Clippings Friday, December 4, 2015 Braves.com

Braves to retain Cox as consultant through 2017

By Mark Bowman / MLB.com | @mlbbowman | December 3rd, 2015

ATLANTA -- As he served as Atlanta's general during the late 1980s, engineered the massive reconstruction process that provided the Braves the talent and depth needed to experience an unprecedented stretch of success.

After filling the Minor League system with talented prospects and altering the organization's mindset as the GM, Cox earned his place in Cooperstown while spending each of the next 20 years as Atlanta's manager. Now, the Hall of Fame skipper is once again enjoying the opportunity to fill a front-office role while helping the Braves move toward another era.

It can be easily argued that Cox has been as influential to the Braves' success as any man in the organization's history. Thus, there was no reason to be surprised late Thursday morning when the Braves announced Cox will continue his role as a consultant through at least the end of the 2017 season.

"I'm excited," Cox said. "I really like what is going on with our front office. I stand behind them. They've got a plan and they're sticking to it."

Cox has served as a consultant for the Braves since he ended his managerial career at the end of the 2010 season. Along with maintaining contact with manager Fredi Gonzalez and the coaching staff, he has remained in regular contact with team president , president of operations and general manager .

"Our front office, the three Johns have done an unbelievable job," Cox said. "It's amazing to look at some of the kids that we've gotten over the past year with the Draft and in trades. We wouldn't have gotten [Austin] Riley if Coppy hadn't gotten the Draft pick in the trade. This kid is legit. He can hit and field. He does everything."

Like most other members of the Braves' organization, Cox has gained an instant appreciation for Riley, who was selected with the 41st overall pick in the 2015 Draft and stands as the club's No. 18 prospect, according to MLB.com. Atlanta received the pick as part of the package it gained when it sent Craig Kimbrel and Melvin Upton Jr. to the Padres on April 5.

When Cox served as Atlanta's general manager from the conclusion of the 1985 season through '90, he stockpiled pitching prospects, much like Hart and Coppolella have done over the past year. Cox made some shrewd moves, like acquiring a -A named from the Tigers and taking a high school named instead of the more popular Todd Van Poppel with the first pick in the '90 Draft.

But while Cox can relate to what the Braves are doing while stockpiling prospects, many of whom are , he said he was nowhere near as creative as Coppolella has been. The young general manager has gathered some of his talent via his insistence to have Draft picks and international bonus pool slots included in many of the trades he has made.

"The way Coppy has been able to manipulate and get Draft picks and the international bonus money, we never heard about that a few years ago," Cox said. "We've signed so many [international] kids that they're just raving about. They're years away of course, but they're top guys.

"Coppy and [Hart] are trying as best they can to put a good team on the field right now. They've got to wear a vest once in a while to shed off the complaints, but they're doing a great job doing the right thing."

Cox will attend Braves Fantasy Camp, which will be held Jan. 19-24 at the club's complex. In addition, he said he plans to spend more time this year evaluating top amateur players leading up to the Draft.

"This has been a lot of fun, and I intend to do even more this year," Cox said. "We have a lot to look forward to next year and beyond."

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Braves keep Bobby Cox as consultant for two more years

The Braves have agreed to terms with former manager Bobby Cox on a two-year extension of Cox’s consulting agreement, the team announced Thursday.

Cox retired from the Braves in 2010 after more than three decades with the franchise. In 2011, Cox signed a five-year consulting agreement. The new deal runs through the 2017 season, which will be the club’s first at SunTrust Park.

Cox will continue to advise and consult in all areas of baseball operations, including the major league club, spring training, minor league operations and scouting. In addition, Cox will continue to work club president John Schuerholz.

The 74-year-old Cox ranks as the winningest manager in Braves franchise history. He was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame in 2014.

Braves interested in re-signing Minor

By Michael Cunningham - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Braves are interested in re-signing left-hander and utility players Pedro Ciriaco and Eury Perez after not tendering them a contract, general manager John Coppolella said.

The three players became non-tendered free agents when the Braves didn’t offer a contract by the Wednesday midnight deadline. They are free to negotiate with the Braves and other teams.

“The collective decisions we made to non-tender all three players were difficult, and we do have an interest in re-signing all three,” Coppolella wrote in a message.

