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In 2021, Times columnist Bill Plaschke incurred the wrath of Atlanta by blaspheming the entertainment district surrounding the Braves’ ballpark as a “sterile shopping mall.” The district, called The Battery, prefers the grand descriptor of “the South’s preeminent lifestyle destination.”

Let’s take a walk around The Battery, so you can understand why it could become one of the flash points in the coming holy war between owners and players.

If you leave the ballpark through the right-field gates, you are in The Battery. You’ll see a plaza in front of you, and around you places to ride a mechanical bull, go bowling, navigate an escape room or take in a concert.

You can eat, drink, shop, dance, stay in a hotel. You can live here, in apartments above the storefronts. You can work here, in office towers housing corporate giants.

“To create an environment where you can spend eight, nine hours at The Battery and the field, and still feel like you have all the time in the world, I think they’ve done a wonderful job building this place,” Dodgers and former Braves All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman said.

The Braves built all this, not only to lure fans to come early and stay late on game days but to make money from the property 365 days a year rather than 81. On that front, it is a spectacular success: Nine million people come here each year, and the Braves generated $67 million in revenue from The Battery last year.

This, according to major league officials, is the template for the modern team. The Angels had planned a ballpark village twice as large as The Battery. Imagine what the Dodgers could build, and how much revenue they could generate, on property twice as large as the Angel Stadium site.

And, speaking of revenue, Rob Manfred has something he likes to say to players about it. The MLB commissioner spoke at the Braves’ Investor Day last month and said he tells players that their share of the sport’s revenue has dropped from 63% in 2002 to 47% today.

Baseball is the only major sport in America without a salary cap system, in which owners agree to spend a designated percentage of revenue on player salaries.

“If we had made a deal 10 years ago to share 50-50, you would’ve made $2.5 billion more than you made,” Manfred said he has told players, in comments first reported by Sports Business Journal.

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The players and their union rolled their collective eyes at those comments. It is no secret that many owners want a salary cap, and the cost certainty that comes with it.

“It’s all tactics,” Dodgers All-Star catcher Will Smith said. “It’s all early negotiating stuff.”

Said Arizona Diamondbacks All-Star outfielder Corbin Carroll: “Owners don’t want to put money in our pockets. For them to emphasize how we need this so much, there’s a reason for that.”

Tony Clark, the union’s executive director, said the revenue numbers the league shares with the union are not consistent with Manfred’s statements. And, when you consider a percentage of revenue, you have to define what counts as revenue: What goes into the pool to be shared with players?

So let’s go back to The Battery, and to the revenue opportunities that such ballpark villages create for teams.

A report released in April by Klutch Sports, the Los Angeles-based agency, called such villages “the sports industry’s $100+ billion growth engine,” particularly as media revenue wanes. Within the pitch to team owners: Those villages “generate attractive financial returns that stand outside of league revenue sharing requirements.”

Translation: You can make all these millions without sharing any of it with the players.

The Braves are building here because the team plays here. That is the new issue looming over the next round of collective bargaining: If a team builds around its ballpark, should that revenue be shared with players?

“Oh yeah,” Athletics All-Star designated hitter Brent Rooker said. “Revenue is just any dollar that teams bring in that ultimately could be turned around and used to put a better product on the field. It’s got to include tickets, TV, concessions, all the things around the stadium. It’s got to include all of it.”

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Is the money a team makes from renting office space outside the ballpark really relevant to the team?

Here’s what Braves president and chief executive Derek Schiller told ESPN about The Battery: “You've got a whole other set of revenues from the real estate development that can then be deployed for the baseball team.”

I asked Clark whether, if negotiations turn to the possibility of revenue sharing along the lines Manfred discussed, the money from ballpark villages needs to be part of the conversation.

“Yes,” Clark said.

He declined to elaborate. Understand this about Clark: He can filibuster a yes or no question into a 45-second monologue without actually answering yes or no. That he would say a clear “yes” and nothing else leaves no doubt about his position.

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If the players do ask that owners share revenue from such ballpark villages, the response would be predictable: First, we share baseball revenue from baseball operations, and real estate developments are not baseball operations. Second, if you want to share in the revenue, you can share in the risk too, by helping to fund construction of the ballpark village, say, or by assuming some of the losses when a tenant drops its lease and leaves storefronts or office buildings unoccupied.

