Unless there’s another trade, or someone has a really terrible spring training, the hitting portions of the roster (assuming the dreaded seven-man bullpen) seem to be set already:
C McCann
1B LaRoche
2B Giles
3B Chipper
SS Renteria
LF Langerhans
CF Andruw
RF Francoeur
C Pratt
IF Orr
IF Betemit
OF Johnson
OF/1B Diaz
That’s thirteen. Orr has options left, I think, so someone could beat him out. I’m not sure if Johnson can be optioned out anymore; he’s been in the minors awhile. At any event, there’s not a lot of give in the roster barring a trade.
Time for today’s Bogus Trade Rummor.
The mall santa told me the Braves, Tigers, Indians and Pirates are in a four team discussion.
ATL-sends LaRoche and KJ to Detroit. HR to Pittsburgh. Chuck James to Cleveland
DET-sends Fleix Rodney to ATL, prospect to Pitts.
CLE-sends Casey Blake to ATL, Rafael Betancourt to Pitt
Pitt- sends Oliver Perez to ATL,Jody Gerutto DET and Ty Wigginton to Cleveland
Yeah, that sure is bogus. Ugh.
The Astros bought Oswalt a bulldozer.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/baseball/mlb/12/19/bc.bbn.oswalt.bulldozer.ap/index.html
I think if we are gong to get Lidge, it could happen soon. He is up for arb.
Jenny, so you not like Santa’s trade? COAL FOR YOU!
Smitty, see if you can add a few more teams to the mix. I had a dream that Johan Santana was traded to the Braves a few nights ago, so maybe work that in?
Shoooo, ok give me some time.
ATL-sends LaRoche and KJ to Detroit. HR to Pittsburgh. Chuck James to Cleveland. Betemit to Min
DET-sends Fleix Rodney to ATL, prospect to Min.
CLE-sends Casey Blake to ATL, Rafael Betancourt to Pitt. Franklin Gutierrez to TOR
Pitt- sends Oliver Perez to MIN,Jody Gerutt DET and Ty Wigginton to Cleveland
MIN-sends Santana to ATL, Nick Punto to Pitt.
TOR-sends Frank Catalanotto to Min
Wow, I would do that trade in a heart beat if I were the Braves
Mac, you think Pratt can play 1B against southpaws?
Jim
Well JB, in my trade, Pratt would share time with Casey Blake at first
Nice proposed trade above – why don’t you add in the other 24 teams so that everyone gets something.
Mac, why do you plug Langerhans in as the starting LF? Is it because he got the majority of the playing time down the stretch last year, or is there something else? I just don’t see how he is a better LF option than Kelly Johnson.
It takes a lot of time to come up with a ton of crap.
I think we should have made an offer to Steve Karsay. He signed for peanuts with the Indians.
They gave Langerhans the leftfield job last season, so I figure he’d have to lose it. Anyway, he’s out of options.
Smitty, I’ll make the DET prospect be Joel Zumaya, if you don’t mind.
—
ATL
Give: LaRoche, Johnson, Betemit, Ramirez, James
Get: Rodney, Blake, Santana
CLE
Give: Blake, Betancourt, Gutierrez
Get: James, Wigginton
DET
Give: Rodney, Zumaya
Get: LaRoche, Johnson, Gerut
MIN
Give: Santana, Punto
Get: Perez, Betemit, Zumaya, Catalonotto
PIT
Give: Perez, Gerut, Wigginton
Get: Ramirez, Betancourt, Punto
TOR
Give: Catalonotto
Get: Franklin Gutierrez
—
Ty Wigginton was released, so that makes including him in a trade tricky. I admire your effort, though. The Indians appear to get completely raped as it stands, but the Pirates, Tigers, and Twins share in that feeling too. I like it!
According to the Braves web site:
The Braves have until Tuesday at midnight ET to offer contracts to all of their unsigned players. Their arbitration-eligible players are Marcus Giles, Jorge Sosa, Chris Reitsma, Horacio Ramirez, Oscar Villarreal and Jim Brower. All except Brower seem certain to be tendered a contract.
So I guess this means another year of Reitsma? I think he’s got a good chance to start out as closer if nobody else is acquired through sign/trade.
It will be interesting to see what they do with Betemit in spring training, as in: give him some time at 2B, give him a few innings at 1B, etc.
I hope they go with a 14/11 set-up. It would be nice to have one more bat on the bench.
