The Braves have brought in a couple of minor leaguers with sporadic major league experience as Pena’s rivals for the backup job, or to serve as short-term replacements if McCann or Pena goes down. Whatever the opposite of the Pictures is, Corky Miller has it. A career .254/.342/.445 hitter in the minors (OBP approximate) he’s only had 248 career ABs, in which he didn’t hit, in the majors over six seasons, most of those with the Reds. He’s spent the last two seasons with the Twins, Mariners, and Red Sox organizations. At 31, time is running out.
Fernando Lunar is a terrible, terrible hitter who has nonetheless played in 97 games in the major leagues with the Braves and Orioles because he throws well, which is, well, stupid. He’s bounced around since the Orioles came to their senses as a AAA catcher for the Royals, Cubs, and Mets, and spent the last season in the independent/joke Atlantic League. He hit .193/.248/.264. L’il Tony Pena is twice the hitter Lunar is.
Carlos Mendez shared time with Pena behind the plate in Richmond, even though he’s not really a catcher; if he was, he would have had a real major league career, because he can hit for average and has a little pop. Dax Norris is a career minor leaguer, mostly with the Braves but also with the Astros, who has never sniffed the majors and probably never will, barring expansion to 80 teams. As far as I know, both Mendez and Norris are still with the R-Braves but tracking these guys is difficult.
I don’t think that there’s any chance that Jarrod Saltalamacchia will be McCann’s backup, but if Brian goes down for an extended period, the Braves will presumably consider making Jarrod the regular. Shanty Hogan has been dead since 1967 but would offer the veteran leadership that the Braves like in the backup catching role.
Corky Miller Baseball Statistics
Fernando Lunar Baseball Statistics
Carlos Mendez Baseball Statistics
Dax Norris Baseball Statistics
Jarrod Saltalamacchia Baseball Statistics
Shanty Hogan Statistics – Baseball-Reference.com
I keep wondering if the signing of Lunar (and Woodward) means that the Braves are about to trade laRoche (for Gonzalez and one of the Pirates young starters) and they to throw in Bryan Pena(or Aybar) to complete the deal. This is just speculation on my part, but I would like to believe that JS is picking up these players for reasons other than restocking Richmond’s roster.
Corky Miller was here in Chattanooga for a few years. He is from the Marcus Giles mold of playing hard and hustling. He calls a good game too, though his bat is a little sluggish.
Free Shanty Hogan!
Booby really loves a guy like Shanty Hogan. He provides the leadership that will be poorly misssed from guy like Brian Jordan, Kieth Lockhart, Vinny Castilla, Mike Remlinger, Dan Kolb,and Andy Ashby
I don’t know a thing about Shanty Hogan, but I’d be more than willing to give him a try. Being dead, he may be able to teach our hitters something about working the count.
I’m not going to play along with the joke. Too easy.
Be that as it may, I would have to guess Corky Miller would get the job.
I have Shanty Hogan on my 1930 APBA season. Like just about everyone that year, he hit like hell.
I have both Carlos Mendez and Dax Norris as minor league free agents this year (obviously), and I am pretty sure that neither has re-signed with the Braves (yet). Not that it really matters…
I think Lunar, Miller, and Iker Franco are slotted to take their places.
In the event of a brief injury, I think Miller will get the nod. Saltalamacchia stands a chance if there’s a significant injury, but I think he’d have to be hitting really well at Richmond before that happens.
I think we will go with Miller or Pena and let them battle for the job.
Hey ububba, I got together with one Raymond Valley last weekend. He and his family just moved back to Athens, primarily so his wife can work on her dissertation. So I drove up there and we saw Time Toy at the 40Watt, if you can believe that. They sounded great — it was like 1987 all over again.
we all know that it will be lunar backing up McCann.
the braves have to carry at least three dead weights on the bench.
why did Salty only play 93 games last year? Injuries?
#12 – yes
I will believe Lunar is the backup when he is no longer assigned to the AA roster.
Might already be posted…Russ Ortiz one year $380K
I wish we could have thrown our money at these cheap option guys, even Ortiz. Ortiz, Thomson, and Lopez for $1.630mil. That’s nothing, in this market. Hell Loretta is a steal at 2.5 mil also. We got Sturtze and Woodward for more than these 3 guys and I now that some incentives are in their contract also…
Mendez was a AAA All-Star last year, mostly because of the total void of talent at Richmond once Thorman was promoted. Presuming he’s never called up again, he will be one of the few players with a higher major league BA than OBP (.222 to .217 due to one SF and no walks in 45 AB with Baltimore in 2003).
And thanks for making me feel old- I am four weeks younger than Corky Miller.
I’m four years older, so how do you think I feel?
Backup catcher conversation…it must be the middle of January.
sansho1,
Yeah, DeWitt called me this weekend about it—he ran into him outside the Ga. Bar. Said Raymond was joining a Strat-o-Matic league (1987) with him, David B & some others.
