TOT - Braves Say Goodbye to a Colossal Mistake

By Johnmaxmena2 (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Transaction of Today...November 15, 1989: The Atlanta Braves release Bruce Sutter.

A mistake.

It is rarely a mistake to add a Hall of Famer, but when you do so like the Braves did after the 1984 season, it can only be described just that - a mistake. Worse, it was the mistake that kept reminding the Braves of their misguided approach to free agency that winter.

It was a mistake that even as the Braves tried to move on from it 27 years ago today, they couldn't completely and every winter since, the Braves continue to pay for their ineptness.

It began in December of 1984. Two years removed from their first division title since 1969 and back-to-back second place finishes under Joe Torre, Braves general manager John Mullen and owner Ted Turner saw an opportunity to make a splash. They fired Torre because Turner felt they were stagnating and brought up Eddie Haas from Triple-A to replace him. And then, on December 7, they signed Sutter.

For the Braves, adding Sutter gave them the flexibility to withstand the pending loss of Donnie Moore along with give them the ability to move reliever Steve Bedrosian to the starting rotation. Meanwhile, in Sutter, they had acquired one of the most dynamic pitchers in baseball. He was coming off a season in which he went to his sixth All-Star Game in nine years in the league, his fourth Rolaids Relief Award, and a third-place finish in the Cy Young voting.

Part of the new breed of relievers who didn't start their careers as starters before being shifted to the pen, Sutter was renowned for his split-fingered fastball and great control. Outside of one bad season - by his standards - in 1983, Sutter had not finished a season with an ERA over 3.20 and had led the Senior Circuit in saves in five of the previous six seasons before becoming a free agent.

St. Louis wanted to keep Sutter, but was not willing to give in to his steep demands. Not only did he want a hefty salary moving forward, but a no-trade clause. The Cards balked, which opened the door for Ted Turner. Never one to shy away from making the news, Turner swooped in with an offer that still defies logic. According to an article written a month after Sutter joined the Braves and penned by Kenneth Reich of the Los Angeles Times, Sutter was due an exorbitant amount of money for a reliever by even today's standards. For starters. he would be paid $750,000 as a player in each of the next six years. That alone was a significant price to pay when the average salary in 1985 was $368,998.

But that's where the deal went into full nutty. After six seasons, Sutter would receive a minimum of $1.12 million for the next 30 years. Sutter, who could have been playing somewhere else in 1992, would still get paid at least $1.12 million that season. 1992 was the first year that the major league average salary scaled over the one million dollar mark, but even with that in the mind, the Braves would be paying Sutter more than the average salary even if he wasn't playing for them. And he wouldn't be, but this contract's nuttiness is still not complete so let's not get back to his playing career just yet.

At the end of the contract, Sutter would receive $9.1 million in "principal." That comes in 2021 - when Sutter 68 years-old and four years after the Braves move into their new ballpark in Cobb County (or the franchise's second park after Sutter's retirement).

The grand total of this contract was $47.2 million. Not for nothing, but that represents just the minimum Sutter would receive because I won't even touch the interest rates which could have increased this contract a lot according to what Reich wrote in 1985. To put it in a different way...the Atlanta Braves paid Gordon Beckham about $130,000 more in 2016 than they paid Sutter. Say what you will about Beckham, but he was still a better use of money.

The saddest part of this whole deal was the monster failure on the field. The move of Bedrosian to the rotation did little to help the Braves and the presence of Sutter did even less for the bullpen. In 1985, fresh off one of his best performances of his career, Sutter struggled with the Launching Pad. A veteran of Wrigley Field and Busch Stadium, Sutter saw balls fly out of Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium at a ridiculous high rate of 1.3 per nine innings (13 in total). By August, he was also dealing with shoulder inflammation and with Atlanta going nowhere, he was shut down a month later.

