Who cares if Tom Glavine didn’t get a few starts to show if he could get major league hitters out?
OK, I don’t mean to be so blunt, but I’ve been reading the usual sources, and, I’m sorry, I’m unmoved.
The only reason to sign Tom Glavine is because you think he’s going to be one of your top five guys at getting guys out. You don’t sign him for old time’s sake, you don’t sign him because you think he might develop…you make a business and baseball decision. And the Braves did. They made two, actually.
The first was when his rehab from elbow and shoulder surgery was coming along nicely but there was still risk involved that he wouldn’t be ready (recall that in February, Glavine proclaimed repeatedly that he thought he’d be ready to go on opening day) and the Braves and Glavine worked it out to where they shared the risk and made the deal.
Then came the “cranky” shoulder in spring training, and his debut was pushed to April 18. Then the setback on April 13 pushed that to, it turned out, early June. And the fact that the gun never showed more than the low 80s (Frank Wren says reports of 86 were “inaccurate”).
Meanwhile, Tommy Hanson, the Tommy that Tommy was supposed to be a bridge to, was showing his readiness for the rotation with 90 strikeouts in 66 innings and a 1.79 ERA at Gwinnett (AAA).
Taking emotion out of it, the Braves made a second decision – a cold, hard, solid baseball and business decision. The money they’re not paying Glavine allows them to pay Nate McLouth (Nate McLouth? Are you kidding me?). The young Turk coming up from Gwinnett looks, to anyone with an objective eye, like the better solution to the fifth starter job that Glavine didn’t fill.
And Tommy should understand business decisions – he made one himself a few years back when he decided to join the New York Mets for a few more shekels, leaving his family in Alpharetta and his fanbase (well, some of them, anyway) understanding but not really liking his decision.
Maybe Tommy gets a job, maybe with the Phillies or Mets – both of whom could use an effective starter right about now – and maybe he goes 7-2, 3.33 down the stretch, contributing to a pennant and shoving it right straight up the Braves’ a$$. But I don’t think so.
And hopefully, once the hurt is gone, Glavine and Wren make up, the Braves hold a Glavine Day, retire his jersey, include him in the organization as a spring training pitching instructor or something – maybe even assistant GM, he’s a damn smart guy, after all – and he and Maddux go into the Hall together as Braves. And I think that’d be great.
As for the present, there was a decision to be made and Frank Wren made it.
