FanHouse John Schuerholz

In light of the backlash against the Braves for their handling of Tom Glavine's release, team president John Schuerholz has issued an apology.

But he could conceivably have to offer up more than that.

Glavine could pursue a grievance through the players' union, claiming he was released for financial and not performance reasons, though it would likely be a very difficult case to prove.

The Braves have been adamant that they believe Glavine could not succeed with a fastball in the 82-mph range. But Glavine, 43, was never expected to build up any more velocity than that.

Isn't it laughable how everyone has an opinion now? For years, baseball people were hush about steroids, protecting their dirty little secret as if the masses were morons when, in fact, a lot of these men are the uneducated rockheads. One such creature is Ozzie Guillen, manager of Barack Obama's Chicago White Sox, who went mob boss on us in 2006 when pitcher Jason Grimsley served as a steroids informant in a federal investigation.

"Shoot the (bleep),'' said Guillen, who viewed Grimsley as a snitch. "The only thing I can say is that a former player should shut up and go. Shut up and move on. We don't need these guys. Baseball is better without him.''

Frank Wren, the new general manger of the Atlanta Braves, did something that not even his relatively self-promotional predecessor, John Schuerholz, would attempt to pull off. That would be to simultaneously bash a former player (and beloved homegrown talent Andruw Jones), bash another GM and promote himself, all with one swift, not-so-innocuous comment on Sporting News Radio (via Larry Brown).

'We had the ability to watch over the last two or three years that Andruw was not the same, and he wasn't the same player he was three years ago. We had already seen the decline begin. Now he very well may get it back to some extent but we had seen the decline so [letting him go] was easier.'

Not for nothing, Frank, because Ned Colletti is hardly a genius (see: Jones and Pierre, Juan), but what, exactly, have you pulled off this season? Greg Norton is a beast but until the Braves lock up another innings eater or middle infielder, it might be better to let actions speak instead of words.

Look, we all saw Druw stink up the joint last year but in terms of power, I find it tough to believe Wren thought that was a permanent outage. LB makes a good point about "work ethic" (or as I like to call it "ability to stop pounding donuts")

Either way though, it just seems silly. There's no benefit for Wren -- aside from pumping himself up -- from embarrassing both Jones and Colletti on the air, so just throw the DL'd chubster a bone and say you "hope the longtime Brave can find his stroke again" or somesuch fake speak.

Things to watch for in 2008 is, well, FanHouse's attempt to keep track of what's worth keeping your eye on as we roll into the 2008 season, be it good, bad, or ugly.

Death, taxes and Bobby Cox. For the past two decades in Atlanta, you could set your clock by those three things. The grim reaper and the IRS will be around for the foreseeable future but what about Cox? He's hinted at retirement after this year and the situation seems as ripe for a change as its been in ages.

John Schuerholz left this winter, breaking up a GM/manager tandem that had as much success as any in baseball history, and the Braves have missed the playoffs the last two seasons. Andruw Jones left town as a free agent, leaving few stalwarts from the good old days to join Cox this summer. Yet, despite all that, the Braves should be a team worth watching this summer.

They have an enviable mix of players young, old and in their prime, both on the mound and in the lineup. The Mets and Phillies will be good but if a couple of players break out, Jeff Francoeur seems on the cusp, Atlanta has enough talent to hang with them. If that happens, I'll take Cox in the dugout over Charlie Manuel and Willie Randolph. What better way to go out than on top?

If you're a Braves fan mourning the loss of John Schuerholz from day-to-day player transactions, and the first thing you see regarding his replacement is the above picture, you've probably gone and drank whatever was under your sink by now. If that's the case, then stop reading this immediately and consult a physician.

But if you've made it this far with me, take a deep breath and calm down. Yes, Frank Wren was the GM that oversaw some of the player transactions that spelled the beginning of the end of the Orioles as we knew them from the late 90's. But keep one thing in mind: Wren was working for Peter Angelos. So whatever Wren may or may not have done wrong was more than likely tainted by his ownership. Continue with me after the jump, as we take a look back at what Wren was responsible for in his only season as GM in 1999 (from a 2000 passage on Orioles Warehouse):

Sometimes it feels worse to see a horrible thing happen to your friend's team than it does to see something horrible happen to your own. What's worse than that is seeing the very same horrible thing that happened to your team happening to your friend's team. That's what happened today. Jon Bois, one of the guys who does The Dugout with me, is a Braves fan. I'm an Orioles fan.

A few years ago we got General Manager Frank Wren. We'll refer to him as "a rhino that got loose in my house." When he was smashing up my house I could just go, "oh, my house!" Now the rhino has burst through my living room door and trampled everything he could trample on the way to my friend's house down the street. I can go "DUDE LOOK OUT, RHINO" as much as I want, but apparently everyone else on the street (Major League Baseball and those that comprise it) chuckles to themselves and asks, "what rhino?" THE RHINO, YOU GOONS, THAT ONE, RIGHT THERE

Wow, I did not see this one coming, but Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports is reporting that John Schuerholz is leaving his post as general manager of the Braves to take over as team president. Replacing him will be long-time assistant Frank Wren. There's literally nothing else to be learned at the moment -- while it'll undoubtedly be updated, Rosenthal's entire article is just 51 words right now -- aside from the fact that an official announcement is expected at 3:30 pm ET.

