I covered Andy extensively last August in the piece Who is Andy Marte? Most of what I said there still applies. He looks to be a “prototype” good third baseman, a righthanded power hitter but not a .300 hitter. I am encouraged by the growth of his walk rate over the last couple of seasons, and this year he’s cut his strikeouts some as well, on his way to hitting .276/.363/.497 in Richmond.
He remains a streaky hitter in the minors, and I expect that will continue in the majors. I further expect that purely as a hitter he will resemble Andruw and over a full season put up a typical Andruw line, .265/.350/.500, albeit while hitting into fewer double plays. He should improve, but you could have said the same thing about Andruw eight years ago. And it’s a good line for a good third baseman, as Marte is.
It’s Marte Time!!!
I’m really looking forward to seeing Marte tonight, but I will be disappointed if Betemit is not in the lineup somehow.
So you’re saying we can expect another Andruw Jones at best and THAT’S reason for excitement. So another guy that hits for two weeks and disappears for three. Forgive me if I’m less than overwhelmed.
Hey, I know this is BRAVES journal, but its been like six days now! Isnt it time for the Yankees to play the Red Sox again. That might even pre-empt womens softball on the ESPN…I miss my Turner South:(
Oh yeah, good thing Andruw retooled his swing this past Grapefruit. Hey, now that I think about it, that must be just how large anything above Andruws head apparently looks to him.
Seriously, I hope more for the kid to be solid defensively than to knock the cover off the ball.
Marte, that is!
I know that this is pointless speculation that depends on Marte really tearing it up immediately, Larry coming back healthy soon, and the Braves doing something that is very unlike them… but the possibilities of what a LaRoche/Chuck James package could bring in return really have me thinking.
Seattle would be a good fit, but I guess all they have to give is guys that aren’t so exciting: Guardado, Winn, Ibanez.
Houston would be a possibility (I can’t see Bagwell coming back), but they don’t match-up real well since they have no major league hitters to send back. I can’t imagine any scenario where they trade Brad Lidge.
Boston is always looking for a 1B, but they’ll be dealing prospects… and I don’t imagine they’d value LaRoche’s defense very much anyway.
Detroit is intriguing, too. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I think Craig Monroe is looking like a pretty good player. But he stole that stupid belt, and that’s probably enough for Atlanta to forget it. Their available relievers aren’t all that exciting either. Urbina would be an expensive rental, Farnsworth probably isn’t available, and German doesn’t strike out enough guys.
Kansas City would be interested, I’m sure. But there’s no point in going there. They have nothing but Affeldt that would be of any interest to Atlanta. And I wouldn’t be excited about him, given his durability issues.
Tampa Bay could be interested, I suppose. There’s always Huff if the money could be worked out. But I guess they really couldn’t help the ‘pen too much.
But what really gets me excited is…
If Cleveland wanted to shift Broussard back to the outfield, that could get real interesting. They have outfielders and relievers to give. Jody Gerut and Riske or Betancourt would be intriguing. Gerut would probably make a nice lead-off hitter. And he could be a CF possibility should the Braves decide it’s time to trade Andruw in the offseason. His overall production was down last year from his rookie season, but he showed good discipline with 54BB and 59K in 134 games. Brandon Phillips would be an interesting guy to get in there, too… given the hole we’re about to have at short. He’s iffy, but it’s hard not to still be interested in his apparent potential.
I guess that’s enough. This stuff is fun for me, but I’m taking up way too much space on the blog.
I would like to see us get someone who will hit consistently through the year. Chipper was like that until last year and Estrada had a pretty consistent year last year until he faded a little at the end. Given the Braves team now, I’d rather have someone who can hit between .270 and .280 all year than someone who hits .285 but does it by hitting .360 one month and .230 the next.
Someone mentioned Austin Kearns from the Reds and I’ve liked him in the past. However, his .225 BA at this point is scary. I think people dreaming of Griffey Jr. or other blockbuster deals was just shown to be only a dream. See the following quote:
“With Chipper Jones on the disabled list and team president Terry McGuirk confirming there won’t be an adjustment to the team’s $80 million payroll, a young, mainly homegrown Braves lineup might become commonplace.”
