Ailing bullpen fuels trade talk | ajc.com
Okay, here’s the situation. Boyer hasn’t pitched at all this spring and for all the “looks good throwing on the side” and “Hey, he was pitching off a mound” talk I’m pretty sure he’s going to start on the DL. Even if healthy, he’s not going to be ready to start the season because he won’t have gotten any live work, so he’ll stay in Florida.
Meanwhile, Macay McBride’s mysterious arm injury continues and I am extremely suspicious. Bobby says it’s a muscle tear around the wrist, but I remember last year’s Hampton forearm strain that eventually turned into a Hampton Tommy John surgery. Even if healthy, he’s only pitched one inning this spring and he too will probably start out the season on the DL in Florida.
So the Braves are talking trading Thomson with a reliever as part of the take. Names mentioned were Franklyn German, Jeremy Affeldt, Jimmy Gobble, and… Juan Cruz! Affeldt, at least, has a ton of ability and probably should be in the Royals’ rotation, but you know the Royals. We’ll probably find out that they never noticed he didn’t have fingerprints or something. I almost want to see that trade if only to see if you can actually hear Rob Neyer shriek all the way from Portland.
If that’s the case, might our best option be to leave Thomson in the rotation and move Sosa back to the ‘pen? I know that’s not what JS et al favor, but do you guys think it makes more sense than moving thomson for relief help?
Thomson looked good in relief against the Astros, though of course they were exhausted… I wouldn’t trade him for just a reliever. Two relievers, a reliever and a prospect, that’s a different matter.
Hear is what I heard from my baber this morning (I have an interview on Friday! So I ahd to get a hair cut)
ATL- get Brandon Inge, Jamie Walker(from DET) and Ted Lilly
DET- Get LaRoche,HoRam and Eric Hinske
TOR-get Justin Verlander, Brian Pena and John Thomson
Inge would play first for us, ofcourse
Do the Royals have any prospects?
That would be a really, really horrible trade. Like, really horrible. Why on earth would we want Inge? And if we’re trading HR, we’d stick James in the rotation. If that happened I would renounce the Braves.
Maybe we could send a package to houston for Wheeler, he’s the scot shields of the NL. Their rotation is worthy of a “pray for rain” jingle. Howbout, “Oswalt and Petitte, then just forget it.”
Maybe they’d take Thompson,Pena, _______. We could make wheeler the closer, and free up Devine to get more seasoning, while returning Reitsma to a role he wont suck at.
I can only assume the injury problems are worse than they’re letting on, because otherwise I don’t see the need to trade Thomson. Surely we could piece together a bullpen with what we’ve got — isn’t this why we got Cormier and Villarreal?
doubledawg, I remember Wheeler as the guy who gave up the three-run homerun to Choi in the WBC. That wasn’t pretty.
d-dawg:
My jingle would be “Andrews and Jac, don’t look for me coming back…anytime soon cuz I’ll be getting my o-face on.” (chorus: Ohh, Ohh)
Reitsma, Devine, Villareal, James, Sosa/Davies, Cormier… it’s not pretty, but it should get the job done. Right?
Why not put Thomson in the pen? That seems to make the most sense. Who are we going to get in return that is better? John Thomson is a fine pitcher, and as injuries play themselves out he can move if necessary. If it’s because he’s hurt, then the Braves won’t get squat for him. I think HoRam is unmovable at this point, it’s no secret that he’s an innings eater who isn’t any better than a quad-A call-up. I look for some combo of KJ, Langer, and Jurries, Betemit, Orr to go before the season. Also, now that Marte is gone, we don’t want to trade LaRoche. If Chipper stays at third, who is going to play first? Jordan?
first base is the MLB equivolent of RF in tee-ball. Jurries and Thorman are plaing 1B right now. I’m a fan of chipper moving over to first. especially since we have left-side prospects out the wazoo in the next few years.
brandon inge is the same player as craig wilson. wilson is a bit more offense, but less defense. Both swing away like they are the bastard sons of Rob Deer.
Maybe we could get HAmmond back from Cincy. He’s a native and had a lot of success here.
Trade speculation always makes people look like idiots. I hope none of you ever run a team that I root for. Thompson’s value is as an innnings eating starter, and if any of the six starting candidates should move to the pen, its Sosa.
I agree Kyle — although that’s a six-man bullpen, it includes a few guys who can go more than an inning. My preference would be to move HoRam to the pen, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.
Excuse me, justin? That wasn’t a particularly nice thing to say.
What are you, the nice police?
