Baseball Prospectus – Prospectus Triple Play: Atlanta Braves, Minnesota Twins, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
I don’t know what they’re smoking at Baseball Prospectus, but the Braves aren’t going to make Eli Marrero the starting catcher. If they were even going to consider that, they wouldn’t have given Eddie Perez guaranteed money to be the backup.
They like Scheurholz letting the position free agents go (I have to agree), they really hate Jaret Wright (ignoring how well he pitched for the Braves in a relief role) and think that the Braves need “one or two studs at the top of the rotation” (duh).
I agree. This article screams: “We don’t follow this team very closely!”
Making Wright a starter is a bad idea because he is so fragile and there are plenty of other reasonable options. (Should I launch my Trey Hodges for fifth starter campaign now? Nah, wait until he’s got a few grapefruit innings under his belt.) But there is no reason to believe Jaret can’t be an asset in the bullpen, potentially closing when Smoltz makes his inevidable trip(s) to the DL.
I agree with letting all of them go, with the possible exception of Sheffield. I don’t think he’ll regress as much this year as BP is predicting (although I wouldn’t wnat him for three more years, while the Yankees apparently disagree).
The latest word seems to be that Byrd will be ready in May, so even if Wright is the fifth starter for the month of April, I say big deal.
At any rate, Marrero certainly will not be the starting catcher. Unless Estrada turns out to be an al Qaeda operative or Jim Leyritz’s illegitimate son, the job is his. Marrero will be the supersub that plays three or four days a week, at three or four different positions.
I agree about marrero though. I think he has more upside than estrada. I appreciated seeing him play well in richmond, but a lot of his value was tied to a huge jump in batting average. that, combined with his lack of patience worries me. I wouldn’t be surprised if marrero was catching regularly down the road.
Well, even if Estada regresses, I’d still expect his OBP to be no worse than Marrero’s. Eli has a career OBP of .295, and a career high of only .327. That doesn’t seem terribly hard to top.
I agree with letting all of them go, with the possible exception of Sheffield
I’d agree here, except that I just don’t think Sheff was coming back to Atlanta. George wanted him, and even with their little blip in December, that’s where he was headed. We don’t even know how high George was willign to go in bidding for him.
Definitey, Big George wanted Sheffield in a bad way. Gary was not coming back. I just meant that if there was anyon in that bunch I would re-sign, it would be Sheffield.
Braves did good by letting Castilla, Lopez, Maddux go. Since Sheffield wasn’t going to offer the ‘hometown discount’ they had no choice but to let him go. If he goes back to career averages and he might since he won’t be juicing up anymore (I think) then he isn’t worth 39 million.
I don’t think that Marrero starting at catcher is such a bad idea. At least he has a history of success at the major league level.