I hate the All-Star break.
21 Comments
Advertisement
Use code “Journal” for a 5% discount.
I hate the All-Star break.
Use code “Journal” for a 5% discount.
How many weeks will it take till we finally trade away Smoltzy?
I didn’t know if you covered this or not, but all Braves’ home games broadcast on Turner South or TBS are broadcast in High Definition. If locals have comcast, it’s channel 755. I get the TBS HD station via over the air antenna and set top box. The picture is crisp and clear.
According to Baseball Prospectus, JD Drew is the 6th most valuable player in baseball as measured by value over replacement-level position, bested only by Bonds, Vlad Guererro, Manny Ramirez, Ivan Rodriguez, and Bobby Abreu. Why isn’t he on the All-Star team?
He’s also second in the NL in equivalent average and Runs Above Replacement Position, behind only Bonds. There’s no rational reason why he isn’t on the team.
So the reason he’s behind in VORP is probably opportunities. Well, counting stats should penalize him for getting hurt, so that’s fine with me.
By the way, how good is Ben Sheets? If I were Schuerholtz, I offer Horacio, Dan Meyer, and Andy Marte for him, but that’s probably why I won’t be a big league GM anytime soon. He misses bats but not his spots, brings it and has tons of movement, plus he works fast and has good mechanics. I think he has a great shot at winning 200 games so long as he’s not stuck on a terrible Brewers team his whole career.
Are you completely and totally nuts? It’s quite unlikely that the Brewers would trade Sheets, but there is no way if I were JS that I would give up Meyer, Ramirez, and Marte to get him. No way.
http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp?Name=BEED
http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp?Name=CCABA
Whoops. Posted before I could make my point. Anyway, I think that if you take a gander at Meyer’s stats compared to the development of Sheets and Meyer not only compares favorably, he seems to have a better ceiling (and a lefty!). If Meyer has a good month in Richmond I wouldn’t be surprised if he pulled a late season Dontrelle and proved to be one of the better Braves pitchers for the last month and a half. That is a stretch but I wouldn’t be surprised. Trading him AND Marte for Sheets would be a terrible thing. If I’m JS and I call someone about a trade Marte, Capellan, Meyer, and Francoeur are not to even be mentioned.
The Brewers GM is on record saying Sheets is untouchable–in fact, he thought the question of trading him was idiotic. Sounds like they might actually have a clue….
I’d like to start the second half on a positive note: I apologize to John S. I’ve been crying for more arms and I realize he traded for Reitsma and the Invisible Man in seperate deals. He hasn’t given up on Paul Byrd, which may pay big dividends.
Here’s hoping for big things from Hampton,and the Jones boys. Play Ball!
In my opinion, the best fix will be to trade smoltz for nomar and move furcal to left field. Boston needs another arm and they don’t want nomar. We need nomar
Does anyone want Orlando Cabrera??? I heard he is on the market
Mac, this is annoying…so from now on EVERY TIME I post a message is has to be this way. I have to wait for you to approve it. You know I’m okay. Can’t you just put me in the automatic list. I’ll be okay man
I doubt that Furcal in left would produce more than the current platoon. If the Braves were to trade for Nomar (and it looks like he’s going nowhere) they’d probably deal Furcal, or possibly Marcus, either in the deal or elsewhere.
I’m sorry about the posting difficulty. If you go to TypeKey and sign up for an identity (you’ll need a legit email address, but a Yahoo or Hotmail address will do fine) you’ll be able to sign in and use it. I don’t want to do this, but it’s the only way to stop the spam in the current setup. I had over forty pieces of gambling spam this morning, and it would have taken forever to delete and rebuild it all.
I find it amazing that people are coming up with all these trades that are never going to happen. The Braves are not going to take on more salary and what’s the point of trading for Nomar, for example, if you weaken the team in another area, say like trading your closer? And then you would have to try to sign Nomar, which is not going to happen. This is the team we’ve got and it’s not going to change significantly. At most, JS will make a minor move for a relief pitcher or something like that. This is not the mid-90s anymore–the Braves are, for all intents and purposes, a mid-market team.
