It sucks, but Coppy deserved what he got. Probably the reason the penalty was so harsh is because MLB had just punished the Red Sox for the same thing the year before, but the Braves did it anyway the very next year. Stupid. I don't know what the hell Coppy was thinking. He did a great job rebuilding the farm system. These guys we lost are only 17 years old, and only one of them is ranked in our top 10 prospects list. The vast majority of what he did was 100% legal, and he was very good at it. So fortunately, we're still strong.

I do worry that losing basically all of the 2016 class, plus the restrictions in place for the next couple of years, will hurt down the line. These guys get signed at 16, and the guys we just lost are 17, so I'm talking 2022-2025. This won't harm Atlanta short-term at all. There are a lot of good players who are going to hit Atlanta in the next couple of years. Acuna seems absolutely legit, and they have a ton of good young pitchers.

One thing that Liberty Media could do to help the situations is to open their pocketbook a little bit more for FA signings and potential trades in the future. That could definitely help offset the loss of those international free agents. But we're talking about a corporation that probably sees the Braves in a purely profits/losses way. So I don't know if that will happen or not. But apparently the new ballpark brought in a lot of new revenue this past season, so maybe so.

Love the new GM hire. I share a lot of his feelings about a lot of things. I love the fact that he doesn't sign anybody to anything longer than five years. That works for teams who have an unlimited supply of money, who can just eat contracts. It won't work for the Braves. They don't have Dodger/LA/Boston/Chicago money.