Hey, a win!
The Braves scored three runs in the third inning on a 2-run single from Heyward, who appeared to be awake for this game, and some comically-bad Rangers defense and another run in the seventh on a two-out double off a LOOGY from Freeman, who appears to be out of his little swing-at-everything funk. Jurrjens wasn’t in top form, allowing nine baserunners (and one run) in 5 1/3 innings, but he was pretty solid. The bullpen, other than Scott Proctor, pitched very well. (I have literally no idea why Proctor was brought in to start the seventh in a close game — he predictably gave up as many runs as he recorded outs.)
Anyway, wins are good; the team will need more of them. The Fighting Yunels come to town tomorrow, and maybe the Braves will have acquired Matt Kemp by then.
Finally, in honor of Mac:
You’re doing a bang up job Stu
We signed Ruben Gotay and Chris Carter to minor league contracts and assigned them to AAA.
Ruben Gotay again?
What would be a reasonable price for 1.5 years of Kemp and two draft picks? Would Minor, Pastornicky, and Bethancourt do it? Would you look at extending him? Odds are he’ll want Holliday/Crawford money.
I say go for it. The window is now. Move Prado to 3rd when Chipper retires and move Kemp to left when you need to. Backload the deal for when Lowe and Chipper are off the books if you have to, but this offense needs help now.
3 — Just Triple A roster filler, I’m sure.
#4 – I dont think that would be enough.
Not sure where we are putting all this AAA roster filler. It seems like we add a couple such players every week.
The Carter signing makes me wonder if they assume Mather will refuse the assignment. With baited breath, a nation awaits.
@4- To get something you have to give something.
Go Gamecocks!
Who goes when CJ and Prado returns?
Prado will play some 3B & 2B. Outfield looks solid defensively for first time.
OF Prado, McClouth, Schafer, Hewyard & Hinski. IF CJ, AG, DU & FF. C-BMac DR.
Bench- 2Ifs? BC & DH?
Barring injuries. good backups everywhere but SS?
How’s Lugo doing?
For Matt Kemp, I would send one of Delgado/Viscaino, plus Mike Minor and any two position prospects. (I wouldn’t send Teheran or Beachy.)
I feel like someone would give up more.
Yeah, you guys are right; that was lazy. This is probably a better rough estimate.
Best case, I’d estimate Kemp will be worth around 11 WAR before he’s a free agent. If you figure teams are paying 4 MM per win that’s 44 MM he’s worth. Add another 8 million in value for the draft picks.
You’d owe Kemp 3 MM remaining for this year and probably around 12 MM for next year. That leaves 37 MM above the margin you’re paying for in prospects.
Looking at Victor Wang’s prospect valuations, it’d probably cost the equivalent of Vizcaino, Delgado, and Lipka…unless the Dodgers are stupid.
You guys realize this Matt Kemp thing came up just by way of someone randomly mentioning his name in the previous thread, right? When was the last time his name was attached to a trade rumor? Last season? If anything, the discussion has revolved around whether or not the Dodgers will be able to extend him in spite of their problems.
More Kemp discussion will make this place as unreadable as it was during the stumping-for-Manny-Ramirez/Prince-Fielder/Lance-Berkman days.
Yeah, forget Matt Kemp. Let’s switch over to incessant discussion about how the Braves can make signing Albert Pujols this upcoming offseason work.
@15- I guess a lot of people are starting to wonder if there’s a light at the end of the tunnel w/this offense. The Prado and Chipper injuries are seen as serious to the extent the Braves signed Gotay and Carter off the street for depth. That’s worrisome on a couple of levels.
The Kemp talk is probably overkill, but the Dodgers can barely make payroll and are 7.5 out. If that stretches to double digits over the next week or two, the trade talk isn’t completely unreasonable.
7 – It’s going been going on the MLB roster lately. Young, Mather, Wilkin Ramirez, Diory, Hicks, etc. You gotta replace Triple-A roster filler with more Triple-A roster filler, right ?
Don’t know if there’s anything to the Kemp talk, but if the Dodgers trade him it will be a classic case of selling high and they will demand a boatload for him. Kemp hit .249 in 602 abs last year with 28 hrs and a .760 ops. He’s batting .328 this year with 20 hrs in only 262 abs and a 1.037 ops. I doubt we will be willing to give away the farm for him. What a difference a year makes!
