Do We Really Want This Xavier Nady Character?

“We need more power!”

Thanks, Scotty. We knew that. While we’d all like our offense to go to 11, I’m not sure I’m super thrilled with the options. Mark DeRosa is off the table, Matt Holliday is likely signing with the Cards soon, not many people are thrilled with the idea of Uggla coming in, and Xavier Nady is the other name that gets tossed around a lot. And yes, he’s good for 25 homers and 100 RBIs when he’s healthy.

But he’s had some issues and is just coming off not his first, but his SECOND Tommy John surgery. And yes, he’s just an outfielder – not a pitcher – and is being acquired more for his bat than anything. And yes, he’s probably cheaper than before his second TJ.

But he will still have to make throws. And when will he be back to 100%? How many runs will we give up because people will run on a weak-armed, twice-rebuilt robo elbow in left field?

Sure – we have doctors and if we sign him then I’m sure we think he’s a good deal and good upside and all that. I get that. But I’m just a little bit worried. Just sayin’. That’s TWO Tommy John surgeries, dudes and dudettes. Just not so sure about that.

“Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology…”

Who should we go for instead? What about Johnny Damon or a one year deal for Vladimir Guerrero? Jermaine Dye?

So Maybe Not DeRosa

One of the options remaining for the Braves to add to the roster that we mentioned yesterday looks like it may not be an option much longer.  Mark DeRosa underwent a phyiscal for the Giants earlier today and that appears to be the only thing standing in the way of the completion of a two-year deal.  DeRosa, who played in Atlanta from 1998-2004, is a career .275 hitter and has hit 44 home runs and has 165 RBI across the past two seasons.  The Braves were interested in his versatility and ability to fill in for multiple roles, but DeRosa was looking for a three-year deal that the Braves just weren’t looking to extend.

So with an estimated $6-9 million remaining to spend, what options are still out there for the Braves?  As I talked about yesterday, one of our favorite options is Xavier Nady.  Nady would not only add a little more depth to the outfield (where the Braves often seem to have persistent injury issues) but would serve as a backup first basemen behind Troy Glaus, who the Braves are hoping to have a solid season on his surgically repaired shoulder.  For me personally, this is my top choice as of right now and what’s left on the market.

Another name that has been tossed around for the amount of money the Braves have remaining and the needs they are looking to fill is Dan Uggla.  He would provide that offensive pop that we have been wishing for while holding down the second base role.  If that’s the case however, I’d like to make sure that there is still a constant starting role for Martin Prado, who I feel is a huge asset to the Braves.

We’ll be anxious watching the news over the coming weeks to see what move or moves the Braves still intend to make.  I think they would be willing to take the current squad to Spring Training, but I get the feeling they would like to make a little bit of a change still.  Who knows?  Maybe we’ll still see them move the recently acquired Melky Cabrera for another bit of offensive power.  With DeRosa off the market, what are your next choices to bring to Atlanta?

Braves Need Another Bat?

As we inch closer to spring training and out of the offseason (pitchers and catchers report in 53 days for anyone that’s counting), it appears that Frank Wren and crew are winding down on moves that they are planning to make.  If anything else is going to change, I think the Braves couldn’t be hurt by adding a little more offense.  We’ve said it before, but just to reiterate, this team could benefit a lot from added offensive threats.

If the Braves make a move for more offense however, it’s not going to be one of the big name moves that I have seen and heard many Braves fans tossing around over the past couple of weeks.  We won’t be seeing Adam Dunn or Adrian Gonzales or Jason Bay coming to Atlanta this offseason.  The contracts would be prohibitive and the Braves have already gotten things in the works for an everyday first basemen in Troy Glaus.  All bets are off as to what happens should Glaus fail his physical.

The Braves have an estimated $6-7 million left to spend after the completion of the Glaus acqusition, so don’t expect any of those names I just mentioned.  Instead, there are a couple of options that would still fit the need the Braves have and that we here at BravesBlast would like to see.

Mark DeRosa would be a big pickup for the Braves in that he could play many positions and fill in any gaps that would come up from injuries and needed rest.  He’s the kind of guy that would likely see action most days, just in multiple roles.  DeRosa, who played in Atlanta from 1998-2004, is a career .275 hitter and has hit 44 home runs and has 165 RBI across the past two seasons.  If anything, the big appeal to DeRosa is his versatility.