I want Julio!
Julio as in Jorge Julio? Please no. He gives up a HR every 7 innings and throws a wild pitch about as often, which is bad for a reliever, has a WHIP of 1.40 (career) and is also a head case. Only upside is that he throws hard. I’ve been forced to watch this guy in Baltimore for the past 4 years, please don’t make me watch him in Atlanta.
I say we go after that guy for the Brewers, what is his name, Danny Kolb?
HEL NO I WONT GO!!!!!!
Yesterday, I got my new APBA Baseball for Windows with the entire 2005 season. Just for the hell of it, I played an “automatic game” between the Braves & the Yankees. (In auto-manager mode you can play a game in 10 secs, if you want.)
It was a slugfest: Andruw hit 2 HRs & Frenchy had a 3-run HR, but the Braves lost 13-9. The culprit? Dan Kolb.
His Line: 2/3 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 ER.
Creepy.
ububba, your first move of the game should have been to trade Dan Kolb
Here is the best news of the off season!!!!
PEDRO IS HURT!
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2266281
Wow, the Rangers just made a good trade- picking up Akinori Otsuka AND Adam Eaton for what seems like not very much- Braves could definitely use Otsuka…
Well we won’t get him now. The Rangers need pitching like cars need gas
Why would the Rangers send Chris Young to the Padres? That seems really counter-productive…
Jenny…Julio as in THE Julio
Julio Franco
Sorry, NMS, that’s one Christmas present Santa isn’t going to bring 😉
So now that Soriano refuses to move to the outfield, what are the Natspos going to do with him? Did they check with him about that before they did the trade? This is kind of funny.
I should have written “The Braves could definitely have used Otsuka.” As Smitty says, too late now.
Sure looks like the final roster barring any surprises. As iffy as it looks I’m way more ok with Francoeur/Langerhans at the corners than Mondesi/Jordan. But, if this is indeed it, then Schuerholz is going all in with a Queen/Jack suited. Big gamble that LaRoche, McCann, Langerhans and Francouer are ALL going to hit.
I’m not sure that the Rangers got the better end of the deal. I guess most people are higher on Adrian Gonzalez than we are on this board, but Chris Young is a heck of a young pitcher. Sledge is probably another Juan Rivera, but I have no idea.
Eaton’s a mystery to me; he didn’t do all that well in a pitcher’s park last year (1.43 WHIP) and now he’s going to Texas. And Otsuka had a WHIP of 1.42 last year (and two of his three worst months were August and September)–just one year removed from his ML debut. I’m sure he’ll mystify the AL batters in his first year there, but it looks like the NL was starting to figure him out.
Texas will get a guy who’ll be a great reliever for at least one year, but probably not three, and a starting pitcher who will either be brilliant or mediocre, and probably both. In return, they give up a 26-year old starting pitcher who legitimately was one of the best pitchers in the league for much of the season. Maybe there’s something I’m missing…?
Bill Simmons is going to host “The Sports Bash” on ESPN Radio today.
Maybe we can sign Favre to pitch. He will see three guys around home plate (hitter, catcher, Ump) and just throw it as hard as he can. It would be just like the NFL, except he won’t get sacked as much.
Would someone on TV PLEASE come out and say Favre is washed up? The butt-kissing is driving me up the wall. The guy sucks now. He makes bad decisions and he can’t aim. He was almost intercepted on EVERY SINGLE deep ball last night, except the Ravens defenders dropped like 4 of them. He just sits there and airs it out to some area of the field and it NEVER goes to the right place and it’s ALWAYS into triple coverage! It’s painful to watch. I have tremendous respect for what Favre used to be, but the key words there are “used to be.” The guy is done.
How about we go after J.T. Snow and trade laroche for Danys Baez
Smitty,
That was “auto-manager” doing the mis-managing.
If I were managing, Kolb would never be in a close contest.
In APBA terms, pitchers are basically ranked between 1 and 15, with off-the-chart-good pitchers going as high as 26. So Mariano Rivera is a 24; Kolb is a 2.
Olen I hope you were being sarcastic.
New Dodgers:
Rafael Furcal
Bill Mueller
Nomar Garciaparra
Derek Lowe
Kenny Lofton
What do you guys and gals think? Are they contenders? This is an impressive group of signings, but will the Dodgers be like the Mets and trot out big names only to implode? I used to love the rivalry between the Braves and the Dodgers. Of course, that was when they battled for the NL West crown from opposite ends of the country, and the Braves had such potent weapons as Andres Thomas and Pascual Perez. Ah the memories!
