius of here than there is in downtown Charlotte. This is a big submarket place, but there wasn’t anything that defined it, that coalesced it and brought people together. Certainly, the Galleria is a neat place and has lots of office buildings. Cumberland has served its purpose, but I wouldn’t say these are best-in-class kinds of places. Everything about this will be best in class. The people that are coming in here and are expecting to do business here are doing so for that very reason. We are going to start off by driving 3 million fans through here to experience everything, but that’s only on 81 dates, hopefully more dates with the playoffs. Millions of more people will come through here on the other dates.

ABC: When do you foresee the entire development being open?

TM: On Opening Day 2017 in April our goal is that this is not a construction site. Certainly, there will be construction going on and certainly there will be things that are not open. The Shops at Buckhead were not anywhere close to done when they opened and there’s probably more that was under construction there than there will be here percentage wise, but they did it all behind the scenes. They had a wall. It was like a Hollywood set. Our goal is that when our fans are walking down the street, the streets are immaculate, there’s flowers in all of the vases, there’s certain stores that are open, a lot of restaurants will be open, certainly a bunch of retail, but the hotel will not be open, the office building won’t be open. Later that year, pretty much everything works its way to completion. We won’t have all of the 550 apartments occupied at that point because we’re building them in stages, but the ones that are not done will be way in the back that you really won’t be able to see.

Our goal is that you will not be able to see any red mud or any construction on the outside. It will look like a completed project. Our goal is that nothing will go beyond the end of ’17. As we open the ballpark in ’18 for the new season, I expect nothing to be incomplete at that point.

ABC: Are there future expansion sites around SunTrust Park?

TM: Yes, there are. When we decided that the ballpark was going to go here, we furiously bought property all around here. We did it through a variety of LLCs and we were able to accumulate just on this main body that is surrounded by Windy Ridge and Circle 75 approximately 60 acres. We now own approximately 90 acres. There are a number of opportunities for a another office building, a condo building, more retail; we have a restaurant tour that is interested who won’t be in the first phase. I think we are going to learn a lot.

At the beginning, what was good for our ballpark and fans, we quickly morphed into what’s going to be great for The Battery. We got so excited about creating this village around here. We’ve hired a general manager for The Battery and we’re spending a lot of time thinking about of baseball season and we have a lot of help thinking about that. The one thing we have not been shy of is consultants. We’ve brought in the best and the brightest from around the world to help us and right from the beginning.

ABC: How did you decide where to put the stadium after you bought the land?

TM: The stadium could have gone anywhere up-and-down this piece of property. We got down to feet. We moved it one foot this way, four feet that way. In the end, we were that precise. The orientation was thought a lot about. It’s opposite orientation of Turner Field. All of the sun and wind studies worked out beautifully. We had Dobbins [Air Reserve Base] helping us on all of those.

The thought process that has gone into every inch of this project is unbelievable. Jerde helps us with the land planning. There was about a 70-foot elevation change from one side of the project to the other when we first started. How we were going to lay out the village on that topography was really interesting. At one point, it was an Italian village kind of thing kind of cascading down. By the time we got through with all of the retail development professionals, we flattened the whole thing. It cost us a lot more money to take out all the rock.

If someone asks, “What was the plan and how did you accomplish it?” The plan changed consistently. You have to do that and have very agile minds. We knew where we wanted to get to and it made it sort of easy because were always able to take every obstacle or advantage and tailor it to the direction we wanted to get to and we got there. I’m convinced we are absolutely on target for something really special here.

ABC: How are you going to handle parking at SunTrust Park?

TM: I feel perfectly confident about the parking program. We haven’t announced anything, but we’re probably going to have on the property itself, 6,000 spots, almost entirely in stacked parking. All of that is already happening. Much, or some of that 6,000, will be dedicated to retailers.

But we have one retailer who’s going to be a fairly big box guy who said, ‘I have an idea: I’ll have people park in the lot that’s for my store during game days and I’ll charge them $5 or $10, and I’ll give them a voucher to come back to my store and recoup the whole thing.’ So these retailers are starting to really think. It’s a very clever idea, and I hadn’t thought of it. He thought of it. He’s one of our biggest retailers.

Every office building that I talked about that is underneath this umbrella has either been contacted, or is in the process of [being contacted].

We’re still doing deals. And some people are scared of it. They think, maybe I’ll need the parking at night. So OK we won’t do a deal with you. We’ll let you sign on three months after we start and see how it works.

We’re going to have 8,000 or 10,000 spots. That’s not going to be a problem. We’re going to get it done.

ABC: How will transportation to and from the new stadium work?

TM: There will be this Circulator, which is more a convenience than a major functioning delivery of fans. It’ll probably be more useful on non-game days. Cobb announced two weeks ago they had bought the first six buses that will be part of that Circulator.

