Braves Trade Kotchman for Adam LaRoche

Adam LaRoche is coming home. LaRoche, who was just earlier this month traded from the Pirates to the Red Sox, has been swapped straight up for Casey Kotchman, it appears. If you’re wondering how this trade stacks up, it’s about a straight up deal, if that. Casey Kotchman hits for a higher average and has better defense, but LaRoche hits for more power and knocks in more runs. But he strikes out more than twice as much. Yes, seriously.

That said, the Braves want power. They want a little more pop in their lineup and LaRoche gives them that. He has to work on keeping the strikeouts down (he’s whiffed 83 times already this year, compared to Kotchman’s 28). LaRoche does walk a bit more, too.

The bottom line is that the Braves think LaRoche is a better fit and jumped on the opportunity to bring him back home. When he was with us before, he struck out less. He now gets to play with his old buds and hopefully provide some punch to the back of our lineup, which isn’t looking shabby now. Here’s a guestimated lineup, assuming everyone is healthy:

McLouth, Prado/Johnson, Chipper, McCann, Anderson, Escobar, Church/Diaz, LaRoche. Having someone on pace to hit around 20 homeruns is not a bad person to have in the 8 hole – especially if the guys before him are on base enough to give him RBI opportunities. Sure, he’s only hitting .248, but I’m choosing to stay on the positive side of this trade. I’ll leave the negative to someone else.

Kudos to Wren and Cox for going out and making a move that they believe makes this team better. They’ve been right so many times in the past when it looks like a wash – why should now be any different?

Source: Braves Acquire Adam LaRoche

Update: Looks like this is a done deal – Kotchman for LaRoche. ESPN is confirming as are multiple sportswriter sources via Twitter.

Update: Yahoo’s Gordon Edes (and MLBTradeRumors) reports that the Braves have acquired Adam LaRoche from the Boston Red Sox. There are a few confirmations that this is at least in the works, very close, if not confirmed. Monitoring…

SI’s Jon Heyman reports that now that the Red Sox have acquired Victor Martinez from the Indians, they’re looking to move Adam LaRoche. The Braves are reported to be interested.

LaRoche is hitting .248 this season but that’s with 13 homers, 43 RBIs, and far too many strikeouts. He’d be a bit of power for the Braves (who wouldn’t be able to unload Kotchman onto the Sox) but isn’t quite a high average hitter. That said, he’s probably a better fit for the Braves than Nick Johnson, as I suggested this morning.

Glad to hear the Braves may be looking to upgrade their first base slot at the deadline. Now Braves: make a smart deal, upgrade us a bit, and don’t mortgage the future.

Personal note: I’m not sure that LaRoche is that much of an upgrade over Kotchman. Too many strikeouts and not high enough OBP. What are your thoughts? Good idea or no?

Braves Should Trade For Nick Johnson

Here’s the deal. Jeff Schultz of the AJC wrote earliera bout how the Braves haven’t made a move and yet all the contenders are making deals. Right now the Marlins – one of the only other contending teams that has yet to make a move – is reported to have offered a minor league pitcher for first baseman Nick Johnson.

The Braves need to move. They need a bat. Standing pat will, mark my words, leave us at home and out of the playoffs. Pitching alone wins – but not enough for the Braves – as far back as we are and as upgraded as the contenders look to be – we need a bat to augment our pitching staff.

Here’s the deal: Braves trade for Nick Johnson. Offer Jo-Jo Reyes. Kris Medlen. Hell, give ‘em Casey Kotchman. Johnson plays for a few months, propels the Braves to the postseason, and splits in free agency (bound to happen). Braves play Barbaro Canizares and Martin Prado at 1B next season, give youth their chance to shine, and bring up Freddie Freeman either late next year or the 2011 season. That’s the plan to get to Freeman, who is one of the Braves’ top prospects.

But we want to win. We’re so close. We just need to win a LOT really FAST. And we need a bat to do it.

