Yates Traded to Pirates

Written by Colin on March 26, 2008 – 10:51 am

The Braves traded out-of-options reliever Tyler Yates to the Pirates for minor league starter Todd Redmond.  Yates lost the battle to start the year out in the big leagues and the Braves chose to trade him rather than put him on waivers in hopes he’d make it back to the minors.

Redmond went 22-21 in 70 appearances over three seasons in the minors, after being drafted in the 39th round in 2004.  The 22 year old prospect has two solid pitches – a low 90s fastball and a curve, and he’s working on his changeup.  He apparently has great control – Baseball America says he’s got the best control in the Pirates’ minor league system.   He struck out 97 batters in 160 innings last year.

We should see Redmond go to either high A ball or AA ball.  I’m impressed that the Braves are able to get a decent pitching young pitching prospect for a middle reliever out of options.  We may never hear from Redmond again, but he could also continue to develop and see the big leagues before it’s all over.  The Braves do have one of the best development systems in baseball.  Welcome to the Braves organization, Todd.  Hope you enjoy your time here.


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Posted in Roster Moves | 5 Comments »

Trade Rumors Circle Optionless Players

Written by Colin on March 25, 2008 – 10:19 am

Frank Wren let loose this past weekend with a couple interesting tidbits regarding roster options heading into the season.  Firstly, there are trade talks surrounding many of the out of options players.  Secondly, the Braves have the payroll flexibility to add a player with a $3-4 million if necessary.  This puts us in a good position as Bobby and Frank finalize the 25-man roster.

Wren has said that teh Braves will take whatever player is the best fit for the team, and shop the other players around.  If the Braves don’t trade their out of options players, they’ll likely lose them on the waiver wire with no compensation.  What do other teams want with our leftovers?  Let’s break it down by player:

Brayan Pena

Corky Miller looks to be the favorite to win the backup catcher position, leaving Pena without a place.  He’s a switch hitter and can play first and third as well as outfield, which will make him in demand and valuable to other organizations.

Scott Thorman

Thorman has at times shown power potential that is interesting to some teams.  I’m really not sure what we’d be able to get for him – he’s not been very successful (putting it lightly) in his time in the big leagues, not to mention this spring.  He’s hitting .140 this spring.

The bullpen is congested – seven spots are available, but five of them appear to be spoken for.  Soriano, Moylan, Acosta, Bennett, and Ohman appear to be locks.  This leaves Blaine Boyer, Royce Ring, Chris Resop, and Tyler Yates competing for two spots.  Ridgway will likely get sent to AAA as he still has options left.  Boyer and Resop have been impressive and likely are the leaders for the last two spots (Resop has averaged a strikeout per inning, and Boyer has a 2.25 ERA in seven outings).  This leaves Yates and Ring.

Tyler Yates

Yates has been unimpressive so far this spring.  He’s walked 10 in 7 innings.  He’s also given up 7 hits.  But he’s a steady arm and will likely settle down once the season is moving.  For a team that needs depth in the bullpen, he could be an important addition.

Royce Ring

Royce Ring has immediate value to many bullpens because he’s a lefty, and left-handed specialists are in short supply.  This is the same reason the Braves may keep him – if they want another lefty to join Ohman, they may not want to wait for Mike Gonzalez to get healthy mid-season.  We’ll see what happens – he’d be useful to a lot of teams out there.

For one, I appreciate that the Braves are leaving enough room in their finances to be able to spend money going into the season.  I also appreciate that Wren isn’t just going to ship our guys through waivers and hope they make it to the minors.  We won’t know the magnitude of the goings on until the trigger is pulled on the trades, but as we hear it, we’ll report it.


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Posted in Roster Moves, Speculation | 8 Comments »

Braves Destroy Indians 11-4

Written by Colin on March 12, 2008 – 10:50 pm

The Braves’ offense beat the Indians to a pulp tonight as Brian McCann and Mark Teixeira led the offense to a nine-run fourth inning outburst.  McCann went 2-3 and knocked in three runs, while Teixeira went 3-3 and knocked in two runs, while scoring three runs himself.  The supporting role included Chipper Jones, Martin Prado and Jeff Francoeur with an RBI each.  Blaine Boyer even got in on the action with an RBI and a run scored of his own.

On the mound, the Braves started Buddy Carlyle, who looked decent early, but gave up three solo home runs when he seemed to think he was throwing batting practice.  Besides Boyer beating up on the Indians’ pitching staff, he pitched two scoreless innings with three strikeouts.  Tyler Yates got an inning in as well, where he walked two and struck out one.

Good to see Teixeira and McCann come out of their slow starts for a night and knock in some runs.  Both were very confident and solid at the plate.  We’ll need to rely on these guys all year to be competitive offensively.

In other news, Hampton pitched a successful simulation game, in which he pitched four innings and 59 pitches.  And he refrained from hurting his groin, breaking his elbow, or creating some other freak injury nobody has ever had before.  Good news is he had good movement on his curveball during the session.  He should see action early next week.

Next up is Chuck James in his spring debut against the Tigers.  He’ll pitch two innings and test his rotator cuff.  We’ll bring you the latest on that, too.


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Posted in Game Analysis | 2 Comments »

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