After the '85 season, Sutter underwent shoulder surgery, but it did little to help with his performance. He would pitch in just 16 games during the '86 season and was removed from the closer role early on by the Braves in favor of Gene Garber and Paul Assenmacher. On May 27, Sutter retired two of the three batters he faced in the tenth inning against the Pirates. He would be placed on the DL after the game and miss the remainder of the season. In February of 1987, he underwent yet another shoulder surgery to try to clean up the damage, but would miss all of the '87 season rehabbing from the procedure.

When the 1988 season began, Sutter worked his way back into higher leverage situations. He took over the closer job in May and from the 17th of that month until the 17th of the next month (June), Sutter looked like he might be back in form. In ten games, he pitched 12.2 innings with 10 K's, one walk, and one run allowed. He also saved seven consecutive games. However, getting his ERA into the low 2's would be a short-lived accomplishment. He blew six of his next eight save opportunities and missed half of August with another trip to the DL. He would pitch just seven times after returning, including a save on September 9, 1988 against the Padres. It was his 300th of his career. It would not only be his final save, but also the final game of his career.

He underwent surgery on his knee to end the season and the next spring, he was diagnosed with a severely torn rotator cuff. John Mullen, who was the general manager of the Braves when they signed Sutter in 1984 and had returned as an assistant GM under Bobby Cox, commented on Sutter after he officially retired following a 1989 season completely spent on the DL. "It`s obvious he can`t pitch anymore. He`s not going to try to pitch anymore. It`s just the end of the line...It was just one of those things. His arm just didn`t do what we hoped it would. He certainly gave it his best shot, but one thing led to another concerning his arm problems."

Sutter finished his career with 1042 innings over 661 games, all out of the bullpen. In addition to 300 saves, he had a 2.83 ERA and 2.94 FIP over his dozen years in the majors. Unfortunately, while he spent five years with the Braves, he only appeared in 112 games and didn't look anything like the guy the Braves hoped they were acquiring when they gave Sutter one of the most creative contracts in baseball history.

2016 Player Reviews: Williams Perez, Jace Peterson, A.J. Pierzynski

The World Series is over and free agency is just about to hit in earnest and I'm still trying to finish off these reviews. Hey, progress is progress, right?

Did you miss the last edition? I got your back. Want to catch up on all of the series? I have you covered as well.

*Ages reflect the player's age on opening day, 2017

Williams Perez, RHP, 25 years-old

2016 Review: For the second consecutive year, Perez was in the mix, but injuries limited him to just 84 innings overall. In some ways, that was 84 too many. While he threw a little less than half of the major league innings he threw in 2015, Perez was essentially the same pitcher as far as FIP goes. He was a bit unlucky (58% LOB%) which contributed to an ERA over 6. We also saw Perez change up his pitch selection this season and utilize a four-seamer to keep batters from keying in on his sinker too much.

2017 Projection: The problem for Perez is not new. It has followed him throughout his young career. We know he can throw strikes and induce his fair share of groundballs, but does he have the ability to get the ball past hitters? In the majors, the answer seems to be no. Roughly 10% of all pitches thrown toward hitters become swinging strikes. For Perez, that mark is about 6%. To put that in perspective - over the last two seasons, only six pitchers have 150 innings in the majors and a worse swinging strike percentage. That's not enough to keep a pitcher from being successful, but it certainly doesn't make things any easier. Pitching to contact is not a terrible strategy, especially for a sinker baller, but major league hitters are much better at pounding mistakes than minor league hitters. Perez is a decent depth guy, but short of developing a plus pitch that he can get whiffs on, his value should be limited to emergency starts when he makes the short trip over from Gwinnett.

