Pena’s back for now as insurance in case Todd Pratt has to leave the game and McCann isn’t able to go. There are lots of flaws in Pena’s game; he doesn’t walk a whole lot, he doesn’t hit homers, and he throws like a kindergartener. But what he’s supposed to do is hit for a high average with lots of doubles.
Which is why it’s a concern that Pena has hit only .226/.280/.287 in Richmond so far. Carlos Mendez had far outhit him (.288/.303/.390) and might have been up instead, but Pena’s on the 40-man and Mendez isn’t. I still have hope for Pena, I think he was just slumping, but he probably won’t play much if at all with the big team.
Brayan Pena – Statistics – The Baseball Cube
I read that Brayan Pena’s struggles can be attributed to him abandoning switch hitting only to go back to it recently. That gives me hope that he will pull out of his funk soon.
I posted this on the last thread, but I thought I would put it on here to see the reaction.
I think we should give up a mid level prospect for Kerry Wood. We could put hm at the end of the pen. he wants out of Chicago and the Cubs don’t want him. He is a free agent at the end of the season, so if he sucks, who cares. He could be a ggood lcoser though, better then what we have. If we could get him cheap and he isn’t too hurt, I say take the chance.
It would take more than a mid-level prospect to get Kerry Wood. I don’t care how injury prone he is–stuff like that at a still relatively young age would command a lot more.
sure, maybe we could trade the cubs mike hampton.
lets dream a bit, say the Braves could get willis, when could he demand arbitration? he’s under contract til ’09, but he can still deman more if he has a good year right?
I think we can get Wood cheap. They want rid of him bad. THey aren’t going to sign him this offseason and he is going to have to sign a small contract. I think we can get him, or should at least try.
I think this is a better default avatar for now.
Wood for Lerew and Pena? Too much and not enough?
Wood for Pena and a player to be named latter (Kelly Johnson)
Giles and Lerew for Wood and Felix Pie.
lets trade Giles and Orr for whoever and put Betemit at 2nd.
We’re going to need Betemit to fetch Dontrelle in a couple months.
I say, D-Train over chipped Wood.
I like the Wood idea on the surface, but I don’t know what the Cubs would want to fetch him. And I would probably quibble a lot on what they ask for. Salty? No. Betemit? Dunno, but probably not.
Fact is, I don’t know if, physically, Wood is any more cut out to close than he is to start. Who the hell knows? We sure don’t.
About Willis, I think he’d be worth a lot, Salty, Betemit, whatever. If we can get him, we should get him. I believe he’d be worth it. He’s looking at an outstanding career. He’s a winning player with a lot of charisma. And that contract looks manageable.
In my view, the very most important component to a winning team is starting pitching. Of all fans in the baseball universe, we should understand that better than most.
Marlins have Uggla and Ramirez and Cabrera. Unless they part ties w/ Cabrera this year, in which I dont think that they will, Betemit would only become a utility player for them. They are going to want outfielders/pitchers. Maybe KJ and _(pitcher)_ would be my guess. It’ll probably take three good prospects to land him.
I was thinking a Salty/Betemit/Devine or Salty/KJ/Lerew package for Willis. There’s no way we get him without including Salty.
Also, they’d take Betemit and move Uggla or Cabrera (probably the latter) to the outfield.
We should just unload the whole farm system for Cabrera and Willis. Do whatever it takes, but we probably dont have enough. I do agree that Salty will be required in any package.
I like the offer of KJ/Salty/Lerew/Devine for Willis. Maybe we can throw in some draft picks and Betemit/Orr/Campbell/Thorman for Cabrera too.
You can’t trade draft picks. Orr has no value.
hey mac, thats what they said about Nick Green.
they wont trade cabrera and willis. cabrera is the foundation of the team and prefer’s thirdbase, doubt they’d force him out for dubous talent, what team would do a think like that.
it would take salty, davies, +, + to get willis. i dont think we got the arms to give or spare.
I’d trade the farm (aka Salty) for Cabrera, but not for Dontrelle. I’m just not as convinced on him. If we could somehow get Dontrelle for prospects and backups without including Salty, that would be great, but that’s doubtful.
I don’t really see Lerew having success with the big club (a hunch based on little besides him being from Pennsylvania and not Georgia), so I’m not hesitant with him.
KJ should be able to help us whenever he gets healthy, so I would prefer to keep him unless we were getting offense back for at least a couple years.
Devine is a tough one to figure, but I’m in favor of holding unless we get a closer back under contract for at least a couple years.
Salty is also tough as a top prospect – it seems to be difficult to get good value back for prospects who you expect to succeed. If the organization thinks he can put up .900’s in the majors, then we should hold out for young stars like Cabrera, throwing in whatever complementary pieces are necessary to get it done (doubt we have enough to make it work).
I definitely don’t want to see another trade for someone who needs to “bounce back” from an off-year or two – that’s what the mid-range prospects are ideally for. That said, Renteria has been very good so far, but it’s kinda like the bullpen deal – you may get lucky a few times, but eventually it catches up.
hey mac, thats what they said about Nick Green.
They were right – the DRays finally DFA’d him 🙂
hey, it just shows that it never hurts to ask.
