Braves send pitcher Jorge Sosa to Cardinals
The return for the man who — lest we forget — led the NL in winning percentage last year is “Rich Scalamandre”, a 25-year-old righthanded reliever with some moderately interesting strikeout numbers. He resembles a lizard but lays soft eggs in fresh water, and lacks the scaly skin of a reptile has an ERA in the fours in AA and AAA and has more than a strikeout an inning and a 3:1 K/BB ratio. He’ll be assigned to Richmond where he will assume his primary duty of not being Jorge Sosa.
nice salamander bit
that was better entertainment than the past three days of beautiful braves baseball
You, over there (points), stop trying to be a hitter and learn how to make your breaking ball break.
Hah. Well, good. So we turned Nick Green in to this guy? Well, whatever. I guess it’s just good to finally be cleaning house a bit.
Oh, and what are people’s thoughts on the Mets deal? They lose about half of their bullpen in a taxi accident and are able to get Ollie Hernandez for the mediocre X. Nady. Let’s hope the one-time phenom continues to be awful. :-b
did they really flip someone to get Linebrink, I think Stu mentioned that earlier. I haven’t seen anything else on it
The Pirates are dumb, we should have trided to make a deal with them. That is what Nady gets for dropping those balls yesterday
Yeah, I did say that, because mlbtraderumors.com posted it as fact. It’s looking like that didn’t actually happen, and it’s looking like I should confirm it from somewhere besides that phony site before posting it here.
Sorry about that.
Err… That should say “Ollie Perez” up there.
But anyhow, word is now that Perez got flipped to SD for Linebrink(!). Dunno if that happened or if it was strait up (which would be rediculous), but that’s what I’m hearing. Ugg.
That was really funny, Mac.
The Linkbrink deal fell through, BTW…
Perez has really fallen off the radar. This guy was going to be great..
Now that he’s on the Mets, I’m hoping that his recent form will continue đŸ˜€
Pirates also sent Craig Wilson to the Yanks for Chacon..
The rumor was getting Linebrink for Perez but the Mets are now denying it.
You-know-who tried to post about the Linebrink deal too… Seemed like a weird thing to do. No doubt Perez can be “fixed”.
I guess Bowden couldn’t get 15 prospects for Sorriano
Good I’m glad the Mets didnt get Linebrink, is he an FA at the end of the year. I’m sure most people here wouldn’t mind him being on the team.
He probably asked for Santana, Liriano, Mauer, Morneau, and Nathan.
Mac, thanks for putting an end to that too…
Wow. The Cardinals got robbed for a piece of crap like Sosa. Nice. I guess JS still has a little of that magic left.
But will the newt get better?
Seriously, even if
Salamander Scalamangawhoever never pitches in Atlanta, acquiring a negative Kim Jong-Il is much more important.I think the Reds made some good moves, they might be hard to catch now
It was Oliver Perez and Heath Bell for Scott Linebrink and the Padres pulled out at the very last minute.
Linebrink is a free agent after the 2007 season, if I recall correctly.
What is worse, the Pirates signing veterans and then not flipping them at the deadline for prospects, or the Pirates trading their veterans away for nothing?
There is not a worse managed organization in baseball. They have turned Oliver Perez, Roberto Hernandez, Craig Wilson, and Sean Casey into Xavier Nady, Shawn Chacon, and Brian Rogers. This team absolutely deserves to be smashed year in and year out like they always are.
The Jorge Sosa trade is great, but infuriating at the same time. I still can’t believe that Schuerholz didn’t trade Sosa last winter. That non-move was worse than just about any Pirates move. It was a bad decision then, and a worse decision now.
Oliver Perez is not the same oliver perez of a couple years ago. His faceball tops out at 88. I live in pittsburgh and the guy has no control and his stuff just isn’t electric anymore. I really don’t think that we are goign to see the perez of 2004 agian. His ERA in AAA was over 5 after being sent down.
I can’t believe we traded for the ‘Man with the Golden Gun’. Oh wait – wrong guy. Maybe Blofeld is still available. For anybody who doesn’t get this reference, shame on you.