By slgckgc on Flickr (Original version) UCinternational (Crop)
[CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Jace Peterson, 2B, 26 years-old

2016 Review: Year 2 of #JaceOnBase saw Peterson reach base at a much higher rate (.350 to .314) with the help of an improved walk rate (+3.4% compared to 2015). While that pushed Jace's numbers up a bit, he still lagged well behind the major league average for second basemen. It's worth mentioning that his full-season stats include an awful start that prompted the Braves to demote him to Gwinnett after 21 games in which Peterson slashed .182/.260/.205. After returning, Peterson slashed .265/.362/.389 over the remaining 94 games. That's definitely something to build upon. Expected to have a future role as a plus utility player, Peterson picked up a start at third and one in center field - along with nearly a dozen in left field. After solid, though unspectacular, defensive metrics in 2015, Peterson's numbers at second looked pretty ugly. I tend to believe that is more statistical variation than actual performance and I'm comfortable saying that Jace is an average defender at second. Nothing special, but likely not a defensive issue to concern yourself with.

2017 Projection: Peterson is a fine stopgap at second base, especially if the Braves bring in someone to protect Peterson from seeing too many southpaws. Against lefties, Peterson has hit a miserable .214/.269/.268 with just one of his career 13 homeruns. Paired with a better option than Gordon Beckham or Chase d'Arnaud, Peterson could keep second base warm until Ozzie Albies arrives in the majors. The Braves could certainly do better than Peterson, but with Albies hopefully on his way to Atlanta sometime next summer, is it worth the effort to try to improve second base? Probably not, though, like I said, a better platoon partner would be helpful.

A.J. Pierzynski, C, 40-years old

2016 Review: That fountain of youth he found in 2015 dried up in 2016 and the fall from grace was epic. A year after slashing .300/.339/.430, Pierzynski struggled to the tune of .219/.243/.304. He went from a 111 wRC+ to a 41. His wOBA fell nearly 80 points. Eventually, the Braves moved onto Tyler Flowers full-time before sending Pierzynski to the DL. He returned briefly in September, but again hit the DL to end the season.

2017 Projection: Is there much to project? Will he officially retire? He'll have a tough time finding a team at the age of 40 that's interested in a catcher who couldn't even on-base his weight last year. The Braves certainly won't be too keen on a reunion so it would seem to be time for Pierzysnki and the $64 million and change he has earned over his career to head home.

Transaction Tuesday: Recker, Adonis, Minter, Yepez

I'm going to try something new this season and that's keeping up with minor league transactions. Every Tuesday, I'll take a look at each level to go over some of the moves and provide analysis.

Review last week's transactions. This edition includes moves made on and between 5/3 and 5/9.

Gwinnett
Acquired: Anthony Recker...When the Braves acquired Recker yesterday, many questioned if this was a sign that A.J. Pierzynski's job was in jeopardy and Ryan Lavarnway was headed to the majors. I have no idea, but Recker isn't more than a decent AAA bat. In the majors, he strikeouts too often for his power (career .149 ISO) to matter much. Defensively, he grades poorly in pitch framing metrics.

Activated and DL'd: Tyler Moore...That was quick. Moore has spent considerable time on the DL this season, which has limited him to just 18 games. He hasn't been very productive when in the lineup either.

Promoted: Joel De La Cruz...One of the pitchers who shows up weekly in this report specifically because he's been up-and-down between Gwinnett and the taxi squad (the Danville roster). He has a 2.95 ERA over 18.1 innings. A high BABIP of .391 has led to too many hits, but he's been fairly effective with a 48% ground ball rate and 2.55 FIP.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Optioned: Adonis Garcia...A lot of people were surprised by his demotion, but they shouldn't have been. A .297 wOBA coupled with his inability to play any position is a bad combination. Garcia also saw his power numbers absolutely crater after putting up an unsustainable HR/FB rate last year. He'll play left field, but the nice story has come to an end.

Rehab: Gordon Beckham...A hamstring injury sidelined Beckham, who was actually doing pretty well to begin his Braves career. He looked good with Gwinnett and will have a chance to claim a lionshare of playing time as he rejoins the team today. With guys like Reid Brignac and Daniel Castro getting playing time, Beckham is just as reasonable of an option.