And Time Toy was always one of my faves. This is probably a very unfair analogy, but to me they were like the Athens’ version of the Minutemen (punk+jazz, thankfully with a sense of humor). And, of course, Bryan Cook always was my kind of rock star.
In 1935 Shanty batted .339 with 13 HR’s, 75 RBI’s, and TWO stolen bases…….I think we now have our reason to move McCann to first!!
The bulk of Corky Miller’s good minor league performance came when he was too old for the level at which he played. So he was never as good as those numbers suggested. However, I’ll usually take the guy with good numbers at younger levels than a guy with bad numbers at the right levels.
NCAA Preseaon for 07 – top 25
they shouldnt bring out any polls until after week 5 or 6 of the season. Thats one reason why Ohio St, Purdue, Iowa, Florida St, NOtre Dame were so over-rated last year
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=schlabach_mark&id=2725188
Today, Rob Neyer at ESPN Insider again says Murphy is more deserving of HOF than Rice. He also even more highly touts Tim Raines and I really like him too.
Getting a question answered in an ESPN chat is always cool, but especially when they agree with you:
Eric (Arlington, VA): Jim, how close is Dale Murphy to being a HOF? Obviously he’s not gonna get the votes, but he was a great player on a incredibly bad team.
SportsNation Jim Callis: (3:06 PM ET ) I’d put him in. I don’t understand why he gets so much less support than Rice and Dawson when he was a better player at his peak.
And someone else followed up with:
CC (Atlanta): Why is that almost almost all writers say they would vote for Dale Murphy, yet overall he has almost no support? Rarely do you hear anyone say he should NOT be a HOFer.
SportsNation Jim Callis: (3:11 PM ET ) I don’t get it either.
The Neyer thing was yesterday, Cliff. In one of the previous threads, I quoted something he said re: Murph.
csg-
Correction…Notre Dame is overrated EVERY year by ESPN. I am surprise Corso and the boys don’t wear pom poms when discussing the Fighting Irish.
But Alex,
Notre Dame had Knute Rockne and Paul Hornung and Joe Montana!
Ole spitting Lou H. will be there with Pom Poms also
Stu, did you see this comment about Vandy Hardball from Aaron Fitt at Baseball America?
Vanderbilt has arguably the two best players in college baseball in Price and Alvarez, plus a closer who throws close to 100 mph in David Weathers and a leader at shortstop in Flaherty. The supporting cast is solid, and the star power is very impressive.
Hopefully, they can take that talent to Omaha.
Yeah, I saw it.
I’ve been looking forward to this baseball season since Georgia Tech eliminated us in the Regionals last year. Our basketball team has made me anticipate the season even more. Anything short of a CWS trip would be unacceptable, as loaded as this team is. If one of our pitchers steps up — I’m looking at you, Ty Davis — and performs consistently on Sundays, we have a legitimate shot at the title this year. We open with Rice, so that should let us know pretty soon.
And that “leader” at shortstop is also a great hitter.
Dale Murphy also got some love last night on Keith Olbermann’s MSNBC show “Countdown,” which devoted a segment to the baseball HOF. He was interviewing NY Daily News baseball writer TJ Quinn & they briefly discussed Murphy as a deserving candidate.
FWIW, Olbermann is a SABR member.
Did y’all see this?
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2726797
I love it. I’m a fan of any random Mets bashing.
I know this is old but since I wasn’t around posting a month ago, I just want to say how much I APPLAUD the Giants for blocking the Mets and taking Zito. That was almost like JS getting another FA move.
As for Knute Rockne and Joe Montana, don’t forget Ron Paulus who Beano Cook once predicted would win 3 Heisman trophies!
@31
That’s one of the only things I like about Olbermann. 😛
I love the Mets story. Of course, I emailed it to the Met fans in my office.
One response:
He pasted Thomson’s 02 stats with NYM (?) and wrote: NO LOSS TO US!
My response:
Thomson had one really good season for ATL (14-8, 3.72 ERA) followed by 2 injury-plagued years. He’s a good gamble for $500,000. If he stays healthy, he’ll be better than John Maine.
The point of the story is you lost a guy you wanted…because your catcher is an asshole.
Sorry for the language, but sometimes it’s necessary for effect IMO.
Parish, you neglected to mention this, from the same chat:
Q: Rich from Evanston, IL asks:
How good is Pedro Alvarez and how good could he become? Is upside comparable to Alex Gordon and Mark Teixeria (when he was 3rd)? Where would he rank in BA’s top 100?
A: Aaron Fitt: I do think his upside is comparable to those two players. If Alvarez was draft-eligible, I would probably rank him No. 2, right behind his teammate, David Price.
I’m giddy.
John Thomson said he picked the Jays over the Mets in part because of Paul Lo Duca’s presence in New York.
