I like him a lot, but this is the wrong team for him — Pena would be better off on the Cardinals, where LaRussa has used backup catchers with similar skills. Pena hits for average, runs well for a catcher, but doesn’t have a lot of power and really can’t throw. As I’ve written before, he really doesn’t fit into the modern game that well, because he’s really suited to be a bench player, not a backup catcher — he should be coming off the bench to pinch-hit, or to run late for your starting catcher, not to play nine innings every fifth day.
Pena came up for the first time in 2005 but didn’t play well. Last year he got called up in May even though he was hitting .226/.280/.287 in Richmond (apparently he had been experimenting with switch-hitting with no success) because McCann was hurt and Pena was the only minor league catcher on the 40-man. Pena played pretty well backing up Pratt and in a late-season callup, and also played outstandingly in Richmond in the second half, ending the season with a .302/.342/.372 line, very close to his career standards.
Pena doesn’t walk much but doesn’t strike out much either (less than ten percent of the time). He has more career minor league triples (10) than homers (9) but is a sub-.500 basestealer for his career. Sunday is listed as his 25th birthday, but your guess is as good as mine if that’s for real.
Well, hopefully our wrong side of the 20s catcher can do something productive anyway.
He’s still better than Charlie Obrien, Henry Blanco and Pete Bako….and alot of the other retread back ups that we’ve had. I guess thats the one nice thing about Maddux being gone (the only good thing) is we dont have to carry a some washed up scrub to catch him….wonder what was the deal with him and Javy anyways…..
His name was Paul Bako, Lance. He was such a critical component to this team…I honestly can’t believe you forgot that.
latest….
“The trade talks haven’t changed dramatically,” Pirates GM Dave Littlefield said. “We continue to look at some of the options we were looking at in November.” Adam LaRoche is one of the players the Pirates have been discussing that long. A deal came close to fruition Dec. 6, but Atlanta rejected an offer of closer Mike Gonzalez. The Pirates do not have players to suit the Braves’ other needs, though it is thought that the Braves would accept a starter for LaRoche. Might Littlefield give up one of his four young starters — Zach Duke, Ian Snell, Paul Maholm or Tom Gorzelanny — to acquire that bat? “Depends on who the bat is. And who the pitcher is,” he said.
Pena has to be better than Todd Pratt. Right?
My mousepad is better than Todd Pratt
“Depends on who the bat is. And who the pitcher is,” he said.
I love how little information they can get away with giving.
Also, I’m not much of a football follower, but from my vantage point over here, non-Southern football schools seem to be a bit like the French army: they wear uniforms, they have weapons, and they seem to know what they’re doing, but once they’re out on the field of battle they crumple like a wet paper rag in a Miami rainstorm. I guess appearances can be deceiving.
Davey, my mousepad is a solid catcher. It went 3-5 in the fall league championship game a few years ago. T
Sorry Stu, I was speaking of Paul’s superstar brother Pete, you know, the one that hit .190 0 15…oh wait, that was Paul, my bad……
Some here thought that we had spent to much on Wickman. Check out these deals this offseason and how much wasted money has been thrown around
Danys Baez – $6.33MM
Eric Gagne – $6MM + $5MM in incentives
Octavio Dotel – $5MM + $2.25MM in incentives
Keith Foulke – $5MM + 2MM in incentives
Justin Speier – $4.5MM
Joe Borowski – $4.25MM + $1.5MM in incentives
What did we get Wickman for again?
David O’Brien is ripping me off!
Welcome to AJC! | ajc.com
That’s what I thought when I saw that yesterday, Mac.
Rob – Maximiliano Ramirez
Actually, I guess you meant the money on his contract. $6.5M.
The thing about Pena is we don’t know for sure yet that he sucks. The same can’t be said for the washed up has beens the Braves bring in every year to be the backup catcher. Plus Pena is cheaper. Why not give him a chance to fail for a year or two until Salty is ready?
