SB Nation User Blog: gondeee

Take the Braves out of the running for these free agents

gondeee — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:14:11 -0000

More photos » by Chris Carlson - AP

Was it Divine intervention that prevented the Atlanta Braves from signing Rafael Furcal... or just his agents.

Last off-season the Atlanta Braves announced they had come to terms with free agent Rafael Furcal on a three-year contract... but less than 24-hours later Furcal had signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers. In the aftermath of that episode, Braves President John Schuerholtz stated that the Braves would never again do business with Furcal's agents, the Wasserman Group, headed by super-agent Arn Tellem.

As a side note to this, if we had signed Furcal, then we would have moved Kelly Johnson to left field, we never would have signed Garret Anderson, and Martin Prado may never have emerged as a bona fide major league starter at second base. And we might have traded Yunel Escobar somewhere. Things tend to work out for the best sometimes, as Furcal layed an egg in 2009.

Here are the free agents this off-season who are represented by the Wasserman Group, and are therefore off-limits to the Braves (courtesy of MLBTR):

Wilson Betemit
Aaron Boone
Nomar Garciaparra
Jason Giambi
John Grabow
Rich Harden
Shawn Hill
Reed Johnson
Jason Kendall
Hideki Matsui
Jason Michaels
Guillermo Mota
Vicente Padilla
Wily Mo Pena
Joel Pineiro
Matt Treanor
Randy Wolf
Omar Vizquel

I must say that there's no one I really want on that list, so for this year at least, no harm, no foul.

Talking Chop Round Table: Braves Right-Handed Starters

gondeee — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:10:48 -0000

As part of season reviews for major league players and top prospect rankings for minor league players, we here at Talking Chop thought it would be a fun idea to get all of our bloggers together with the help of Google Docs and debate the various aspects of each position in the Braves organization.

The participants are, yours truly (gondeee, indicated by MG), yondaime4 (indicated by MF), royhobbs (indicated by DH), and cbwilk (indicated by CBW).

The round table for right-handed starters in the Braves organization is after the jump.

MG: For all of the Braves historic focus on young high-ceiling left-handed pitching, the Braves seem to have a whole lot more high-ceiling right-handed pitching. Teheran, Spruill, R. Delgado, and Hoover all seem to project as major leaguers.
MF: You know the crazy thing about those guys? 3 of the 4 might be underrated. John Sickels has maintained for a while that Braves prospects are generally overrated (and I think he in turn underrates some of our guys, but that is another story) and I think that is true to an extent. But I believe that Spruill, Delgado and Hoover could all be top 50 prospects this time next year. I've said it several time about Spruill, with his advanced feel for the game and the fact that his body is supremely projectable he could add a couple MPH to his fastball next year and really start to improve. Delgado is getting some respect but mostly only on Braves lists. The guy throws gas and showed genuine improvement last year with his control. I have a lot of hope for him. I'll get into Hoover a little farther down this list.
CBW: You really do have to like those four guys; I think Teheran is going to be an ace, Spruill looks like a good bet to be a 2 or 3, Delgado at worst could be a great closer, and Hoover could be anything from Good Steve Trachsel to Peter Moylan. And I really think Jacob Thompson is right there with them as a guy who looks like he's right on the path to being a big leaguer and Todd Redmond really could have been in the Majors at any point this year if they needed him, and it wouldn't shock me to see him working out of the bullpen in 2010. From the left side, Minor looks like as good a lock as anybody in the system to be a regular in the Majors, and I personally love Osuna and Ortegano. At the absolute worst those two are going to be awesome LOOGYs. So yeah, definitely when you add in guys like Robinson Lopez, Caleb Brewer, Paul Clemens, and Cory Rasmus you see that things might be looking a little better from the right side, but either way there's a ton of young talent in the system. This is why I think people are ridiculous when they try to say the system is dry, most teams would kill to have any two of Teheran, Spruill, and Minor, and we've got all three.