Rehab: Ender Inciarte...The Braves are grateful to get their opening day center fielder back in the fold, which happened over the weekend. He's playing left field so far, except against lefties when Mallex Smith gives way to Jeff Francoeur because reasons. I'd put Inciarte in right field, as I mentioned here, but it's good to have a competent major league option back.

Demoted and Promoted: David Peterson...The prime example of a minor leaguer who must be well liked since his numbers won't overwhelm you. Peterson has often been good, though never spectacular. This year, he's just been bad for Gwinnett. Some of that is BABIP, but a lot of it comes from a 7.1 BB/9. Now, that's a bit unfair. Two of his nine walks are intentional and that makes a big deal in a small sample of 11.1 innings. Nevertheless, Peterson doesn't have the stuff to work around walks.

Demoted and Promoted: Kanekoa Texeira...I'm just going to start saying "Taxi Squad" because that's what Texeira is. A guy who is added to the roster to get work and give the team a fresh arm.

DL'd: Brandon Snyder...Part of the "he's not really an outfielder" outfield for Gwinnett, Snyder has struggled to get going with an empty .261 batting average and zero extra base hits. He's logged time in the majors with the Orioles, Rangers, and Red Sox during his career, but doesn't seem likely to add the Braves to that resume.

Paternity List and Activated: Jace Peterson...Congratulations to Jace, who has just 1 hit in 14 PA since being demoted.

Mississippi
Acquired: Mel Rojas Jr....Picked in the second round of the 2010 draft, the son of the former Expos reliever has had a difficult time as a professional ballplayer. He doesn't hit for a high average, strikeouts too much for his profile, and maxes out at about ten homers. But the Braves are thin on outfielders in the upper levels of the minor leagues so Rojas was a fit. He was slashing .154/.214/.269 in 12 games in the International League before the trade.

Promoted: Victor Mateo...It's been a struggle for Mateo this year, though it's about as short of a sample size as you can find.

DL'd: Sean Godfrey...The right-hand hitting outfielder has been on-and-off the active roster with injuries after replacing the also-injured Connor Lien right after the season began. Godfrey was beginning to swing a hot bat before the most recent injury and is now sidelined with a .304/.333/.478 slash.

Carolina
Promoted: Erison Mendez...He was shuffled up to Carolina, though he wasn't hitting at Rome (.196/.245/.304). Simply a procedural move.

Rome:
Activated: Josh Graham...Good to see more of the 2015 draft class cycling up to Rome. Graham appeared in 6 games, all but one as a starter, with Danville last year after being picked in the 4th round from the University of Oregon. He was impressive in 17.1 innings with 21 strikeouts and just three walks. Graham is a bit of an interesting story because he was a catcher for Oregon for two years before a switch to the bullpen and then, as a senior, the rotation. He works off mid-90's velocity and a nice slider.

Activated: A.J. Minter...The number of prospects that Rome has is off the charts. Add the southpaw Minter to the mix. Picked two rounds ahead of Graham last June, Minter is a raw pitcher with a high ceiling. Thoracic outlet syndrome and Tommy John surgery limited him to just 58 total innings, but he had first-round potential so the Braves bought in with their 2nd round pick. Minter is working out of the pen right now, but could flip to the rotation should a spot open up. In two innings over two appearances, he has a walk, a strikeout, and a wild pitch. Keep an eye on Minter.

Promoted: Yeudi Grullon...Nothing really stands out about Grullon. He's not going to rocket up the charts as a defensive whiz, nor has he shown a knack for hitting. That said, he does display a good understanding of the strikezone. Unfortunately, he has pretty much no pop. He's in many regards the guy he replaced - Mendez.

Promoted: Juan Yepez...It took an injury to get Yepez to full-season ball, but I'm excited about this one. The final big international player the Frank Wren regime grabbed, Yepez was overshadowed by Austin Riley both in the GCL and with Danville last year. He even was shifted from third base, where there was hope he would play, to first base for Riley. He still slashed .299/.364/.458 as a 17 year-old with 4 HR. Now 18, the first baseman won't face many pitchers younger than him this year (if he ever does) and he gives Rome one more significant prospect to keep an eye on.

