Can We Get Some Pitching Up In This Joint? Please?

The Braves couldn’t keep Tim Hudson healthy. They couldn’t trade for Jake Peavy because the Padres were being stupid about it. Now, they couldn’t sign A.J. Burnett because the Yankees play in a city closer to Maryland (Burnett’s wife doesn’t fly? Huh?), we can’t sign the best starter left on the market. Throw us a frickin’ bone here.

So what are we going to do? Let Vazquez be our ace? Thrust Jair Jurrjens into the spotlight as a sophomore in the bigs? Make Jorge Campillo draw a ridiculous amount out of his arm?

Who else is on the market? Derek Lowe. Oh, the Yankees already made a move on him? The way they’re spending this off-season, who wouldn’t sign with them? We could always revive talks for Peavy, but Frank Wren has made it clear that the Braves will no longer offer the same package they did last month when they were in talks with the Padres. Brent Lillibridge is gone (must find new minor leaguer to talk about incessantly to bug Jonathan) and the Braves no longer have interest in trading Yunel Escobar (which I think is good). The Padres have probably not gotten more reasonable about it, which means the best pitcher in the NL will spend next year pitching for a horrible team in San Diego.

Meanwhile, we’re still without an ace. We have a good #2 guy in Jurrjens and Vazquez will be a decent #3 starter to eat innings, but where do we stand? In a very uncertain place.

And I’m not all that certain it’s going to get much better. Which scares me.

What do you think will happen?

Burnett To Yankees…Now What?

It seems that Hal Steinbrenner, Brian Cashman and the Yankees have it out for the Braves this offseason.  As part of their $243.5 million thus-far shopping spree, the Yankees have now added AJ Burnett to their rotation, just shortly after signing CC Sabathia.  Burnett and the Yankees agreed to terms on a five-year, $82.5 million offer, pending a physical and some other small terms.

The real question is, where does this leave the Braves in the pursuit to find pitching this offseason.  So far, extended discussions for a trade with the Padres for Jake Peavy have not panned out.  Then the Yankees outbid us for the services of Burnett.  So what do we do about an ace at this point?  I can’t even begin to figure out what the 2009 rotation looks like at this point in time.

It appears the next logical pursuit for Frank Wren would be Derek Lowe.  But wait, the Yankees have apparently moved on to pursue Lowe now as well.  Maybe I’m the only one that thinks the Yankees just have too much money to throw at players…..actually, no I’m not.  Everyone that’s not a Yankees fan thinks that.

I was planning on using this evening to put together a recap post about Winter Meetings but I think this news story pretty much sums it up.  The Braves need starting pitching….badly….the end.  So where do we go from here, Braves fans?  Things are starting to look a little grim on the 2009 front and it’s still December.

Peavy NOT to Cubs

With Jake Peavy not going to the Cubs, do the Braves have a chance of landing him? That’d be nice, though improbable.

Imagine the rotation with me in your mind’s eye:
Peavy
Burnett
Jurrjens
Vazquez
Hanson/Morton/Campillo

Ok, so it won’t happen, but the main purpose of this blog was to let you know that Peavy is not in fact going to the Cubs. If the Braves fail to land Burnett, I think we’ll probably make another run at Peavy… If we don’t, we’re going to be in horrible shape this year – just imagine this:

Vazquez
Jurrjens
Campillo
Morton
Smoltz

Not a BAD rotation, but not very good. It’d need some help. Just as long as we never have to pencil in Jo-Jo Reyes or Chuck James as part of our planned rotation, I won’t be crying in a fetal position.

Here’s hoping we land Burnett. Word has it he won’t sign at the winter meetings, so don’t hold your breath. And also, let’s not give him too much money. We still need that power bat.

Other news: the Rule V draft happened today. I can’t really tell you what happened as I don’t see news about it in prominent places, and I’m currently unable to go digging. I’ll post something eventually, hopefully.

Vazquez: Good or Bad?