Nick Johnson is the man. Let’s rent a first base slugger for a few months. Let’s do it. I want to play postseason ball in Atlanta again. With a staff like this, we’re hard to beat in the postseason, but we have to get there first.

Extra Boost Could Help Braves

Here we are in late July, and with the Phillies considering trading their future for Roy Halladay, it’s time for Sports Illustrated to bring back the same slideshow they’ve used for the last few seasons hailing the “best midseason trades ever.” Of course, Fred “Crime Dog” McGriff, David Cone, and some of the newer guys – Orlando Cabrera, Carlos Beltran, etc, are on the list. The Phillies figure to pick up Roy Halladay in exchange for some change, where some change equals some of their top prospects. Right now, they’re at an impasse, and let’s hope they stay there.

The Braves figure to stay where they’re at – maybe trade for a reliever to solidify the bullpen. And while that’s fine, and leaves them with a chance to win the Wild Card (they can pitch, and they do get Hudson back – who at the very least is a very bad-ass long reliever – which is why recent stories have the Braves backing away from trading for a reliever), but I really want to see us pull a 1993 – we need another bat. Where do we add someone? First base. Casey Kotchman is average. He’s good enough to play in the big leagues, but not good enough to wow anybody every night. Maybe, if Kelly Johnson is not going to suck, the answer is to play Martin Prado at first instead of Kotchman – Prado has been on fire – but what about some true pop? Why not go for it and make a trade designed to take on the Phillies? It doesn’t have to mortgage our whole future – we don’t need a modern day McGriff – we just need to upgrade. We don’t need a long-term fix – trade Kotchman away in exchange for another first baseman – with Freddie Freeman waiting in the wings in a year or two, we just need someone through the end of 2010. Maybe Prado’s that guy?

Note: I don’t mean to pick on Kotchman – I like the guy – but where else do we upgrade our offense? It’s been pretty awesome recently.

Hell, don’t trade anybody and give Barbaro Canizares a chance to bring the big bat to the majors. Let Kotchman sub defensively and give Canizares a chance to bring some of his pop to the lineup.

I want to see October baseball this year. Maybe this team does that. Maybe. But seriously, do something to take it over the top.

It’s been too long since we’ve seen October baseball in Atlanta.

Alright, Kent, your turn to write an article on how the Braves don’t need to make a move…

Hudson Inching Towards Comeback

If all goes as planned, we could see Tim Hudson back in an Atlanta Braves jersey by mid-August.  Hudson has been sidelined for about a year after undergoing Tommy John surgery.  Last night, he took the start in Gwinnett, throwing 4 scoreless innings of 4-hit baseball.  27 of his 41 pitches were thrown for strikes, while he struck out 4 batters and didn’t walk anyone.

If all goes well with his next starts in Triple-A, we should fully expect to see Hudson heading back to Turner Field.  This leaves the question, however, who is the odd-man-out in the rotation?  Lowe, Jurrjens, Vazquez, Hanson, Kawakami and then Hudson would all be looking at starting pitcher spots.  Lowe, Jurrjens and Vazquez all are undeniably safe in their starting jobs.  As far as I see it, Kawakami would be the 6th man when the situation arises, barring a complete breakdown by Tommy Hanson.

It’s not a bad situation to have, with 6 capable starters on a squad.  Any injuries to a starter will be a much less scary prospect if we are carrying an extra starter as a long reliever.  It’s not an easy situation for a lot of starters when it comes to switching to the bullpen, but the front office is going to have to make a choice.  What do you think should happen?  My vote is for Kawakami to head to the bullpen if all stays as it is right now.

Hanson Had To Lose Sometime

Tommy Hanson suffered his first major league loss on Saturday with the offense providing no run support. Hanson pitched 7 innings, gave up 2 earned runs, and got tagged with the loss. He’s now 5-1 on the year.

It had to happen sometime. It was still a great start, and the Braves ocassionally (or not so ocassionally) have a tendancy to provide no run support. What a start by Hanson, though. Not striking out as many batters as we initially thought, no, but he’s doing well for a rookie and showing the maturity that we expected from such a hyped prospect.