No, but I am. Be nice.
Hey, hey, hey. Come on, people.
Here’s a trade rumor I just heard from Smitty’s podiatrist:
ATL: Albert Pujols
WAS: John Schuerholz, Jr.; Sidney Ponson
STL: Gary Majewski; Wes Obermuller; Noah Lowry
SF: Juan Encarnacion; Ryan Church; Brayan Pena
UNRELATED TO PRESENT CONVO, IGNORE IF YOU WISH:
Hey, Mac, what are you going to do about the fantasy league opening? Need to make sure somebody else signs up prior to Sunday, or the draft can’t happen. Just a heads up.
YOU MAY NOW RETURN TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED CONVERSATION.
Well, we can draft with nineteen, actually. That’s what I was planning.
Are you positive? In past leagues, it hasn’t allow a draft unless there are an even number of teams in the league. It’s a head-to-head league, correct?
Jorge Sosa in the pen? With the baserunners he allows, there’s no way I want him working for us out of the pen. I mean did anyone see yesterday’s game? He looked horrible in his first inning of work, but then finished up his outing with superb work, by retiring 8 in a row. He can rebound from runs given up as a starter, he can’t do that if he’s working out of the pen.
I think we have Rotisserie scoring. I will check… Yeah, it’s Rotisserie scoring, which should be points-based.
But if anyone wants in, there is one spot open in the Yahoo league drafting Sunday.
The League number is 171828
The password is reitsma
As for Sosa, his big problem seems to be that he can’t give his best effort all the time, but saves it for key situations during the game. As a reliever, he wouldn’t be subject to that.
“Braves’ Davies likely screws up rotation spot”
I’m telling you, when I clicked on atlantabraves.com, that’s how I read it! Talk about a shocker…
(I do realize it says SEWS up the spot, but you know, at first glance….)
Sosa would be the ideal man for long relief in emergency situations and for mop up duty. Thats what I had in mind when I said Sosa to the pen. I think his 13 wins last season were a fluke. He’s still nothing more than a live arm.
In the Washington Times this morning, there was an article that revealed that Jim Bowden has offered Soriano a 5/50 contract.
I don’t know what to say.
Say “thank goodness for John Schuerholz and Bobby Cox.”
I think a 6 man pen would be fine, especially to start the season. If McBride gets better, add him into the mix at the expense of Jordan.
I’m pretty sure these spots have been firmed up (absent a Thomson trade of course):
Rotation
1. Smoltz
2. Huddy
3. Davies
4. Ramirez*
5. Thomson
Pen
6. Reitsma
7. Devine
8. Villareal
9. Sosa
10. Cormier
11. James*
Lineup
12. Giles
13. Renteria
14. Chipper#
15. Andruw
16. LaRoche*
17. Langerhans*
18. McCann*
19. Francoeur
Bench
20. Pratt
21. Orr
22. Betemit
23. Diaz
Of the other two spots, one will probably go to *sigh* Jordan, and the other to a crappy reliever (or maybe Lerew). Jurries would make a nice platoon-mate for LaRoche, but I just don’t think it will happen. KJ goes back to AAA or on the DL, but Jurries has to pass through waivers to be sent to Richmond I believe. Could be wrong about that.
Oh, Orr is missing his * and Betemit his #.
Vague Predictions:
1. Soriano will sign the 5/50 contract without having set foot in RFK.
2. Soriano will hit 22 HRs next year. 18 on the road and 4 at home. Experts will be stunned.
3. After the Nats finish the season at 78-84, Soriano will ask for a trade “out of this black hole”.
tom glavine will start opening day for mets. pedro is out! NY, where are you now?
Thanks for posting the proposed roster, Kyle. I know all of that in my mind, but it helps to see it set out.
I think this year’s team has a chance to be much better than last year, but with a huge amount of possible variation. The lineup should be at least as good. We’ll miss Furcal, who really boosted the offense in the 2nd half last year, but we won’t have to suffer through 400 ABs of Mondesi and Jordan. Starting pitching should also be at least as good, and the bench I think is better. The bullpen is key – I can see it being anywhere from excellent to adequate to horrible.
I still cant figure out the Hollandsworth deal. I really hope those two arms we gave up dont amount to much. The haunting memory of watching Brian Jordan be late on yet another fastball will burn me up that much more.
I know this will be quite a shock but seems some guy from Yahoo! sports has actually picked the Braves to win the World Series. Jeff Passan. Don’t know how to link it but it’s worth a look as I’m sure all the “experts” are already picking the Mets/Phillies(maybe combined they can beat us)to win the East.
