Trade Rumors, Renteria Trade Dividends

Written by Akshay on June 27, 2008 – 11:45 am

We all know where the Braves would be if they did not manage to get a guy like Jair Jurrjens, as a rookie he’s quickly become our number two starter. Jurrjens is 7-3 with a 3.20 ERA in 90 innings pitched. His 66 strikeouts leads the team, but, like Hudson, Jurrjens is more of a ground ball pitcher than a strikeout guy. Could he become a Brandon Webb type pitcher? Maybe with time, this is still his rookie season. Hudson will remain our ace and in the future I see Jurrjens and Reyes as our number two guys.

Jurrjens gets the ball tonight in Toronto and former Braves and manager who beat us in the ‘92 World Series Cito Gaston. He’ll be pitching against Dustin McGowan, who’s 6-5 with a 4.21 ERA. Despite the fairly average stats, McGowan has been nearly unbeatable at home. At the Rogers Center (formerly the Sky Dome), McGowan is 4-1 with a 1.73 ERA with a .242 batting average against (.299 on the road) and just one homer allowed against six on the road in 11 more innings.

Jurrjens pitched six innings last time out against Seattle, allowing zero earned runs. Unfortunately, in that start the defense let the guy down and had three errors in the first inning that led to three unearned runs. The Braves ended up winning the game on Brian McCann’s clumsy single with the bases loaded.

But enough of Jurrjens, remember the other guy we got in the trade for Renteria? Gorkys Hernandez was selected to play on the world team in the upcoming Futures Game at Yankee Stadium. The minor leaguer is hitting .320 with five triples and four homers. He also has seven stolen bases in eight attempts. Hernandez and the rest of the minor league world stars will play against the US Olympic Trials team (including Georgia Tech’s Derek Dietrich at short).

I also wanted to address some of the possible trades the Braves are looking through and looking for. According to Jayson Stark and his Rumblings article, the Braves are no longer in the market for pitching. Instead, and understandably so, the Braves are looking for some outfield power.

Names that came up through the article were Raul Ibanez, Jason Bay and Xavier Nady. Ibanez a little less so maybe. He is hitting .277 with just nine homers, but does have 47 RBIs and would definitely be an upgrade over current outfielders offensively (at least until Kotsay gets back). It probably will not take a whole lot to get Ibanez since he is in the last year of a (very affordable) contract and is playing on the worst team in baseball. I’m thinking maybe a low A level prospect or two B prospects, something the Braves may be willing to part with.

The other problem? Teams still don’t know exactly how long the Pirates are going to hold out until selling mode. Both Jason Bay and Xavier Nady have been awesome for the Pirates this year. Bay is hitting .287 with 15 home runs and 41 RBIs, but still can’t hit offspeed pitches the way he can fastballs. He’s also a little bit less affordable at $6 million dollars (obviously about half if the Braves get him in the middle).

Nady, on the other hand, is making only $3 million, hitting .314 with 10 homers and 49 RBIs (he led the NL in RBIs for much of the first two months). Plus he’s a right fielder, so putting him in left would give us three strong outfield arms (with Kotsay in center). The catch? He’s been hurt, he sat out a while with an ankle injury earlier this year and has recently been benched with a shoulder injury. Teams might stay away from that, but there’s no reason the Braves won’t consider it if they can get him for a lower price than he would have been if healthy. Of course, we all know how that worked out with the Dotel trade last year (Davies stats: 3-0, 3.12 ERA in five starts, still walks a lot of guys though but he’s coming around).

I also wanted to talk about some of Dan’s comments in an earlier trade thread. I think it’s a great idea to go out there and get a backup catcher. We have a guy, Clint Sammons (former UGA catcher) who is projected to be a guy with great baseball IQ and can be a prototypical backup catcher with solid defense. Sammons is hitting .245 in 204 at-bats through June 26. There is also a possibility that we would go after a guy like Rod Barajas and Gregg Zaun, but what’s the likelihood that they’re going to part with a catcher that has managed their pitching staff fairly well (3 in AL in ERA and lead the AL in innings pitched).

Lillibridge has had 11 at-bats so chances are if we get another hitter, he goes back down. Norton has been clutch off the bench, it’s the fact that he has to play every day that’s kind of exposed him. He’s a great pinch hitter and spot starter, but not an everyday guy.

As far as other names. According to David O’Brien at the AJC, I’m pretty sure we won’t see Randy Winn in a Braves uniform. Winn is hitting .302 with five home runs and 32 RBIs. But Winn is aging a little bit and at $8 million, his price tag is a little high, he just wouldn’t be a good fit for the Braves. Same with most of the pitching names going around the rumor mills. Erik Bedard especially, he’s talented but not motivated in any way. He’s got ace type stuff, but his attitude makes it impossible for him to be an ace and we all know how well that would end in Atlanta.

Obviously as the trade deadline approaches we’ll hear more and more names. I certainly hope we can get a guy from Pittsburgh. I know it’s a little callous, but Pittsburg typically makes bad trades and I think we would be able to get a good major league pitcher for a lot less than we would have to give Seattle for Ibanez (although with their dysfunction it might be a tie).

Tags: Gorkeys Hernandez, Renteria Trade, Trade Rumors
Posted in Minor Leagues, Speculation |