The Braves would have owed Minor at least $4.5 million if they’d offered him arbitration. They weren’t willing to do so with Minor’s health still in question.

Minor, 25, was developing into a front-line starter for the Braves until his career was derailed by shoulder issues. He has yet to throw off a mound after undergoing surgery to repair a torn labrum in May and suffering a setback last month that forced him to shut down his throwing program.

In 2013 Minor was 13-9 with a 3.21 ERA, 1.090 walks and hits allowed per inning pitched and 181 over 204 2/3 innings. Shoulder pain contributed to a poor 2014 season for Minor and he experienced pain soon after increasing his throwing during last spring training.

Ciriaco, 30, signed the Braves after last season and he made starts at all of the infield positions while appearing in a total of 84 games. Ciriaco hit .261 with a .275 on-base percentage in 151 plate appearances.

The Braves selected Perez, 25, off of waivers from the Yankees in January. He appeared in 47 games, including 30 starts in the outfield, and hit .269 with a .331 on-base percentage in 133 plate appearances.

Braves extend Bobby Cox

The Braves announced Thursday that they signed former manager Bobby Cox to a two-year extension of his consulting contract. Cox retired from the Braves in 2010 after more than three decades with the franchise and signed a five-year consulting agreement in 2011. The new deal runs through the 2017 season, which will be the club’s first at SunTrust Park.

The Minor fall: From Braves pillar to non-tendered

By Mark Bradley

On Oct. 4, 2013, Mike Minor started Game 2 of the NLDS against the Dodgers. The Atlanta Braves had lost Game 1 to Clayton Kershaw and now got the huge break of facing — pause to allow sarcasm to seep through — Zach Greinke. Had the Braves lost Game 2, they’d have faced elimination. Had they lost Game 2, the 96-game-winning East champs would essentially have been done.

Mike Minor beat Zack Greinke that night. The Braves won 4-3 to square the series and, albeit briefly, keep hope alive. (Hope was quashed in Game 4 when Fredi Gonzalez allowed Juan Uribe to face David Carpenter with the great Craig Kimbrel ready in the .) Greinke left after six innings, his team trailing 2-1. He’d yielded four hits and no walks. He was very good. Minor was better. It started badly. Minor walked Mark Ellis, the game’s second batter, and then Hanley Ramirez, who hit everything thrown his way that year, doubled to right to make it 1-nil. Sitting in the press box, a guy — OK, this guy — thought, “Here we go.” (And not in a good way.) But Minor induced groundouts from Adrian Gonzalez and Yasiel Puig. That early run would be the only one yielded by Minor, who lasted 6 1/3 pressurized innings.

The Dodgers led off with singles in the second, third and fourth and managed a one- double in the sixth. Minor kept dancing away. Double-play grounder in the second. Double-play grounder in the third. of Puig in the fourth. Strikeouts of Gonzalez and Uribe in the sixth. This was tenacious October pitching from a man who, until that night, hadn’t been known for his tenacity.

The Braves liked Minor enough to make him the seventh pick of the 2009 draft. He was a college pitcher (Vanderbilt), and the book says you shouldn’t draft college pitchers because they’ve burned through too many amateur innings, but the Braves under didn’t always read the book. (We note that went to college. , too. But he mightn’t be the best example.) Minor was a polished left-hander who projected as maybe a No. 2 starter, and the Braves in 2009 were desperate for even a No. 5 starter.

By 2010, he was in the rotation, though the Braves were already beginning to wonder. Before a September game in Philadelphia — the Braves were trying to reclaim a blown lead in the NL East, trying in vain — manager Bobby Cox asked reporters: “Is (Minor) telling you he’s tired?” (Minor had started the night before against the Phillies and lasted only 2 1/3 innings.)

He made 15 big-league starts in 2011, splitting time between the minors, no pun intended, and the big club. In 2012, he seemed one of the worst pitchers in the majors over the first two months. When June began, his ERA was 6.98. (Minor told us reporters he was making “too many non- competitive pitches.”) But Fredi G., in classic Fredi G. mode, Kept Running Him Out There. This time the KRHOT tack worked.