In other news, the Braves bounced back from a shutout on Saturday and scored 10 more runs yesterday. The bats are still going – good to see Kelly Johnson hit a homer – even if I still secretly wish Prado were getting the starts.

What do you think about the Braves’ chances of winning the wild card? What about the NL East? Will the Phillies land Halladay? Could the Nationals possibly suck any more than they already do?

It Wasn’t A Lack Of Power…..

….it was the “Axis Of Feeble”

If you’re one of the many fans or national sports media types who still aren’t taking the Braves seriously, there is something you need to know… You are mistaken.

You observe that the Braves have little more thunder in their lineup than they had through the first 3 months of the season, and you see no reason why they’re offensive woes won’t extend into the figurative “second half”. The trouble is… your premise is flawed.

You think the Braves have failed to score runs consistently for most of the year because they have lacked “impact power”. But the truth is that a lack of power was not the primary source of their offensive impotency in the first half. The REAL problem was having not one, not two, but THREE near-automatic outs in the lineup.

You can score plenty of runs without a single 30-homerun hitter. Just ask the ’98 Yankees. If you don’t have 2 or 3 huge bats in the middle of the order, that’s just fine, but you need to have a well balanced lineup full of quality hitters. The problem was… the Braves didn’t have either. There were three “Shaq”-sized holes in their lineup.

For the first 2-3 months of the season Jordan Schafer, Kelly Johnson, and Jeff Francoeur formed an axis-of-feeble. Like a black hole, they sucked the life out of this Atlanta offense. This underachieving trio killed rally after rally, and prevented many others from ever being sparked in the first place. It even managed to turn two of the league’s best starters, Jair Jurrjens and Javier Vazquez, into losing pitchers for a time.

While Atlanta now has more homerun power than many think, and will likely top their first half homerun total by a wide margin, the Braves don’t have multiple mashers in the middle of their lineup. That means that, to some extent, walks, singles, and doubles have to come together in combination in order to score sufficiently and reliably. But when you have THREE members of your lineup who are virtually guaranteed to pull the plug on any potentially productive inning… how can you ever score runs consistently?

You can’t. And they didn’t.

But the Braves plugged one of those holes when they replaced Schafer with all-star Center Fielder, Nate McLouth, in June. And now, in July, they have plugged the other two holes as well. Martin Prado ripped the starting second-base job out of Kelly Johnson’s hands with his recent all-star caliber play. Then, Frank Wren and Co. replaced the floundering Francoeur with the capable right-field platoon of Matt Diaz and Ryan Church (for whom the Braves dealt “Frenchy” to the Mets).

Atlanta’s offense isn’t likely to be among the game’s very best from now until the end of the season. However, I believe this Braves lineup will surprise the naysayers in the second half. Their detractors have failed to recognize the TRUE problem. Therefore, they have yet to notice that it has been fixed. But they will be forced to take note if the Braves continue to climb the ladder in key offensive categories. Atlanta recently jumped from 11th to 8th (out of 16 teams) in the National League in runs scored, and now has the 4th best team batting average in the NL. In my view, smart money says they’ll finish higher than 8th in runs scored by season’s end.

Every single position in the Braves batting order is likely to hit for a solid average, and is capable of delivering 15 homeruns or better. Three positions can deliver 25 or more homeruns. And six of the eight positions are manned by players capable of thumping 40 doubles in a season.

Frank Wren and Bobby Cox now have the lineup they envisioned at the start of spring. There are no 30 homerun bombers… but solid hitters with pop throughout the lineup, 1-8. And more often than not, that will be enough to win behind this Atlanta pitching.

The axis-of-feeble is gone, and better days are ahead.

Who Are You And What Have You Done With The Braves?

It’s a fair question. All of a sudden we’re busting out for six run innings.  Since the All-Star Break, we’ve outscored opponents 35-12. That’s thirty-five to twelve. That just happened.