I’m aware of what has happened to Oliver Perez, but he and Hernandez together are worth more than Xavier Nady.
I wouldn’t put it past Dave Duncan to figure out what’s wrong with Sosa.
so now that LA got Lugo, reports are showing that Betemit will be back to his utility role. Even more so when Garciaparra and Kent return from the DL. Their trades dont make much sense…
I got ya, CJ. Hugo Drax is still pretty heart-broken, and Franz Sanchez flamed out at an early age (ya get it? flamed out? eh? eh? ya like that?), so that’s the only guy we got.
I’m sorry; I couldn’t resist.
god bless ny taxi cabs!
mistake, miami taxi cabs
It still doesn’t make since. This guy begged to be here and Schuerholz said no. The Braves would be over .500 if they signed Todd Jones.
http://www.ajc.com/braves/content/sports/braves/stories/0718toddjones.html
Detroit — Todd Jones is the closer on the team with the best record in baseball. You’d think that things couldn’t have worked out any better.
Not so.
“I really wanted to pitch for the Braves,” the native of Marietta said. “I always have, and I thought this was going to be the time.”
Jones, 38, had 40 saves last season with Florida, and the Braves were one of several teams that showed interest in the free agent.
But Detroit blew the others away, giving Jones a two-year deal worth $11 million. He had pitched with the Tigers before, setting a team record with 42 saves in 2000.
“I would have played in Atlanta for a big discount,” said Jones, an Osborne High School graduate who lives in Pell City, Ala. “I grew up a big Braves fan, and it would have been great to play close to home. But John Schuerholz wouldn’t go to a second year.
“The last few times I’ve been a free agent, I was hoping to end up with the Braves. I thought what I did with Florida last year was just what they needed [this season]. But it didn’t work out again.”
A couple of rough outings have inflated Jones’ ERA with the Tigers to 5.50, but he has converted 24 of his 27 save opportunities. The Braves would love to have a closer with that success rate.
“Don’t make me sound bitter,” said Jones, who has 250 career saves. “The way we’re playing, I have to be happy here. But pitching in Atlanta would have made my life. I still wish that it would have happened.”
Has anyone else noticed that on days when Maddux pitches, the Dodgers will start five former Braves?
Ahem.
I can’t account for the 5th (Betemit, Furcal, Drew, Maddux), and am too lazy to go find a Dodgers roster. So, who am I missing?
Kenny Lofton.
Well then, Mac, aren’t you quite the prophet?
That’s right. So, would we be the Dodgers if we had held on to all of those player?
Hey Mac, got the book today. Cool stuff. Did Jason Lee really sign that?
Oh, and of course, thank you very much. I left that part out…
You’re welcome, and I rather doubt it since it’s in the same handwriting as the other guy.
Can anybody explain the Dodgers moves?
They rent Julio Lugo, trade for Betemit, signed Furcal for big bucks and have Jeff Kent. That looks to be a freaking log jam to me.
When I saw the Dodgers got Lugo, my first reaction was “where is he going to play?” (actually, I asked my younger sister and she just looked at me funny). That is very much a logjam. I wonder who’s going to the outfield/will be regulated to warming the bench…
Betenit will be at 3rd, Lugo at 2B, and Kent will play first. When Nomar gets back, Betemit will go to the bench with Nomar at 3B. But chances are someone will get hurt and he’ll get to play again.
I mean, if you’re going to be a backup 3B, might as well be backing up Nomar and Chipper, neh?
I thought Lugo has some kind of phobia in playing second base…
To paraphrase a famous quote (I can’t remember the name or who it was about- I’m sure someone on the board does).
“Trading Sosa was one of Schuerholz’s best trades. Who did we get for him?”
Who is the other guy? I can’t make it out.
TD: It was Lenny Dykstra about Von Hayes (who was once traded for a very young Julio Franco!) The full quote was, “Great trade. Who’d we get?”