On May 22, I’d written a little something suggesting that, if we went by xFIP — FIP is “Fielding Independent Pitching,” and “x” factors in a pitcher’s home-run rate, which for Minor, who’d yielded 12, was off the chart — Minor had actually pitched not much worse than teammate , who was leading the majors in ERA. That post is no longer available on the Internet, alas, but Ben Lindbergh, then the editor of Baseball Prospectus, preserved some of the sabermetric-bashing comments here.

Near year’s end, Ben wrote to ask: Why was Minor so much better over the rest of the season? (His ERA in July was 1.98. In September it was 0.87. He’d have made a postseason start had the Braves’ postseason lasted longer than the infield-fly wild card game.) Thinking cap donned, I emailed back: “I think he just figured out how to pitch.”

I cringed at deploying such a cliche, but I didn’t know what else to say. Minor hadn’t — like another Braves lefty, name of Glavine — discovered a circle while fooling around in the outfield. He hadn’t taken to throwing underhanded. He was the same guy, pretty much, but he was making competitive pitches.

Ben wrote a very good post for B.P. — Ben writes nothing but very good posts; he one’s of the best writers on any sport — digging into the numbers and using GIFs as before/after case studies, and after all this he still wasn’t sure why Minor had gone from non-competitive to really good. His final paragraph:

“So, which was most responsible for Minor’s second-half success: more mixing of pitches, better , or better luck? (Or something else entirely!) Did Minor stop serving up hits and homers because his luck turned and more balls began to find gloves? Or did he succeed because he started doing things that were more likely to lead to outs?”

Whatever the case, the Braves had reason to believe they were onto something. Sure enough, Minor took a great leap forward in 2013. He was 13- 9 with a 3.21 ERA. assessed his WAR value at 3.5, which is good for a starting pitcher. (’s WAR value for 2015 was 3.4.) Beating Greinke in the NLDS affixed the cherry atop a lovely season.

And then … nothing. Minor had urinary tract surgery over the winter, fell behind in his conditioning and, trying to do too much too soon in spring training, hurt his shoulder. His first start came May 2. In five of his first 15 starts, he yielded 10 or more hits. He finished the season with an ERA of 4.77. He hasn’t thrown another pitch for the Atlanta Braves since.

He missed last season. He had exploratory shoulder surgery in May. In July, team president John Hart was optimistic the Braves would have Minor back for 2016, but the shoulder didn’t cooperate. As of midnight Wednesday, the team still hadn’t seen him throw off a mound. At midnight Wednesday, they non-tendered him. At 27, he’s a free agent.

Which goes, yet again, to show: Baseball is a funny ol’ game, especially where arms are concerned. In 2013, you’d have sworn Minor would be a pillar of this rotation for the next five years. But shoulders are tricky — trickier than elbows, which usually can be fixed by one round of Tommy John surgery — and nobody knows how Minor’s shoulder will be.

When word came of the non-tender, I flashed back to a conversation withMark Bowman, the outstanding journalist who covers the Braves forMLB.com, that October night in 2013. We’d come back upstairs after the usual interviews, and I said — again getting really profound — “How about Mike Minor?”

Said Bowman: “He showed me something tonight.”

He showed us all something that night. And then … nothing. Braves VP says move to Cobb will benefit the entire region

By Dan Klepal - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Derek Schiller says the Atlanta Braves move to the suburbs isn’t about Atlanta, Cobb County or the team.

The Braves’ executive vice president of sales and marketing, Schiller told a group of about 50 business people at the Buckhead City Club Thursday morning that the development of SunTrust Park and the associated mixed-use development, known as The Battery Atlanta, will benefit the entire region.

“We’re excited about what (2017) represents for us. It’s a galvanizing project … we believe for the entire region. This should not be about Cobb County; it should not be about Atlanta. It’s about the entire area. It’s about embracing the entire area. We hope this project will attract everybody.”

Schiller described many aspects of the development — from the lightning-quick internet speeds, to the size of the stadium, to why the team believes traffic and parking won’t be major hindrances for its fans — that have been widely publicized. There was one question that Schiller couldn’t answer, though.

“How far is the stadium from the Big Chicken?”

“You know,” Schiller responded, “I’ve never been asked that.”