The Pirates can afford to trade Gonzalez now.
Im more than happy to have Pena as a back up and pinch hitter. He can put the ball in play and has good defensive skills. He’s better than Pratt in almost every aspect of the game, which I guess isnt saying much
Let’s just hope the deal doesn’t now take the form of LaRoche for Castillo and Grybo, Mac.
Ha! I didn’t know Gryboski could still find work. It is the Pirates, I guess…
I’m surprised the Mariners didnt go after him. He’s a ground ball pitcher and would go well with Horam, Thomson, and Reitsma…
or not
Always one of my favorite conversations…Hall of Fame inductees announced at 2 pm.
Heard the NY Daily News writer & HOF voter Bill Madden on WFAN this morning. He said McGwire wouldn’t get 40% of the vote & he’ll never get in. As evidence of Big Mic’s uni-dimensional game, he pointed to his grand total of 1,625 hits.
He also said the voters’ collective response to McGwire will actually help Rice. He believes that if Rice doesn’t get in this year, he will get in next year, due to a soft ballot.
His ballot:
Gwynn
Ripken
Gossage
Rice
Morris
In another example of my growing arrogance, I’ll point out what I said last year during the Murphy series.
I’m not convinced it’ll happen, but I would like to see some genuine HOF re-evaluation of those ’80s stars, esp. in light of the Steroid Era’s offensive-numbers bulge.
I don’t think the Steroid Era in any way changes what those ’80s guys did (or really how they should be evaluated), but I think the voters may look at that era differently now, perhaps just as a reaction, a way to register their displeasure, or as an analyst might say “as a way to justify their existence.”
Results are in: It’s just Ripken & Gwynn.
Ripken got about 98%. Gwynn got about 97%. Gossage fell just short with 71%… 21 votes short. Then it was Rice and Dawson at about 63% and 51%. I think that’s the numbers its said. McGwire ended up with about 23%.
Murphy got 9.2%
I heard on Mike & Mike in the Morning that there was a writer thathas stated he would not vote for ANY players form the “steroid era”, including guys for which there were no rumors of steroid use, until he “knows more” about the situation. So he won’t vote for Gwynn and Ripken even though he knows they were clean because of the other players that were dirty, so that the guys that were clean get punished for playing in that era. Great thinking–while he is at it, why not bring back Joe McCarthy and really practice guilt by association.
I heard about that voter, too. He’s from Chicago, but I forget his name.
Some people refuse to vote for players simply because they don’t want the vote to be unanimous, which I’ll never understand—either your an HOFer or you’re not IMO. Some don’t want a player to get in on the first year of eligibility—again, no comprende.
So, I understand that this voter wants to make a point, perhaps for only one year, but that’s going a little far.
In which order should the following players get into the HoF, if they do..
Pete Rose
Marc McGwire
Barry Bonds
I think all 3 wind up in the Hall. McGwire gets in somewhere over the next five years. Rose sneaks in, and Bonds, upon retirement, is a first-ballot hall-of-famer.
My order therefore is McGwire, Rose, Bonds – all in.
Great article by Joe Simpson in a Q&A on this HoF class:
http://www.ajc.com/braves/content/sports/braves/stories/2007/01/05/0106simpson.html
The guys name is Ladewski. He was just on ESPNews. And I read his article in his little rag of a newspaper yesterday. I don’t have that big of a problem with his position on not voting for anyone in the steriod era until we know more… but his timing sucks. Ripken and Gwynn are probably the 2 players that are completely distanced from the steriod thing. There are quotes everywhere from these 2 guys.
Where is the love for Blyleven damnit? I wasn’t a believer until I really analyzed the stats a couple months ago, and by God if Jack Morris can get 3 votes, Bert deserves a zillion.
And where can I find the complete voting results? Did Brosious get any votes?
