Atlanta Braves : Official Info : Press Release
Apparently, Schuerholz is reading the site again. Wilson’s a terrific righthanded platoon player and should make a fine addition to the team, whether it’s as a bench guy or platooning with Thorman. If he plays every day, he might look good at the end of the year but he’ll do all his damage against lefties. See his splits.
So this super signing negates the signing of Sturtze and Woodward? 😉
Excellent! A nice player that can play the outfield and 1B and apparently catch too. I’m starting to feel even better about the LaRoche trade now. Reallly good insurance for Diaz, Langerhans, and Thorman. Getting very greedy now I’d still like to have one more bat.
Nice…I’m liking this a lot…
It ain’t easy to be a GM of a team with financial constraints, and I think it’s taken JS a couple of offseasons to adjust to it. But the series of moves he’s made this offseason shows me that he’s got his trading mojo back, and he’s filling the gaps admirably, although with players a richer club might toss back. It may or may not be enough to get us back to the postseason, but given the situation, I can’t imagine anyone doing much better than JS has done. If indeed he’s reading the Journal, let me just say kudos to you, sir.
This was announced roughly 6 minutes after I complained that Wilson would never be signed by the Braves. Wow, am I foolish.
Sansho1 well said. None of this stuff may work out for the Braves but it won’t be for lack of trying. Giles and LaRoche are big losses but I sure like our team better now than at the beginning of this offseason. Yes, Mr. Schuerholz if you are a reader of Braves Journal, well done sir.
Any word on how much he cost? I wonder if JS will need to dump some payroll now. I think the Braves only need one more element to complete their team. They need a top notch starting pitching prospect. One that could start the year in Richmond and be ready by the All Star break if needed – if not needed in the 2nd half, ready by 08. If a SP is injured in the 1st half, the Vulture or Cormier should be able to fill in for 5 or 10 starts, but not much longer.
I don’t believe that there are enough SP prospects in the minors, and with Salty, Escobar, Andrus, and Devine, I think we have some prospects for trades. With Wilson here, the possibility of Diaz being traded isn’t a bad option either.
Good move JS – IMO, just one more piece of the puzzle is needed.
I was thinking earlier today that the bench was going to be awfully weak with players like B. Pena, Woodward, Aybar, Orr, Langerhans, and Lil’ Tony. But with the signing of Wilson, the bench looks stronger already. For one, it means, that the bench won’t be a bunch of light hitting middle infielders. Wilson, B. Pena, Aybar, Langerhans, and Woodward don’t seem quite as bad–though I guess it’s a bad sign for Orr since I think he’s probably the odd man out (lil’ tony starts in AAA again, I’d guess).
Rotoworld says it’s a 1-year, $2 million contract. Reasonable price, to say the least.
Also, if Wilson’s around, Bobby might not be so reluctant to use whichever catcher is on the bench that day to pinch-hit.
Somebody pinch me. $2 million? Either he really wants to play for the Braves or he needs to get a new agent. Nice work JS. Let’s hope he doesn’t pull a Reggie Sanders on us.
td–I’m not sure why, after signing a player, that Schuerholz would need to dump payroll. If that’s the case, we might be giving him too much credit.
he made 3.3 last year, so yes this is a very good signing. I sometimes wish we would give some of these guys two year deals or at least team options for the next year
apparently Hampton’s salary is prorated, if so good work JS
By my calculations, the projected 25-man roster I have for the Braves accounts for $83.6MM in salary. Throw in Sturtze’s and Woodward’s pre-incentives salaries — I don’t think either makes the team under the current conditions — and that gets us to $85.2MM.
I see three possibilities: 1) it’s a soft budget, 2) the rumored amortization of Hampton’s contract (meaning we’d be on the books for $8MM for him instead of $14.5MM this year) was true, or 3) Bob Wickman and his $6.5MM salary are soon to be traded.
