Daring scheduling, y’all. Home teams in bold yellow except for Alabama and Florida who are just in bold.
Alabama 24, LSU 16
Florida 40, Vandy 6
Auburn 42, Furman 7. Furman has a football team?
Georgia 35, Tennessee Tech 9. TT is the platonic ideal of a “homecoming opponent”.
Kentucky 47, Eastern Kentucky 10. You can throw out the record books for this one!
Ole Miss 37, Northern Arizona 9. You realize ESPN is paying big money to show this conference?
Memphis 7, Tennessee 6
Thank goodness for homecoming.
Apparently, we’re a good homecoming team this year.
Charles (from the previous thread), I completely understand what you’re saying; I just disagree. I don’t think—at all—that the most likely scenario involves us not getting the right-handed bat which Wren has already publicly made a priority. I have no idea whom the bat will be or what it will cost, in money or players, to get it—or even whether I’ll be enthused about the bat—but I think the safe bet is that we’ll add a right-handed hitter with some pop who plays in the outfield or at first base.
And I really don’t get your lack of optimism on the Pujols front. Quite frankly, it just makes too much sense not to happen.
We’ll get a RH bat. It just won’t be Bay or Holliday–or, sadly (sniff), Pujols.
I have a left testicle to offer if it helps acquire Albert Pujols.
The Furman Fighting Purple Paladins have a long football history and even stole one of Spurrier’s abused quarterbacks once.
I’ve always found it odd that a Baptist school sports a big “FU” on their licensed hats.
I don’t think Wren should be pursuing Albert Pujols. Defense and pitching win championships, and Pujols can’t pitch and, while he’s a good receiver over at first, he doesn’t play an important defensive position. The Braves should be pursuing Eric Byrnes — the Diamondbacks are trying to unload his contract, and he plays the game the right way. He’s a hard-nosed, blue-collar ballplayer who will bring a winning attitude to our ballclub.
I would give 3 of my testicles to help acquire Pricne Albert.
Re: Furman, hank, you’re thinking of Ingle Martin. He’s from Nashville and is still trying to make it in the NFL as a punter.
And, of course, that’s where Bobby Johnson coached before VU hired him.
If we make a trade for an outfielder that is more than a Garrett Anderson type, I believe either Diaz or McLouth will also be traded. I think they’re working towards getting Heyward in the mix by June. An OF of McLouth, Diaz/Church, and Heyward will be above average. Diaz and McLouth both have trade value and I don’t see us letting Diaz sit on the bench indefinitely after the season he had last year.
If we didn’t bring back Javy Lopez for sentimental reasons a few years ago and we didn’t take Andruw for the same reason last year, I don’t know why we would get him this year. I agree that we’ll most likely get someone similar to Andruw, but unless Andruw resurrects his career with another team, he’ll never play for Atlanta again. Given his last few seasons, his days in ML baseball may be numbered.
If we don’t re-sign LaRoche (I’d say it’s about 70/30 against), I say our big RH bat will be at first base.
Fair enough Stu. I AM in a rather pessimistic mood these days.
Who could take Lowe? (or, I guess, Vasquez, though I don’t want to acknowledge that option).
Who has an RH bat they’d give us? (obviously I don’t mean GIVE, you know what I mean).
Pujols should definitely be our top target this offseason, but in the unlikely case that the Cardinals balk on a package of Kelly Johnson, Derek Lowe and Manny Acosta, could we settle for Kendry Morales or Miguel Cabrera? Seriously, the strange thing about Cabrera is that he’s already 36, but has only been in the MLs for 7 years.
Cabrera’s 26. Or am I missing a joke?
Right handed bat with some power? Should come cheap as reclamation project? Meet your new RH first baseman, Mike Hampton! (sorry Mac, just seeing if you were awake and your heart was still strong).
We don’t need Pujols. He’s not a winning ballplayer. He’s supposed to be the best hitter in baseball, but even though he’s played in 56 playoff games he hasn’t stolen a single base. This year his team got swept and all he could muster was three feeble singles. Albert Pujols is Overpaid, Overhyped, and Irrelevent!
AAR, you’re killing me.
AAR, is it just me, or has your Baseball IQ recently gotten much higher?
Stu – Cabrera is 26. I misread his birthdate. My mistake, sorry. …Let’s get him now!