I say McGwire gets about 15-20% more votes next year, and the year after, so he winds up getting in 3 or 4 years from now. And I don’t think we’ll be surprised with Rose when it happens… meaning that something newsworthy will happen to get him in, whether it be more apologies, or a writer’s push for him to get in. Bonds will probably be fine when he comes up for election in 6-8 years. So I say McGwire, Bonds, Rose.
Nevermind. I already found the complete vote.
1 Bonds, he gets the good news on his deathbed
2 McGwire, never because his pre-steroid career didn’t merit induction
3 Rose, never because he broke the biggest rule in baseball
I was worried Murphy might fall off the ballot. Not that he’s getting in with the writers but it would help his eventual Vets Committee case if he stays on.
Voting Page.
I always like to look at the guys at the bottom of the ballot. Someone voted for Jay Buhner, and two people voted for Ken Caminiti. I bet at least one of the latter refused to vote for McGwire.
Gossage will definitely make it next year. I think that Rice will as well; Dawson will probably be hurt somewhat by Tim Raines appearing on the ballot. There are far too many outfielders on there right now.
And only 19 votes for Albert Belle (3.5%). Ouch.
I’m surprised Hershiser didn’t last longer on the ballot.
There’s a serious problem with HOF voters, because a certain number of newspapers and news sources every year decide to forbid their writers to vote, saying it would create conflicts of interest. So those spots are picked up generally by roving stringers, wire report filers, and the like.
There’s nothing wrong with the replacements, but generally the more experienced and knowledgeable voters are being replaced by less experienced and knowledgeable fill-ins. So Hall of Fame votes are being cast by a progressively less apt bunch. Then there’s the Veterans Committee, which is made up of former players, who (with certain notable exceptions) are about as smart as your average high school dumb jock.
That’s why a lot of HOF votes seem dumb–many of the voters actually are dumb.
Murph should be in the Hall but will never ever get his due respect because all those Braves teams he played on (or almost all) stunk.
As for Gwynn and Ripken, yes, they should be in. But I really have had a change of heart on the steroids ‘era’ crowd starting with McGwire. I don’t like McGwire, Bonds, Palmeiro or Sosa, but they should all be in. Many sports writers (such as JA Adande) have pointed out that they played under the rules Basbeall allowed and it’s true, a lof it is ‘speculation’. We speculate about Roger Clemens, we speculate about Brian Roberts and Marcus Giles and many many other players.
The point is, in the era these guys played, they put up HOF numbers and should be in. I don’t like Ty Cobb because he was a very angry and nasty racist, but he’s in the hall. You really can’t start making this a subjective push or pull with some guys because then you start having to pull out the Ty Cobbs of the world.
You have to vote on the numbers based on the era we were in with the late 90’s and through 2002, 2003. The fact is, we will never know for sure (Nomar? Josh beckett?) who has taken steroids or not and just because some like McGwire are more blatant then others, he ultimately competed in the era that allowed this.
Just saw where John Thomson signed with the Blue Jays for 500,000 plus incentives. Does anyone know what the incentives are? Wouldn’t he have been a better option than Tanyon Sturtze? Anyway…
I also love when sports writers such as Bob Ryan get on their moral high horse, yet Bob Ryan is the same angry old sports writer who once suggested to Jason Kidd that he should ‘beat his wife up’ because she was loud at courtside. Should we ban Bob Ryan from writing columns because he adovcates wife beating?
Should we ban (yes in fact because he’s an idiot) say Dan Lebetard who clearly only writes columns to gain favor with his readers in Miami by calling Nick Saban evil or saying Shaq lost the NBA MVP award because of racism? I mean, Lebetard should be banned from writing for out & out incompetence and bold faced lies but he can come on and preach moral superiority?
yes, Thomson is better than Sturtze and I would rather have him. He gives you more options and both are injury prone
LaRoche talks over I guess….here is something from MLB rumors
Pirates Targeting Elijah Dukes?
