Interesting quote from Braves GM

[cheekimonk]

To paraphrase, Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos is on the Braves broadcast and said “you want deals to happen, right? But what is your direction and are you as flexible as you need to be? You can’t say ‘We absolutely have to have a defensive shortstop with a better bat.’ If that’s not out there, you can’t force a deal or force yourself to make a deal. You look at ‘Maybe there’s some value upgrading another position defense or offense enough that you get close to the value you can’t find’

[RonCo]

Interesting.

[cheekimonk]

Interesting.

Prob more to me cause AA is like no other GM I've seen. He's not going to be signing the biggest names, but he lets Freeman walk to LA (Freeman fired his agent because he just had one too many years on his demand) then restocks the empty MVP spot with another candidate this year in Olson. He let homegrown and team anchor Dansby Swanson go to the Cubs and his replacement was an All-Star this year. I've hardly seen him make a false move outside of Marcell Ozuna and, I mean, nobody can predict POS behavior.

[RonCo]

Fair enough, though I think Arcia is closer to a stroke of luck than brilliance. Barring something particularly interesting that their baseball people saw in him, I suppose.

[cheekimonk]

Fair enough, though I think Arcia is closer to a stroke of luck than brilliance. Barring something particularly interesting that their baseball people saw in him, I suppose.

I think they were banking on Vaughn Grissom, but Arcia just outplayed him. I didn't expect him to still be in our MiLB system after the deadline.

[RonCo]

Sometimes you get lucky.

[cheekimonk]

Sometimes you get lucky.

After a certain amount of rabbits out of a hat, you start to think it’s magic. AA hardly makes a wrong turn. It’s entertaining to follow.

[RonCo]

It's always great to watch a good manager of anything, really. We are pattern-finding creatures, though, so sometimes we attribute things in ways we probably shouldn't. Every GM gets lucky on occasion. But one of the traits of a good manager is that--by making good decisions upstream--they are in a position to capitalize on that bit of luck in ways that others may not be.

The thing I like about the initial quote is the focus on flexibility. For a team with resources, that's easier. But it's important for even us lowly BBA GMs. The idea of flexibility is about being disciplined at looking at the big picture rather than any one decision. Freeman is leaving? Oh no. While some fans will get really pissed, and some people will say "They can't possibly let Freeman go ... give him all the monies!" A flexible mindset says there's always another answer out there someplace. If not at 1B, somewhere else. So don't get caught into making a bad decision simply because you're focused on a small piece of the machine.

Ultimately, if Arcia hadn't come about, there's every chance the Braves fans would be unhappy at losing Swanson. But it's worked out. So the decision looks like it's charmed.

[RonCo]

If Arcia hadn't panned out, the Braves would have found another solution.

[cheekimonk]

It's always great to watch a good manager of anything, really. We are pattern-finding creatures, though, so sometimes we attribute things in ways we probably shouldn't. Every GM gets lucky on occasion. But one of the traits of a good manager is that--by making good decisions upstream--they are in a position to capitalize on that bit of luck in ways that others may not be.

The thing I like about the initial quote is the focus on flexibility. For a team with resources, that's easier. But it's important for even us lowly BBA GMs. The idea of flexibility is about being disciplined at looking at the big picture rather than any one decision. Freeman is leaving? Oh no. While some fans will get really pissed, and some people will say "They can't possibly let Freeman go ... give him all the monies!" A flexible mindset says there's always another answer out there someplace. If not at 1B, somewhere else. So don't get caught into making a bad decision simply because you're focused on a small piece of the machine.

Ultimately, if Arcia hadn't come about, there's every chance the Braves fans would be unhappy at losing Swanson. But it's worked out. So the decision looks like it's charmed.

Was for me as well but don't think I articulated fully. Freeman's agent wanted 7 years. AA wanted 6. I mean, dude, it's your MVP, face-of-the-franchise, pitchfork-and-torches guy making it clear to everyone he wants to stay...what's the holdup? If I'm the A's w/ Olson, AA's phone call had to come out of the blue.

[RonCo]

Maybe not totally out of the blue. I wasn't following _that_ closely, but as I recall, the Braves had been pretty firm that they weren't likely to pay what Freeman was asking. So either Freeman was coming down, or the Braves were moving on. Do you know the order of calls? Assuming they wanted to move Olsen while they could get serious value, it wouldn't have shocked me if Oakland put feelers out earlier in the process. As I recall, the trade happened medium late in the FA process. I'd be surprised it AA just woke up one day and decided to make a deal.

That said, I've been surprised before.

[cheekimonk]

I also like the "paraphrased" quote about not being forced by a deal to be made or force yourself into a deal. I do both of those, but more often it's letting the deal make me. You feel like someone else has put in so much research and you know they're looking at the forum/Discord just like you.

[cheekimonk]

Maybe not totally out of the blue. I wasn't following _that_ closely, but as I recall, the Braves had been pretty firm that they weren't likely to pay what Freeman was asking. So either Freeman was coming down, or the Braves were moving on. Do you know the order of calls? Assuming they wanted to move Olsen while they could get serious value, it wouldn't have shocked me if Oakland put feelers out earlier in the process. As I recall, the trade happened medium late in the FA process. I'd be surprised it AA just woke up one day and decided to make a deal.

That said, I've been surprised before.

Freeman signed for 7 w/ LA. AA would not go beyond 6. The week after the deal with LA was done Freddie fired his manager. The hub-bub is that his agent never told him the difference was one year...but I think I would make sure I knew everything going on w/ my destination. I think what hardly anyone but AA could do was imagine letting Freeman walk over anything that hurts the value of the team. He didn't go into that offseason assuming FF was returning...I wouldn't be surprised if he had the Olsen deal mostly in pocket.