Comments on: Robert Parish

By: ChuckO

ChuckO — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:39:11 +0000

Frank Wren is in a tough situation. He has inherited the GM job in what has been one of the best organizations in the game. In his first year at the helm, the Braves were a disappointment. I’m sure that he feels under a lot of pressure to do something to return the team to its status as perennial contenders. I fear that he will thus go out and spend the money in his budget, even if unwisely, just to create the impression that he is doing something.

By: JC

JC — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:19:02 +0000

If the front office is forced to spend its budget sub-optimally, then this ought to be upsetting to Liberty Media shareholders. I suspect Wren (or whoever is in charge) has significant leeway in choosing when and on what to spend. But, I can only hypothesize about this. If this was a government entity, I can see the spend-it-or-lose-it mindset, but I don’t think it survives much in the private market. That would require X-inefficiency, and all economic discussions implode upon the dropping of the X-bomb.

Ron,
Don’t jinx it.

By: Ron E.

Ron E. — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:29:23 +0000

Fair point in general, but it doesn’t (yet) apply to the Braves. There’s plenty of available free agents who would be great additions to the club that the extra money could be spent on at this point.

By: Mac

Mac — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:02:17 +0000

I gotta disagree with you here. If Wren doesn’t spend the money, he doesn’t get to put it in the bank, or spend it on signing bonuses for Latin American and Asian players. It goes back to Liberty, which then sets the salary scale in the future according to what the Braves spend in 2009.

By: themarksmith

themarksmith — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:41:24 +0000

I agree that it might be better to just save the money. Lackey could be on the market next year. You could use the money on draft picks. The problem is that the public, and the media for that matter, will crucify the GM for doing so, especially if and when the team loses. “Why didn’t you spend more money? You had it.” That sort of thing. It may not be right to criticize the GM, but you know that’s what will happen. As a Braves fan, I’m excited for this offseason, but I realize that spending $40-45M on 3 free-agents is taking a big risk, especially with so many arbitration-eligible guys in the coming years and few prospects near-ready (Hanson and Schafer seem to be the only “legitimate” ones). I guess we’ll see. Hopefully, Wren will be smart about it, but that remains to be seen.

By: Ken Houghton

Ken Houghton — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:31:49 +0000

It’s a precipitous decline, all right. He plays every game in 1994-5 and all but seven in 1995-6—but his playing time drops severely (half as much in the last year in Charlotte as the last year in Boston). He’s actually consisted rebounding, but everything else drops badly.

Of course, by the time he hits Charlotte, he has played about 1,400 regular season games, and another 178 playoff ones. So it ended up being a case of Charlotte paying for value Boston had already received.

http://www.basketballreference.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=PARISRO01