Bucco Blog reports that the Pirates and Devil Rays are talking, and the Bucs may be targeting 22 year-old first baseman/outfielder Elijah Dukes. Jake’s informal poll of writers and scouts seemed to indicate that such an acquisition would require either Tom Gorzelanny or Mike Gonzalez. To me, Gorzelanny would make the most sense. As you probably know, Dukes has a world of talent but some makeup issues.
Gorzelanny had a scare last year with August elbow stiffness, though he came back to make three starts after that. For 2007, the 24 year-old southpaw is projected at a 4.06 ERA and 1.36 WHIP in 153 innings by ZiPS and a 4.27 ERA and 1.39 WHIP in 168 innings by RotoAuthority.
QUESTION:
Is anyone here involved in a fairly serious/competitive fantasy baseball keeper league in which there’s an opening? I am dying to be a part of such a league, but I don’t have enough friends who are die-hard baseball fans to form one myself. I would very much appreciate someone allowing me to join there league.
I like Rob Neyer. From his chat this afternoon:
David (Philly): Rob, what would your ballot have looked like?
Rob Neyer: In this order: Ripken, Gwynn, Blyleven, Trammell, Gossage. And if I had a ballot, I would have spent some serious time looking at Dale Murphy and Lee Smith.
In all seriousness, while I think that LeBatard is a bit of a knucklehead and I disagree that Shaq lost the MVP solely due to racism, there is no way that Steve Nash would have won back-to-back MVPs if he weren’t a pale floppy-haired Canadian.
I know this gets perilously close to politics, so I’ll shut up now.
I was listening to talk radio at work today. Lotsa Gotham-centric Ripken talk, which is to say that there’s always a little enmity about him. People (including the hosts) were saying that he wasn’t a good fielder & nobody challenged that idea.
I’m not a big, big believer in all fielding stats, but I certainly believe they can give you a pretty fair idea of who was great, good, average, etc.
Here’s Ripken:
Career Fielding % .979 vs. League Avg .969
Range Factor 4.62 vs. League Range Factor 4.07
I know this isn’t a sexy category, but people just aren’t paying attention. He was not Ozzie (5.03 RF vs 4.10 LRF), but he was damn-good.
Are these the same people who say that Jeter is a good fielder, ububba?
Not really. Unfortunately, the people who think Jeter is a good fielder actually vote for the Golden Glove.
For shites & giggles:
Derek Jeter, 1996-2006:
Fielding %: .975 vs. League Fielding %: .972
Range Factor: 4.08 vs. League Range Factor: 4.13
Basically confirms what I’ve been seeing for 11 years. If he gets to the ball, he catches it & makes the play. But he doesn’t get to as many balls as most guys.
I can’t believe with all the ridiculous contracts being handed out that all Thomson could get was 500K.
I mean, even Chris Reitsma got $2M. Unbelievable.
csg, don’t take that seriously. A quick Google news search reveals nothing about any Pirates-Devil Rays talks from anyone else. BuccoBlog is well known for putting out BS. MLBTradeRumors.com would really do themselves a favor to stop quoting that site.
Remember it was BuccoBlog who said the LaRoche-Gonzalez-Cabrera trade was all but done and that LaRoche would be a Pirate by Christmas. Opps.
jeremy,
let’s pass the hat and get him some more cash
all kidding aside thomson went cheep, but he didn’t earn a lot of the cash he got from the braves with his frequent injuries. so i guess he could afford to take only a half million this year, but it would have been nice to see him take that contract and stay in atlanta.
I hadn’t seen this posted yet. Don’t personally care for BP much, but might be discussion worthy nonetheless.
CSG,
I seem to recall that Gryboski was acquired from the Mariners, so I guess they still recall what he’s like and didn’t let his mere association with the Braves become the deciding factor in resigning him.
