SB Nation User Blog: gondeee

Settling for Lowe

gondeee — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:20:47 -0000

More photos » by John Bazemore - AP

It looks like the long-awaited trade of Atlanta Braves starter Derek Lowe is nearly upon us. The prerequisites for a Lowe trade are about to be finalized and that could be the trigger which leads other teams to make a move to acquire Lowe.

The Boston Red Sox are on the verge of signing John Lackey for way too much money. The Phillies and Mariners and Blue Jays are playing the Napa Cap Shuffle with Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay, and the Phils want to have their cake and eat it too, so they will land Halliday regardless of the cost.

That leaves several teams, particularly the Angels, without a "top-flight" starter, and if they believe that Lowe fits that mold, then maybe they'll bite on a trade. The Mets, and specifically their fans, are also left wanting more, but not only do we not want to trade with a division rival, we don't match up well with the Mets on the trade front.

Those two teams would be the front runners for his services, but there may be another mystery team or two who could get into the bidding, especially if the Braves can eat some of Lowe's salary as they apparently indicated that they can (though that is not their preference). Lowe is essentially the next most attractive starting pitcher on the free agent or trade market this winter, and his services could come relatively cheap in terms of players a team would have to give up to get him.

For the Braves, getting rid of that contract would be a huge help, as the team must view that as somewhat of an overreaction last year to what had transpired the year before with the starting rotation. The balance on the Braves now would be to spend more money on the lineup rather than the rotation, especially with inexpensive rotation options in Jair Jurrjens and Tommy Hanson entrenched for several years.

We're still in the sit and wait mode on a possible Lowe trade, but we're certainly waiting more eagerly.

[UPDATE: 11:15]

Maybe the White Sox could be a buyer. After all they seem to be collecting a bunch of old Dodgers players who have bad contracts.

Braves release spring training schedule

gondeee — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:53:34 -0000

Braves release spring training schedule

They had a tentative schedule out earlier in the year, but this one makes it official. Only one split-squad game.

Talking Chop 2010 Community Top-25 Braves Prospects

gondeee — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:33:05 -0000

Every year the community members here at Talking Chop are asked to submit their own top-25 Braves prospects. This year we had a record number of submissions, and some interesting results. Here are the Talking Chop 2010 Community Top-25 Braves Prospects:

Jason Heyward, OF
Freddie Freeman, 1B
Julio Teheran, RHSP
Mike Minor, LHSP
Craig Kimbrel, RHRP
Christian Bethancourt, C
Randall Delgado, RHSP
Zeke Spruill, RHSP
Cody Johnson, OF
J.J. Hoover, RHSP
Adam Milligan, OF
Brett DeVall, LHSP
Dimaster Delgado, LHSP
Jose Ortegano, LHSP
Cory Gearrin, RHRP
Cole Rohrbough, LHSP
Brandon Hicks, SS
Jacob Thompson, RHSP
Brett Oberholtzer, LHSP
David Hale, RHRP
Robinson Lopez, RHSP
Scott Diamond, LHSP
Tyler Stovall, LHSP
Andy Otero, LHSP
Benino Pruneda, RHRP

Some observations and the individual breakdown after the jump.

Observations:

I am apparently the only person who likes Todd Redmond as a prospect. Team USA performance people.
Julio Teheran almost snuck into second place ahead of Freeman.
I left off Edgar Osuna, who finished 17th, since he's now a member of the Braves-Central (aka the Royals).
I think there was some serious lobbying for Robinson Lopez and Andy Otero, both of whom snuck into the top-25. But not enough love for Caleb Brewer, who actually think more highly of.
No one outside of CB, Matt, and myself liked Matt Kennelly.
2010 draftees RSF and Mycal Jones barely missed the top-25, while Hale and Minor made the list.
Pitching dominated the list, including 9 left-handed starting pitchers (10 if you count Osuna).
Here is a link to last year's (2009) results.

Here is the full list. Click on it to enlarge. Sorry if it's still small, but I had to make it that way to fit it all on the print screen.

Atlanta Braves Fan Confidence Drops Again

gondeee — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:50:37 -0000

Two weeks ago when the Atlanta Braves Fan Confidence dropped from 76% to 74% I considered it static in the sample and not an indication that the off-season confidence of Braves fans was any less. But I may have to reconsider this week as the confidence level drops another 2% to 72% -- its second consecutive fortnight of decline. The poll also had its second-highest voting total of 905 participants, likely a holdover from the activity of the Winter Meetings.