WFAN host Mike Francesa: “OK, next caller is John from Levittown.”
John from Levittown: “Hi Mike, I have a Yankee trade proposal…”
MF: “OK, let’s hear it.”
JFL: “Brett Gardner, Melky Cabrera, Dave Robertson, Phil Coke, Jerry Hairston & Chad Gaudin…”
MF: “For?”
JFL: “For Joe Mauer.”
MF: “John…”
JFL: “Yeah?”
MF: “We’re finished talking.”
Hanson, Heyward, Medlen, and Kelly Johnson should get you Pujols.
#17 – it wouldnt
McCann, Hanson, Heyward, Freeman, and Medlen should though
http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/12106/auburn-lands-top-running-back-in-the-country
Go you Auburn Tigers!
@12 It’s pretty clear not everyone was made to play in the bright lights of St. Louis. It really doesn’t matter what he’s done before – he gets paid to deliver in the big spots. The Cards don’t need a Mr. April. He’d probably thrive in a lower pressure environment like New York.
This just in: J.J. Hardy traded for Carlos Gomez.
Wow, Brewers. Fail.
Guess who else is a free agent guys? That’s right guys: Ryan Freel. While many outfielders at twice the price can’t provide half the defense, Ryan Freel will probably get a much lower contract. He earned just $4 million this year and could probably be had for a one-year, $3 million contract. He was injured the last three years, which means he’ll be playing with a fire in his belly. Before his injuries, he stole 30 bases for three years in a row and provides great defense. He could be a steal!
I think the biggest shocker so far was the Phils picking up the option on Cliff Lee. That was just WAY off the radar. Who saw that coming?
The Angels did a nice job reupping Abreu. I really wish we had gotten him on that $5 million contract.
Does Hardy have leprosy or something? I mean, he had a bad year, but Carlos Gomez is terrible.
For those of you unfamiliar with Carlos Gomez, he’s an outfielder with a .292 career OBP who hits four homers a year but is supposedly one of the fastest players in baseball. Coach, you’d love him.
Question from YES reporter to A-Rod after WS ended the other night: “Why was this post-season so different for you after the last several didn’t go your way?”
A-Rod: “Let’s face it: I stunk.”
I couldn’t begin to tell you the joy I’d have if A-Rod’s answer had been to yell: “SMALL SAMPLE SIZE!”
Whenever you can unload a decent trade asset in order to get a speedster that can’t get on base… you’ve gotta do it.
Defense (in general) isn’t a strong suit of the crew. Seems like an awfully high price to pay on the offensive end, though.
There is a myth that Furman used to be the Furman College Christian Knights. Then, when they became a university, they would have had a pretty awkward acronym. Unfortunately, that rumor seems to be false.
Rob, I don’t think we should point out that it’s false. That’s a rumor almost too fun to not propagate.
(and yes, the main reason I want the above response from A-Rod is just to keep people arguing on the internet about it… it would make me laugh).
@26
Does Hardy have leprosy or something? I mean, he had a bad year, but Carlos Gomez is terrible.
The Brewers were desparate to fill the gaping hole left by Tony Gwynn, Jr.’s departure.
Does anyone here have ESPN Insider?
I do.
I do also
Brewers are not going to attempt to resign Cameron either
Ryan Freel will probably get a much lower contract. He earned just $4 million this year and could probably be had for a one-year, $3 million contract. He was injured the last three years, which means he’ll be playing with a fire in his belly.
I think that’s actually just Farney.
Don’t the off-season plans need to factor in a continued decline in production from Chipper? The bats we acquire may not be Pujolsian, but they’ll have to be more than a moderate upgrade over ACHE.
Can you check the “story” they have up about Hanson as a closer? It was probably discussed in the last thread but I didn’t read that one.
we need Braun/Pujols/and Holliday this offseason.
Sam, its not really insider on that one. They just link up Bradley being an idiot
http://blogs.ajc.com/mark-bradley-blog/2009/11/05/with-hudson-back-should-hanson-become-a-closer/?cxntfid=blogs_mark_bradley_blog
I was interested in their actual verbiage. I assume they’re just recycling Bradley’s stupid blog but I wanted to know if they were reporting that “some AJC blogger who doesn’t even cover the Braves beat threw this out randomly yesterday” or if they’re spinning it “Atlanta sources suggest the Braves might be thinking about moving Hanson to closer.”