I’m all for going hard, hard, hard after Willis, largely for the reasons stated by ububba. I’m not sold on Cabrera, who has attitude and work-habit issues. (And I know JS and Bobby aren’t interested in such players.)
Look, if either of these guys hits the market, it’s going to be about outbidding the likes of the D-Backs, Angels, Dodgers, Mets, etc., who have minor league talent to offer. (The Sox and Yanks have no hope of competing with us.) Honestly, I don’t see any of them beating a Salty, Betemit, Lerew package for Willis, if we’re willing to do that. I know I would be.
In other words, Drew, you’d trade for Willis but not with anything of value. I think there are probably 28 other teams that would do that.
Dontrelle will probably be fine in the near future. His big problem this year is that his strikeouts are down, and that the Marlins’ defense is so bad he isn’t getting any breaks. He looks fine out there, and I think he will be okay. Giving up Saltalamacchia is hard, but the Braves don’t need him (as long as McCann stays out of the way of oncoming runners).
(1) I’m trying to gas up the Scott Thorman bandwagon. His numbers look good. His BB/SO ratio is better than ever, but his power hasnt sufferred as a result. He’s no Big Klu, but he’s making better selection.
(2) Do the Rome Braves have the best names in baseball? Saddly, it looks like we got “Laroched” on the Kaaihue brothers. Regardless, Thurman Bisher is praying everynight that he’ll live just long enough for these baby braves to hit the bigs.
(3) I shed no tears on a Salty/Willis deal. Until he’s rocking a first basements mitt full time, Salty is highly tradeable. Just look at Marte. Plus, we have a lot of good hitting catchers behind McCaan. And one of them is named Maximilliano. How can you be worrisome with Maximilliano in the wings.
Actually, I think Furman Bisher prays every night that he doesn’t wet the bed, or that if he does the nurse gets there quickly.
thurman? wow, this Thorman crush is taking over my mind. Everytime I see a good Thorman outing, I feel like I’m watching someone invent the cure to polio. so much hope, so much promise, in the face of so much pain.
If I knew that the Marlins inept defense was the sole cause of his struggles, then I could give up more. Trick is, to get guys who are struggling at cut-rate instead of the normal price, and then turn them around so you don’t get ripped off anyways. I don’t think we did just a fabulous job of getting Renteria cut-rate, but he may hit well enough that it doesn’t matter anyways.
It also strikes me as counterproductive to deal guys who could be cheap, long-term, above average options at problem areas (KJ, Devine) – we need those guys, especially with whatever crap will happen to our budget after the team is sold. If we get lucky and get someone willing to spend, then we can buy whoever is the best FA in 08 or 09 with what we save from not having to pay for those areas. I think we need to have an eye towards balancing out our payroll weight just a bit so we don’t have to keep tossing up these awful bullpens year after year. If Liberty Oppression wanted to cut even 15 million off payroll, we’d likely have to deal one of the big 3. More obligations complicates it further, but then we do have gaping holes that need to be filled. Tough call.
Salty could fill in at 1B ideally for more cheap production, though he has more intrinsic value as a catcher. I don’t think I would be disappointed with trading him for Dontrelle (especially since he’s been struggling), but I’m not sure I’d do it.
Filling in a couple gaps there –
Dontrelle didn’t look so hot in the WBC. Granted, it shouldn’t carry much (any?) weight, but Canada? Korea? I can still make fun of Reitsma for blowing a game against South Africa, right? Anyways, that may be a reason for the early struggles from Dontrelle, as it messed around with the normal ST routine.
Obviously one would need to see the rest of the deal with Salty included to judge it. Think I jumped over stating it if it wasn’t apparent. Main point is, how many young, cheap, promising players can we afford to trade, and where is the threshold for who we can offer them for? If you move down a tier from Dontrelle in talent, but not in price, it may hamstring the team next year and not improve it substantially this year. At some point, until our big contracts run out, we need to fit just a couple more arb-eligible guys in so we can have a bullpen.
So giving up what you have to for Dontrelle or Cabrera is probably good, but the consolation may not be a prize.
I have a hard time quibbling about what it would take to get Dontrelle. I don’t think we’ll find another guy who has that much upside for that price through ’09. Remember, he doesn’t turn 30 until 2012.
We’re not talking about a guy with the potential of winning 20 games, we’re talking about a guy who did it just last year.
And let’s not forget that he went to the bullpen when asked in the ’03 post-season and helped win a WS for Florida. Without him doing his bullpen thing in Game 1, the Marlins probably don’t win it that year. Not a huge, huge deal, but it got my attention that this guy wants to win.
I, too, covet Cabrera’s talent, but he certainly doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would ever wear a Braves uniform. His own manager & teammates were furious at him last year. Willis, on the other hand, seems like a great teammate.
Thirdbasemen you can usually find; starters, not so easy…
Smoltz, Hudson, Willis, Glavine, James.
that could be a reality, if not for one man, Mike Hampton, the poison pill.
I like the Kerry Wood closer idea, but maybe not this year with McDowell still learning the ropes. I understand that most of this is speculation, but do we have any reason to believe Shuerholz is working on a deal somewhere? I wouldn’t mind dropping Salty the way McCann has been playing. And if worse comes to worse, Laroche could play catcher. I think he’s that valuable (dripping with sarcasm.)