There’s a billion dollars of transportation changes going on here, including raised lanes coming down from the north that go two ways and end right here. There’s the diverging diamond interchange at Windy Hill, another lane out on 41. They’re cutting a new entrance into this development right in the middle.

There’s so much going on here that is probably going to happen for a long time into the future. So while we know already a lot of the infrastructure that’s going to make transportation a lot easier, there’s a lot more coming that we’re still thinking about.

Associated Press

Braves trade Simmons to Angels for Aybar, pitching prospects

By GREG BEACHAM (AP Sports Writer)

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- The Atlanta Braves traded Andrelton Simmons to the Los Angeles Angels for Erick Aybar and top pitching prospects Sean Newcomb and Chris Ellis on Thursday night.

The Braves also get $2.5 million, while the Angels get minor league catcher Jose Briceno in a deal headlined by two quality major league shortstops trading places on teams with differing needs.

Simmons is arguably the best defensive shortstop in baseball, winning the Gold Glove in 2013 and 2014. He was named the Wilson Defensive Player of the Year on Wednesday, offsetting his mediocre offensive skills with spectacular work in the field.

Simmons also is under contract through 2020, while Aybar could become a free agent next winter.

''We are extremely excited to acquire an impact shortstop and one that fits our championship standards,'' Angels general manager Billy Eppler said in a statement. ''Andrelton provides us up-the-middle foundation at a premium position for years to come. To know we have a player with Andrelton's talents, drive and competitiveness at such a young age signed through 2020 is a vital step in adding to our core group.''

Coming off a 97-loss season, the Braves got an offer they couldn't pass up, according to new general manager John Coppolella, who dealt away one of the team's most popular players in his first trade since his promotion.

''We need more talent,'' Coppolella said. ''We think all three players in the trade will have an impact on our major league team for the 2016 season.''

Over that past year, the Braves have undergone a massive rebuilding job, loading up on pitching prospects and trying to set their team for a return to playoff contention when they move into a new suburban stadium in 2017.

But Coppolella insisted this deal wasn't entirely geared to the future. Aybar should be an upgrade offensively over Simmons, no small consideration given Atlanta's feeble offense. Also, the glut of young pitchers gives the Braves a chance to pursue future deals to upgrade the offense.

''You can make an argument that we'll win more games with Aybar,'' Coppolella said. ''This wasn't a prospect trade. This was a value-for-value trade with two really good prospects in it.''

Aybar has been the Angels' starting shortstop since 2008 and a key player in Anaheim for a decade, making the AL All-Star team in 2014 while batting .276 in 1,220 regular-season games since 2006. He has been dependable in the field and at the plate, although his offensive contributions slipped slightly last season to his lowest average (.270) and RBI total (44) in a half-decade.

''This is one of those transactions where each organization will benefit in both the short and long term,'' Eppler said.

Los Angeles broke up its long-standing double-play combination last season by trading second baseman Howie Kendrick to the Dodgers one year before his own free agency.

With no clear heir to Aybar in the Angels' system beyond long-term Cuban prospect Roberto Baldoquin, the Angels' new general manager gave up his two top pitching prospects to land a long-term replacement and another defensive star to play with Mike Trout and Gold Glove winner Kole Calhoun.

The 6-foot-2 Simmons has a career .983 fielding percentage with outstanding range, leading all major leaguers since 2013 with 1,354 assists and leading all shortstops with 692 putouts.

He is under the big-budget Angels' control for the next five seasons at a fairly hefty price, making $11 million in 2018, $13 million in 2019 and $15 million in 2020.

On the other hand, Simmons batted .265 with four homers and 44 RBIs last season, showing little progress at the plate. He had 17 homers and 59 RBIs in 2013, his first full season in the major leagues.

Newcomb, the 15th overall pick in the 2014 draft, was considered the top prospect in the Angels' thin minor league system. The 6-foot-5 left-hander moved up to Double-A Arkansas last season, and is expected to be in a big league rotation soon.

Ellis is a promising right-hander who also pitched at Arkansas last season.

Coppolella mentioned David Price when talking about Newcomb.

''Obviously, there are areas in which he can improve,'' Coppolella said of the youngster. ''But we think he can pitch at the very top of a rotation.''

Braves re-sign veteran C A.J. Pierzynski for another season

ATLANTA (AP) -- Veteran catcher A.J. Pierzynski will return for another season with the Atlanta Braves after agreeing to a $3 million, one-year contract.

The 38-year-old Pierzynski was a rare bright spot for the Braves this past season. Signed to serve mainly as a backup, he wound up handling the bulk of the catching duties, hitting .300 with nine homers and 49 RBIs in 113 games.

A two-time All-Star, Pierzynski has played at least 100 games each of the last 15 seasons. He could be in for another heavy workload if Christian Bethancourt continues to struggle.

Bethancourt was supposed to take over the starting duties but wound up spending most of the year in the minors. He batted .200 with two homers and 12 RBIs in 48 games for Atlanta.