Notice that Murph is above the peak, alone in that group, not that Sheehan acknowledges it. Not to mention that it’s ridiculous to compare anyone to an “average” when you’re talking about the Hall of Fame, because then half the guys in the Hall are below the “average” by definition.
I think the write-up is too pessimistic. I believe Brayan Pena will be a great player, for a backup catcher that is.
It’s amazing how many players who were in the majors with the Braves can’t stay in the majors with other teams. I think it most cases it’s just Bobby Cox or the Braves being too generous, as with Kevin Gryboski and DeWayne Wise.
The Braves were too generous with Chris Hammond, Darren Holmes, John Burkett, Kerry Ligtenberg, Charles Thomas, etc.? All of those players including the ones that are at the tip of my tongue all played well with Atlanta. Could it be that the Braves organization (perhaps mostly Cox and Mazzone) have a knack of getting the best out of players?
Different teams have different standards for players. I could point out that there are any number of guys who couldn’t play for the Braves who have gone on to significant careers — Tony Graffanino comes to mind. We’ve discussed Gary Matthews Jr. on a number of occasions. Mike Stanton was run out of town on a rail and he’s probably going to wind up setting a major league record for appearances. I doubt it’s any different for most teams.
If you give Mazzone credit for Kerry Ligtenberg, you have to give him blame for Dan Kolb.
kolb lost his nerve…he was way past coaching, he needed a sports psychiatrist. Mazzone was a good coach but some guys are just not meant to be (Albie Lopez.)
Why Kerry Ligtenberg out of all the names I mentioned?
Well, the other names weren’t that much better. Chris Hammond went on to pitch very well for New York and Oakland. Darren Holmes got injured in his last year with the Braves and retired. John Burkett had the one anomalous year with the Braves in 2001, but continued to pitch with Boston like he had outside of that one year. Charles Thomas flat-out sucks, and lucked his way into a hot month in the big leagues with the Braves.
I got a computer, my flu is better, and I’m back from Christmas break.
3 things.
JS needs to retire….
Hussein dead, bout time…
Now to the important news…
WE GOT SABAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
EAT IT TIGERDROPPINGS.COM BITE INTO IT WITH YOUR FALSE TEETH AND DEVOUR THAT TRUTH!!!!!!!!
WHOUSA DADDY NOW BARN? WHOUSA DADDY NOW??????
4seam,
You better not scream “We Got Saban!!!!” too loud in the areas of those snobs in Bristol, Conn. or Miami 🙂 But as a Bama fan as well (#2 after my Dawgs) , I am with you that it’s a fantastic hire for the Tide, whatever people may think of Saban’s honesty level, and he can turn the program around—Roll Tide.
And frankly, I need to focus on good things like Saban at Bama or Georgia’s 3 straight wins over ranked opponents (to end the season) to avoid being completely sick & disgusted that ESPN is now calling Gainesville (aka the smelly, ugly, garbage arm pit of the United States) the ‘center of the sports universe’.
I couldn’t be LESS happy for a University then I am for Florida over their 2 titles in 10 months. It’s like an actual nightmare of mine come horribly true. There’s no place that deserves these kudos less then UF. The only positive out of this whole nightmare is that once again, the SEC has showed it’s superiority over the Big 10.
Now onto more depressing news:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2725555&campaign=rss&source=MLBHeadlines
Explain to me something…if Javy Lopez could be had for only $750,000, why the heck couldn’t we bring him back instead of wasting breathing space on useless dreck like Chris Woodward and Fernando Lunar?
I mean, Mark Loretta goes to Houston for a song (and we could have afforded that 1 year deal to a high quality player instead of keeping our fingers crossed about Kelly Johnson) & now former Brave Lopez, who can still hit a little, could have been brought back on the cheap to be McCann’s back-up? Where are you JS???????
Weel, two things: (1) The Braves aren’t talking to every single FA so things like this happen. (2) Javy is old and sucks (having seen him several times at Camden over the last three or so years) … at least the the Braves’ backups have have SOME, though not many, redeeming attributes.