Schiller said the technological wizardry and a cantilever system that brings seats to the field of play will be major attractions of the stadium. The 1.5 million square feet of mixed use development, which will include apartments, an office tower, an Omni Hotel, The Roxy theater and 350,000 square feet of retail, will bring people to the complex year round, he said.

On the traffic issue, Schiller said the Braves “are not solving traffic in Atlanta.” But he did say that the location, at the intersections of I-75 and I- 285, will provide fans will multiple points of access to the development that will make maneuvering around it easier.

Parking and traffic are major concerns related to the new stadium.

“You can get to it from many different ways; there are many different roads in and out of the location,” Schiller said of the new development.

Schiller also said the team believes the proposed pedestrian bridge over I-285, which would link the Cobb Galleria with the stadium, is important for fan safety.

“Currently, the opportunity for walkability … is a little bit difficult,” Schiller said. “Ultimately, (the bridge) is the responsibility of Cobb County. We’re doing everything we can to see that all the parties can come together. I don’t have a time frame. Hopefully, it will happen in time for opening day.

“We’re optimistic. We’re optimistic about everything else, so why not be optimistic about that, too.”

As The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has previously reported, the bridge will not be open for any part of the 2017 season, and it is unclear if it will be built at all.

Chris Godfrey, a real estate agent, said Schiller delivered a pitch-perfect message to the City Club members.

“The energy it’s going to bring and the new development is really impressive,” Godfrey said. “It’s going to be a neat hub for business and where people go after business hours.”

Bob Gibeling, who owns a marketing firm, wasn’t sold.

Schiller is “a very effective spokesman for the Braves, but I still have some serious reservations about why they have made their move,” Gibeling said. “What they say about caring about the fans just doesn’t add up. It’s real clear to me this is strictly a profit-based decision by out-of-town owners that want to maximize their … profit.”

Fox Sports

Braves non-tender starter Mike Minor

The 27-year-old left-hander posted a 4.10 ERA in 111 games pitched for Atlanta.

By Staff

Mike Minor is no longer a member of the Atlanta Braves. The 27-year-old left-hander was non-tendered before Wednesday's midnight deadline, making him an unrestricted free agent. Minor joins Pedro Ciriaco and Eury Perez as the franchise's three non-tender players.

Once considered a top-of-the-rotation arm for the Braves, especially during his strong 2013 campaign, Minor has been unable to pitch effectively or stay on the field over the past two seasons while dealing with health problems. The southpaw posted a 4.77 ERA in 145 1/3 innings during the team's disappointing 2014 season, then missed the entire '15 campaign due to shoulder problems that required surgery. Though early reports are positive on Minor's health, the team was unwilling to pay at least 80 percent of the $5.6 million he won in arbitration in February.

Minor could still re-join the franchise, reports MLB.com's Mark Bowman, if he reaches a free-agent agreement — likely on more team-friendly terms.

Atlanta is overloaded with young pitching and added free-agent veteran Bud Norris last week, a move that general manager John Coppolella said was geared toward the 2016 rotation, but Minor was still the only proven left-hander on staff.

Highly regarded prospect Manny Banuelos saw limited action for the parent club last season, but he, along with fellow prospect Max Fried, continues to face question marks concerning their health. The team's No. 1 prospect, lefty Sean Newcomb, is unlikely to make the team in spring training (perhaps due to the financial benefits of delaying his major-league clock). The team's top draft pick last season is also a left-hander, but is still 18 years old and a long, long ways away from the majors.

Unless manager Fredi Gonzalez is going to juggle an all-righty rotation as he did at times last season, the team might have to hand Banuelos a rotation spot or make another personnel move.

Minor, based purely on his resume and the fact that he pitches left-handed, is bound to draw interest on the open market. Much like two other former productive Braves pitchers that simply ran into health problems, Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy, expect Minor to find an MLB roster somewhere if his shoulder can hold up. That 3.5 WAR he posted in 2013 is still too enticing to pass up — just not for $4-5 million this season.

Minor was the seventh overall pick in the 2009 MLB Draft, making him the third former Braves first-round pick the team has traded in recent years, joining and .

Atlanta now has three slots open on the 40-man roster, with starter Shelby Miller and relievers Arodys Vizcaino and Chris Withrow being arbitration-eligible.