Not trying to be political here (I know the Drudge Report is controversial), but there’s a Drudge headline about Spaniards marching over spending cuts. There’s a picture that shows the protesters wearing carnival type masks, but there’s a lone Braves hat in the front right corner. Any Braves Journal posters been to Spain lately? It’s so out of place it’s pretty funny.
@td:
The A is for anarchy.
In fairness to the Dodgers, they correctly determined not to sell low after last year when I am sure they had many offers.
Really? After seeing the Rangers, people want to give up a bevy of talent for another slugger we can’t sign after 1.5 years? I’m fine rolling with the squad we have now and hoping things come together/get healthy.
“Not trying to be political here (I know the Drudge Report is controversial), but there’s a Drudge headline about Spaniards marching over spending cuts. There’s a picture that shows the protesters wearing carnival type masks, but there’s a lone Braves hat in the front right corner.”
It’s a Braves cap. And those are Guy Fawkes masks.
#20
Big fan of Spain, actually. Been there several times.
I love Ibiza, of course, and my sister’s family was stationed in Madrid for awhile (Dept of State), so that was a great place to visit. Valencia during Falles–this crazy weeklong festival that’s part-regional religious celebration/part-Burning Man—is big fun.
And any place where you can eat a good dinner at midnight is alright by me.
BTW, if it was the Drudge Report, the Braves cap was probably photoshopped into the picture. Y’know, they’ve done things like that before.
#25 I love Barcelona. I am there on business several times a year. In my view, one of the three most exciting cities here in Europe.
Did you see what’s coming up on Wdnesday?
Wednesday: Braves RH Brandon Beachy (1-1, 3.45) vs. LH Jo-Jo Reyes (3-5, 4.18)
I see people wearing baseball caps all the time here in France. New Era sells them and the thugs and wannabe gangstas think they’re cool.
Few weeks ago I was in the metro, some dude comes in, dressed like… well think of someone trying to look like Jay-Z and Lady Gaga at the same time. Dude felt like he was a reeeal badass mothafucka gangsta hommie and all that stuff.
He was wearing a Kansas City hat. I tortured myself to refrain me from standing up and laughing at his stupid face.
Also, this is the kind of caps we have to cope with http://www.snowbeach.com/upload/photos//casquettes/new_era/new_era_caps_tartanic_atlanta_brave_scarlet/new_era_caps_tartanic_atlanta_brave_scarlet.jpg
I’ve got a normal Braves cap, but I don’t wear it out of baseball fields anymore, I’m tired of clowns high fiving me and saying “You got real style bro yo”
26, I’m sure JoJo will pitch a perfect game in that one.
Agreed on Barcelona though. I only wish they would finish that church in my lifetime so I can finally take a picture of it without all the cranes.
Regarding caps, younger folks wear them here in Germany too, and 90% of them are Yankees hats. I guess they think they look cool, because nobody knows that the letters “NY” stand for more than just the city.
I have been to South Korea two weeks ago and in 2010 and it was the one place that I saw lots of people wearing Braves’ caps….
while the Kemp thing is unrealistic, Olney is reporting that the Rays are fielding offers for Bossman Junior Upton.
Dodgers are drawing fairly well. I doubt they would upset fans with a fire sale. My mother came down with MERSA staph after a pin was placed in her upper arm. No pills for that, just IV. After her body swelled she can down with bed sores. They almost healed before her death at 92. Bad
Regarding caps, younger folks wear them here in Germany too, and 90% of them are Yankees hats. I guess they think they look cool, because nobody knows that the letters “NY” stand for more than just the city.
More likely, they think it’s cool for the same reason people around the world wear Barca, Real Madrid, Arsenal or ManU gear. The Yankees, and to a lesser extent the BoSox are the only international brand in MLB. The Yankees signed a co-marketing deal with Manchester United a few years back, and I’d bet that is a driving force behind the popularity in Europe.
I think the Braves have about as much interest in Upton as they did Bonds…probably about 0%. Plus, he isnt that good. Maybe a location change could help.
Olney is reporting that the Rays are fielding offers for Bossman Junior Upton.
WANT.
PASS on Upton. I’m just not a fan. He’s an upgrade from Schafer/McLouth to be sure, but unless we’re trading those two for him, I can’t see it. Upton just seems to have the ability to go ice cold for months at a time, which as someone mentioned earlier would make him fit right in here.