28—Don’t believe you’d find anyone to argue with that, ububba.
A-Rod, 2009 WS .250/.423/.550/.973, 6 RBI, 5 RS, 4 of 5 hits were XBH in 6 games. We could use some of that kinda stink around here.
Don’t know if anyone saw this but the Royals declined Coco Crisp’s option. I think this would be a great opportunity for us to get one of the most underrated outfielders in MLB. He’s stolen double-digit bases for seven years in a row, plays great defense, and hustles on every play. (Unlike LaRoche LOL!1!) He’s gritty. We could use a guy like him.
Sam, the only thing I could find was them giving the link and saying something like “Mark Bradley in Atl thinks Hanson could become the closer” or something like that
@45
Someone ambitious should build a team out of the most gutsy (ie valuable) everyday MLB players out there.
We could call it the Joe Morgan All-Stars!…and it goes w/out saying they would be odds on favorites for the next WS title.
But remember, only players that do the little things to help you win. That other stuff doesn’t matter.
Crazy day in baseball transactions.
Furman has a football team?
They’re actually Georgia Southern’s biggest rival!
45,
I’ve always liked Crisp (he was my 2nd favorite target for the CF sweepstakes of pre-2008).
27,
Gomez is the perfect example of a player who is colossally bad offensively, but legitimately good enough defensively to be a net positive. I thought the Twins should’ve kept him, played him in CF, Span in LF, Cuddyer in RF, and trade Delmon Young.
In the right-handed bat sweepstakes, I’m going to bet we end up with outfielder Jermaine Dye who will be entering his age 36 season in 2010. He also had what must be one of the strangest pre-break/post-break splits ever in 2009:
Pre All-Star break (291 at-bats): .302avg/.375obp/.567slg/.942ops/20HR/15 2B/1 3B/62:32 K:BB
Post All-Star break (212 at-bats): .179avg/.293obp/.297slg/.590ops/7 HR/4 2B/0 3B/ 46:32 K:BB
Interesting. Terrifying. Confusing.
Bobby Johnson won a national title at Furman.
The Sox let Dye go today, there is someone else we could look at.
No, Smitty, he actually didn’t. They lost that championship game. Plus, he took the VU job before that game, anyway, so if they had won, it would have been whoever the interim coach was.
I would rather take a flyer on Cameron for two years.
Plays defense, hits for power, and right handed, and he would be good pr being from lagrange. Lets Nate slide to left, start the year with diaz in right, and then heyward take over when ready ( arb wise..hes ready skill wise today )
Lets you trade for Conner Jackson to play first base with a pitcher as well..
something to the affect of Kenshin,Kelly,prospect for Connor Jackson
Why not lowe closing..hes done it before, and lets you save arb gonzalez and soriano, with the intent of keeping gonzalez and getting picks for soriano.
Fifteen million dollars for a closer??
You are right about losing the game, he took the job two days later at Vandy.
Was he on the sidelines for the game? I didn’t remember that. I’m pretty sure that, while he may not have signed a contract yet, he had taken the VU job before that championship game.
I think he was on the sidelines. I think that he was in talks with Vandy, the game was a few days before.
@45 The only reason you decline Coco Crisp’s option is because you are about to make a play for Ryan Freel. It’s a hustle wash, but a grittiness upgrade.
Not sure I completely agree with that, PWHjort. Gomez is such a bad hitter that not even the Twins — who rarely show compunction to start a brutal hitter in a key defensive position — could bring themselves to play him full-time, and his at-bats went down sharply in 2009 compared to 2008. If you’re such a bad hitter that they can’t afford to play you in the field, your defense won’t get the chance to offset your terrible hitting. You’ll remain a part-time player no matter how slick a gloveman you are.
@53
I was just looking at it as your probably stuck with the 15 million ( if you cant move him, its overhead you stuck with), at least put him in a position where he helps you most, and he does have plenty of closing experience.
Is there anything worse than then last hour of work on a Fri?
no..
L.S.U. 24, Alabama 21. Upset city baby!
I got dibs on Mike Cameron, one season contract, five million or less. Veteran, versatile and worth the investment.
Coach, how can you possibly afford to pay Cameron that much money?
