ajc.com | Braves | Report: Sheffield picks Yankees

The deal is apparently for three years — not the two the Yankees were offering — and for $38 to $40 million — a lot more per year than the $11 million or so reported last week. Well, we’ll get a draft pick.

Supposedly, the Braves are interested in Mike Cameron, Reggie Sanders, and Kenny Lofton. I don’t believe that for a minute. Cameron, maybe… But if you don’t play him in center field, he loses a lot of his value, and the Braves don’t really need a center fielder. Though he’d be one heck of a right fielder on defense. Cameron’s perceived value is down because he was killed by Safeco Field. Over the last three years, he’s hit .224/.324/.385 at home, but .278/.364/.510 on the road. (The split wasn’t so dramatic last year when he did hit for power at home, but it’s still killing his batting average.)

Lofton is widely loathed by Braves fans and burned a lot of bridges on his way out of town. Also, he has no arm — so either he’s in right and everyone will go from first to third on a single to right, or Chipper is there and everyone will score from first on singles that he misplays — and an enormous ego that won’t allow him to shift from center even though he couldn’t carry Andruw’s glove with a forklift. Sanders wasn’t nearly as unpopular and doesn’t have an unrestained ego, but he was so terrible in Atlanta that I don’t think the team would bring him back.