I am very curious about why Heyward is not on our 40-man, but Strasburg is on Washingtons... 

Can anyone tell me what would dictate when Heyward would be added? 

If they decide they're going to use him in RF, would they still wait until the end of spring to add him to the 40-man officially? Does adding to the 40-man roster relate to mlb service time, or is that based on the debut in the active roster? Any folks with knowledge willing to enlighten me, your help is much appreciated.

If anyone knows the date Schafer was officially added to the 40-man roster, I would love to know too. Thanks.

A case for platoons:

anderson  has a .343avg/.871ops vs. RHP, ( .254/.584 vs. LHP)

schafer hit .311 vs RHP,  ( .196 vs LHP)  last year.

Francoeur has a career .286avg /.813 OPS vs. LHP, (.261/.719 vs. RHP)

Diaz has a career .328avg/.869 OPS vs. LHP, (.288/.706 vs. RHP)

Andruw was terrible last year, and in his walk year in ’07. But even in ’07 he managed a .785 OPS vs. LHP

I think it is clear if we want to give these guys a chance to succeed next year, they need to be limited to platoon duties. Exposing them to their weaker sides only highlights how terrible this outfield is offensively.

Nady vs. Swisher:

Assuming Andruw comes back to life, for ’09 alone, Swisher and Nady are comparable options. But that’s not guaranteed, and having Swisher would bring us the flexibility to overcome another Andruw bust. If we had Nady, we would be forced to play either Schafer or Anderson in center against LHP. However, if we had swisher, we could shift him over to center. Against  LHP, (diaz, swisher, francoeur) is much better than (nady, anderson, francoeur). (Although Swisher is below average at CF, the difference between Diaz and Anderson against lefties more than makes up for that)

I think Swisher is the better option because he’s versatile, and that’s what you need with an outfield like ours with a handful of guys who don’t deserve to play every day, but who can be useful if the matchups favour them. He’s also signed affordably for $21M/3-yrs. This will give us a solid major league outfielder going forward. He’s also young, and if he can replicate his seasons in Oakland, he will be a huge value at that price.

If Andruw is useful enough against LHP:

Vs. Left (Swisher, Andruw, Francoeur) with (Diaz, Swisher, Francoeur as plan B)

Vs. Right (Swisher, Anderson, Schafer)

Those are both decent platooned offensive outfields, with good defense.

I think Swisher’s value as a hitter is greatly overlooked due to his bad season. But he’s still young, and his peripheral stats don’t show that he lost all that skill last year, but moreso that he was fairly unlucky. Either way, he walks a lot, and will see a lot of pitches, which is huge for this Braves team. There had been talk of a move from 2B for KJ helping his offense in the sense that he’d be able to focus more on hitting than playing an important defensive position. Swisher has shown that when given the opportunity to play out in LF, he is both an above average defender, and he can also be that cleanup hitter we need.

In 439 AB as a LF, he has hit 26HR, with a .265 avg, and a .938 OPS

That'd look just fine to me with Chipper and McCann in the middle of the lineup.

He offers versatility, he’s affordable, he’s young, and he can grow with this team. What’s not to like?

Hopefully he’ll only cost a bunch of useless crap like the Yanks gave for him.

And after that, hopefully there’s room for Wil Ohman.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post if you did. I hope some people agree with me.

By David O'Brien

January 8, 2009 2:27 PM | Link to this

Here’s a taste of Chipper’s comments to Jeff Schulz just a bit ago:

Asked how he felt about this, Chipper said: “I’m pissed. I’m really pissed.”

About his conversation with Smoltz last night:

“He went through the whole scenario with me. The underlying tone was extreme disappointment — and from my end it was shock. I could see anyone one else going somewhere before John Smoltz. He’s been one of the faces of this franchise for 20-some years. With all of the gambles that the Atlanta Braves have taken over the years on players, for a couple of million more dollars, you don’t gamble on John Smoltz when he tells you he’s going to be back?