MG: I'm a fan of Todd Redmond. I'm surprised that Matt didn't list him in his top-10 RHSP list, and I'm surprised that CB put Cofield and Reynoso ahead of him. Why the hatin' on this guy? He may not blow your socks off, but he seems to be a pretty refined starting pitcher.
CBW: You questioning my list? The first 6 guys I had on my list for the RHSP ended up being our first 6 guys! But seriously, I'm a big fan of Redmond's. I saw him make about 3 starts this year and even in the games where he didn't pitch that well he showed what a bulldog he is. The guy doesn't give in and he's got that stone-face that you just can't tell how the game is going by looking at. I swear if the Braves had to go into next season with him as the 5th starter I'd be great with it, cause I think you could expect him to do well, considering that he'd be the last guy in the rotation and a rookie. I think his final destination is in the bullpen, but I feel like he's going to excel there. I actually didn't put Reynoso ahead of him though. They're the same age and Redmond is a level ahead, so Ryne doesn't get to be ahead of him for me. But, for a guy who didn't really start pitching until he was a professional, he's done an outstanding job, and I think he'll make a great Major League reliever. Now Cofield, I did put ahead of Redmond, because he's 2 years younger, only playing one level below, and while he didn't have the same season Redmond did in 2008, he had a good season, and was still a year younger than Redmond was last year. Once he figures things out, kind of like James Parr did last year, he's going to rocket to the Bigs.

MG: I listed J.J. Hoover higher than either of you guys. I'll give you that if I ranked them today I may put R. Delgado and Spruill ahead of him, but I still like the package that Hoover brings to the table.
MF: I like Hoover a lot really. Especially after seeing him in the All Star game. His curve is nasty when it is on and he can strike people out with his fastball as well. My only real issue is I have heard too many negative scouting reports on him recently. There isn't much room for projection in his body, his fastball is straight and his curve can be good but it is too inconsistent. I just fear he is pretty close to his potential. His numbers look great, but I am going to have a wait and see approach to him.
CBW: As great as Hoover was this year, he was also a 22 year old in Low A. He should have been that good. In fact, I think if I had the list to do over again, I probably would have put him behind Thompson (same age, pitched better at a higher level), Brewer and Lopez (both 3 years younger with a lot more projectability) and maybe even behind Cofield (same age, pitched decently 2 levels higher). I definitely get caught up in the ages when judging where a prospect should be, but that's just kind of the game. All that being said, aside from Mike Minor there might not be a better lock to pitch in the Majors in the system than Hoover. Matt's right, his body is pretty done, he's big and strong and probably is what he's going to be. He's shown he knows how to pitch, especially how to strike guys out, and he's shown he can eat up innings. I like him a lot and of the guys on this list he's the one I'd be the most surprised not to see play in the Majors for a while.

MG: Robinson Lopez and Caleb Brewer are pretty much unknowns right now, but they could be up near the top of this list this time next year.
MF: Yes, they could. Caleb Brewer has already received praise for his excellent fastball and Baseball America voted his curve the best in the system as well. I don't know much about Robinson Lopez currently other than he was flat out dominant in the GCL this season. His peripherals aren't quite as impressive as his ERA so I am going to wait and see with him.
CBW: I honestly had a hard time writing up these guys, because I've never seen them play, or even seen them in person, so I knew pretty much nothing about them other than their stats. I don't even know what kind of injury kept Brewer out of action in 2008. But, I think we all had enough context with the stats, they had great years and they're both young, to know that they needed to be on this list. It's a complete hunch, but something tells me Lopez is the better of the two and that he's going to show it in 2010.

MG: I still like Jacob Thompson, but something tells me he's going to flame out.
MF: I think of all the guys I ranked he is probably most likely to flame out. He walks too many and doesn't strike out enough guys, but he still had a successful season thanks to generating a lot of groundballs. We'll see.
CBW: I have to disagree. I love the fact that he was better at the higher level and I know it was a direct result of working with Guy Hansen. And the thing about Hansen is that he makes guys better even after they leave him; look at Osuna and Ortegano, better with Myrtle Beach than they had been with Rome, and then even better after they were promoted to AA, away from Hansen. Before he got Mono in college, Thompson was a guy who could have gone in the middle of the second round. He's a big strong guy, and probably has a better frame for pitching than Zeke Spruill, who's kind of the ideal size. I have no doubt that I get swayed on guys because of how I personally feel about them, and Jacob is an outsanding person, but I really think he's got it in him to keep his mechanics straight and really move up the ladder fast.