We’re used to seeing the pitching we’ve seen over the last week, but we’re not so used to the bats waking up, getting clutch hits and putting us on top of the scoreboard. And how about Tommy Hanson? 3 earned runs over 7 innings pitched, but he punched out 11 batters! He’s getting his legs under him and our fifth starter is quickly becoming as dangerous as another #2 starter. There’s no real weak spot in the rotation either – Kawakami may be viewed as the weakest link, but he’s received, on average, over 1 run less run support than the team average.

We’re looking good – time to take more from the Giants and make some headway in the Wild Card race. Oh, and by the way, we’re in posession of a winning record, our shortstop was named NL Player of the Week (Yunel seemingly has made a conscious effort to eliminate the mental mistakes – and I think he’s a very valuable part of the team), and we’re in sole posession of second place in the NL East. Things are looking up.

The only question is: Who are you, and what have you done with the Braves?

Braves Quietly Back On Winning Track

If you consider the Atlanta Braves we all watched in frustration for the first 10 weeks of the ’09 season, it would be hard to put much stock in this team. BUT… if you’ve been paying attention to these Braves over the last month, you know that they DO have a real chance to reclaim the division to which they once seemed to hold legal ownership rights.

Few seem to have noticed, but since June 18th, the Braves are 15-10. Good, but nothing you would call “impressive”, right? Yeah, ok… winning at a .600 clip for 25 games is not likely to be remembered someday as a great franchise accomplishment. The Braves have also won 10 of their last 15 (for a .666 win%), though it’s easy to dismiss success in such a small sample size. But if you’re looking for some indication of what this team is capable of in the second half… take a closer look at the most recent month or so of Braves baseball.

These last 25 games have included series’ against the Yankees, Red Sox (TWICE!), Phillies, Nats, Cubs, and a white hot Rockies ball club before kicking off the second half against the Mets Thursday night. So when you size up the level of competition over that span, 15-10 looks a little better. But if you dig further still, you might notice that Atlanta could – and probably SHOULD – have gone 18-7 over that decidedly challenging stretch.

Consider the fact that the Braves lost the first series against the Red Sox at Fenway in the 9th inning of the final game. And they would likely have overcome the first inning Jair Jurrjens error that ultimately cost them the game, if not for a horribly blown, what-the-hell-game-was-he-watching, call by the home plate umpire, Bill Hohn, in the 7th inning.

Fast-forward to game-2 of the 3-game set against the Yankees at The Ted. Kenshin Kawakami was in total command early. He did not allow a single base runner through 3 innings, and was flashing the same form he displayed when he famously out-dueled Toronto ace, Roy Halliday, earlier in the season. But then a line drive to Kawakami’s neck forced the Braves to turn to the bullpen to start the 4th inning, and Atlanta eventually surrendered 8 runs in a losing effort. The way Kawakami was dealing before the injury, the 4 runs the Braves plated off Yankees pitching that day would likely have held up.

Then there was the gut wrenching loss to close the first half of the season, when the Rockies rallied to win a game that the Braves led by 4 runs in the 7th inning. That game was supposed to be started by Javier Vazquez, who has been Atlanta’s ace this season. However, he had to be scratched from the start due to a lower abdominal strain, forcing the Braves into a “bullpen start”. To make matters worse, neither Mike Gonzalez nor closer, Rafael Soriano, were available to hold Atlanta’s late lead.

Of course, there were a couple of other close games over this stretch that the Braves probably should have put in the win column, but let the game get away. No excuse can be made for those losses. Their bullpen was intact, and holding a lead is part of playing winning baseball. There were also a number of days over this 24-game stretch on which they had to go to battle without one or more their best players. Chipper Jones, Brian McCann, Nate McLouth, and Yunel Escobar all missed time over the last month, and those injuries may well have been the difference between a win or a loss on any given day. However, injuries are part of the game, and compensating for the absence of a particular player in the lineup is also part of playing winning baseball.