Schuerholz has been with the Braves for 19 years, at it was under his direction that the Braves famously enjoyed a 14-year reign atop the NL East champions. At 67 years old, it seems he's now ready to hand over the nuts and bolts of building the team to Wren, who's been with the Braves since the 2000 season.

This isn't Wren's first chance to run a team -- after working his way up the ladder as one of Dave Dombrowski's assistants in Montreal and Florida, he briefly took over the Orioles' job in 1999. That was back when Peter Angelos was still pouring obscene money into the team, and after the expensive roster imploded to finish under .500, Wren was canned after the season. He's worked for the Braves under Schuerholz ever since.

As Lackey pointed out this morning, front office execs execs often don't fall far from the tree, so spending a career working for the likes of Dombrowski and Schuerholz bodes well for Wren's future, especially since Schuerholz will still be lurking around the front office.

You'd think that yesterday's announcement that the Braves were going to let Andruw Jones walk as a free agent would make Scott Boras a happy man. After all, he's now got a chance at duping some other team into overpaying for a client coming off of his worst season as a major leaguer. But Boras being Boras he can't just move on without slamming John Schuerholz one last time.

"Andruw Jones was treated no differently than Greg Maddux or Tom Glavine. These are historic Braves players. The Braves are making millions of dollars. Because of their budget, apparently the current Braves can only keep a certain number of superstar players. I haven't spoke to John in well over a year which is contrary to what general managers do when they have statured players on their team."

For the record the Braves were outbid for Glavine and offered Maddux arbitration, something they've indicated they won't do with Jones. Why wouldn't they since they would get draft pick compensation if Jones signed elsewhere? Probably because Boras went back on his word and accepted arbitration for Maddux which forced the Braves to make deals to fit his salary back into their ledger.

Boras went to the Braves with his asking price and Schuerholz said that their thoughts were so far apart that there wasn't any point in making a counterproposal. It was a business decision not a personal one, something Boras urges his clients to make every time they opt for free agency instead of staying with their current team. Why he has a problem with it when it goes the other way is difficult to understand. Perhaps we'll get more enlightenment this time next year when team and agent do this dance with Mark Teixeira.

Well, not me. And I'm ashamed of myself for immersing myself in sports so much that I can't poke my head out of the boxscores long enough to check out what else is going on in the world. But yes, now I know. And now everybody who isn't a die hard Braves fan knows it ... Sir Elton John looooooves the Atlanta Braves, and he professed his love for the Braves in video form to MLB.com, while John Schuerholz, Phil Niekro, and Mark Lemke fawn:

As Elton described it, once he learned the rules of baseball he could only watch it on TBS, which was the station of the Braves. Those were the days, as Elton describes it, "when Fulton County Stadium had 3,000 people in it."

"In a way, it's very poetic," Elton says about baseball. "I watched it and I fell in love with the game, and I learned how it worked, and I loved it and the Braves became my team." (...)

The always-outspoken Elton John also took advantage of this meeting of baseball minds to express a few strong opinions.

To begin with, Elton declared that in his view, there shouldn't be a designated hitter and the best-of-five format in the Major League Division Series "stinks." He got a laugh and a hearty agreement from Schuerholz, who quipped, "Can I take you to the next GM's meeting with me? I've been saying that for the last 20 years."

*"And while you're there at the GM's meeting with me, uh ... Sir Elton, can you infuse some of your millions of dollars into this place called Liberty Media so that we could be sure to re-sign Mark Teixeira to a long term deal? I mean, you say you're a big fan, right? Just how big a fan are you, Sir Elton?"

*Totally made up quote ... although I'm sure you figured that out.

Arm Bashes: Rowland's Office and Deadspin

Apparently, you don't have to win a title to visit the White House and meet the President anymore. No, all you need to do is make a road trip to Washington, DC (like the Braves did to face the Nationals tonight) to meet President George W. Bush. Boy, standards sure have dropped.

As Tim Hudson and a few other Braves representatives enjoyed the rare opportunity to spend Friday afternoon in the Oval Office with George W. Bush, he was impressed with how much the president knew about the current world of baseball. (...) He made it known that he realized Francoeur has one of the game's best outfield arms and indicated that baseball is on the television whenever he's writing a speech.

Thus, when this meeting came to a close and Bush indicated he wanted to get some pictures, Schuerholz understandably, but at the same time mistakenly, thought the president was issuing an order to fix the current state of the Braves. "[Bush] said we need some pitchers -- that's what I heard," Schuerholz said. "I said without missing a beat, 'Well, we've been trying for two months, Mr. President, but we can't get any.' He said, 'No, John, pictures.'"

Adding to the comical moment, Hudson pointed toward Smoltz and said, "What are we, chopped liver?"

Bush then offered to help the Braves get some pitching by trading Sammy Sosa. But one of Bush's handlers reminded the President that it was no longer 1989, and that he had already traded Sosa*.

*This, sadly, did not actually happen.