Demoted and Promoted: Matt Custred...After a dominating 2015 in rookie ball, much was hoped for when it came to Custred in 2016. The results have not been there as he's nearly walking a batter an inning. The Braves gave him a chance to clear his head last week and he faced Augusta two days ago in his first game in over a week. Augusta had scored twice off him a few weeks earlier with the aid of three walks. This time, Custred mowed them them with a strikeout over a nine-pitch inning - just his second perfect frame of the year.

DL'd: Matt Tellor...It was only a matter of time until Tellor was replaced by Yepez. His injury only pushed the issue. Tellor has a .227/.267/.325 slash over 119 games as a professional.

Danville
Demoted: Brandon Cunniff...Despite struggling with control over 39 games last year in the majors, there was a lot to like about Cunniff. However, after being a non-factor this spring, Cunniff has been awful for Gwinnett this year. His last two outings have been extra bad - 1.1 innings, 9 runs allowed, 2 walks, a homer.

Demoted: Luis Gamez...He appeared in one game for Rome last week with two scoreless, but the numbers game pushed him back off.

Demoted: Dalton Geekie...A regular out of the pen, Geekie's metrics are not very forgiving (2 HR, 4 BB, 7 K in 16.2 innings). The Braves have better options.

Demoted: Braeden Schlehuber...Guy should just buy a house in Gwinnett at this point.

GCL Braves
No moves.

DSL Braves
No moves.

This Week at AtlantaBraves.About.com

I've posted a lot of articles at my AtlantaBraves.About.com link as things start to get more active with spring training beginning. Here's a comprehensive list of the articles over the last week or so. All article links open to a new tab/window.

Braves Plan to Spend Big, but Not On Veteran Players
...Instead of pooling their funds together for a big free agent splash, the Atlanta Braves might be in the act of simply waiting to go big this July. Kevin Maitan, the prize of the international signing class, has been a target of Atlanta's for a long time now, but he's probably just the tip of the iceberg in what will be a huge international showing by the Braves. Read more.

Are the Atlanta Braves Tanking? That All Depends
...Is it fair to label a rebuilding project "tanking?" And what really is tanking? Is it the systematic effort to be awful for future gains in draft picks and payroll because, if not, can we really say that's what the Braves are doing? My deeper look into the subject pushes me to come to this resolution - the Braves are just being smart. Read more.

Who Are the Atlanta Braves' Top 5 Prospects?
...I ranked prospects from #50 to #6 here, but with the Top 5, I jumped to the other blog with deeper analysis on all five. Process of elimination means that the Top 5 is some mix of Ozhaino Albies, Kolby Allard, Aaron Blair, Sean Newcomb, and Dansby Swanson - but where do they rank? Read more.

3 Things About Gordon Beckham
...In more cross promotional connections between here and AtlantaBraves.About.com, the 3 Things series is a more biographical component to the Scouting Report series here. A few days ago, I posted Beckham's Scouting Report here on the same day as I posted 3 Things. Relive his college days where Beckham looked like a world beater, his short minor league career, and a major league career in which his first major league experience was also his best. Read more.

Jeff Francoeur Serves as Cautionary Tale
...One of the more talked-about signings of the offseason for the Braves may have been their final one. This week, the Braves brought "Frenchy" back on a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training. His return gives us a moment to take stock in how prospects will break your heart and even when they don't, it takes time. Read more.

Atlanta Braves Looking for Answers in the Rotation
...After reading this article, you can name three different starting staffs the Braves could technically go with in 2016 and never repeat a name. Julio Teheran is at the front and Bud Norris and Matt Wisler seem like they will be joining him, but the rest of the rotation is completely up in the air. Manny Banuelos, Mike Foltynewicz, Ryan Weber, and Williams Perez lead returning starters while Blair, Newcomb, and Tyrell Jenkins lead youngsters looking for a shot. And then, there is the minor league free agents like Jhoulys Chacin and Kyle Kendrick. The list is seemingly never ending. Read more.