Didn’t Snow retire??
Lowe isn’t a new dodger.
Who will bat lead off for LA?
Rafael Furcal-will make a ton of errors with Nomar at first, until he gets hurt.
Bill Mueller-Done
Nomar Garciaparra-Plays 80 games
Derek Lowe-sucks
Kenny Lofton-too old
Meet the Mets
And for the record, I do think Nomar will have a good if not outstanding year, Lofton will be good, as will Lowe and Mueller. Furcal may indeed see his errors rise with Nomar at 1st, and it will play games with his head, and his offense will drop. Without Bobby there to hold his hand, I think he’ll be the bust of the group. Just my opinion, of course. I wish him the best, but I’d secretly love to see Renteria shine. For two years, anyway….bring on Yunel Escobar, I say!
yeah, okay, Lowe isn’t new…my bad!
Obviously Furcal will lead off, though it’s not clear in my mind that he’s a better option than Lofton still is (against righthanders, anyway). The Dodgers have a good farm system but are showing signs of Boss’ Disease, where they’ll do anything to avoid playing a prospect.
I’m sure the Braves don’t miss being in the West, but I used to love those extra Left-Coast trips to LA, SD & SF–great late-night TV.
Maybe we can trade Adam for his brother
I hate them. I have to work.
I just read “talking Chop,” and it really is just this web site, but less informed and fewer people.
I think the Eaton trade is terrible for the Rangers. Chris Young is actually better, younger and cheaper than Eaton. The Otsuka for Gonzalez part of the deal is ok considering Gonzalez is one of the better hitting prospect in the game while Otsuka is aging and declining.
I believe the hitters side of the Braves roster is pretty much set. I foresee a trade coming for the pitching staff. The currect rotation stands as Smoltz, Hudson, Thomson, Sosa, and Ramirez. I think the Braves will definitely put Davies into the rotation next season. So, either one of the starting pitchers will be traded, or Sosa will be moved to the pen.
However, I am thinking, the Braves still have money in their budget (Chipper, Hampton, Kolb, Mondesi, Martin…..), and Renteria does not cost the Braves much more than Furcal’s salary last season. I am sure JS still has a plan to further improve the roster in January and February. I am confident that there will be at least one or two more moves (I mean not the minor move like Diaz) coming.
It is interesting…it isn’t like we couldn’t afford to offer Seanez and/or Conine more than we did. Maybe the Braves just felt like neither player was worth more than what they got, but I wonder if Schuerholz may have up his sleeve right now that might’ve stopped him from shelling out for the two of them. Idle speculation…
I think the Eaton trade is terrible for the Rangers. Chris Young is actually better, younger and cheaper than Eaton. The Otsuka for Gonzalez part of the deal is ok considering Gonzalez is one of the better hitting prospect in the game while Otsuka is aging and declining.
kc, I think you may have this last part backwards. How is the Otsuka for Gonzalez part of the deal OK for Texas? Did you mean “is dumb?” I’m a bit confused. Trading a top hitting prospect for a declining, aging pitcher (I agree with your assessment there) is a bad trade. Texas got hosed in all areas of this deal, IMO.
I don’t think Gonzalez is a great hitting prospect, personally. His minor league hitting record probably isn’t quite as good as LaRoche’s.
Jenny, I mean Otsuka is relatively more useful than Eaton. Gonzalez is now 23 years old, and his strike zone judgement is still terrible. So, his stock has declined a bit. Otsuka, while declining, is still a decent reliever. Furthermore, Otsuka’s salary is rather cheap in today’s relieve pitchers market. So, the Otsuka for Gonzalez part of the trade is relatively better than the Eaton for Young portion. I am sure Eaton will be terrible pitching half of his games at Arlington.
Hey, the Cubs’ awesome off-season continues with signing Jacque Jones to a three-year contract worthing $16M! What is Jim Hendry thinking? If KJ and Langarhans check out Jacque Jones’ stats for the last couple seasons, I am sure they will feel good about themselves.
Thanks for the clarification, kc. Jim Hendry has always boggled my mind. I saw an article in the Chicago Tribune paper whose lead sentence was, “Let’s forget about Miguel Tejada, Jacque Jones and the rest of the talent-thin crop of major-league free agents and tradeable “suspects.” The best deal the Cubs could make is to swap Jim Hendry for Theo Epstein.”