It could be those Winter Meetings, of course, that caused the Fan Confidence Rating to drop yet again. While the Braves netted a positive from the meetings, in the form of durable reliever Jesse Chavez, they were made to look a bit foolish by what I have coined the Soriano Surprise -- reliever Rafael Soriano's decision to accept salary arbitration. The disgruntled fan argument is still be rehashed in the press, with Mark Bradley of the AJC the latest to chime in with his opinion of the Braves ignominious off-season so far. All are valid questions, but shouldn't we wait to see the final product?

As far as a developing product, I would still consider this off-season to be moving in a positive direction. In the past two weeks we've had a flurry of action, all centered around the bullpen, but the bullpen was a huge hole that needed to be filled this off-season. Now that we're on the other side of that attempt to fill the bullpen hole, I would say that it's been filled better than it was left at the end of last season. We replaced our closer and setup man with two, albeit older, but equally capable, and far more experienced players, and we added an additional durable middle-innings reliever.

Perhaps it's a matter of perspective, and some folks are always going to view what I view as glass half full as glass half empty. That's why we have the poll, to average it all out.

The Atlanta Braves Weekly Wrap

gondeee — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:48:18 -0000

More photos » by Gregory Smith - AP

This week turned out to be all about Rafael Soriano for the Atlanta Braves.

Browse more photos »

Here's a look at the major stories in the world of the Atlanta Braves for the week ending on December 13th:

In the Press...

There were early rumors, then more rumors, and finally Rafael Soriano decided to accept arbitration from the Braves.
Soriano was quickly traded to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for another bullpen arm, Jesse Chavez.
There were early reports at the Winter Meetings that Kelly Johnson was in high demand on the trade market, but apparently that was not the case as the Braves non-tendered Johnson yesterday.
Ryan Church was initially DFA'ed to make room for Soriano on the roster, and then he was non-tendered later in the week.
The Braves have shown some interest in free agent Xavier Nady.
Matt Diaz was re-signed for the 2010 season by the Braves.

At Talking Chop...

For a complete and detailed recap of the Braves happenings at the Winter Meetings, click here.
I penned a post hoping that the Braves stay away from Mike Cameron.
CB previewed the Rule 5 draft, and correctly called that Edgar Osuna would be the guy off the Braves roster who was selected. He was selected by, surprise, the Royals. Those Royals also signed two other ex-Braves players.
Talking Chop got the exclusive scoop on all the Braves minor league and international free agent signings.

Notable FanPosts and FanShots...

jdunk asks the if trading Derek Lowe will make the Braves better.
Meanwhile, JKowalek thinks the Braves and Cubs should make a swap involving Lowe.
And AndrewWK wants the Braves to swap Lowe for a speedster.

Coming up tomorrow on Talking Chop, the combined community top-25 Braves prospects.

Braves non-tender Kelly Johnson

gondeee — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:50:31 -0000

In an unfortunate move, the Atlanta Braves were unable to find a trade partner to take second baseman Kelly Johnson. Because Johnson would have made too much money through arbitration, the Braves decided to non-tender him a contract, making him a free agent.

Back at the beginning of the off-season, in early October, I called this move of non-tendering Johnson. Back then I said it was reminiscent of the situation the team faced with Marcus Giles a few years ago. The club simply does not value the player as much as he would be making through salary arbitration.

Still, it's a shame we couldn't get something for Johnson. I guess the Braves are a bit gun-shy after the Soriano Surprise of getting stuck with contracts they don't want. I wonder if they were able to trade Derek Lowe before this decision (thusly freeing up payroll), if they would have made a different decision on Johnson. I guess we'll never know.

We'll miss you Scooter.

4. Royals select: Edgar Osuna, LHP, Braves. If the Royals were looking for a good LOOGY candidate,...

gondeee — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:15:13 -0000

4. Royals select: Edgar Osuna, LHP, Braves.

If the Royals were looking for a good LOOGY candidate, say, someone like the one the Rangers found, they went knocking at the wrong door, as Osuna is actually better against right-handers. He pounds the strike zone, but his velocity is only in the 85-88 mph range, and he's also a fly-ball pitcher. That's a nightmare combination in the big leagues. Odds to Stick: 12-1.

Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus breaks down the Rule 5 draft
Knowing the Royals, they'll still probably keep him on their roster the whole year. He was nice organizational depth for the Braves, and he could become a good finesse lefty in a few years.

This type of move by a major league club looking for a LOOGY makes me happy that the Braves were smart enough to take a chance on EOF and get Logan in the Vazquez deal -- those are two good LOOGYs, a nice luxury.

Braves Sign Matt Diaz, Others

gondeee — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:06:04 -0000

Kudos to the Atlanta Braves for getting one of their arbitration eligible players signed already for next year -- something that can usually drag on into spring training. Matt Diaz agreed to a one-year $2.55 million deal in the last 24 hours, that's a raise of over $1 million from last year's salary of $1.237 million.

That leaves three players who remain unsigned by the Braves; second baseman Kelly Johnson, and relievers Peter Moylan and Boone Logan. Midnight tonight is the deadline for the Braves to offer them a contract. That doesn't mean they have to come to terms, they simply have to be tendered a contract for 2010. The Braves are expected to face a tough decision on Kelly Johnson, who is likely to make around $4 million and may not have a starting role.

I got an email from a reader alerting me to several minor league signings as well as international signings by the Braves. I'm trying to get them to source this information, so until then consider it as unsourced:

Minor League signings not posted on site yet: Mariano Gomez LHP, Gerardo Avila 1B, Luis Bolivar 3B, Eric Duncan 3B, Mauro Gomez 1B, Brent Clevlen OF, Mitch Jones OF, Juan Gonzalez OF

International Signings to date:
Mexico - Daniel Castro (ss), Javier Morales (rhp)
Panama - Abraham Espinosa (rhp), Luis Madrid (ss)
Venezuela - Erick Maldonado (of), Jesus Saldeno (rhp), Elias Valdez (lhp)
Nicaragua - Enrique Medina (lhp), Elieser Salmeron (of)
Dominican - Emmanuel Daniel (of)
Spain - Alejandro Martinez (ss)

Current players expected to receive visas from DSL: Juan Flores OF Victor Cadette RHP Luis de Luna RHP Amilcar Gaxiola LHP Andy Otero LHP Jorge Paulino RHP Williams Perez RHP Alexis Pinto LHP Ernesto Silva RHP Erick Epifano IF Omar Llapur 1B Edison Sanchez 3B

No, that is not the Juan Gonzalez, I believe he's an outfielder of the same name who played last with the St. Louis organization.

The reader also passed along this article on our baseball academy in Tenerife.

Braves' Soriano to Rays for Chavez Deal Now Official

gondeee — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:35:09 -0000

The deal that sent Atlanta Braves closer Rafael Soriano to the Tampa Bay Rays for reliever Jesse Chavez is now official. The Braves were forced to deal Soriano after he accepted arbitration and would have cost the Braves too much money next year. In return they get a serviceable bullpen arm. Here is what Frank Wren had to say about Chavez:

"We are excited to add another power arm to the middle of our bullpen," Braves Executive Vice President and General Manager Frank Wren said.

I think they're just excited to get rid of Soriano after he surprised them by accepting arbitration.

The Atlanta bullpen now looks like this: Billy Wagner slots as the closer, with Takashi Saito setting him up. Peter Moylan and Kris Medlen will be the early innings guys from the right side with Eric O'Flaherty serving as the early innings LOOGY. Jesse Chavez slots as the sixth guy in the pen with one open slot to be determined in spring training. That's a pretty solid pen and one that the Braves can be proud of and hopefully have confidence in.

Royals sign more ex-Braves players

gondeee — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:14:38 -0000

I read the MLBTR headline that listed ex-Braves pitcher Bruce Chen as one of six players the Royals signed to minor league deals, and I said to myself, there's got to be at least one more ex-Braves player in that group. Sure enough, first baseman Ernesto Mejia also signed a minor league deal.

I thought he was still with the Braves organization, but then I searched back through our archives and realized he was a minor league free agent. He had a breakout year in 2008, but didn't do much after injuring his wrist in 2009. With the Braves set at first base in the minors, he's not much of a loss. It would be interesting to see if the Royals can actually graduate any of our ex-prospects to the majors.

We ranked Mejia as our third-best first base prospect before he became a free agent.