“As far as just looking at Paul Lo Duca across the field, I’m not really into how he acts behind the plate,” Thomson said on a conference call. “I know a bit about Gregg Zaun and I know he wants to win and he’s not going to let anything get in his way to do that, and I like that.”
Go John Thomson! I’d rather have him for $500,000 than Woodward and that Tanyon Sturtze. What a rip-off.
What evil has LoDuca really done?
Are we going back to the Braves/Marlins game where Estrada, Cox, Hampton, Pendleton? were all tossed in 2005?
@21
#7…yessir!!!
Glennon has to be on the bench…I wanna see Ike Whitaker or Tyrod Taylor at QB. Glennon…11 ints not cutting it.
I think it may be that game back in May where Lo Duca didn’t like Brian McCann being called safe and spiked the ball into the ground and went on to be ejected.
Wryn,
LoDuca is one of the more disliked players among his MLB brethren.
What about Diaz and Langerhans?
If the Braves were to trade LaRoche to one of the handful of teams that have shown interest, they feel confident in Thorman’s ability to fill the void. The 25-year-old Canadian batted .298 with 15 homers in 309 at-bats with Triple-A Richmond last year.
“He’s got a huge upside,” Braves manager Bobby Cox said. “He’s a good-looking kid. [He] probably wouldn’t do as well initially as [LaRoche]. Roachy is more experienced. But he’s there and I’ve got him penciled in to play a lot of left field this year and spell Roachy occasionally.”
http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070110&content_id=1776497&vkey=news_atl&fext=.jsp&c_id=atl
“A good-looking kid?” Does Bobby want a first baseman or a date?
Mac,
Are we allowed to ask if anyone wants to buy Braves tickets on here ?
If no I understand. Thanks.
Small-scale, personal resales are okay. Nothing too organized or massive.
Would “organized” extend to organizing a Braves Journal Members at Turner Field Day? I haven’t been a regular here for all that long – has that ever been done? If not, why not?
A couple of people have suggested it. I simply can’t get to Atlanta these days, so someone else would have to take charge.
That would be pretty sweet, but I wouldn’t be able to do it.
I’d definitely be interesting in going, although I probably can’t do the organizing.
I get worried when the Braves management talks about how a player looks like he has ‘great upside’ (in speaking of Thorman). We used to say this 22 years ago about some kid named Brad Komminsk.
@51
Komminsk had a good minor league track record. But you can’t refer to that with the utmost certainty to project how good a player will be in the majors (see Andy Marte, as of today). We’ll soon see that Thorman cannot ever replace LaRoche, that I am certain of.
Unless he REALLY improves like LaRoche did.
I’d be into it, but I’m 900 miles away. Nonetheless, I’m usually good for one or two games a year at The Ted.
Of course, if anyone’s into games at Shea or Philly, look me up—I’m often there. And this year, we play in Boston.
And ububba, if you ever hit the D.C. area, you have folks like myself and AAR and Cary and a few others in this area. I will be at that dump RFK this year to hopefully see all 9 Brave visits.
Alex,
Thanks for the offer. It is a distinct possibility you’ll see me this year.
I go to DC and Philly at least once each summer on a business trip. I’ve been luckier scheduling Braves/Phils games than Braves/Nats so far. Fact is, I still haven’t been to RFK yet. Gotta make it at least once, no matter how lame it may be—can’t be any worse than Le Stade Olympique in Montreal.
New Met Alert: I’m not exactly trembling…
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2726710
Those are more like Catching Impossibilities, IYAM.
#43-
If LaRoche is still on Atlanta’s roster come April, my guess is that LF would mostly be a Thorman/Diaz platoon with Langerhans as the 5th OF, coming in often as a defensive replacement and spelling Andruw and Frenchy from time to time. If this occurs (assuming KJ at 2B), the Braves will have the best offense in the NL.
If what Ken Rosenthal is saying is true, you have to wonder about John Schuerholz and Dave Littlefield.
The Pirates not only are refusing to trade any of their young starting pitchers, but they also are unwilling to part with center fielder Chris Duffy, who enhanced his standing by playing well at the end of last season. Duffy is a strong defender and energetic player, and the Pirates lack an internal replacement. The Braves wanted Duffy along with Gonzalez for first baseman Adam LaRoche. …
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6357428
So the Pirates don’t want to get LaRoche, because of Duffy? And the Braves don’t want to get Gonzalez, because of Duffy? Chris Duffy is really the sole reason why no trade between these two parties has happened?
Why are they both so fascinated by a player who looks like a flash in the pan?
The Atlantic League is nowhere near as bad as you make it out to be, but Lunar was far from a standout player in 2006. I’m stunned he got picked up after his 2006 season, since he was actually much better in ’05.
Well, maybe it’s not that bad, but the team Lunar was on was managed by Sparky Lyle, their best hitter was Ryan Radmanovich, and seems to function as an employment agency for the ne’erdowell relatives of other, better, professional athletes. So what I guess I’m saying is that it’s not good.