MG: Has everyone given up on EriK Cordier?
MF: Yes.
CBW: Haha. No, not me. I had Cory Rasmus and Ryne Reynoso on my personal top-10 and I'm not even sure Cordier would have ranked just after them, but I still hold out some hope for the guy. He's going to be 24 next year, but this was his first full season; almost half of his career appearances came in 2009, so it's really hard to even judge him. I was lucky enough to get to talk with Erik for about 20 minutes the last time I saw Myrtle Beach this year and you really have to admire his determination. The guy has been a pro for 6 seasons and in 2 of those years he hasn't even been able to throw a pitch. And it's not like he's Mike Hampton making 15 million a year to sit out, he's making 20 thousand a year like all the other A ball players. Sure, he got almost 600 thousand when he first signed with the Royals, which is a huge amount of money, but it's not enough to make a guy complacent. The amount of work he's had to put in just be able to pitch in 2009 is phenomenal. And, he didn't have that bad of a year. He pitched better than he did in 2008 with Rome and even though he did worse down the stretch than he had at the start of the year, again, you have to remember that he'd never pitched a full season before. I don't know if Erik is ever going to be a Major Leauger, I don't know if he'll even make it to AAA, but you have to give some creedence to the fact that he's still pitching, still working, and still improving, even after all the crap he had to go through.

CBW: You guys really threw me with the David Francis pick. Not only did he not really have a very impressive year, but the vast majority of his appearances were as a reliever. So, what's up with that guys?
MF: Even if he was still pitching mostly as a reliever he was still kind of doing that Tandem starter thing for a lot of the year. The guy has good stuff but I think he is just still putting things together really and I don't think swinging back and forth between the bullpen and starting really helped him. I think probably by the end of the year he was a bonafied reliever but only because there were 5 good starters already in Rome. I still like his arm, but he needs to prove something next year, you are right.

Braves GM Frank Wren said they would look to field offers on a couple of their starting pitchers....

gondeee — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:50:07 -0000

Braves GM Frank Wren said they would look to field offers on a couple of their starting pitchers. That includes Derek Lowe, who could draw interest from the Yankees as an alternative to John Lackey. "We're in a position where people know we have an excess in starting pitching," Wren said. He said they could go use one of their starters in another role but that that's "unlikely." The Braves are looking for offense, and a corner outfielder with power would fit them.

SI.com's Jon Heyman wraps up the GM Meetings
The Yankees would be an interesting trade partner, though I would see that as more of a salary dump on our part if we sent Lowe there. The more I think about the complications of getting rid of Lowe and acquiring a bat via trade, the more I think it almost has to be some sort of three-team deal.

Braves Sign a Minor League Shortstop

gondeee — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:43:33 -0000

A few nuggets of Atlanta Braves news from Our Sports Central today. First, the Braves have signed a minor league shortstop:

Coastal Bend Thunder's Amadeo Zazueta has been signed to a contract with the Atlanta Braves organization.

The transaction between the Thunder and the Braves was announced by Thunder field manager Al Gallagher.

The native Mexican was recently named one of the "Top 10 Talent" in independent league baseball by Baseball America.

Zazueta, 23, from Culiacan, Mexico, was originally signed by the Houston Astros. He played two years in the Venezuelan Summer League and was his team's Most Valuable Player in 2005.

Baseball America ranked him as the eighth-best Independent League player, and said he has a chance to be a major league shortstop (even though he is already 23). He's one of those all-field, light-hit shortstops. This is likely just minor league depth, but it's also insurance against injuries to either Yunel Escobar and/or Diory Hernandez.

Here is a link to Zazueta's stats.

In other OSS news, our old pal Rico Brogna was named manager of the Mobile Bay Bears, the double-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Brogna was a minor league field coordinator for the D'Backs last year.

SBN Awards: NL Cy Young

gondeee — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:32:54 -0000

Every year the bloggers and members of the SBN baseball blog community get together and do our own BWAA-style voting for all of the major awards. This year two Braves placed in the NL Cy Young voting, Javier Vazquez and Jair Jurrjens. Here is the voting breakdown:

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Tim Lincecum	San Francisco Giants	18	13	-	129
2	Chris Carpenter	St. Louis Cardinals	9	4	7	64
3	Adam Wainwright	St. Louis Cardinals	4	4	10	42
4	Javier Vazquez	Atlanta Braves	-	5	7	22
5	Dan Haren	Arizona Diamondbacks	-	3	4	13
6	Ubaldo Jimenez	Colorado Rockies	-	1	1	4
7	Cliff Lee	Philadelphia Phillies	-	-	1	1
8	Jair Jurrjens	Atlanta Braves	-	-	1	1

Here is how Javier Vazquez and Jair Jurrjens stack up against the top-3 vote getters:

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2009 - Tim Lincecum	15-7	32	32	4	2	0	0	225.1	168	69	62	10	68	261	2.48	1.05

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2009 - Chris Carpenter	17-4	28	28	3	1	0	0	192.2	156	49	48	7	38	144	2.24	1.01

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2009 - Adam Wainwright	19-8	34	34	1	0	0	0	233.0	216	75	68	17	66	212	2.63	1.21

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2009 - Javier Vazquez	15-10	32	32	3	0	0	0	219.1	181	75	70	20	44	238	2.87	1.03

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2009 - Jair Jurrjens	14-10	34	34	0	0	0	0	215.0	186	71	62	15	75	152	2.60	1.21

This was a pretty close race, and any of these guys could have a case for being the Cy Young.