Yeah, that’s going to be an issue. One of the reasons that I think Andruw is headed elsewhere in the offseason is that this team is simply going to have to get more payroll flexibility. Andruw isn’t earning his money anyway. It’s hard not to be afraid that he’ll go somewhere else and figure it all out, but I think the ship has sailed out of Atlanta. My fear is that that’s why we have Esix Snead. That somewhere in those crazy heads that still don’t seem to completely understand what makes a good offensive ballplayer, they see this guy as a replacement for Andruw in center and Raffy in the one spot. I keep telling myself I’m wrong… that JD Drew and Kelly Johnson and Andy Marte are evidence of a real shift in philosophy, but the pessimist in me keeps looking back over the years to find too much evidence to the contrary.
We need to make a move before the Mets and/or the Marlins do. The division could be had right now if a G.M. makes a huge trade.
No way we are trading Chuck James, no way we are trading Anthony Lerew, the two and Davies will be the core of our rotation for years to come.
I think Chuck James is a candidate to be traded because, as Kyle S. pointed out yesterday, it looks like the guy has an unacceptible makeup from a Braves perspective. Sometimes I think they overdo things like that, but if the guy can’t go to an all-star game without getting into a fight, it’s really not a very good sign.
Maybe marte will be the straw that stirs the drink. He has to be better than Kelly Johnson.
No way we are trading Chuck James, no way we are trading Anthony Lerew, the two and Davies will be the core of our rotation for years to come.
No way are we trading Dan Meyers and Adam Wainwright, the two and Odalis Perez will be the core of our rotation for years to come.
No way are we trading Bruce Chen and Micah Bowie, the two and Kevin Millwood will be the core of our rotation for years to come.
How many more can you come up with?
Per Buster Olney, ESPN.com:
“Danny Graves has cut down his list of possible destinations to two teams: the Marlins, or the Mets, as Ken Rosenthal tells us. The Braves are out, apparently because of a refusal to offer him an option for 2006 that would include a buyout. ”
Penny wise and pound foolish.
I have a hard time seeing an unwillingness to commit roughly $750k to a guy like Danny Graves as foolish. He’s demanding an option with a $500k buyout. If someone else wants to give it to him, then they should go for it. I’d think he might be worth a shot at the pro-rated minimum, but definitely not a penny more.
Graves signed with the Mets – AP report just now. Now the “genius” can work with him.
Ya know, I had temporarily forgotten that Graves has been Kolbesque this year.
I’d rather see them try another option.
IIRC, Graves has been Kolbesque since about the All-Star break last year. He’d be worth a flyer for the rest of the season, but no way should the Braves have given him an option for next year. That path leads to Tom Martin, part 2. (I know he signed his contract with the Dodgers, but the point remains that the only reason he made the team this year was his contract.)
No way are we trading Luis Rivera and Rob Bell, those two and Ruben Quevado will be the core of our rotation for years to come.
This is fun.
I’d totally forgotten about Quevedo. Whatever happened to him? Didn’t the cubs trade him to the Brewers at some point. Oh, well… guess it don’t really matter none. Just someone who’d completely left my mind.
Isn’t wikipedia great? He’s in the Orioles organization at AAA. Signed as a FA last year after a few years in the Brewers system.
Damn, quite surprised to see so much reaction from my comments. Well, we did trade Mayer, Wainwright and Perez, I can’t argue with that, but we traded them for Hudson, Drew and Sheffield. I don’t think there are any top tier players available at the trade market at the moment.
Who else did you guys mention? Chen, Bowie, Millwood, Quevedo? How about Bubba Nelson and Bong? Anyway, Millwood was trade away for financial reason as we all know, I don’t think the other guys are as good as James and Lerew. James is dominating AA at the moment. If we are trading James, I can only imagine that’s when we are acquiring Huff…which would be nice…