It was a busy day for the Braves, who also traded Gold Glove shortstop Andrelton Simmons to theLos Angeles Angels for shortstop Erick Aybar and top pitching prospects Sean Newcomb and Chris Ellis. Atlanta received $2.5 million, while the Angels got minor league catcher Jose Briceno in the deal.

Column: Rebuild a daunting task for Braves, Lakers, others

By PAUL NEWBERRY (AP National Writer)

ATLANTA (AP) -- Two years ago, the Atlanta Braves won 96 games and a division championship.

Now, they're barely recognizable.

Be wary when team officials, as they always do, talk hopefully of rebuilding a once-proud franchise.

How's that working out for Los Angeles Lakers? The Boston Celtics? The San Francisco 49ers?

We could go on and on about teams that went from champions to afterthoughts a lot quicker than it took them to find their way back to the top. Rebuilding a team takes patience, skill and usually a bit of good fortune (See: Stephen Curry).

For some, it can be a decades-long process.

After winning their first World Series title in 1985, the Kansas City Royals needed 30 years to capture another. Heck, it took 29 years just to make another postseason appearance. There were a lot of dark days in between for KC fans.

Ditto for Golden State, which followed its 1975 title with four largely irrelevant decades. Only when the Warriors drafted a skinny guard out of tiny Davidson College did things finally turn around. Curry, to the surprise of just about everyone, turned out to be an MVP.

Now the Braves are on deck, having decided to totally rebuild their roster after a disappointing 2014 season.

In the short term, things have gotten a lot worse.

Ninety-five losses this past season - the most in a quarter-century - and the very real prospect of even more defeats in 2016.

After trading slick-fielding shortstop Andrelton Simmons to the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday evening, the Braves have only two players - first baseman Freddie Freeman and pitcher Julio Teheran - left from their last NL East-winning team.

''It would have been easy not to make this trade,'' said new general manager John Coppolello, who is now overseeing the massive overhaul. ''I could've said, 'Let me hold on to Simmons. He's a fan favorite who makes great plays.' But I want us to get better. I don't want us to lose (95) games again. I want good, young players to fill the pipeline year in and year out.''

Getting good, young players doesn't always translate into wins.

After two straight dismal seasons, the Lakers are getting a head start on the post-Kobe Bryant era with a roster that includes four rookies and three other players with just one year of experience. The team hopes at least one of them will develop into something resembling the next Kobe.

Until then, Jack Nicholson will have to handle this truth: the Lakers stink.

In Boston, where Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen led the storied Celtics to the last of their 17 NBA championships in 2008, the process of replacing the Big Three has been a tedious one. The team is carrying three rookies and eight players who haven't yet celebrated their 25th birthday. It's going to be a while before they're celebrating another title in Beantown.

The 49ers are headed for another grim era, much like they experienced after a glorious two-decade-long run that included five Super Bowl titles.

Jim Harbaugh and Colin Kaepernick spearheaded a brief return to glory, but Harbaugh is now coaching the University of Michigan and Kaepernick is on the bench. San Francisco (3-6) put up a white flag on this season when it traded tight end Vernon Davis to the Broncos for nothing more than low-round draft picks.

Rebuilding, in any sport, is hardly an exact science.

The Houston Astros got it right when they dismantled their team in Braves-like fashion, going from 111 losses two years ago to a wild-card berth this season. But the Chicago Bulls, who broke up their dynasty after Michael Jordan retired in 1998, needed seven years just to get back to the playoffs. They're still seeking another championship.

The Braves believe their reconstruction has left them with an abundance of promising young pitchers who will someday lead them back to the playoff promised land. They're asking for patience, but that's in short supply around Atlanta - especially with the Braves leaving Turner Field after next season for a new stadium in the suburbs, funded with a hefty contribution from taxpayers.

In a strange bit of timing, the Braves' corporate overlord, Liberty Media, announced Thursday that fans will soon be able to buy stock in the team. Not actual ownership, mind you, but what's known as a tracking stock, which goes up or down based on the team's financial performance.

Given all the high salaries the Braves have dumped, that might actually be a good investment.

On the field, though, they're nothing more than a penny stock.

Check back in a few years.

Liberty Media offering tracking stock for Braves next season

ATLANTA (AP) -- The Atlanta Braves were a flop on the field.

Maybe they'll fare better on Wall Street.

The team's owner, Liberty Media, is planning to offer a tracking stock that allows fans to invest in the Braves' financial performance, separate from the rest of the company. Liberty will also offer two other tracking stocks, one for its stake in satellite radio provider Sirius XM and another for its remaining businesses, including Live Nation Entertainment.

The ''Liberty Braves Group'' stock includes the team and its interests in new SunTrust Park, which is opening in 2017, and an adjacent mixed-used development that includes a hotel, office tower and retail space.

A tracking stock does not provide an actual stake in the team.

The Braves went 67-95 this past season, their worst since 1990.