Braves Name Dave Wallace and Garey Ingram to Minor League Posts

gondeee — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:45:59 -0000

The Atlanta Braves have named Dave Wallace minor league pitching coordinator and Garey Ingram the hitting coach at Class-AA Mississippi. We already knew about the Wallace hiring from a Seattle newspaper, but here is the official announcement:

Atlanta Braves Director of Player Development Kurt Kemp announced today that the Braves have hired two new staff members, as Dave Wallace has agreed to terms to become the Club's Minor League Pitching Coordinator and Garey Ingram has been named the hitting coach at Mississippi (AA). Wallace, who was given a two-year contract through the 2011 season, replaces Kent Willis. Wallace's primary responsibility will be to oversee the progress and development of the Braves' minor league pitchers at all levels.

The rest of the release is after the jump.

"With the hiring of Dave Wallace as our Pitching Coordinator, we feel that our minor league pitching program couldn't be in better hands," said Kemp. "Dave's depth of experience, his knowledge, and his leadership give us great confidence that the pitchers in our system will have the greatest opportunity to grow, learn, and develop into the best pitcher's they can be."

Wallace began his professional career as a pitcher in the Philadelphia Phillies organization in 1970 and has worked as a major league and minor league coach and/or front office executive since 1981.

Wallace worked in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization from 1981-97 and again from 2001-03, when he served as the Dodgers' Sr. Vice President/Baseball Operations, overseeing LA's minor league operations and consulting with the General Manager on baseball operations. Wallace also served the Dodgers as a Special Assistant to the GM (Dec., 2000-April, 2001) and interim GM (April-Oct., 2001).

He has served as a major league pitching coach with the Dodgers (1995-97), New York Mets (1999-2000), Boston Red Sox (2003-06) and Houston Astros (2007). He joined the Seattle Mariners in October 2007 and spent two seasons (2008-09) as Special Assistant to the General Manager/Minor League Pitching Coordinator.

Ingram spent the 2009 season as the hitting coach for San Francisco's Double-A Connecticut affiliate after spending the previous seven seasons (2002-08) as a minor league hitting coach in the Los Angeles Dodgers system. He was the hitting coach for two years at Class-A Great Lakes and also coached the Columbus/South Georgia Waves from 2003-06.

"We are very pleased to have Garey join our staff," said Kemp. "Hitting Coordinator Leon Roberts and I have been impressed with Garey and we feel he will do a great job teaching and coaching our Double-A hitters at Mississippi."

Ingram retired from his 14-year professional playing career in 2002 and began his coaching career that same season with the Gulf Coast League Dodgers. His playing career included parts of three major league seasons (1994-95, '97) with the Dodgers. He made history on May 19, 1994, when, as pinch-hitter, he became the 67th major league player to homer in his first plate appearance, doing so at Denver's Mile High Stadium.

The former infielder/outfielder was drafted by the Dodgers out of Middle Georgia Junior College in 1989. He currently resides in Columbus, Ga.

Good moves by the Braves.

Why the Braves should sign Billy Wagner

gondeee — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:15:24 -0000

The Atlanta Braves should sign Billy Wagner to be their closer... this is pretty much a no-brainer, especially after I learned that his agent is named Bean Stringfellow. I repeat, his agent is named Bean Stringfellow... and he used to pitch in the Braves organization:

First off, I love the stache. Classic late-70s, early 80s middle-American tweener stache. I think I had a couple of cousins who sported such a thing. I just can't get over that name, Bean Stringfellow. It literally turned my mood around today.

Thank you Bean Stringfellow.

You do realize that every time anyone mentions Billy Wagner from now on, they must refer to him as "Billy Wagner, whose agent is Bean Stringfellow," or somehow work in that name. Every. Time.

I can't believe that Rowland's Office hasn't highlighted this guy yet... major fail.

Bean Stringfellow got as high as triple-A.