Said Carroll: “I think that’s a conversation that won’t need to happen, because it won’t get to that point. A salary cap is a nonstarter from the union’s perspective.”

Enjoy the All-Star Game Tuesday, because this summer is one of relative peace. The collective bargaining agreement expires after next season, which means the rhetoric between players and owners ought to be flying this time next year. If the owners insist on pushing a salary cap, a lockout almost certainly would follow.

And, if the owners push revenue sharing, The Battery could provide the push for the players’ pushback.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Giants release former top prospects Vaun Brown, Jairo Pomares from Double-A originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Giants parted ways with two former top prospects.

San Francisco released outfielders Vaun Brown and Jairo Pomares from its Double-A Richmond roster on Monday, per the Flying Squirrels’ transaction wire. (h/t FanSided’s Jeff Young)

Brown, the Giants’ No. 5 prospect in 2023, according to MLB Pipeline, batted .248/.339/.286 with zero home runs, seven RBI and 14 stolen bases in 122 combined plate appearances across rookie-ball, High-A and Double-A levels this season.

The speedy 27-year-old outfielder, a 10th-round draft pick by the Giants in 2021, had a breakout 2022 minor league season, slashing .346/.437/.623 with 23 homers and 44 stolen bases across three levels. But he did not advance past the Double-A level in five minor-league seasons with San Francisco.

Pomares, signed by the Giants as an international free agent in 2018, batted .209/.268/.352 with nine home runs, 34 RBI and nine stolen bases in 299 plate appearances with Double-A Richmond this season.

The 24-year-old outfielder was the Giants’ No. 7 prospect in 2022, according to MLB Pipeline.

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Giants make interesting selections with 16 picks on Day 2 of 2025 MLB Draft originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — Every scout has a story about the time he went in to see one promising prospect and ended up blown away by a teammate. As the Giants prepared for the 2025 MLB Draft, they kept finding themselves drawn to teammates who were dominating at the same school in the Boston area. 

The organization selected 16 players on the second day of the draft, and three came from Northeastern University, including sixth- and seventh-rounders Jordan Gottesman and Cameron Maldonado. Amateur scouting director Michael Holmes said his department was drawn to the standouts in part because of how successful the program was this year. Northeastern went 49-11 and reached the NCAA Regional. 

“Obviously when you run guys in to see Northeastern, we’re scouting every guy on the field,” Holmes said. “Our area scout, Carmen Carcone, did an amazing job with his entire area this year, but especially with that Northeastern club. They were a really good team.”

Gottesman, a left-hander, was the staff ace, posting a 2.27 ERA and holding opponents to a .185 average. 

“He’s a pitchability lefty with really solid velocity and he’s an excellent strike-thrower,” Holmes said. “He was able to eat a lot of innings this year, which lets you know there was a durability aspect to him. It was a really effective four-pitch mix with a really strong slider.”

Holmes said the Giants first were drawn to Maldonado, a right-handed-hitting outfielder, when they saw him in the Cape Cod League. He hit .351 last season with 15 homers and 29 stolen bases.

“He’s a really athletic kid,” Holmes said. “It’s a power-speed combo in center field.”

The final Northeastern pick came in the 18th round, when the Giants selected 6-foot-8 right-hander Cooper McGrath, who likely is to be a reliever as a professional. With their first selection Monday, the Giants took Stetson infielder Lorenzo Meola. In the 10th round, they took his teammate, Isaiah Barkett. Meola hit .304 in three seasons at Stetson. 

“He has high contact skills and he showed power this year,” Holmes said. “You get a shortstop who touches the baseball, has some power, has the plus athleticism — we’re really lucky to have him.”

One of the most interesting picks Monday came in the 11th round, when the Giants selected Saddleback College catcher Rod Barajas Jr., the son of a catcher who played 14 big league seasons. The father played against Holmes in the minors and president of baseball operations Buster Posey in the big leagues, and also worked with special assistant Sam Geaney when the two were in San Diego’s front office. Barajas Jr. hit .329 last season. 

“He’s a guy that all of our scouts, when they went in, they saw him and they liked him,” Holmes said. “We loved his bat potential, we loved his ability to swing it, we liked his (swing) path, we think there’s huge upside with the bat, we think the (defense) is on the come and there are skills about him to be an everyday guy. 

“He’s a guy we definitely got excited about. He’s kind of one of those guys that your scouts keep reminding you all week, don’t forget about this guy, don’t forget about this guy.” 

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