Watch out, Braves fans, here comes another sub-standard, past-his-prime, DL-bound pitcher to the Braves lineup.  At first, I was excited when I was told about the Javier Vazquez news because I thought it meant we were getting rid of Jo-Jo Reyes once and for all and maybe getting a bit of a veteran. Then I read Vazquez’s stats for the past two seasons and found out that Jo-Jo was, in fact, staying (for now). To say the least, I am not excited – not even a little bit.

Maybe I’m just let down by Vazquez’s 12 and 16 (4.67 ERA) in 2008 and  15-8 (3.74 ERA) in 2007 with recent Peavy and Burnett talks, and the fact that he has been getting progressively worse (and older) over the past few years.  Some chalk it up to the White Sox’s hitter-friendly field, but that is not an acceptable excuse when the decline seems somewhat, well, linear.  Is Javier Vazquez worth Brent Lillibridge, Jon Gilmore, and Santos Rodriguez? Yes. Is he worth Jo-Jo? Heck, I’ll give you Jo-Jo for less than the Calgary Vipers accepted as a trade for John Odom. But here is my point: is Vazquez worth catching prospect Tyler Flowers? Nope, not with those numbers, and not with the past few years’ decrease in performance. I am not convinced that we have made a good decision on this one.

Peavy in Atlanta would raise some eyebrows and some hopes, but Cub’s pitcher Ryan Dempster trumps Peavy in my book and I wouldn’t mind seeing him step onto Turner Field time and time again.  Additionally, shelling out some money for C.C. Sabathia gives us a strong and consistent arm, including a pretty decent bat.  Heck, what about Brewer’s pitcher Ben Sheets? With Winter Meetings less than a week away, it’s time to get creative, optimistic, and make some good decisions for the club as a whole. Our needs are obvious, and it’s time for us to step up to the plate.

Hampton Gone, Other Updates

Mike Hampton is suffering from Tom Glavine Syndrome. He accepted a contract with the Houston Astros for less money than the Braves were offering to be closer to his kids. While we can’t fault him, we sure can make fun of him for taking just over $95,000 each inning. And by make fun of him, we do mean “be jealous of” him – wouldn’t we all take that job? Hope he can stay healthy for the Astros. Looks like it’s a one year, $2 million contract. We wish him nothing but the best. The Braves now need to fill 3 spots in the rotation.

ESPN is reporting that the Braves are not likely to get Jake Peavy, but it could be revived at any time. Speculation is that our offer is still on the table and that if the Padres decide to play ball, we’ll end up with Peavy after all. Sounds like they’re just being unreasonable with what they want for Peavy.

ESPN also said that with $40 million to spend, the Braves will upgrade their starting pitching. No duh. That was helpful. I could have a TV show if that’s all I needed to say.

Looks like the Braves didn’t land Junichi Tazawa, the 22 year old Japanese phenom. Two separate newspaper reports indiciate he’ll sign with the Red Sox on a 3 year major league contract soon. That’s a shame – I’d have loved to see him pitch here in Atlanta. Here’s hoping two major newspapers are full of crap.

What do you think the Braves can do from this point forward to make the best of the offseason?  No CC? No Peavy? No Tazawa? Should we forget about pitching and just buy all the offense we want? If not, who do we want?

Braves End Peavy Talks

As reported by the AJC this afternoon, the Braves have ended negotiations with the Padres for pitcher Jake Peavy.  Frank Wren personally informed the Padres’ GM that Braves were actively pursuing starting pitching for the 2009 season and could no longer wait on the Padres to make a decision regarding the trade offer that was on the table.

Wren also stated that adding a couple of new starters to the rotation remains the top priority for the offseason.  The question is, what are the next options for Wren and the organization to pursue in the coming months?

Today marks the deadline after which all teams can begin making offers to declared free agents that were previously signed by other teams.  We’ll see what develops in the upcoming weeks, but it’s time to move on from the pursuit of Peavy to see what other options are available. 

Braves Atop Peavy Heap

The New York Post is reporting that the Braves are atop the Peavy pile and that currently many expect we’ll have Peavy pitching for us next season.