“The one guy I would gamble on is John Smoltz. After everything that’s happened to this organization this winter, the players and the fans need something good to happen. I’ve been keeping up with the news. I’ve been reading the blogs. The one silver lining we had was John Smoltz being back in the lineup this year. We could have had that dominant guy back in the lineup. But we won’t – and for what, a couple of million dollars?”

nice. that's what we need. piss off chipper, who's a FA next year, and could have been likely to give us a hometown discount.. not a good day for us

Ok, first, this plan has to be seen as a response to what’s already occurred. Braves fans came into this offseason expecting to land a couple pitchers that would take us back to the days of old, but it doesn’t seem possible given what’s out there.

 I’m glad we didn’t get Peavy and lose Yunel, who’s great, cheap, and under control until 2013. It seems (hopefully) this won’t be revisited. AJ went to the Yanks. Lowe’s 35 looking for a 4-yr deal , and Sheets’ back problems make him a dangerous acquisition. That ace we’re looking for right now just isn’t available.

But, lucky us, we have an equally large hole to fill in our lineup. We’re looking for a right-handed cleanup hitter in left field. Without him, our lineup really can’t compete with the Mets and Phillies. There’s not much available in the FA market. Ty Wiggington seems the best bet sadly. Dye is available in a trade, but he’s only signed for a year (/w mutual option), he’d cost $11.5M, and then we’d be right back in the FA market looking at big money and years for guys like Holliday and Bay, while we wait for Heyward.

The option nobody ever talks about is actually the best option. The Braves aren’t the kind of team that signs Manny for $20M+/yr. We’re more likely to get Dye and Sheets or whatever it is to fill the two holes for the same price. It seems more financially responsible or something. But in this case it’s a bad move.  We have such a glaring weakness in our lineup. We don’t have any right-handed power source to hit between Chipper and McCann. Jeff Francoeur is not going to turn into this guy for us. And here sits Manny, one of the most dangerous right-handed hitters out there, and nobody is offering him even 3 years right now. If somehow the Yanks make a run for Tex and aren’t in on Manny, we may be looking at just having to outbid the Dodgers and Giants or something.

 The Braves sent a message to those agents, but that doesn’t change how they look right now. Peavy tried to steer himself to the Cubs. AJ chose the Yanks. Furcal chose the Dodgers. Sheets and Dye does not send the message that we are fucking back folks. If we get Manny, the Mets and Phils will think we are one move away from being right with them. And we have the depth in the organization to make that move. It sends a message that the Braves are ready now.

To this point, our best trade chips are probably Gorkys since he’s blocked by Schafer, and Morton/Reyes/Campillo who are all under control ‘til 2013, but haven’t shown they are sure major league assets yet. Right now the value of the pitchers is minimal. But if you look at past trades, cheap controllable pitching is worth a lot, even if they’re back of the rotation guys. If we just go with Smoltz, Vazquez, Jair, and have these 3 guys fill out the rotation (have one be a long-relief/swingman), we can set ourselves up to allow them to become valuable trade chips. Mid-way through next season, when some teams are out of it, they can be looking to move their good pitching for cheap controllable major league talent. Using him only as an example, Greinke is signed ‘til 2010. Come July, when the Royals are out of contention, do they want to hold onto that year and a half of Greinke, or could a capable innings eater (under control cheaply another 4.5 years) and some prospects  get him? Right now these guys aren’t available. So we sit and wait, instead of filling up our rotation, and taking opportunities away from our young guys.

Oh, and did I mention, Manny fucking Ramirez? It’s time we were relevent again. He could be the piece that allows us to keep pace with Mets/Phils while we allow the market to come back around to us and hand us that ace we want so much. If we get Dye/Sheets, we need Sheets to be healthy for us to be in the conversation. Manny doesn’t come with this risk. He can put the swagger back into this team, and let Chipper have a day off without crippling our lineup. Jermaine Dye is not the answer. And if we make the playoffs (that’s the aim right?), Smoltz, Chipper and Manny provide us with instant credibility with what would be a largely inexperienced group. It’s just against our team’s philosophy. But this year, in this climate, it’s the right move. It makes us credible without giving in and sacrificing our youth. We’ll give it up, but on our terms.In the meantime, we can field the best lineup we've had in a long time.