The Braves' Tommy Hanson wins the SBN NL Rookie of the Year

gondeee — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:57:15 -0000

Every year the bloggers and members of the SBN baseball blog community get together and do our own BWAA-style voting for all of the major awards. This year they have chosen the Atlanta Braves rookie starting pitcher Tommy Hanson as the SBN NL Rookie of the Year. This, despite neither of the two Atlanta votes going his way. Perhaps our voters were being too cautious, or not wanting to put too much pressure on our young hurler. The reality is that Hanson is by far the better major league prospect on this list, with McCutchen probably a close second, and that may have swayed some voters despite Hanson only spending half a season in the big leagues. I find it interesting that four different rookies got a substantial number of first place votes. Here are the results:

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Tommy Hanson	Atlanta Braves	9	9	6	78
2	J.A. Happ	Philadelphia Phillies	6	9	7	64
3	Andrew McCutchen	Pittsburgh Pirates	8	3	5	54
4	Chris Coghlan	Florida Marlins	7	5	4	54
5	Dexter Fowler	Colorado Rockies	-	3	1	10
6	Randy Wells	Chicago Cubs	-	-	6	6
7	Garrett Jones	Pittsburgh Pirates	1	-	-	5
8	Casey McGehee	Milwaukee Brewers	-	1	2	5
9	Seth Smith	Colorado Rockies	-	1	-	3

The real Rookie of the Year awards will be announced next week.

The SBN NL Cy Young will be tomorrow and Atlanta has several hurlers that should get some votes.

Braves Monday Odds and Ends

gondeee — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:24:51 -0000

Several things popping up on this Monday in the world of the Atlanta Braves

First... There are several people planning on attending Brian McCann's Celebrity Softball Game this Friday, November 13th at Georgia Tech. It's for a great cause, and we'll get a little bit of a Braves baseball fix here in the middle of the winter. For details and to purchase tickets go here. Respond in the comments if you plan on going. Oh, and I just read that the Varisty will be selling food and drink... as if we needed a reason to go, hello, Varsity and baseball (softball, really) in one stop. (Perhaps the Braves will take note and put a Varsity at Turner Field next year.)

Second... The Elias rankings came out today and there were no surprises for the Braves. We have four free agents eligible for draft pick compensation were they to be offered arbitration by the Braves but sign elsewhere. Relievers Rafael Soriano and Mike Gonzalez are type-A free agents (meaning we would get a first round and supplemental first round pick), and Adam LaRoche and Garret Anderson are type-B free agents (meaning we would get a supplemental first round pick).

Third... David O'Brien of the AJC is now on Twitter, and he has this nugget from the GM Meetings (which started today):

I'm hearing the Braves have discussed trying to sign Javier Vazquez to a contract extension. Not sure if that's gotten anywhere yet or will.

And only this morning Buster Olney was saying we would trade him. Gonna be one of those winters...

SBN Awards: NL Manager of the Year

gondeee — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:16:35 -0000

Every year the bloggers and members of the SBN baseball blog community get together and do our own BWAA-style voting for all of the major awards. I didn't have much time to do the proper research for it this year, so I put it out to the Talking Chop community to get a couple of members who wanted to vote. Talking Chop commenters esadb and Doghnut submitted ballots on behalf of the site and Braves fans. Hopefully they will let us know who they voted for. Here are the overall results for the NL:

Rk	Manager	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Jim Tracy	Colorado Rockies	24	1	2	125
2	Tony LaRussa	St. Louis Cardinals	3	7	10	46
3	Fredi Gonzalez	Florida Marlins	2	6	5	33
4	Joe Torre	Los Angeles Dodgers	-	9	2	29
5	Charlie Manuel	Philadelphia Phillies	-	3	5	14
6	Bruce Bochy	San Francisco Giants	1	1	1	9
7	Bobby Cox	Atlanta Braves	-	1	4	7
8	Bud Black	San Diego Padres	-	1	1	4
9	John Russell	Pittsburgh Pirates	-	1	-	3

I don't think very much of Jim Tracy so there's no way in hell I would have voted for him. I know the Rockies turned around when he took over, but really... was it really him? Or was it simply removing the ineffective and toxic Clint Hurdle, where anyone who replaced him would have gotten the same level of play out of that team. I'm just not a Jim Tracy fan.

Overall I don't know how one can really say that a manager had that much of an influence on a team, and more specifically, how one can say that a manager of a team you don't watch every day had this influence of that influence. I can have a better guess about Bobby Cox' influence on the Braves, but I have zero insight into the betterments of these other teams because of their respective managers. Only that I don't like Jim Tracy, nor think he deserves this award. /soapbox

FYI, in the AL Scioscia was first and Gardenhire was second in a very close vote.