Things worse than the last hour of work on a Friday:
Lukewarm Budweiser
Cancer
Phil Fulmer
Paper cuts in your finger webbing
Manny Acosta in a close game
Movies with Matthew Lillard and Freddie Prinze, Jr.
Pol Pot
The Great Leap Forward
Mets fans
The question “Does this make me look fat?”
The first hour of work on Monday
touche..touche
see we do not have live action scooby doo fan here
I robbed a piggy bank.
Is there anything worse than then last hour of work on a Fri?
Well, there’s reading that someone else is in the final hour of their workweek, knowing you’re not yet in yours.
No Arkansas/USC pick?
Mac,
I just noticed that you didn’t include South Carolina/ Arkansas in your predictions. My guess is Arkansas 26, South Carolina 23. This has potential to be a good game.
I have a feeling that Bama/ LSU will either be a 14+ point win for Bama or a close game win for LSU. My guess is the former
Alabama 29, LSU 10
Edit: Funny – I didn’t see the post above until after I posted this.
No offense, but why do people keep trying to make the whole “fifteen million dollars is too much for a closer” argument? It isn’t a argument. It’s arranging your resources (as that man is going to get paid 15 million no matter what) to meet your needs. At this point, let’s say that a Hanson, Hudson, JJ, Vazquez, Medlen rotation gives us the best chance to win, with KK and Lowe in the bullpen. If doing that gets you more wins than Lowe in the rotation, then that arrangement is BETTER than throwing Lowe out there every fifth game. It’s not changing the payroll, its arranging your players to meet your needs.
It’s like saying (pre-Frenchy days, of course), “Let’s keep Francoeur in right as opposed to Diaz because he makes 3 million more than Diaz.”
WHOEVER gives you the best opportunity to win while being in a certain situation, put him in that situation, regardless of their salary. The player is going to get paid no matter what, and arranging your resources incorrectly because of who gets paid what is not a sound principle; it is utterly stupid.
(Just to reiterate, I don’t think that you are stupid Tom, but I’ve seen plenty of people at MLBTR and DOB that suggest this and I think that it is an idea without any validity. Unless I’m wrong, which in case I really do want to hear an explanation)
Pffft…they aren’t actual members of the SEC. Just because you’re in the conference doesn’t mean you’re actually in the conference. I mean, they’ve only officially been members for what…17 years? Not nearly long enough.
(Please note: being sarcastic. Don’t kill me.)
It’s funny – you hear that so and so makes x, so you have to play him argument regularly (not saying anyone here was doing that), but if so and so is not the best option, paying him x to sit on the bench beats paying him x to hurt your team in the field.
No offense, but why do people keep trying to make the whole “fifteen million dollars is too much for a closer” argument? It isn’t a argument.
Sunk Cost fallacy 101.
I forgot. Arkansas 28, USC 20.
Movies with Matthew Lillard and Freddie Prinze, Jr.:
Scooby-Doo
Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
She’s All That
Summer Catch
Wing Commander
Hell of a filmography there, eh?
must…resist…tasteless…snark…
Bama 27 LSU 7
desert,
I used not one but TWO question marks, indicating a QUESTION (not a statement), further indicating that I was not at all opposing the idea of using Lowe as a closer, but pointing out that throwing 15mil/per at him to do that might not have been such a good idea after all.
However, I strongly believe that the Braves will never do it BECAUSE of the “argument” that is no argument according to you.
Tom,
Sorry, it wasn’t supposed to come across as an attack. And apparently I can’t detect sarcasm, so my bad, sorry.
No worries, I didn’t take offense at all. Wonder what we’ll eventually do with Lowe though. My best guess is he’ll stay in the rotation because no one will take him in a trade and the Braves can’t make him a reliever without losing face.
Let’s hope he bounces back.
@31 – funny funny stuff.
AAR – yo da man. the only problem with your player proposals is that none of them have a cool name like ‘the Panamaniac’. I mean Charles ‘Coco’ Crisp comes close but……
I thought the ground game was settled. Trade Derek Lowe and JoJo Reyes for Adrian Petersen. Did I miss something?
I reckon you younger men feel like your testicles are worth more than a league average outfielder. Well I can’t say I disagree.
Actually, mine is the golden testicle.