While I don’t disagree about the fact that the money spent on guys like Woodward and Sturtze was wasted, I don’t think you’d help that situation by paying a similar amount on a player, Javy, you won’t really be able to use much. I liked Javy, but he’s done, and I think our resources would be better spent elsewhere.
Also, given our overabundance of second base candidates, even excluding Woodward, I don’t think spending money on Loretta would have been wise for this team, either. Don’t block the young guys who can play, I say. You have to go cheap somewhere.
You know Alex R. has returned when the shotgun-spray JS criticism starts back up. 🙂
Stu,
I am not going to disagree about my criticisms of JS…i wouldn’t call it “shotgun spray” but that’s kind of humorous. That being said, I congratulate JS on an actual GOOD move when he dealt mediocre Horacio Ramirez to the M’s for potentially fantastic set up man, Rafael Soriano–now that was a good trade. (oh, and the Mariners are idiots). Heck, even my good friend here in the DC area Greg (who’s from Seattle and is a big M’s fan) thought the deal was stupid though he did say we should be concerned about Soriano staying healthy.
I agree…Sturtze was another waste of cash.
I guess my point about Javy is while there are better players, he’s a) cheap and B) a beloved ex Brave and C if you are going to waste any money on signing a completely useless back up catcher (see: Fernando Lunar) then waste that $ on Javy…at least he can hit a little and the fans would be happy to see him again.
Stu…one other thing to mention…I would like it to be pointed out that I can change my tune on some subjects.
So while I don’t shy away from my strong feelings overall with how JS is running the sinking ship the last few years, I have come around big time (ask Mac, it’s true) on Adam LaRoche.
The caveat on Adam is that we all agree he needs to keep taking his ADD medication. I was the biggest Adam hater in here but I loved his 2nd half 2006 performance, and this was based on the fact that he finally took his medication and focused better. He’s admitted this.
I firmly believe if he keeps doing that, there’s no reason why Adam (give his age and health) can’t have another banner year in 2007. Plus, it would seem that Major League Baseball doesn’t have a problem with Adam taking these Meds (I believe Craig Biggio and some others do as well) so hopefully he will!
I dunno, though, Alex. Lunar’s is just a minor league deal, I think, whereas Javy’s money goes to the Big Club’s payroll. Plus, you get guys like Lunar, presumably, to tutor the young pitchers and other catchers down in the system. That ain’t what Javy’s good for. In an ideal world, I think he’d be a nice addition as a right-handed bat off the bench, and I agree that I’d love to see him retire as a Brave, but we just don’t have the money for that, IMO.
And I never said you couldn’t change your tune. I am glad you finally came around on LaRoche.
Speaking of which, remember landogarner? That guy HATED LaRoche. He’s been nowhere near this site since LaRoche started launching bombs; I expect he’ll return at the first sign of a LaRoche slump, talking about how Francoeur and his -.045 OBP is great because he hit a walk-off homer against the Expos last year and threw Luis Gonzalez out at the plate twice in his rookie season.
Hopefully you can follow my lead about admitting to change and realize that the Drew/Wainwright deal was not a good one for the Braves 😉
On a more serious note, I like Landogarner but I think all of us in here need to be open to admit if we are wrong on something. Though I think the LaRoche thing is less about wrong & right and more about the fact that because he’s finally doing X (taking ADD Meds) he’s finally able to do Y (hit for a high Average and hit a bunch of home runs). Where I was definitely wrong is I didn’t think he even had the ability (Meds or no Meds) to ever do better then .240 and 25 homers and I am happy as a Braves fan for him to show what he could with his medication.
I think Jeff Francouer is a guy who definitely needs ADD Medication as well and he might stop swinging at every horrible pitch known to man. I do like Francouer more, but he really needs to mature ten fold at the plate when it comes to pitch selection. He should hang out with Kelly Johnson and Chipper.
