The Good Behind Dan's Departure

Courtesy of Major League Baseball CC

I think that it might be universally understood that Dan Uggla was not a good fit for the Atlanta Braves. But I'm here to explain to you why it's extra special that we cut him off at the time we did. Dan Uggla is a problem for our cap space. But in baseball that's really not a thing that exists, cap space is set by the owners and more than likely the general manager. Frank Wren is a kind of guy who wants to increase the money that the Atlanta Braves can spend on roster spots. The Atlanta Braves moved up recently from 80 million, until they were at 90 million, and this year they're at a hundred million. This is because they're building a new stadium, in a nice neighborhood, next to their fan base. What is going to happen soon is that the attendance and ticket prices and merchandising will increase to a level previously unknown by the Braves. I'm personally excited about that because that means that we can buy more players. But in the meantime, we have to succeed and get to the playoffs.

The long and short of it is, that Dan Uggla was hogging up the last roster spot. The last roster spot for a manager is a space that is reserved for prospect players or trades or what have you. It is absolutely instrumental in a manager's ability to control a baseball team. Now we have two years left on Uggla's contract, which means that time would have been the amount on the roster and hogging up space. If you "designate for assignment" that player, that means you can lose even more money in that process. and you could still not get the roster spot back.

25 men. That's the limit. The Braves bullpen is having issues and the bats are not consistently hot. That means that we have to start experimenting on our roster and I think that is worth the $14 million over 2 years to the Braves organization. These kind of things are not up to the players or the fans. Bite the bullet, cut Dan, make the playoffs.

This article is a good read if you want further explanation. It's by Atlanta sports AJC writer Mark Bradley.


--by Levi Warner