Highly amusing, as they actually did just acquire Jacque Jones. The Cubs have an incompetent GM, a dumb manager, and a bad team. Curse of the Billy Goat, my butt, unless they’re making an analogy to the IQ of management.
The Hawks have no clue how to stop Shaq. If Shaq is taken away from tonight’s game, the Hawks are actually within striking distance to win the game…too bad…
KC, I am with your earlier post: I believe that the Braves do have the funds to make one or two more moves. I would not be surprised to see the Braves trade for a starter and then move Sosa back to the bullpen. He might become a great set-up guy.
I also wonder if the trade for Diaz was a preconditon for moving either Langerhans or KJ.
Stephen, I am thinking about the same thing regarding the Diaz trade as well. This trade does provide the Braves have greater depth in leftfield to trade one of KJ and Langerhans.
In respect of the funding available, I would like to see the Braves to get a slugger (mainly to upgrade first base or left field) and a starter and a closer. I know the funding is not enough to achieve all three goals, but I think it’s enough to get two of the three done.
Kolb was non tendered by the Brewers. I’m not surprised – but can someone explain why they traded for him?
Per CBS 4 in Boston, Johnny Damon has signed with the Yankees. It’s not anywhere else yet, but Dan Roche usually gets things right.
I guess he’s finally old enough to play for the Yanks, then.
Blank comments on purchasing the Braves, from the *AJC*:
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/sports/braves/1205/21sptblank.html
Kolb wasn’t tendered a contract because , I figure the Brewers are just going to wait and sign him to a lesser deal.. my guess.
To be fair, I don’t think Wes Obermueller really has any value, so the trade was pretty even. One man’s trash is another man’s…well, trash. It’s rather insignificant, IMO.
I just hope Jim Bowden picks up Kolb.
In keeping with Smitty’s earlier post, I wanted to propose a 5-team deal of my own.
ATL–sends Horacio Ramirez and Kelly Johnson to BAL, and Jorge Sosa to WAS
WAS–sends Jose Vidro to BOS, Junior Spivey to BAL
BAL–sends Miguel Tejada to ATL
BOS–sends Bronson Arroyo and Mike Timlin to WAS, and Guillermo Mota to ATL
The scorecard:
ATL
give: Horacio Ramirez, Kelly Johnson, Jorge Sosa
get: Miguel Tejada, Guillermo Mota
BAL
give: Miguel Tejada
get: Horacio Ramirez, Kelly Johnson, Junior Spivey
WAS:
give: Junior Spivey, Jose Vidro
get: Jorge Sosa, Mike Timlin, Bronson Arroyo
BOS
give: Mike Timlin, Bronson Arroyo, Guillermo Mota
get: Jose Vidro
The thinking process: In order to accomodate Alfonso Soriano, Jim Bowden ships anything that looks like a second baseman way the hell out of Washington and gets pennies on the dollar, because, well, he’s dumb. Boston, looking to rebuild their bullpen by blowing it up, happily accepts Vidro. John Schuerholz looks to bolster his bullpen with another overused righty reliever and picks up Mota. Baltimore decides to solve their pitching and offensive problems with HoRam and KJ because, well, they’re dumb. Atlanta picks up Tejada. Hooray!
Sorry, I meant 4-team deal.
We couldn’t trade Renteria to Baltimore in that case? Let Boston have Junior Spivey, and it looks a little fairer…your logic behind the deal was the best part. Heh.
HoRam, KJ, and Junior Spivey for MIGUEL TEJADA?
I think I figured out who left the crack pipe in Michael Irvin’s car!
And the Orioles just signed Jeff Conine, per the Baltimore Sun (too lazy to link, need to register anyway). Apparently he will be a 1B, LF, and DH. This speaks to me of 300-400 ABs. This was their “big signing to break this week?” Can I go kill myself? I’ve never dropped a team before, but damn, they’re making it easy for me.
Anyway, there goes one of our options. I am assuming we would not have used him in such a retarded manner.
The Braves did not tender Wes Obermueller or Jim Brower.
Look, everybody, Mike Clay has come out of his coffin! 😉
So basically the Kolb-Obermueller trade was a favor by the Brewers to give Braves fans some catharsis and neither pitcher meant anything at all. I’m cool with that.
