Furcal to the Dodgers ... Officially

I would have been happy seeing him in a Braves uni again, regardless of how he left last time.

Before I start, I am a little upset that I haven't posted in two weeks. School got really tough the last two weeks, and by the time I had finished working on papers and studying, I just couldn't write any more. I haven't been able to post on other blogs and really respond to emails, and for that, I am truly sorry. Anyway, life is good again. I think (although official grades are not out) school ended fine, and I am ready to get back to writing on here. So here we go with a story that all Braves fans have considered, and I am sure a few people expected me to say something about it. Here goes:

My initial reaction was one of disgust, anger, and betrayal, but then I calmed down after awhile. Was I surprised about the agents and what they did? No. Why should I? John Schuerholz can complain all he wants, and he can "promise" top never work with them again. However, agents have never been a bastion of honesty and integrity. Get over it and move on. Granted, maybe I don't understand how bad this really was. Maybe it was truly a crime against humanity, but I doubt it. An agent did what was best for his client. He tried to get the best deal possible. My guess is that they got a less-than-expected deal from Atlanta, but it was the best one from a team Furcal wanted to go to. Ned Coletti then heard it wouldn't take a four-year deal to get it done, so he gave the agent a call. Kinzer found himself in an interesting situation. Furcal is excited to go to the Braves, but the Dodgers have re-entered play. Coletti matches the Braves' offer. Then, Kinzer calls Atlanta back and says that he needs more money. The Dodgers offered the same amount of money and Furcal gets to play short. However, Atlanta is angry. They feel they have been betrayed, or at least lied to. They refuse to increase the offer, and why should they? A bridge is now burned, so the only way off the island of despair is the raft that just floated ashore from Los Angeles (luckily it has a rope to lead him back to the continent). It's a no-brainer, and Furcal re-signs with LA.

You want to know who I am really angry with? Furcal. Where was he when all this was going on? Why didn't he step in if he was really excited to go back to Atlanta? Why does his agent have to make the call as to where he wants to play? You can talk about the move to second all you want, but I don't know how much it really had to do with anything. It wasn't as if Furcal learned he would be playing second from Dave O'Brien (although that's where I learned about it). I'm betting the negotiations stated that he would likely have to move. Maybe he prefers short, and I bet he does. LA offered that. But is all that really worth taking everything back? Was he really that opposed to moving to second? Who does he really prefer: Atlanta or LA? I guess we have our answer. But I really want to know where Furcal was during all this. If he was nowhere near, maybe that's just as bad as having been there.

What about Wren and his staff? They leaked the information, didn't they? Do I blame them? No. Everyone leaks information. We knew about Raul Ibanez's deal four days before it "officially" happened. This just happened to be one of those fluke times when things worked out. Also, it's not as if anyone is blaming them. It hasn't hurt them at all. They just did what every team usually does (although the Braves are usually a bit more clandestine about this sort of thing, which makes me think even more that Kinzer was being a bit sketchy in this whole thing) when close to signing a player. Maybe they shouldn't, but they didn't do anything out of the ordinary.

I'm not upset with Kinzer. He did his job, albeit maybe needing a class in business ethics. Maybe it really was "disgusting". Still, I want to know where the guy who this deal really affects was. I want to know why he didn't step in or why he did. But, we'll never know. We already have two stories, and a third would probably just muddle things even further. Regardless, Furcal has lost a lot of respect from me.