This is why I love baseball. Braves fans tell me there’s no way we’d give up that much to get Sheets, and Brewers fans (when proposed the same trade) tell me there’s no way they’d give up Sheets for only those players. I think that means it’s a fairer trade than we realize, but it ain’t happening.
Also, Dan Meyer is way behind Sheets developmentally; he’s 23 now, Sheets is 25 and in his 4th full major league year. Plus, Meyer’s upside is lower than Sheets’, etc. Whatever. I hope Dan does great. Best of luck to him.
There is a large article today in the AJC, though I’m not sure if it’s online, that talks about the Braves’ finances. Terry McGuirk says the team has “turned the corner” financially, that they are “losing a little money, but…nowhere near the gushing of red ink that’s happened in the past.” He goes on to say that the team had lost $30 million last year and $20 million each of the prior two years. He predicts a loss of less than $10 million this year, and if we go deep in the playoffs, possibly a profit.
Now, I’m not sure how much “less than $10 million dollars” is, but if it’s anywhere close to $10 million, I’d say they haven’t done a damn thing to improve finances, other than dropping $17 million in payroll. Combine the drop in payroll with an increase in ticket sales and a loss of
less than $10 million, and you’re still doing as bad as you were the last year.
Sorry, apparently the “less than” sign does bad things to posts.
Thinking about it some more: If the Phillies/Marlins/Mets make a move and significantly lead the division by, say, the middle of August, I think ticket sales would bottom out, potentially increasing the “less than $10 million” loss. That would lead to a higher percentage of loss to payroll than the previous year, and a failure in business terms.
Also, McGuirk emphasizes that no payroll will be added to the team this year, period. Moves that are made will have to balance out the payroll.
I stand by my evaluation of Meyer vs Sheets. Meyer is 3 years younger than Sheets and at most one half season behind Sheets at the same age (this being key). If you were to glance at Meyer vs Sheets developmentally, Sheets never demonstrated the ability to control the strike zone or prevent hits that Meyer has to this date. In fact, the reason that Sheets control and whip this year are so astounding is because he has never given up fewer hits than IP vs 123 IP and 91 H this year. He has improved his walks steadily throughout his career, but this has not been a problem for Meyer. Going back to my claim that Meyer is about most half a season behind Sheets developmentally. I realize that in his 23 year Sheets pitched 151 innings in the majors. I believe that Meyer could approach 50 innings if he was promoted now and pitch as well as Sheets did in his year 23. AND I fully acknowledge that this is a completely unrealistic expectation (though I think he would pitch better than Hampton). I don’t even know how to begin to address the claim that Meyer’s upside is less than Sheets. Sheets was drafted 10th overall in the 1999 draft. Meyer, 34th overall in the 2002 draft. Thats just not enough difference to address upside. I understand the actuality vs possibility issue, but I’m confident in Meyer. So, in conclusion, looking at Meyer’s minor league performance (which is most likely in a more pitcher friendly environ) and realizing that Sheets is older and more expensive I would not trade Meyer AND Marte for Sheets.
I think that if you take a gander at Meyer’s stats compared to the development of Sheets and Meyer not only compares favorably, he seems to have a better ceiling.
Also, Dan Meyer is way behind Sheets developmentally; he’s 23 now, Sheets is 25 and in his 4th full major league year. Plus, Meyer’s upside is lower than Sheets’, etc.
I don’t even know how to begin to address the claim that Meyer’s upside is less than Sheets.
I would begin by saying that Sheets has been the best pitcher in baseball over the first half of this season, thus defining his upside as “the best pitcher in baseball.” It’s pretty hard to have a higher upside than that!
I just don’t think you should ignore three years of being a middling major leaguer for one half season (ERA+ average of 96). But that’s just me. The irony of this whole discussion is that I have two autographed Ben Sheets cards pulled from random packs…