I tweeted to @Bravesorganist to play “Rock the Boat” by Hues Corporation for Yunel’s walk-up song during the Blue Jays series because it seems to make sense on multiple levels. You know, in regards to why he was traded AND how he came to be here in the first place. It was being considered it until Chip Caray replied with “I Fought the Law” because, y’know, it sort of works on one level even though there is no actual “law” involved. That @Kapaya1234, he’s so darn clever I tell ya. So it would seem that my suggestion got nixed by one of baseball’s brightest minds. Feel free to tweet your support to whichever option you think works best if you have the time and inclination to do so.
In other news, we should see another All Star voting update some time today so it will be interesting to see how McCann is hanging on to the lead at catcher. I just don’t put anything past those Cards fans and their irrational adherence to the idea that Yadier Molina has somehow proven himself as the best catcher in MLB history.
Upton would bring some much needed speed, but his last 3 seasons he has posted OPS’s of .686, .745, .669. He wouldnt be a difference maker IMO and not worth the cost/headache.
@37
I found ballot stuffing amazingly simple this year.
At the voting site, I only had to type in the validation number as it changed to get 25 quick votes for McCann.
P.S. Jeffy’s on the ballot. Whata world!
@39
I wouldn’t consider that to be stuffing the ballot since MLB.com even encourages that fans vote the maximum 25 times per email, but you’re right. They have made it unbelievably simple this year to lay down 25 votes in less than 5 minutes. Now if anyone wants to go to the effort of creating new email identities for the purpose of voting beyond their allotted 25 ballots, then I would say that is up to them. We’re talking about righting a long-standing injustice here.
Now a vote (or 25) for Jeff Francoeur, that’s what we NL fans might call stacking the deck in our favor. 😉
BMac just got 75 votes from me. Took about 15-20 minutes.
Yeah I’d already voted using my main E-Mail but decided to use some of my old E-mail accounts to add another 125 to the vote totals of BMac and Chipper.
I’ve reluctantly become a Schafer fan.
I was at the game Saturday (btw, those clouds looked like something out of The Wizard of Oz) and saw something I rarely see from the Braves:
Schafer lays down a great bunt, inducing a wild throw, sending him to 2B. We haven’t had that spirit here since, well, since a long time.
In this new Dead Ball Era, that kind of thing will become even more valuable. I’d like to see how the Schafer Experiment plays out.
Oh, and that ball that Uggla hit missed being the winning homer by three inches.
Humor!
http://www.royalsreview.com/2011/6/20/2222542/using-jeff-francoeur-to-solve-lifes-problems-lesson-one-cheating
Barry Bonds isn’t going to prison right? Lets advocate to be the team that moves to the AL and sign him to DH.
I’m out! More later, hopefully in a couple of hours. I actually feel quite good right now.
Welcome back, Mac!!!
Yes, welcome back, Mac!
And in honor of Stu’s pithy prose in Mac’s absence I found this bit of baseball / Hemingway info:
http://www.thecolumnists.com/isaacs/isaacs82.html
Welcome back, Mac.
And now Albert Pujols is on the shelf—out 4 to 6 weeks with a fracture in his wrist.
Welcome back, Mac!
@37,
Organist should play “The Bitch Is Back,” surely?
From Bowman:
This led Javier Vazquez and some club officials to meet with Escobar the following day. Most of the benefit of that meeting was erased a few minutes later when a now-former Braves’ coach approached the shortstop and essentially told him he didn’t need to change anything.
Cadahia? Hubbard?
#51
Thanks for the link. Does anyone proofread, much less edit, his stuff?
Pujols has a fractured forearm, out 4-6 weeks.
I believe in you, Dan Uggla! That’s why I just traded Jon Brtoxton, Barry Zito, and Lance Lynn for you and Rafael Furcal! Come on!
@46 Awesome news, sir!
@50 I like it!
@51 How good is Hubbard’s Spanish? Eddie is still around so we know it wasn’t him.
Just finished my move to Zurich, Switzerland. So, if any of you is ever in/around this beautiful city, let me know. Even if it’s just to watch the Braves. But man, oh man, they got some pretty girls around here.
@51 – have Bowman and O’Brien ever been photographed together? It seems like these articles are auto-generated by the SuckUp2000 set to “sportswriter” mode.
Game thread is up with some details on my disgusting disease.