Javy could still hit some in 2005 and I would not write him off just yet. However, he probably wanted to go somewhere where he might win a regular job, and the Rockies’ catching position has been in flux ever since Kirt Manwaring wore out his welcome. (Last season, five different catchers caught 174 or more innings, and “regular” catcher Yorvit Torrealba hit .247 .293 .439 in 65 games.) In Atlanta, even if McCann went down Saltalamacchia is waiting in the wings.
I meant to say I like Francouer more then you do, not more then Adam. Adam is definitely a better hitter…I see that big time.
Speaking of Salty (a guy I am not completely sold on as a Major League hitter) I am surprised we couldn’t do the Pirates deal doing salty for Gonzalez, 1 for 1? I would definitely do that because I like Gonzalez a whole lot and to have a stud young lefty really shore up the back of the pen for several years, would be great.
I would just rather not deal Adam to make this happen.
I like Francoeur just fine and expect him to improve — the point was that it was ridiculous to call him more valuable to the team than Adam LaRoche last season.
You won’t be convincing me about the Drew deal, either. We don’t make the playoffs without JD that season. As others have said, King didn’t do much as a Braves and unloading Marquis was addition by subtraction. Now, I’d love to have Wainright still in our system, but a couple of things: 1) you have to give up something to get something, and we certainly weren’t giving up much with King and Marquis; and 2) Wainright’s had a couple of months of Major League success in the bullpen, and I’m not ready to crown him an ace yet. If he turns into John Smoltz down the line then of course I’d label the Drew deal a bad one in retrospect; at this point, though, I still like our end of that deal.
Stu,
Until the 2nd half of the season though, to be fair, Adam and Jeff were BOTH useless.
For one season, 2004, the Braves did get the better end of that deal w/ St. Louis. After 2004, this is clearly a win for the Cards.
And yes, I also agree and feel that in 2004, Drew was our best player. But unless he had led us to a WS win that year and then left, it’s still ultimately a win now and long term for St. Louis seeing as Drew did not wear a Braves uni in ’05, ’06 nor ever again.
And how much better would our rotation or bullpen be with the nasty stuff that Wainwright throws? I was cringing watching him pitch that well in the LCS and WS.
I don’t think that the Braves needed to give up Wainwright. The Cards were trying desperately to unload Drew to free up money to extend Pujols. I’d mentioned a couple of weeks before the trade that the Braves might sign Drew if the Cards non-tendered him. JS could have made the deal with a lesser prospect, but he got played.
Javy is career .356 hitter at Coors says a lot. Plus few teams try to steal at Coors where you wait for 3 run homers. No wonder he chose Coors
I don’t think we know that, Mac. Do you have evidence to suggest that Drew would have been non-tendered? Just because you posited that the Braves might pick up a non-tendered Drew doesn’t mean the Cards were actually going to non-tender Drew.
And when we don’t know what other teams were offering for Drew, I don’t think it’s fair to accuse Schuerholz for overpaying. When you don’t know what the other offers are, or whether you could have gotten him for a lesser prospect (and I know that at the time, reports were that Wainwright was the key to the deal from Jockety’s perspective), the fairest way of measuring a deal is by judging what you gave up against what you got. By my calculations, at least as of January 10, 2007, the Braves still have not come out on the short end of that deal.
Alex R., I’ll take the playoff spot we got. The Cards snuck in last year and ended up winning the World Series. That it didn’t work out for us that year, IMO, isn’t the relevant measure and doesn’t mean the trade was a bad one.
Also, no, Adam was not useless, at least if you believe the stats. He was more valuable than Jeff even before his second-half offensive explosion.
And I have no idea how much better our rotation would be with Wainwright in it. He’s never made a start in the big leagues. I do know that JD Drew kept the streak alive and gave us an opportunity to win the World Series in 2004, though.
Woodward and Lunar? Aren’t they the John Schoops of catching?