Babe Ruth Comes Back to Boston as a Brave
...Typically, I do Transactions of Today here (and did one today about Jack Quinn), but when it comes to the Great Bambino, things are always a wee bit different. 81 years ago, Ruth joined the Braves after a bitter end with the Yankees. While Boston had hoped Ruth would be a big boost at the ticket counter, he was just a shell of his former self at this point and aside from magical May day, people were no longer seeing the Sultan of Swat. Read more.

That's it. Hoping this week will continue to be free enough for me to write another group of articles.

Scouting Report - Gordon Beckham

Jim McIssac/Getty Images

Player: Gordon Beckham
Date of Scouting Report: 2/23/16

Age: 29
How acquired: Free Agent, 12/2/15
Salary: $1.25M
Years Left: 1

Brief Bio: 
8th overall pick of the 2008 draft, Beckham has never lived up to the promise aside from his first year ,when he had a .190 ISO and 2.3 fWAR in 103 games. It still remains the only year he has posted a wRC+ above 90 and he has a triple slash of .238/.298/.358 over the last six years. So why does he still get paid? He's a competent defender, a good clubhouse guy, and does have some pop.

Offensive Observations and Grades:
Historically, Beckham shows little difference whether he has the platoon advantage or not. Handles finesse pitchers better than power pitchers (.713 OPS to .636 OPS) if you accept that the power/finesse labels can be based on number of strikeouts. His pitch value stats are terrible against fastball stats as well. Handles the bat well and carries a higher-than-average foul-ball rate. Also has below-average rates in swinging and looking strikes, giving the impression that Beckham knows the strikezone well. Still, he is very aggressive and swings at about 3% more than the league average. Part of that is likely due to pitchers having little fear in throwing to him, which means he sees more "hittable pitches." Sprays the ball around, but makes too much soft contact and too little hard contact. Does show a high rate in the productive out metric, as you might expect from a player with so many offensive flaws. Just 3 pinch hits in 22 AB so far in his career. Overall, the impression is that Beckham can occasionally swing into a homerun, but mostly will serve weak liners and grounders where the pitch is thrown while being vulnerable to high velocity offerings. Baserunning-wise, he doesn't give you much. A couple of steals and little ability to take the extra base.
Grades from a 20-80 Scale...Contact (50), Power (35), Speed (40), Baserunning (35), Eye (55), Discipline (45)

Pitching Observations and Grades:
N/A

Defensive Observations and Grades:
His defense is a mixed bag. You won't get spectacular plays very often, but he does play a competent second base. He's smooth at double play transfers and generally does everything rather well when it comes to defense. He's not a great defender, but he's always good. At third base, he might be better suited because range is less of a concern. In a pinch, he can revert back to shortstop for a game or a few late innings, but that's probably all you want to see out of him playing short.
Grades from a 20-80 scale...Range (40), Arm (55), Arm Accuracy (55), Hands (60)

Future Projection:
Steamer only projects 37 games for him - a number he has always exceeded by a large amount. The rates are pretty reasonable, though. 6% BB%, 17% K%, .110 ISO, .275 wOBA. They're under his career norms, but not significantly so. Marcels gives him a bit more love with a .237/.293/.369 slash. Again, PECOTA is still a couple of months from being updated, but last year's projection had his 2016 numbers similar to Marcels with a minor fall in slugging. Regardless of which projection you want to throw your weight behind, they all tell the same story. Beckham is a decent defender with gross offensive stats. Some might recall the Georgia Bulldog phenom he once was, but at 29, it would be a monster surprise to see Beckham do much more than struggle with the bat in 2016.

I want to know your opinion/scouting report. Add it below and I might altar mine and give credit to you.