I seriously doubt it’s the first and am hopeful that it’s the second. If it’s the third, though, that would probably free up enough room to make a run at Baldelli or Rios. I’m just sayin’.
stu, I like your thinking. Dan however does not
Note, too, that if it’s the second, that also accounts for $6.5MM, which would, like a Wickman trade, give us room to pursue an outfielder like those mentioned.
well if its 2 and your calcs are correct would that lower the prorated team salary to $77.1, that doesnt leave much to play with.
Baldelli costs $750K and Rios will cost less than $500K next season.
good point….Ill take either, but I assume Rios will cost us less in terms of a trade
Love the pick up–now this was a nice move and sure makes feel a lot better abut the LaRoche deal. Take away the Sturtze & Woodward signings…and Schuerholz has had a B+ offseason. (C+ with the Sturtze and Woodward signings).
Alex R.,
Dude, you are way harsh. C+??
ok, C++
Given that JS seems to be going strong now after people questioning his managerial skills, could trading Andruw be a possibility? I wouldn’t be disappointed if we traded AJ along w/ prospects and/or Langy/Diaz for a good starter and centerfielder and put Davies in AAA as our “insurance” against a starter getting injured.
I’m not saying that this will happen, but after getting Wilson unexpectedly, it wouldn’t completely surprise me. I still believe there’s about a .001% chance that A. Jones will be a Brave after next season.
Woodward is an upgrade over Orr as the last guy off the bench. They hit the same (not well), Orr has more pinch-running utility, but Woodward can and has played SEVEN positions, including shortstop. With today’s roster construction, that’s a lot more useful than anything Orr can provide.
Woodward allows Cox to play all sorts of late-game matchups, because he can be moved around in the field in a way that we haven’t had in a long time. Jerry Royster is the last guy I remember that we could plug into the middle infield or the outfield.
Schuerholz gets a B+ from me. Would’ve been an A- had it not been for the awful Sturtze signing.
I don’t have a big problem with Woodward. Yeah, he’s fairly crappy but we needed some versatility. I understand the thinking there. Of course had we not traded last season’s more versatile utility guy that could play some SS for a less versatile utility guy that can’t play SS this wouldn’t be an issue.
Oh well. Onward and upward we go.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2735433
Your tax dollars at work.
We’ve been through that one, Wryn. Please, let’s not start it up again.
#27
Not a big Kingston fan, but I actually thought that was pretty funny.
Oops, my bad Mac.
No real problem, but apparently certain Florida people find it really offensive.
#15, Stu, John Schuerholz wouldn’t sign Glavine because of his policy of not spending over the budget unless there is room. He doesn’t sign someone the team’s budget doesn’t allow and thinks of trading someone later. So Craig Wilson fits obviously, or the signing wouldn’t have happened.
And Wickman will not be traded. You can quote me on that.
Looks like the Braves have the right idea. David O’Brien:
When some of you saw that the LaRoche/Gonzalez deal was done Wednesday (actually it won’t be finalized until they pass physicals, with no announcement expected until Friday or even Saturday), you immediately speculated it must be part of some bigger plan.
Some of you figured _ or read the speculation on other websites _ that the Braves got Gonzalez only so they could “flip” him to the Yankees or Devil Rays (we love to obsess over Rocco and Crawford here … Hey, I’m guilty for fueling much of the Baldelli talk a while back).
While I’m not entirely ruling out the possibility, I was assured today by a Braves person I trust that they got Gonzalez to keep him in their bullpen, to make their bullpen a monster that will help reduce most games to 6-7 innings next season. Not to flip him to another team.
http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/braves/
This is a great signing and I really like our team now. Given the fact that the Braves now have Lillibridge and Escobar, I still would not be surprised to see a trade.
One nice thing about adding Wilson, is that 1B is covered long enough for Salty to develop. In 2009 (if not earlier)I could imagine both McCann and Salty in the lineup, with the latter at first. All of this assumes that Salty does not get traded and the Braves decide to convert him into a first baseman.
In any case, the Braves are looking much better. Now, if we can just strengthen our starting pitching….
Dan,
Why would I quote you on that?
You’re right about the Glavine thing, though. The situation is either 1 or 2, then. Or I’ve horribly miscalculated some salaries…but I don’t think I have.