“The Jake Peavy sweepstakes will proceed concurrently with the World Series, and the expectation of major league executives polled over the past two days is that the Braves are going to end up with the Padre right-hander… The Braves…have the base from which to make a deal and a history of packaging youngsters to get veterans they crave such as Mark Teixeira and Tim Hudson. They also are willing to move quickly, as exhibited by the Oct. 29 deal made last year in which they obtained Jair Jurrjens and Gorkys Hernandez from Detroit for Edgar Renteria, the first major trade of the past offseason. And the Braves appear more motivated than the Cardinals, Cubs or Dodgers to jump out for Peavy.”

That’s what I like to hear. Only question now is how many prospects we have to get rid of to land Peavy for four years.  Yunel Escobar or Kelly Johnson (or both) will likely have to go.  Other names mentioned include Jo-Jo Reyes, Charlie Morton, possibly Tommy Hanson, and even Jordan Schafer.  Who knows what the Braves will be willing to part with, but there are hints they are going to try and keep the carnage as insignificant as possible.  The bottom line with any of the pitching prospects is that we hope they turn into someone like Peavy, and getting Peavy for four years is a pretty good return on a prospect that may not be that good for that long.

Chipper Jones has described Peavy as the “perfect fit” according to the AJC, and also would love to see the Braves go after A.J. Burnet, who will be a free agent.

How you like us now, NL East?

Peavy Rumors And More

Greetings folks – it’s Thursday and time for some random updates.

• The AJC’s Braves blogs appear to be abuzz with the possibility of trading for someone like Jake Peavy, who would certainly be fitted for the Braves, who need an ace for the upcoming season.  The 2007 Cy Young winner was only 10-11 last year, but he did play for the Padres, who, for lack of a better phrase, absolutely sucked. Apparently Peavy is available for the right price, though a proposal has probably not been put on the table yet. Do you think he’d be a good fit?
• Maybe Furcal is cheaper after committing three errors on the Dodgers’ way to the showers for the season, eh? I’d take cheaper.
• What sort of power outfielder do you think the Braves have more chance of landing?  A Matt Holliday type? A Manny type? Xavier Nady? Or should we trade our best box of toothpicks for Andruw (I’m kidding, I’m kidding).

To me, I’d love to see Peavy on the team – but no way of knowing if we can swing it. We NEED an ace. Is Peavy the dude for us?

2008 Preseason Awards

We’re going to dig into this year’s preseason and hand out some of our own awards and make predictions as to the end of season awards.

Preseason Team Awards

Best AL Team: Detroit Tigers
Best NL Team: New York Mets (I said it, but I’m not happy about it.)
Most Hyped Team: New York Mets
Worst AL Team: Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Worst NL Team: Florida Marlins (this was a no-brainer.  The state of Florida is apparently cursed.)
Best AL Division: The AL East beats out the Central for this title with the Blue Jays being the determining factor.
Best NL Division: The East is strong (and beats out the West) with the Mets, Phillies, and Braves all looking for the division title.  We should see some great baseball out of this division all season long.
Worst AL Division:  The West is going to be ugly with Oakland, Seattle, and Texas.  Texas should be on the rise, but Oakland completely disassembled whatever they had last year in their fire sale.
Worst NL Division:  The NL Central has a couple teams that are decent (Chicago and Milwaukee), but Cincinnati, Houston, and Pittsburgh bring the division down to the worst in the NL.

This year is going to be fun to watch in several divisions – the AL East and Central promise to be intriguing, as do the NL East and West.  The Tigers and Indians are going to create some great story lines, and we’re all familiar with the NL East and the competition we’ll see there this year.

Preseason Individual Awards

AL MVP: Alex Rodriguez
NL MVP: Matt Holliday
AL Cy Young: C.C. Sabathia
NL Cy Young: Jake Peavy
AL Batting Title: Ichiro Suzuki
NL Batting Title: Matt Holliday
AL HR Title: Alex Rodriguez
NL HR Title: Ryan Howard

There we go – our projections for the individual awards in 2008.  No, we don’t think Johan Santana will win the NL Cy Young award this year – he’s a great pitcher, but I think Peavy will pull it out this year.  The others don’t have many surprises – Matt Holliday is a very solid hitter that is only helped by the fact that he plays in Colorado.