Three years and $39M? Enjoy. I liked Raffy as much as most Braves fans, but he's not worth roughly 15% of the Braves' payroll. Now, with the money that they were throwing at Furcal, the Braves have some flexibility in their free agent plans. Personally, I would lock Giles up long-term with the money that was targeted to Furcal, especially because the free agent market this year is grossly inflated as a result of the low number of quality free agents and the fact that teams are flush with cash after MLB distributed revenues from XM and the internet, as well as the potential sale of the Nationals. That said, I'd be willing to bet that Schuerholtz is going to add a significant name through a trade, as the Braves' farm system is flush with quality prospects and the team has some ability to take on payroll after Chipper restructured his contract and insurance is covering Mike Hampton's year with Dr. Andrews.
As for the Dodgers, this deal makes no sense long-term. They're so desperate to spend money to make headlines in Los Angeles that they just spent significant money when they're one of the few teams in the NL that has a shortstop in Furcal's class. You don't sign a big ticket free agent because one of your existing stars is going to miss half the season (unless they know that Cesar Izturis' arm is never going to be the same again and they were going to move him to second base, anyway.)
And speaking of questionable free agent signings, this is not what I wanted to see 16 games into the Hawks' '05-'06 season.
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