Another option for the Braves (that I was explicitly informed by Kent that he would like to see happen) is to acquire Xavier Nady, who was not offered arbitration by the Yankees earlier this month.  Nady, in addition to adding depth in the outfield and some more pop in the lineup, provides a backup for Glaus at first base.  Hopefully we won’t need him for that reasoning in particular, but it’s good to know the option exists.

What other options exist for the Braves to add another offensive threat?  If the Braves make another move this offseason is yet to be seen, but if they do, we’d love to see either DeRosa or Nady making their way to Atlanta.

One More Wish: Bring Back Chipper!

To start things off, no, you didn’t miss some big, revolutionary news that the Braves got rid of Chipper Jones.  When I was sitting down to write our Christmas wish list the other day, I talked to Colin on the phone for awhile about what he wanted to see on the list and he mentioned Chipper Jones and….well, I just forgot to put it on the list.  So when I woke up at 3 in the morning today and realized that, I figured I would write about today.  So, no, Chipper hasn’t gone anywhere, we just want to see pre-2009 Chipper again!

So heading into the 2009 season, we made a wish that Chipper Jones would stay healthy for once and be a constant contributer to the team after playing in less than 135 games in the previous 4 seasons (with the lows being 109 and 110 games in 2005 and 2006).  Well Chipper played in more games in 2009 than he had since 2003 at 143.  But that’s about where the benefit to the team stopped in comparison to 2008.

Now, granted, comparing to 2008 may not be the most fair thing to do seen as how Chipper had a career year, batting .364 with a .470 OBP and slugging .574.  There was a decline in power with him only hitting 22 home runs, but he continued to prove that he is one of the best situational hitters in the game.

The 2009 season however provided few of the highlights that we saw in 2008 however.  By the time the season ended, Chipper, a career .307 hitter, managed only a .264 batting average and hit less than 20 home runs for the first time in his 15 full seasons in the big leagues.  On top of that, he had his fewest number of RBI in his career as well, with 71.  We have always said that we would rather see a semi-healthy Chipper Jones playing for the Braves than many other players, but one more wish for this season is to see a little bit of a rebound of his offensive potential.

Chipper’s under contract through 2012, but I’m still not convinced that he will continue to play after this season if he has another sub-par (by his standards) year.  He’s a key piece in our Christmas wish to give Bobby one more shot at the playoffs and we want to see Chipper Jones performance to bounce back a little closer to his career average numbers.  At the age of 38 just after the 2010 season begins, there aren’t many more seasons left for Chipper, so this is the year to give it one more run for Chipper and Bobby.

Troy Glaus: The Bridge to Freddie

Anyone that expects that the pending agreement between the Braves and Troy Glaus signifies a long-term first basemen coming to Atlanta, I wouldn’t hold your breath for too long.  After playing in only 14 games in the 2009 season and only 6 games at first base in his career, Glaus appears to be a one-year option (at an affordable rate of only $2 million mind you) to hold down the spot until Freddie Freeman is ready for the majors in 2011.  This shouldn’t be anything too new to Braves fans however; there was a story in the AJC earlier this week showing that Glaus will be the 12th different opening day first baseman for the Braves in the past 14 years.

Pending a physical in the next week or so, Troy Glaus will become the latest offseason addition to the 2010 lineup for the Braves.  So this begs the question; who is Troy Glaus?  He’s a 6′5″, 240-lb right-handed big man that, before undergoing shoulder surgery this past January, was one of the most reliable bats in Major League Baseball.  Glaus has had 5 seasons with 30 or more home runs (and twice been over 40) as well as 4 seasons with 100+ RBI.  If all goes as planned, he will likely fill the cleanup spot between Chipper Jones and Brian McCann.  This type of offensive threat could drive Chipper to have a little more production that he hasn’t seen since Mark Teixeira was batting behind him.

But this isn’t just a simple answer to the issues the Braves have a first base.  While Glaus batted .270 with 27 home runs and 99 RBI in 2008, he battled multiple ailments in 2009 and only played in a handful of games.  In that time he went 5-for-29 at the plate.  Thankfully, the Braves have the benefit of a full physical before finalizing the deal to bring Glaus to Atlanta.  If healthy, he could provide a little more offensive production, which is definitely on our Christmas wish list for 2010.