I can produce beautiful daughters and sons who throw no-hitters.
Yet I offer it willingly in hopes of landing Prince Albert.
I think Lowe as our closer would be very Kolb’ish. He sinker isnt like it was and he gives up .07HR/9IP too many. I’d rather go with Moylan, I’d REALLY rather go with 1 year of Billy Wagner.
FBF,
I’m well into the whiskey, so don’t ask me to look them up, but I seem to remember that Moylan’s splits were really bad.
I’m going to miss the duo of Soriano and Gonzalez. Hopefully, I won’t miss both of them next year.
@83 I think Wagner will get two years from someone…
i thought i read somewhere wagner only wanted 1 year…
I think Wagner will get a 1-year deal with incentives and possibly a vesting/club option. But my guess is no better than anyone else’s.
Wagner was filthy in his first game back against us. I wouldn’t mind picking him up.
Will Coach sign a 1-year deal to comment at P.W. Hjort’s place?
That seems like it would be entertaining.
I really think Wren and the front office are going to spend this year because A) its Bobby’s “Last Year” B) Chipper is probably gone after this year and C) This rotation is filthy and it wont take much to make this an elite squad. A good closer, a big RH bat and someone adequate at 1B…I think its all doable and will get done. Again, I advocate Wagner, 1year 2 years, doesnt matter, dude is filthy.
Sabans’ continuing imitation of a dog turd.”its not what we’re doing” (which would be MY fault), “its how we’re doing it” (which is the players fault)…… way to be a stand-up guy coach.
@91 – never mind that he’s telling the truth. McElroy missed way too many opportunities.
If anything he’s trying to support his offensive coordinator. If he wanted to be a big jerk he could have blamed it on the qb.
Yeah, when you have a Heisman candidate RB and you only give him the ball six times in the first half, the OC is to blame.
Wow, nice umpiring there. No rushing the kicker to begin with, and then a clear interception for LSU is ruled incomplete. What a break for Bama.
So how much does Miles get fined next week?
Not enough evidence to overturn. I thought it was an INT, but remember, they still would have been 60 yards away and Jarret Lee is their quarterback.
He had two feet down, plus, the refs on the field had no clue what happened, so why should they be deferred to?
Should have been LSU’s ball all the way because there was no foul on the punt.
Still, I doubt they would have scored.
His left foot was not down with control, but you only need one. It wasn’t clear to me — but I did think he probably got his right foot down.
Gary Danielson is an idiot. There is no way anyone can say one way or the other if the LSU defender was in bounds. Danielson ranks higher than Joe Morgan and Tim McCarver after two asinine calls in two weeks.
The CBS college team is the second-worst announcing team in the business, after anything with Chip Caray. Lundquist is old and confused, and constantly misses plays — wrong spot, wrong player, wrong team even. Danielson is a moron and he openly roots for some teams. In the Arkansas-Florida game, I thought that he rooted for Florida harder than the NBC team roots for Notre Dame.
You don’t have to tuck the ball to gain control. I don’t think many non-Alabama fans will agree with you on this one.
Yeah, LSU probably wouldn’t have scored a TD anyway, but still, that call was terrible, and the idea that deference should be given to refs when they look at each other, hoping the other saw something, is a little silly.
I don’t know if it was an interception or not. There is no way to tell from any of the angles if even part of either of his feet was touching the white line.
Tom, Alabama probably should have declined the penalty, considering that LSU got the ball at the five yard line after the punt. Again, Jarret Lee.
Furcal Rule embargo lifted on Proctor.
Atlanta Agrees to Terms on Minor League Contract with Pitcher Scott Proctor | braves.com: Official Info
I think he could help.
How do you not call a penalty on the punt rush? I guess I can live with the 5 yard running into the kicker (since I guess his leg was on the way down), but there is no way it’s not at least a 5 yard penalty.
I agree that the interception call is still probably not the difference in the game, but what bums me out is that Danielson tries to take away some of the luster off a hard fought win two weeks in a row. Again, unless Danielson had some camera angles that we couldn’t see and kept them from us for fun, there is no way you can overturn that call based on the replays.
The guy just seems to love to hear himself talk. I was waiting for him to pull out the LSU pom-poms throughout most of the game.
He sucks. I have no idea why CBS has to keep inflicting Big Ten guys on SEC games, but at least Blackledge was okay.
