I am not in any way saying that Liberty Media is a great owner. We all got spoiled by the Ted Turner years when we actually were a prime destination for free agents and we competed for them. Heck, we almost had A Rod’s signature on a contract until the Rangers’ owner doubled the money and tagged on 3 more years to the deal. However, things really did seem to me to be worse under Time Warner. The team did better, but the budget restrictions were still there. I am still amazed that some of those teams with all of their weaknesses actually made the post season at all. Of course they never did anything once they went there. It’s been 10 years since our last World Series massacre and if I remember correctly 2001 was the last time the Braves had enough to get past the first round. The goal hasn’t really been to win a World Series since Ted Turner was bought out. It’s been to barely make the playoffs and pray for a miracle run in them. I feel that Schuerholz, Cox and some of the players were perfectly content with humiliating first round losses as long as they actually made the playoffs. And don’t get me started on the long term damage that Time Warner did to the Hawks and Thrashers when they owned them. I doubt that the Braves will ever be owned by someone who will spend like the big money teams do now. My fear is that whenever Liberty Media sells them that we’ll get an owner even more cost conscious and the Liberty Media days will look like the “good old days”.

Been saying this for years myself. The Teixeira deal was a huge mistake, cf. Neftali and Andrus. Compromising the future for one season is what the Braves have done through the 2000’s and the result is a long playoff-free spell.

Building through the farm system requires patience, and the Braves didn’t have it. Now, hopefully, they know better.

A “good” owner isn’t a hobbyist with unlimited resources. Fans who want that are like women who want to be kept by rich guys. A good owner develops via the farm system, hires the best people, looks for an edge in talent evaluation, and builds efficiently through young home-developed front-line pitching, cunning opportunistic bargain acquisitions, hustling players with strong values who inspire loyalty, and quality customer service at the ballpark to keep the fan base loyal. In other words, what we did in the late 1980’s and1990’s.

Liberty Media is a business. They’ll sell the Braves (around 2012-2014) when their market value rises, a function of few long term salary commitments, a winning core of young stars mostly under team control, and a return to the World Series.

Consider this. Liberty owns Starz. That pay channel is a long term underachiever. They just hired the guy who developed Sex in the City, The Sopranos, and Band of Brothers at HBO. This was done with a very low development ratio, i.e. a high batting average for success. Now Liberty, through Starz, has the chance to repeat this success. They will want to invest in quality original programming.

You can make a television pilot for three million, especially if you cast actors who are as famous as Gandolfini was before Sopranos. So for the price of the difference between Adam LaRoche and Troy Glaus, Liberty can swing for the fences with a couple of pilots for Starz.

Now if I’m a Liberty shareholder I want them to unload Derek Lowe’s salary as soon as he reels off seven wins in a row. But not for Jason Bay, and not for one shot at the wild card in a year they can’t even sell the team.. For what? For twelve new Starz pilots over the next three years. Do you know what kind of money The Sopranos and Sex in the City have made? No comparison.

The Braves should carry their weight in the company portfolio. The cost effective way to do that is to win the first pennant in 2-3 years around guys like Heyward, Freeman, Hanson, Jurrjens and maybe three or four from among Arodys Vizcaino, Mike Minor, Craig Kimbrel, Jose Ortegano, Randy Delgado, Julio Teheran, and Dimaster Delgado.