The part that scares me however is that he’s not really a first basemen.  Six games over a 12-year career at the position is hardly an experienced first basemen.  So the defensive aspect of this acquisition still leaves a lot to be questioned.  One question answered by this however is that this likely ends any hopes for Adam LaRoche to return to the Braves in 2010.  Despite hitting .385 in 2009 after returning to the Braves, the salary and contract term that would have been required to keep LaRoche around was a little more than the front office was looking to spend.  Once again, Glaus is nothing more than a cheap bridge until Freddie Freeman is ready to head to the majors.

So, until the season starts and we really see what Troy Glaus has got, it’s hard to tell the impact he will have on the team.  Financially, the moves by Frank Wren this week leave the Braves with around $7 million to spend, but will they?  Maybe we’ll see Jason Bay coming to Atlanta.  (Don’t hold your breath on that one, by the way.)  What else is there for the Brave to acquire this offseason?  What else do you want to see?  And more importantly, what does Glaus bring to the team?

Tags: First Base, Freddie Freeman, Free Agent Signing, offseason, Troy Glaus
Posted in Roster Moves | 1352No Comments »http://www.bravesblast.com/2009/12/25/troy-glaus-the-bridge-to-freddie/Troy+Glaus%3A+The+Bridge+to+Freddie2009-12-25+22%3A46%3A29Jonathan

BravesBlast 2009 Christmas Wish List

Well it’s that time of the year.  The BravesBlast crew is putting together our Christmas wish list for this offseason and 2010.  While 2009 provided a lot of highlights and improvements over the year before, there are still a lot of improvements and changes needed.  So we’ll take a minute from the normal Christmas desires for Playstations and electronics and power tools to talk about one of the things we miss the most this time of year.

5.  Add another setup man. The bullpen for the Braves is going to look a little different come 2010.  Gone are the days of Soriano and Gonzo splitting time in the 8th and 9th innings.  If all goes as planned, the 2010 season will see a lot of Takashi Saito working the 8th and Billy Wagner working closing duty.  If Wagner can come back successfully from his Tommy John surgery and return to his dominant closer form, the Braves will be a lot better off than they have been.  What we’d like to see however is one more quality setup man to help bridge the gap to the 8th/9th duo.  Bobby’s known for utilizing the bullpen a good bit (no thanks to the lack of quality starting pitching we saw before the 2009 season), but it can never hurt to have quality relievers to bail out your starters if need be.

4.  More offensive threats. It’s not a big secret that the Braves lack a big-name offensive threat since the departure of Mark Teixeira.  Let’s put some numbers behind it.  Last season, the Braves hit 149 home runs, ranking 22nd out of the 30 teams in the majors.  First place?  244.  And while the Braves may have the 5th best team batting average in the National League, they have only the 10th best slugging percentage; that equates to the 22nd ranked slugging percentage in all of baseball.  Offense isn’t just hitting however.  The Braves often lack the ability to be aggressive on the base path.  2009 saw all of 58 stolen bases for the Braves; next to last in baseball.  Having a little more power in the lineup however would open up a lot more opportunities for the team.

3.  Solidify the outfield. I’ve had issues with the outfield for the Braves for awhile now.  I still agree with the decision to move Francoeur just not necessarily what we got in exchange.  I’m happy to have McLouth around until we can bring up some of our prospects (which, by the way, we have a very stout outfield in the making if we can keep out prospects around).  I’m still not thrilled about the addition of Melky Cabrera, but I’m happy with some of the other pieces we got out of that trade.  So what’s the answer?  I say try to track down another power-hitting outfielder that can help with that previous item on my wish list.

2.  Find the next Bobby Cox. I know it’s not on the mind much yet, but this is Bobby’s last season managing the Braves and, while the focus needs to be on the season at hand, the future is important as well.  So the question is, who is the best option to fill the shoes of one of the most revered managers in the game?  To be honest, my answer to that question right now is that I just don’t know.  In the end, it needs to be someone that can maintain a positive clubhouse attitude……and get thrown out of games as well as Bobby (though that may just be a personal preference).

1.  Going all the way for Bobby. With it having been decided that 2010 is Bobby’s last year at the helm of the Braves, it’s only right that we send him out with the best season possible.  The ideal situation obviously is to get out there and take it all the way, but let’s start by focusing on what needs to happen in Atlanta.  We need playoff baseball back.  After so many years of getting used to having a few guaranteed October games, things have cooled off a little.  Let’s get Bobby back to the playoffs one last time!

So there you have it.  That’s what we’re looking for out of the organization as Christmas presents to us and the rest of the Braves family.  What’s on your wish list for the Braves?

Happy Holidays Everyone!