Refresh my memory please…in the SEC do you have to get three feet in bounds for it to be ruled a catch?
I actually don’t dislike Lundquist. At least he keeps his mouth shut when he has no idea what he’s talking about.
The Jefferson injury was a little odd. He didn’t appear to be hurt that bad and seemed to take himself out of the game never to return. Maybe the cameramen missed it, but I didn’t even see the trainers frantically working to get him back in the game. I would have expected him to at least test the ankle to see if he could go back in. I don’t even remember much of an update from the sideline reporters.
Mike Minor to start in AFL Rising Stars showcase.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091102&content_id=7605168&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
If Lundquist shut up whenever he didn’t know what he was talking about, he’d be mute. He just makes an incredible volume of mistakes.
I thought it was an INT.
But, of course, it doesn’t break my heart to see LSU get hosed by the refs.
Let’s just hope we don’t get any game-changing calls in The Dome, because this has been a brutal year for SEC officials. Seems like something happens every week.
#111. Minor had an ERA of 81.00.
That takes some effort.
heres the thing, if the refs had ruled it an INT on the field it wouldnt have been overturned. Same thing with our TE catch in the 1st half that was ruled an incomplete pass.
I didnt think the punt rush call was correct either. It shouldve been a 15yd penalty and an automatic 1st down, not a 5 yd penalty.
LSU players were dropping like flies out there. Mac, terrible prediction on this game. Cant believe you couldnt get the game score closer than that!
Maybe I’m so mad at Danielson all the time, Lundquist seems good by comparison.
If Fla and Bama are undefeated going into the SECCG and Tebow and Ingram are still doing well, does the player who does best in the game get the Heisman? Right now it looks like McCoy is the frontrunner.
The ever-popular Top Ten:
1. Florida
1. (Tie) Alabama
3. Texas
4. TCU
5. Boise
6. Cincinnati
7. Ga Tech
8. LSU
9. Pittsburgh
10. Iowa
The last two killed me. Someone has to go there.
Also, there have never been so many teams I would pay to never watch play again. And some of them aren’t even in the Big Ten!
Anyone see that Derek Liligquist got the Padres pitching coach job? He was always one of my favorite players, dude could hit for a pitcher, and was pretty decent on some bad teams….best of wishes to him
Rosenthal says the Padres are willing to trade Gonzalez if they’re “knocked out.”
Send them anyone not named Heyward.
Also, Paul Johnson has testicles made of polished brass.
Mac,
I think Daniels is really Tim Tebow’s cousin or boyfriend. The Gators weren’t even on CBS yesterday, but with those two in the booth you thought they were previewing the next game!
The refs blew that interception call and I am sure Slive was the one in the booth that called it incomplete. However, there is no way LSU was going to score.
Go Bama, beat the Gators.
I will admit that it looked like the refs blew the interception call, but I still say that the replay officials made the right call. There were about 5 different angles, but none of them showed definitively that the LSU defender did not step on even part of the boundary line. I agree that Bama would have won anyway though. I still think Danielson said that the replay officials should have overturned the call because he was biased against Alabama.
I think the fix is in. The SEC wants two undefeated teams in the SEC championship game so that they can guarantee a team in the national championship game. The calls this year have been blatant. What a joke.
Make peace with Smoltz and give him a one year deal as closer.
At this point, let Smoltz be an overpaid Met.
its not the Braves place to make peace with Smoltz. We offered him a deal and he chased more money, no one is to blame. After all his media jabs at the Braves, I dont care if he pitches again
three hours? Im bored
#124 – no way. If the mouth of the South wants to pitch again let it be for another team.
Who needs Adrian Gonzalez? Not the Braves. He’s only made it to the playoffs once in his entire career, and guess how many bases he’s stolen: 1 stolen base and 2 caught stealings in a six-year career. I call him the Pujols of the NL West. No Thanks!
125
I think G. Anderson would be a good signing for the Muts too. The guy is a World Series champion. Just think of the veteran leadership, grit, and intangibles those two would bring to the clubhouse. Two guys who know how to win. Need to lock them up long term too. 5 years/25 mil a piece sounds about right.
Any Saints fans here?
I think they might be good this year.
Who dat say dey like dem Saints?
