This blog has moved! Yes, already!
As of Thursday, Feb. 12, this little blog has relocated to a new home on AJC.com. It’s the same newspaper, the same Web site and the same writer (feel free to groan) — there’s just a new URL.
New features: Bigger type, more graphics, comments that load 10 times faster and a larger and more recent photo that makes me look pretty doggone old. I think you’ll like it (the blog, not the photo). But I am, as we know too well, often wrong.
Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > September > 29
Monday, September 29, 2008
Braves hope to be big shoppers this off-season
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit Frank Wren for candor. Asked Monday where the Braves as constituted would fare in 2009, he said: “We’d have a team that would finish somewhere in the middle of the pack.”
For “the great, grand organization” — John Schuerholz’s timeless description — it was a major concession. For the first time in nearly 20 years, the Braves are acknowledging that they require outside assistance. They no longer have enough good players under contract to consider themselves contenders.
“That’s where we are, talent-wise,” said Wren, who succeeded Schuerholz as general manager last October and who saw the first Braves team of his design finish with the franchise’s worst record since 1990. “Offensively, if we did nothing, we’d be OK. We need more power production.”
And starting pitchers, Wren allowed, are a more pressing need. He wants to find two of them, and the fan’s kneejerk response is to think, “No problem! We just buy CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets!” Without quite saying such a thing isn’t going to happen, Wren hinted it isn’t going to happen.
“Our first priority would be developing our own players,” Wren said. “Second would be to trade for them. Third would be the free-agent market.”
Speaking specifically of free-agent outfielders, Wren said: “It’s not real good. It’s not a real deep market.” Speaking of free-agent starting pitchers: “The marketplace in some respects is dwindling. It’s a very, very competitive market. We’d like to get a couple. That being said, the market keeps going down.”
Does Wren have a notion of how much money he’ll be able to spend? “I have a pretty good idea. Our payroll will be north of where it was this year.”
Far north? Due north? North to Alaska?
Said Wren, smiling: “It will be going up again.”
It won’t, alas, go up so much as to allow $20 million a year for Sabathia. The Braves haven’t trafficked in big-ticket free agents since signing Brian Jordan in 1998. They might make an overture to someone this winter, but it’s more likely they’ll have to find pitching via trade. That’s what happens when you stop growing your own.
Wren contends his minor-league system is deep in pitching, but it’s not deep in the sense that there’s a Glavine and a Smoltz and an Avery ready to break upward. It’s deep in terms of numbers, as opposed to top-shelf quality. The greatest value some of these minor-leaguers will have to the Braves is as bait.
But are you apt to find a No. 1 and a No. 2 starter for a package of Class AA arms? With everyone needing pitching, exactly what do the Braves have to offer that’s so compelling?
And now we come to the indication that the Braves are really and truly desperate: They’d like to re-sign Mike Hampton, and not as one of the two starters Wren wants to import. He’d be in addition to those.
“We need some older pitchers,” Wren said, meaning to augment youngsters Jair Jurrgens and Charlie Morton. But that, sad to say, is how the Braves got here in the first place. They banked on aging pitchers, and three of those just had arm surgery. And now the question: How do you fill out a defoliated rotation in one winter?
Grim answer: You probably don’t. Wren will surely try, and he’s chipper about his chances: “We have the financial resources and the prospects [to trade].” But reality figures to set in soon enough. No longer grand and no longer great, the fourth-place Braves stand to get worse before they get better.
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Bradley’s Buzz: The fallout after Georgia’s fall
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Dogs, the Tide and the future
This feature is in just its seventh week of operation, but already I feel a proprietary interest. Indeed, as I was leaving the Sanford Stadium press box Saturday night — actually Sunday morning — I told Pat Forde of ESPN.com and Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports, “You national guys be sure to write something good so I can link to it.”
Said Wetzel, gesturing to his computer and referencing the strange Nick Saban press conference we’d just attended: “I’m afraid this [effort] is more like Alabama’s second half than Alabama’s first half.”
Luckily for Buzz readers, he was being modest. Some very fine journalism was committed after a surprisingly lopsided game. Here’s Wetzel on Coach Satan, and here’s Forde on Alabama. And here’s Dennis Dodd of CBSsports.com on why the Tide deserves to be No. 1.
And here, from Andy Staples of SI.com, is a dismissal of Georgia’s national-championship hopes, which I must point out stands in opposition to what I wrote about the Bulldogs for the ol’ AJC. For a more detailed take on what the events of last week mean in the grand scheme, check out this breakdown from Pete Flutak of FoxSports.com, who suggests Georgia (or Florida) could still play for the national title if it wins the rest of its games.
And here’s a technical analysis of just why the game wound up the way it did. Matt Hayes of the Sporting News judges Alabama’s offensive line alongside Georgia’s and finds more contrasts than comparisons.
And here’s a promise: In the interest of variety, next Monday’s Buzz will not — repeat, will not — be yet another aggregation of Georgia postgame links. Know why? Because Georgia doesn’t play this week. Hee, hee.
Misery loves (and has lots of) company
When the local team crashes, there’s nothing quite like reading about some other team’s flop to restore some perspective. In that spirit, here’s a quick trip around the South to other losing locales.
In Jacksonville for Florida State’s victory over Colorado, Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel describes FSU’s glee over Florida’s loss to Ole Miss. Writing for the Gainesville Sun, Pat Dooley paints a portrait of a crestfallen Tim Tebow.
Georgia fans grieving over one loss need to step back and imagine how it would feel to have lost twice already. Clemson has, and Bart Wright of the Greenville News says time might at last be running out on Tommy Bowden.
And Tennessee just lost its third game, prompting John Adams of the Knoxville News-Sentinel to do what we columnists do when we’re not firing the head coach — call for a change of quarterbacks.
Tech could go 11-1, says Tech player
Defensive end Michael Johnson, in an as-told-to effort in Sporting News Today, says we shouldn’t be surprised if his team finishes 11-1 and avers “the only team that can beat Georgia Tech is Georgia Tech.”
Don’t laugh. Tech is actually pretty good. And I well remember Ken Swilling saying Tech would go undefeated in 1990. It finished 11-0-1 and was the UPI national champion.
Tex must be re-signed! (Your turn, Angels!)
Writing in the Los Angeles Times, the venerable Ross Newhan — whose son David played baseball at Georgia Tech — lobbies for the L.A. teams to keep their high-profile midseason acquisitions long-term. In the Dodgers’ case, he means Manny Ramirez. In the Angels’, he means Mark Teixeira, of whom you’ve heard.
Scott Boras represents Teixeira. Scott Boras also represents Ramirez. Scott Boras runs baseball. But you knew that already.
Speaking of Scott Boras …
I’m guessing you can guess the identity of the Boras client Jayson Stark of ESPN.com calls the National League’s least valuable player. Here are three hints: The guy used to be thin, used to be really good and used to be a Brave. Now he’s none of the above.
Ode to a Grecian earner
According to Bill Ingram of Hoopsworld, Josh Childress missed the game-winning shot in his debut for Olympiakos and hasn’t looked like a world-beater in any of his first three appearances. Hawks loyalists might see this as karma for Childress’ abrupt departure. Me, I believe the Hawks forfeited all claim to karma when they drafted Shelden Williams.
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