Braves place Marrero on disabled list
They’re calling what put Marrero on the DL an “upper respiratory infection”. I don’t know how serious it really is. It certainly sounds serious. Bronchitis, maybe? The Mayor of Richmond, Damon Hollins, finally gets another chance. To make room on the 40-man roster, Paul Byrd went to the 60-day DL.
Hollins isn’t the answer, as much as I’ve pushed him here in the past. He’s a potentially good fourth outfielder type, far better than DeWayne Wise. I assume he’ll platoon in left with Wise for now, unless when Julio’s healthy Hessman gets the shot instead.
I’ve said several times that I don’t expect Byrd to ever pitch for the Braves, and this reinforces it. I assume he’d be eligible to return in late May, but I don’t quite understand the 60-day DL rules.
The Byrd thing is reminding me more and more of when San Diego overpaid to get Randy Myers in 1998. Remember, at the time the Padres didn’t need a closer but wanted to keep him from going to the Braves. Myers ends up getting hurt and screwing the Padres out of big bucks in 99 & 00. If I remember correctly, the Braves overpaid, as is their custom, to keep Byrd from signing with the Phils and so far have paid tons of cash for him to pitch a few Spring Training games. At least the Padres got 21 games out of Myers.
I don’t really understand the 60-day rules, either, but to me, a team putting a guy on the 60-day DL has always been akin to saying “he’s out for the year, but we still have to pay him” …
One consolation though would be that many of today’s contracts insured. From what I read at the beginning of the season the Braves should be getting part of Byrd’s salary back through the insurance they took out on his contract.
I don’t know exactly how that works, if a player’s health history factors into it or anything. But if it’s anything like the real world then I’d think a player like J.D. Drew would be darn near uninsurable.
An excellent resource for questions on the DL and things like Options (I’m still trying to get that figured out) can be found at http://www.baseballprimer.com/articles/dszymborski_2002-07-04_0.shtml. There is also a link on that page to an ESPN article which is good but a little out of date.
The 60-day is suppose to work the same as the 15-day except the player doesn’t count toward the 40-man roster.
Langerhans has to be stewing. This is ridiculous that Hollins got the call while batting .179 with an OPS of .550. The thing that really bothers me about our bench is that there are so few bats. It’s like we have the all-defensive replacement team. Heck, I don’t think that Langerhans is known for being a bad defender anyway. I guess they are wanting him to get ABs every night, but then why not bring him up to permanantly sub for Chipper then send him back? I believe he has options.
If I remember correctly, the Braves overpaid, as is their custom, to keep Byrd from signing with the Phils and so far have paid tons of cash for him to pitch a few Spring Training games.
Actually, quite the opposite, I think. I believe the Phils were reported to haev offered Byrd something like three years/$21m. The Braves got him for less than half that because he wanted to pitch for Atlanta. Believe as much of that as you will, though.
I don’t think he has to stay on the 60-day for 60 days starting from yesterday. I think retroactive time to the beginning of the season is credited, meaning he can still come off in June. If healthy, of course.
While it’s true the Braves will probably earn some sort of insurance payoff from Byrd’s contract, I doubt at this point that AOL would be moved to put that money back into the payroll …
If you remember Byrd was signed after Glavine walked and Milwood was lost via a panic reaction to a reduction in salary budget.
At the time Byrd was coming off a season where he won (I think) 17 games for a very poor Royals team. He pitched a lot of innings and had a bunch of complete games. I haven’t seen it suggested anywhere that he was damaged goods but it seems funny that he breaks down as soon as he touches a ball in spring training.
At the time it seemed like a good idea. The Braves needed somebody to eat innings. Byrd has had arm problems before and has come back. He may come back again, but probably not for Atlanta. He will see duty this year but won’t win a lot of games or be a big factor. Bobby has other options and unless Byrd knocks his socks off he will probably be a spot starter/long relief guy.
The advantage of having a site in diary style is that I can always look things up.
Byrd was signed before Millwood was traded and was supposed to replace Maddux. The Braves, for some reason, thought that the latter wouldn’t accept arbitration even though it had already been reported that he probably would. When he did, they traded Millwood. The whole situation is easily traced from the Byrd signing. If not for that (and the Ortiz trade made at the same time) the Braves probably would have had the money to keep both Maddux and Millwood.
Chronology (From December 2002 archive)
Dec. 5: Glavine signs with Mets.
Dec. 17: Braves sign Byrd, trade for Ortiz.
Dec. 19: Maddux accepts arbitration.
Dec. 20: Millwood traded to Phillies.