The Final Countdown: 10 Days to Trade

Written by Dan on July 21, 2008 – 3:30 pm

Coming off an ugly 15-6 (and series) defeat to the worst team in the NL East, the Braves are playing very ugly baseball while still on life support sitting six and a half games behind the first-place Mets and Phillies. Coming out of the break, this was the series to make a statement and unfortunately it was the wrong one. The Braves will now play thirteen consecutive games against teams with winning records (@FLA, @PHI, STL and MIL). They will now be challenged and if their play over the past month and a half is any indication, this is going to be a difficult stretch where 6-7 may be a winning scenario.

Monday means that ten days remain until the non-waiver trade deadline and it is certain that the Braves will receive national coverage for their position in trading slugger Mark Teixeira. While I feel that this team is still within reach of coming back, I think that the Braves may be forced into looking at moving Teixeira. There already was talk of a trade with Boston that would effectively swap first-basemen with Kevin Youkilis coming to Atlanta, but I do not see that trade coming back to life. The Braves would be smart to search for suitors on Teixeira now because he will be a free agent at the end of the season. While they will receive two supplemental picks for the loss of Teixeira, the lack of available bats at the deadline could mean that the Braves can pick up a lot more than the equivalent of two early round draft picks. They should be able to pick up a player that is major league ready and a couple of other mid-level prospects. For example, I can conceive a package of SP Justin Masterson or SP Clay Buchholz, 1B Chris Carter and another mid-level prospect from Boston and that would make a lot of sense for each team. Deals can come together in a matter of hours, so it may be Boston or a team that has not even been discussed yet with an attractive package to sell to the Braves for Teixeira.

I fear that the blame for the mess that the 2008 season has become has been placed mostly on injuries. While it certainly plays a part to the failure of the first-half, I am going to argue that some heat needs to be passed to the management of the team. This team was picked my many, including by myself, Peter Gammons and ESPN.com, to be World Series winners. The reason for that was the depth that the pitching and offense had. Generally speaking, the Braves offense and pitching continues to be successful of the 16 National league teams they are presently ranked 2nd in team ERA, 3rd in Team batting average and lead the league in hits allowed. It has just not come together for one reason or another. I criticize Frank Wren & co. for not making a single addition to effect the major league team since acquiring Greg Norton back in May for next to nothing (Brian Lawrence and Jorge Julio have been signed to minor league contracts). With a bench that lacks depth and punch, the front office needed to make a low cost move when things started to go south over a month ago and nothing was done. An example of a low cost pickup could have been Richie Sexson, now a Yankee, who could have been signed for the pro-rated major league minimum at around 200K for the remainder of the season. Immediately his power hitting ability would have been useful on a bench without power and at least his .218 batting average would have already been better than that of current Braves bench dwellers in Norton, Ruben Gotay and Corky Miller. The injuries have been devastating, but the lack of any move at all really has hurt this team and the depth on the bench.

Fortunately, baseball fans are familiar with “the comeback.” Braves fans can fondly remember the 2005 team that stormed its way to the NL East crown. Of course the 2007 season provided unforgettable comebacks by the Rockies and Phillies in the last week of the season. The Braves have the parts to contend and hopefully will be able to depending as to what happens in the next ten days. Now is the time to make or break the 2008 Braves season, we will have to wait and see if Frank Wren’s first move is big impact or silence.

Tags: braves trade rumors, Trade Deadline
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