Rob Cope: It’s “Thomas Cruise Mapother”. Technically, it should be “Thomas Cruise Mapother IV”.
Nady gets shipped from starting and winning in New York to starting and losing in Pittsburgh.
We get to play him 6 straight times.
He’s gonna be sick of us. hehe
We could have had Todd Jones? We could have tried for Wagner.
We could have done many things.
But JS decided that CR had the stuff, a Dan Kolb like fastball, along with it’s magical capability to avoid the strikezone for the first 3-4 pitches every at-bat, and ten give little Davey Eckstein the pop to hit it out of the park after he throws it right down the middle, which of course takes place post CR walking a bunch of people and/or giving up a butt load of hits.
Why JS considered like so awesome amongst the Baseball Tonight has-beens?
Apparently Indians aren’t Mets fans, to the point of suicide no less.
AJC article about the Braves sale
http://www.ajc.com/braves/content/sports/braves/stories/0801bravessale.html
So it sounds like the sale is going to be dragged into the offseason. I hope that doesn’t tie our hands and keep us from knowing what moves we can make.
Are we absolutely sure there’s no such thing as clutch hitting? Not to go all jenny on everyone here, but David Ortiz is a freak.
was reading an article from March 2004 and read these comments. Oh what has happened to our pitchers….
Thomson, who has won each of his past two starts, continued the recent success of the Braves’ starting pitchers by allowing three runs (one earned) on eight hits in seven innings. Over the past 12 games, Atlanta’s starters have posted a 2.02 ERA (19 earned runs in 84 2/3 innings).
that would have been nice over the last 4 games…
anyone remember what the starting rotation was at that point in 2004?
Ortiz is a special player, I cant recall anyone who steps up w/ the game on the line like he does. Its unbelievable! It doesn’t matter if you like the Red Sox or their fans, but its hard not to like Big Papi..
Not to diminish what Ortiz did, but did you see the Youkalis AB where he walked after being down 1-2? The way he looked and was ready, but didn’t bite on 2 breaking balls that dove outside was terrific. Not to be a broken record on this point, but Frenchie would have struck out on what was ball 2, ball3 and ball 4 of that at-bat.
That was the year we had three SPs go 5-0 in July (Smoltz, Jaret Wright, and Russ Ortiz, I believe).
bfan, if only we had patient hitters. Also, I think if we had patient hitters we would knock out pitchers like Pedro a lot earlier in the game. For example he had like a 30 pitch 1st inning and then we started swinging at the 1st pitch in the next inning. It blows my mind. I also understand that you dont want to get behind in the count to someone like Pedro, but its his 1st game back and we should have made him throw about 100 pitches in the 1st 5 innings, but we didn’t and he went 7.
Wow, these SEC previews are really good.
The Tennessee preview is up
I think you have to give Manny a lot of credit for what Ortiz does. Without someone like Manny hitting behind him, no way does he get a pitch to drive out of the park. Not to take anything away from Big Papi, of course, but it’s like when Maris hit 61 home runs–he had Mantle hitting behind him, who was really a much better hitter.
By the same token, I am constantly amazed at the stupidity of pitchers today. There used to be the idea that there were certain people you wouldn’t let beat you. But they keep letting Ortiz beat them. As good as Manny is, I would have pitched around Ortiz and hoped to get a DP from Manny (who would be facing a righty). No wonder there is so much offense today–pitchers are idiots (such as a soft tossing lefty going inside on 0-2 to Carlos Delgado). And, how come no one knocked Beltran down? I’m not saying hit him or throw at him, but, for god’s sake, couldn’t someone at least throw a ball up and in and get him off the plate?
I agree whole-heartedly, Marc.
If we only had Tatum O’Neil….
The 2004 rotation was the 2004 rotation.
The Braves do have a consistent pattern over the years, don’t score runs when there is good pitching, score runs when there is bad pitching, that way we don’t win a lot of games blowout style or lose that way, instead we give it up to the bullpen.
Thats usually were eveything-hopes, dreams, and even sanity, start to die a miserable death.