@124, 125, 128 – Corky Miller could be a great backup catcher for the Mets. I also hear that Jeff Bennett is looking for a job these days and the hand that he broke hitting the locker is fully healed.
As for Smoltz, I’d love to get him back if I thought he could make it through the year as a reliever. I don’t think he wants to be a reliever and I don’t think his arm will hold up for more than 50 games if he is. I would pass, but just in case, I don’t want him on the Mets. He has a chance to be good – at least when he’s healthy. Francoeur, Miller and Bennett are different stories.
was at 3 quarters of the saints game. WHO DAT! i just moved from new orleans to santa rosa beach, florida, and it looks like hurricanes have me on radar.
It was clearly an interception.
Bru-u-u-u-u-ce!
I can’t wait to see how our retarded GM is going to screw up another off season….go Frank Wren, the circus master extraordinaire! Wren and Cox, the beavis and butthead of ML baseball.
Uhm….
page down.
If I were Smoltz, I’d do the Clemens/Pedro trick of signing for a contender in June.
As for trade targets, it seems like Nelson Cruz makes a lot of sense to me. He and Mike Cameron are the guys I’d most like to see the Braves go after. Wouldn’t trade Vazquez for Cruz straight up, but I’d like to think we could figure something out.
I managed to watch some college football over the weekend. The college game is so much more entertaining than the pro game.
Observations:
Paul Johnson must have to use both hands to carry his balls.
Zach Collaros may be the best QB in Ohio.
Anybody see this: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/11/2010-top-50-free-agents.html
and notice that the only two of the top FAs they predict for the Braves are LaRoche and Gonzo?
#137 – just when I’ve thought you’ve said your worst or most ridiculous statement, you come out with something else
Off the wall topic for this gang.
We saw the Yankees lefthanded starting pitching seemingly strangle the Phillies. We know that the Burrell for Ibanez exchange after last season made the Phillies even mor evulnerable to lefties. We know Howard killed us late in the season bashing pretty good right handed pitching.
Is there a possible trade target where we could pick up a left handed starter for one of our right handed starters? And, is this concept expandable to maybe a piece of the “how to trade for a bat (preferably for 1B or secondarily for OF)”?
cliff, good question. I dont know enough about Minor yet, but if the Braves feel as if he could be a #5 starter, we could move KK and Lowe/Vasquez. That does free up enough room to go get a big RH bat. Just love the pitching depth and highly doubt the Braves would move two of their SP in one offseason
would say Randy Wolf, but he has Furcal’s agent.
If the braves would try pitching Howard inside every once in a while that could help also
Look, the Braves went 10-8 against the Phils last season. That’s a darn good record vs. the pennant winner. The issue isn’t the Phils. It’s the lack of consisent offense that let us get crushed by teams we should have dominated (Reds, Pads, Nats).
New thread/poll. Second round begins.
Right now, I think we need to consider Mike Minor as (hopefully) a lesser version of Glavine. I don’t see him pitching at ML level this year unless he is really good again and we have unexpected levels of injuries.
Wolf is a free agent, right? I don’t see signing a free agent starter where we are now. The only way we could do that is if we trade pitching for non pitching and THEN sign the free agent.
I did a quick look for lefthanded starters. It actually is pretty sad. The best (with ANY chance of the Braves getting them) seemed to be Wandy Rodriguez and Ted Lilly. After them, it was better to just go with our good righthanders but remember to have 3 functional lefties in the pen and be ready to use them.
Wandy has only had one really good year (last year). Before that, he was 4 or 5 starter material. Last year was his age 30 season, so it could be a fluke. Really strong improvement in stikeout rate and walk rate in the same year seemed to do it. He has 2 arb seasons left so we would have to give up arb level talent or prospects. Houston needs all sorts of stuff, so matching up might not be that hard.
Lilly has 13 mill left for 1 year. Money is close with Javy Vazquez, but Javy is inherently a better pitcher than Lilly.
So, how about we send out Lowe and Vazquez and take back Lilly, Derrek Lee, and Milton Bradley with money moving our way equal to half of Bradley? Then we flip Bradley with the salary relief to an AL club . That is just about even money on Braves payroll for where we are now, solves 1B for one year, evens draft picks for 2011, unloads pitching, and gets us a little more lefthanded in pitching.