Well, if it weren’t for two former Braves (Hollandsworth and Marte) hitting back-to-back doubles in the 5th inning today, we would have beat the Indians. I know it doesn’t matter, but I thought it was kindof funny.
Thomson looked strong (6 innings, 5 hits, 1 run), as did Devine (1 inning with 2 strikeouts). I actually hope they don’t trade Thomson as I am wary of both HoRam and Sosa. I don’t have a ready answer to the bullpen problem, but I would hate for us to end up wishing for another veteran starter around the July trade deadline.
Sosa was out second best starter last year
If smoltz hadn’t closed, he’d likley be crossing the 3,000-K mark this year. or maybe he’d thrown his arm off.
Sorry, I’m slow–what do the # and * symbols mean?
# – switch hitter
* – lefty (meaning hits lefty for hitters, throws lefty for pitchers; pete orr throws right-handed but gets a *)
Oh, got it. That’s good, then.
By the way, here’s a link to the article CHill mentioned, in which Jeff Passan predicts the following:
Gah, that didn’t work. Whatever.
How to damn with faint praise:
From O’Brien
Who is still with the team that hasn’t firmed up a spot? By my count, Remlinger, Jordan, Kelly Johnson, Jurries, Travis Smith. I’m sure I’m missing others. Anyone?
Smith was cut.
Thank god.
McBride’s and Foster’s injuries probably guaranteed a spot for Remlinger, at least to start the season.
I read somewhere that the names being mentioned for Thompson are: Jeremy Affeldt, Frankling German, Juan Cruz, and Jimmy Gobble.
Is this the best that’s out there? I hope we dont get rid of Thompson, just for a couple of extra bad arms.
Thompson = Thomson
Kyle S., about the lineup you provided, do you think it’s smart putting Francoeur at the end? Especially after this Spring. Here is how I would do it.
1. Marcus Giles
2. Edgar Renteria
3. Chipper Jones
4. Andruw Jones
5. Jeff Francoeur
6. Adam LaRoche (vs. RHP)
7. Brian McCann
8. Ryan Langerhans(vs. RHP)
and when against LHP
1. Marcus Giles
2. Edgar Renteria
3. Chipper Jones
4. Andruw Jones
5. Jeff Francoeur
6. Brian McCann
7. Matt Diaz
8. James Jurries (eigth simply because Diaz actually has some MLB experience.
Brian Jordan wouldnt be too bad to have around as long as it was on the bench. He can pinch hit and is somewhat versitile; IF he’s healthy. Has anyone considered maybe Betemit at LF? I really like his bat, speed and discipline, and his glove may prove adequate out there. I also cant believe they have already sent Lerew down after making such a big deal out of his new pitches, or at least, they made one out here.
Trade: Could we possibly work out a John Thomson and Brayan Pena for Braden Looper and/or Jason Isringhousen*?
“Kyle S., about the lineup you provided, do you think it’s smart putting Francoeur at the end?”
Sorry if I sounded like a dick, I worded it wrong.
I know Sosa was our second best starter last year, but I can’t help feeling like that was a fluke. I mean, this year there is no Mazzone helping him. Also, he drove me nuts last year by allowing so many baserunners. He always managed to wiggle out of it, but having baserunners every inning is like playing with fire. Sooner or later his luck will change and he’ll get burned. I hope I’m wrong and he equals his success from a year ago, but right now I’m still a little worried.
Oh, that wasn’t a lineup order, that was a stream of consciousness recitation of the players on our roster. I guess it’s roughly the lineup order because that’s how I tried to remember the players, but I didn’t mean it as such. Sorry for not being clear.
—
Based on “The Book”, my takes on the optimum lineup for the Braves:
1. Giles
2. Jones, Ch.
3. Francoeur
4. Jones, An.
5. Renteria
6. LaRoche (vs RHP) or Diaz (vs LHP)
7. Langerhans
8. Pitcher
9. McCann
Yup, The Book says pitchers should bat 8th, the team’s best hitters should hit 1st, 2nd, and 4th, and other neat stuff. You should buy it at the link above if you haven’t yet.
—
I predict a two-run plus increase in Jorge Sosa’s ERA. If anyone wants to make it interesting, I’ll convert that to an over-under 4.50 ERA and take the over…
I have to agree with those worried about sosa. I thin he got lucky, his k/9 k/bb are pretty terrible for the era he posted. Seems extremely unlikely he could have a year like the last.