Question:
Where’s ububba? Don’t think I’ve seen him post anything since the LaRoche trade went down.
i would love to see this lillibridge kid develop and move up this year, moving renteria to 2nd. it would give us the leadoff hitter we need and the defense would become much stronger. if it went down that way, i dont know what would become of kj. would he move back to left?
it’s going to be very interesting to see who makes the 25 man roster.
who will be the odd man out?
With Wilson we have our emergancy catcher. Pete Orr’s days are numbered.
While that doesn’t sound like a bad idea to me, I think it’s pretty unlikely that Cox will ask Renteria to move to second base. Even if he should.
I hope so, Smitty.
Again, to me, the best possible bench we could have right now looks like this:
Pena, C
Wilson, 1B/OF/C
Aybar, 2B/3B
Langerhans, OF
Pena, Jr., SS/2B
Many of you might think I’m stupid for wanting Tony Pena, Jr. on the 25-man roster, but we need someone with his defense late in games. (Remember that, in addition to two of our starters, our closer is also a groundball pitcher). He could also be useful as a pinch runner. And if he’s the last bat on the bench, I don’t think his offense is going to come into the equation much, anyway. It’s a terrible move if Orr makes the team instead. Many think Woodward will make the team — and I don’t disagree that it’s likely to happen — but I don’t think you need his defensive versatility as much as you need Pena, Jr.’s stellar defense up the middle.
I agree with your Tony Pena thoguhts Stu
I hope they don’t trade Wick, although I think it’s likely he won’t be as good as he was when he came over last year. I would like to have a situation where the Braves have a lead going into the seventh and then go, Soriano/Gonzales and Wickman. Or, if Wickman struggles, you can move Gonzales into closer. With mediocre starting pitching, I don’t think you can have too deep a bullpen. Plus, some of the incumbents like McBride are likely to be better. I think JS has done a brilliant job–whether it works out or not remains to be seen, but this is very creative. If Hudson can even get back to his 2005 form, the team will be much better. And having power arms in the later innings takes some of the onus off what promises to be a truly awful infield defense.
As Mac has noted before, Marc, 2006 Hudson wasn’t all that different from 2005 Hudson except for having a different and worse defensive shortstop. That infield defense has only gotten worse. I’m pretty nervous about Huddy this year.
I think Villarreal is going to win the fifth spot, and Davies will start out in AAA.
I hope that if that’s the case, Hate King, it’s the result of a great spring by Villarreal and not simply a disastrous one by Davies.
I like the fact that we might have lil Pena on the bench and I think it could be very good to use him every 5th day behind Hudson. Also let Langy play in LF for Huddy also. I think all of Diaz mistakes in the field came with Huddy on the mound, doesnt mean much but who knows. I’m getting the feeling that Woodward and Lil Pena will replace Orr also
We’ve only got room for one of Woodward and Pena, Jr., I think.
Does anyone know what the best guess story is on the drop in Wilson’s power? From his gams played it looks like he was injured in 2005, but his SLG hasn’t rebounded to his pre-2005 levels.
He’s still valuable as a platoon player, but I’d like to know what happened to the guy who was hitting for a lot more power when he was younger.
Great pickup, as I couldn’t believe he hadn’t signed yet. I don’t know why he got so out of favor in Pitt, but he clearly did.
My only minor concern is that he winds up playing left and steals ABs from Diaz.
JS sure takes his sweet time pulling the trigger, but when he does, look out. I’m feeling really good about how this team is shaping up. But that could just be the vicodin my dentist gave me. ;o)
Folks who are wanting Pena, Jr. on the bench: I like your idea of having a defensive replacement SS on the bench. The question would then become, does Cox have the cajones to pull one of his “stars” for a late inning def. replacement?
Mr. S@E, I said in the Renteria comment that I thought that was a good idea. I meant to say that I didn’t think Bobby would ever do it.
You think it was a coincidence that Hudson’s best game of the year came with the backups (PTGO, Betemit, and Li’l Tony) in the starting lineup? They may have gone a collective 0-11, but it worked.