2009 Atlanta Braves

[Speedy]

Re: 2009 Atlanta Braves

I like the moves for the bullpen, although I think Wagner is a Type A FA (correct me if I'm wrong) which will make us give up a draft pick. I would assume this would give Wagner the closing duties with Saito & Moylan the set-up guys. Wren needs to sign one more bullpen guy as I doubt how long Moyland can last since Bobby used him a lot last year.

Is LaRoche going to be resigned or is Freeman going to get the chance to win the job in the spring?

[TheMatrix31]

Re: 2009 Atlanta Braves

Let's try to gravitate to the 2010 thread, I think?

[mattlanta]

Re: 2009 Atlanta Braves

I like the moves for the bullpen, although I think Wagner is a Type A FA (correct me if I'm wrong) which will make us give up a draft pick. I would assume this would give Wagner the closing duties with Saito & Moylan the set-up guys. Wren needs to sign one more bullpen guy as I doubt how long Moyland can last since Bobby used him a lot last year.

Is LaRoche going to be resigned or is Freeman going to get the chance to win the job in the spring?

Yes, Wagner is a Type A free agent. But we will basically be getting two more first round draft picks from Rafael Soriano and Mike Gonzalez from whichever teams sign them (since they are also Type A FA's).

I don't know if we need a bullpen arm anymore. It wouldn't hurt, but I think this is the year that Luis Valdez finally breaks out. When we first got him he had excellent stuff but had no control. Now he's come back in winter and is playing with excellent control... I think we ought to give him a shot.

Right now our bullpen looks like this:

LR Medlen
MR O'Flaherty
MR Valdez
MR Proctor/Acosta/Kimbrel
SU Saito
SU Moylan
CL Wagner

As for LaRoche... I highly doubt we re-sign him. Him being the top 1B of this class I think he'll be asking for more money than we're willing to pay him. Plus he is a lefty hitter, and we don't need yet another lefty hitter. And Freddie Freeman is not ready for the majors. He is IMO one and a half years away from being ready.

[crques]

Re: 2009 Atlanta Braves

I read yesterday that Soriano is going to accept arbitration and be back with the team next year. Our bullpen is going to be nasty if he does!

[jt45]

Re: 2009 Atlanta Braves

I read yesterday that Soriano is going to accept arbitration and be back with the team next year. Our bullpen is going to be nasty if he does!

And our payroll screwed....

[crques]

Re: 2009 Atlanta Braves

And our payroll screwed....

They're still trying to move Lowe, which would be great if they could find someone to take him. The Yankees are interested in starting pitching and according to Wren on MLB Homeplate the other day, at least 20 teams have contacted him about dealing for one of our starters.

[mattlanta]

Re: 2009 Atlanta Braves

They're still trying to move Lowe, which would be great if they could find someone to take him. The Yankees are interested in starting pitching and according to Wren on MLB Homeplate the other day, at least 20 teams have contacted him about dealing for one of our starters.

And I bet you all 20 of them were asking for Javier Vazquez. Derek Lowe is close to untradable right now... the fate of his contract lies in where Lackey goes. The only team that can afford to take on such a contract is the Yankees... and in order for them to do that, they'll have to somewhat be forced to take it on. Meaning they'll have to miss out on Lackey... miss out on the opportunity to re-sign Pettite... etc.

[mattlanta]

Re: 2009 Atlanta Braves

So... Soriano looks more and more like he will be accepting arbitration. Not really a big problem to me... I'd rather get the draft picks from him though. We can trade him... if he demands a trade, we can immediately trade him. We don't have to wait til June 1st to do so ... as long as he demands it. Maybe we can get more from him from a trade... more teams would be more willing to trade after knowing their draft picks are safe.

So yeah I'm doubting that he'll pitch for ATL. He'll acept... get his guaranteed $8M in money and demand a trade to somewhere he can close and re-enter the 2010 FA as a closer.

[Heisman316]

Re: 2009 Atlanta Braves

Soriano accepted, and we DFA'd Church. I wish we could've seen Church be the monster he was before getting hurt, that one season back.

[p_rushing]

Re: 2009 Atlanta Braves

you can read the winter meeting news here, http://twitter.com/ajcbraves

Braves GM Wren said an unidentified team might have trade interest in both Derek Lowe and Rafael Soriano.

I don't know how they could get rid of Lowe, but maybe its a package deal?

[Speedy]

Re: 2009 Atlanta Braves

I don't know how they could get rid of Lowe, but maybe its a package deal?

I don't care who we get in return, just do it. If Jurrjens was given his run support he'd probably have won the Cy Young (considering voters like Ws). I mean seriously, how many 5+ run leads did Lowe blow?

[mattlanta]

Re: 2009 Atlanta Braves

Y'all must have heard that we traded Soriano by now. It's not a bad trade. Not a flashy trade but the pitcher we picked up could be a solid bullpen arm for us, and he's only 26... If you're gonna hate... hate on the fact that we offered Soriano arbitration, not on this trade. Mission accomplished that we unloaded Soriano's contract... but we shouldn't have been in this situation all along. Like I said a few pages back, we shouldn't have offered both of our relievers arbitration... only the cheaper one.

[Heisman316]

Re: 2009 Atlanta Braves

This is the way I look at it.....

Chavez is better than the draft pick, he offers immediate help, bullpen looks good

Wagner
Saito
Moylan
O' Flaherty
Chavez
Medlen

On the other hand, if we wold not have offered Soriano, Gonzo may have signed therefore leaving us with a much better bullpen.

So, in conclusion, both cases would've worked well.

[jt45]

Re: 2009 Atlanta Braves

I like our bullpen. Our offense is still a huge question mark. We need to deal Lowe for a bat and sign Xavier Nady to play first. We do those two things and we should be in good shape.

The two wild cards are Schafer and Heyward both of those guys should be ready to help the big club by June.

[mattlanta]

Re: 2009 Atlanta Braves

This is the way I look at it.....

Chavez is better than the draft pick, he offers immediate help, bullpen looks good

Wagner
Saito
Moylan
O' Flaherty
Chavez
Medlen

On the other hand, if we wold not have offered Soriano, Gonzo may have signed therefore leaving us with a much better bullpen.

So, in conclusion, both cases would've worked well.

There's no way we would have signed Gonzalez. He was looking for a long-term deal worth around $7M per... he has more value than Soriano especially as a Boras client.