Neighbor Newspapers

Braves exec speaks to Buckhead group about new stadium

By Everett Catts

For Derek Schiller, the decision to move the Atlanta Braves’ stadium from near downtown Atlanta to southeast Cobb County was an easy one.

“More than 80 percent of the [season-ticket holders] come from north of the [current] ballpark,” Schiller, the Braves’ executive vice president of sales and marketing, said, referring to . The new stadium, SunTrust Park, will open in April 2017.

Schiller spoke about the new facility Thursday morning at the Buckhead Business Association’s breakfast meeting at City Club of Buckhead. The Cobb-Marietta Coliseum and Exhibit Hall Authority will own SunTrust Park, which will cost $672 million to build, including $300 million in Cobb taxpayer funds. But the Braves, who signed a 30-year lease, will have more say over the stadium plus parking and traffic issues. Turner Field, which opened in 1997, is owned by the Atlanta-Fulton County Recreation Authority.

Schiller said the Braves’ opportunity to have more control over the new stadium made Cobb a better option for the facility, which will have 14 access points to major roads compared to Turner Field’s two. He also said Turner Field, which originally opened as Olympic Stadium for the 1996 Summer Games, would not last as long as a regular baseball stadium because of the engineering changes required to transform it into a baseball facility.

The lease on Turner Field expires Dec. 31, 2016. Schiller said if the Braves signed a new lease there it would cost the Braves about $150 million to make infrastructure improvements to that stadium to keep it up to date, plus “a couple of hundred more million dollars for what I call fan improvements.”

With the new stadium the Braves are pioneers by simultaneously building both the stadium and a $452 million, 1.5 million-square-foot privately funded mixed-use development, The Battery Atlanta, a first for .

“The reasons why the location works has to do with our fan base,” he said, pointing to a map of metro Atlanta during his presentation. “Each red dot here represents a ticket sold in 2014. The higher concentration of red dots, the higher concentration of our fan base. The reason why we’re doing this is we’re moving 10 miles closer to our fan base.”

The Battery will include 350,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space, about 500 apartments, a 250-room Omni hotel, a 1,000-employee Comcast office building and The Roxy, a 4,000-person-capacity music venue that gets its name from the former Buckhead facility now called the Buckhead Theatre.

SunTrust Park, which will have 41,000 seats, about 10,000 less than Turner Field, will provide a better fan experience, Schiller said.

“The old stadium had 400 premium seats compared to 4,000 in the new one,” he said. “Premium seats are ones with the club environment with food and drink service. There are certain sets of fans who want that, including valet parking and other amenities. We’ll have approximately 20,000 seats under $20 each.”

During a question-and-answer session following Schiller’s speech, association member Jim Kobal asked, “What about the [existing] businesses around the stadium and their parking lots?”

“We’ll work with a lot of our immediate neighbors so they understand our parking plan and our traffic plan,” Schiller said. “We want to have as much parking for the fans we can offer so they are not seeking out those gypsy lots type of mentality [in which businesses charge high rates for parking]. There are some businesses that may do that.”

After the meeting he was asked how the Braves handle questions from fans critical of the team’s recent moves to trade away veteran players for younger ones and minor league prospects and doubts that the club, which went 67-95 this year, will produce a winning team when the new stadium opens.

“Our whole organization has complete faith and trust in [General Manager] John Coppolella, [President of Baseball Operations] John Hart and [President] John Schuerholz,” he said. “Schuerholz and Hart have a proven track record of success and Coppolella is a bright young mind. We have all the confidence in the world that we’re making the right moves. We have a singular purpose each and every year. It’s to win the . Our mission remains unchanged and their belief - and I support them with this - is they’re putting us the best position to win the World Series, not just a single year but to be in competition to do that for a long time.”

Schiller also said he wants fans to have high expectations.

“While I recognize there are fans that are unhappy, they should be unhappy with the fact that we’re not winning as much,” he said. “We want that emotion to be there. But equally, we want to see the opportunity ahead for us and to see those guys are putting us in a better position to win more games. Having fans that are emotional and not happy with the current state of the team, we’re not happy with the current state of the team. That’s why we’re making the changes. We’re all hopeful that ’16 will have a better team than in ’15 and that in 2017 we’ll be well poised to take a really large jump and hopefully compete for world championships.”