I was absolutely heart broken when I caught wind of this whilst in San Diego. I came back and read through all the local Atlanta media here to see what the scoop was.
It turns out that his contract with the Braves would have rivaled that of the one Boston offered him, except that Smoltzie would've had to have earned the right to earn 10 million + (ie bonusing for # of innings pitched, # of wins, # of games played, etc.) instead of just being effectively handed the salary like the Red Sox were able to do.
I was fired up and ready to draw analogies of how Frank Wren rivals Jay Jacobs in team management skills, but in retrospect, the Braves made the right move. Smoltz is a risk any way you look at him as he's coming off an elbow surgery he wasn't even supposed to recover from and the BoSox may be looking at paying him a shit-ton of money for nothing if he gets injured early on. The only "best decision" regarding this particular scenario will be determined by the first half of the season, so we'll have to sit back and see how it goes.
However, he was the face of the Braves and THE BEST leader in the clubhouse, without question. The players are hurting without their big brother/father figure in attendance now and a Braves fan like myself can only hope that moral won't be too badly affected going into the Spring. Can you imagine how Smoltz and the team are going to feel when he comes back to Turner Field June 26-28, or when the Braves go to Fenway June 19-21? Tell me those won't be fun to watch, if you want me to rip your johnson off (gently, of course).
But hell, we picked up some Jap to replace him so things can't be too bad, right? RIGHT?
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