Off-topic, but holy crap. Kobe Bryant scored 62 points tonight. Damn, is all I can say. That’s a LOT of points.
You totally want him.
I’ve never liked Johnny Damon, but this just makes it too easy. The yakees seriously overpaid. I just hope they end up signing manny, so he can “cut-off” another one of Damon’s girly throws, and embarass him before all of man kind.
The guy dropped 62 in 3 quarters of play. Crazy stuff. I think the above proposed trade for Tejada would have worked if we had been able to add Kolb to the package…
Boy that Boston front office is so awesome aren’t they? Where are all those sosh guys now?
It bothers me that the Braves wouldn’t or couldn’t get either Seanez or Conine. They would have added depth and would have been useful pieces during the season. These are the kinds of guys the Braves used to be able to get. Sometimes it’s not the spectacular moves a team makes, but the smaller moves–adding depth to the bench and the bullpen–that push a team forward. Hopefully, JS has something else up his sleeve.
So that graon I heard outside today was “Red Sox nation” moaning. Screw all of them I hope the Blue Jays win the East! Come on everybody, “Let’s Go Blue Jays!”
Amen Smitty.
Will Fred McGriff play again.
Don’t worry everyone, the “Red Sox Brass” will get orgainized and coem up with a plan. I heard the may sign Theo Epstein play center and bat lead off. Or they will just bully some team into giving up their center feilder
MY revised addition of my favorite teams in each division.
AL East- Toronto
AL Central- Cleveland
AL West- Texas
NL East- Atlanta
NL Central- Chicago
NL West- San Deigo
The Red Sox have no-CF,SS,1B,GM wow, looks like we may have stolen Renteria now
They might play Marte at first. You know, the thing the Braves should have done, but didn’t.
Sooo, how long into the season before the fans in Boston ask for Francona’s head.
Francona is axed when the Sox loose their first spring training inter-squad game
Now is when we should try a Langerhans, WB, and LaRoche for Manny and $$ deal.
I’m glad Damon is in New York. Ever since I read his book (do NOT read it!) I’ve badly wanted to hate him but couldn’t. Now that he’s with the Yankees, I am perfectly free to hate him. It’s quite liberating!
If Nomar plays 1B for the Dodgers and hits like the nomar of old, the braves will regret not making a better effort.
I cant wait for the NY papers to tear Damon apart. He seemed to get off easy for having that obsurd beard/haircut, referring to himself as a “renegade cowboy”, and not being able to out thrown Alvin Law. I predict Johny crops the hair and trims down to the George Michael/ Hampton beards.
Smitty, that is brilliant. Apparently the Sox are in firesale mode. Manny, Manny, Manny!!!
Who wants to go with me over to the SOSH guys and start proposing Smitty’s trade? Hey they need a 1B, SS, and CF. 🙂
If Manny wants to come over and play 150 games, that is cool with me. KJ could play first, no that it would matter. We could sign Kolb to play first, it wouldn’t matter with Manny in the lineup
Giles
Rent
Chipper
Manny
Andruw
Francouer
McCann
Bobby Cox
Pitcher
doubledawg, I think he’ll be trimming the beard down to no beard at all. Do the Yanks not a have a personal appearance/no beard policy? I think he’ll look alot like he did when he played for the Royals.
Shoot this may be my chance to break spring training with a major league club…
Giles
Renteria
Chip
Manny
Andruw
Francouer
McCann
Bobby Cox / ME
pitcher
I figure they may want to platoon me with BC. I’m a lefty and struggle picking up the ball against lefties….
good point. I thought they had dropped that for Sheffield, but I think he just got to keep the rat-stache.
ofcourse, the pitching machine may need a place to play, if we put a basket on it the machine may be great at first base!
No one would have a better arm and Giles could just run over and rotate the machine for the relay.
The down side of it is if anyone hits one at the machine and it goes in, they get a free round of BP
Now is when we should try a Langerhans, WB, and LaRoche for Manny and $$ deal.
Posted by: Smitty at December 21, 2005 09:15 AM
Only if they throw in $15 mill a year to cover his contract.
duh…with the way they are running the front office, we may even be able to get them to pay us to take Manny.
Look guys here is the plan:
Atlanta gives Houston HoRam, Orr, and Jim Brower.
Houston gives Atlanta Lidge, and Backe
Wicked trade
why would atlanta want backe?