BUT, in my humble opinion, a game-altering blown call… losing a locked-in starting pitcher in the 3rd inning… or a game in which your scheduled starter AND two best relievers are all unable to pitch… are hardly losses anyone can hold against them. Those are 3 games that fall in the win column if not for a bit of especially rotten luck.

I’m not playing the “would’ve/could’ve/should’ve” game here. My point is simply to say that, while the Braves have played well over the last month, they’ve actually played better baseball than their record over that period would indicate. As any hitter who has every recorded an out on a screaming line drive to the warning track would attest… you don’t always get what you deserve in the game of baseball.

Many national baseball writers and commentators continue to dismiss the Braves due to their lack of “impact power”. But if the last 25 games are any indication – the last 15 in particular – expect Atlanta to be a legitimate threat in the NL East.

What do you think? Are you bullish or bearish on these Braves as they kick off the second half of the season?

Braves Beating Mets Like They Stole Something

That line is courtesy of @reggielott on Twitter. But it’s so true. The Braves are up 10-0 right now and are still hitting. In the meantime, I want to link you to a video interview I did with OnTheBlack.com before the series started – go check them out to catch the whole thing… It included some series and season predictions… Take a watch and keep up with OnTheBlack.com for video blogs regarding the Mets – always good to be educated on the division! Thanks Kerel for involving us in your pre-series coverage!

Go Braves!

Braves Beat Mets In Opener

I hate to be the guy who says it, but we’re all thinking it: Finally, the Braves benefitted from every at-bat Jeff Francoeur had.

Don’t get me wrong – I like the guy – but I am glad he’s not hacking away for our team as we’re trying to take a crucial series from the Mets. This first few series after the All-Star Break are important. This one, particularly so. After a polite and well-deserved ovation, Francoeur hit into a double play on the first pitch – vintage Francoeur. There’s a microcosm of his career with the Braves – we love him, but he hacks and gets out. He went 0-4 on the night.

The real story is Chipper’s continued dominance of the Mets – he poked a go-ahead RBI single through the infield to give the Braves a lead they wouldn’t give back. Lowe pitched an excellent game, the bullpen was great, and the Braves took home the first game of the series.

Now it’s time to do it again – we need to take this series!

Looking Forward To The Mets

To look forward to the Mets series to kick off the second half of the season, Colin from here at Braves Blast answered some questions for Matthew Falkenbury over at The Daily Stache.  An excerpt of the article is below and be sure to head over and check out their site (and feel free to harass them about the Mets).

Matthew Falkenbury: What has been the opinion of the Braves fans out there about the Ryan Church for Jeff Francoeur deal?

Colin Ake: Francoeur came up to unbelievable hype two years ago and has not been able to meet the (admittedly unrealistic) expecations put on him by a Sports Illustrated cover calling him “The Natural.” He’s since had two subpar seasons and hasn’t been able to get back on track. The Braves coaches have been frustrated by him seemingly not being willing to learn and decided it was time to trade for someone more productive. Church will hit for more average than Francoeur but has less long-term upside, which is not an issue with the crop of outfielders (including Jason Heyward) that the Braves have coming up. It’s about a fair trade – we get for the short term someone who can hit for higher average and platoon with Matt Diaz, and the Mets get someone with larger long-term upside, IF Francoeur can turn it around. I think we all hope he turns it around – he’s a nice guy – we’d just rather not see the Mets benefit from it.

MF: Who was the Braves best player in the 1st half and who needs to step it up in the 2nd half?

CA: Best player in the first half? Brian McCann offensively, and probably Jair Jurrjens or Javier Vazquez on the mound. I’d say that the bullpen needs to be more consistent in the second half of the season, and the offense HAS to step it up. Yunel Escobar has to stop making mental errors – he’s talented but gets cocky sometimes. The collective offense just has to step it up – that’s the final answer here.

Head on over to The Daily Stache to read the rest of the article.