AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2008 > November > 02
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Welcome to Peavy Auction, er, GM meetings
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
While recovering from an ear-pummeling night at the Drive-By Truckers show, figured we should file a fresh blog before the early morning flight Monday to California and the GM meetings, a.k.a. the Jake Peavy Auction.
In the immortal words of Tom Waits:
“Well I’m goin’ out west, where the wind blows tall
‘Cause Tony Franciosa used to date my ma”
Now where were we? Oh, Peavy.
I don’t know if a trade will be finalized for the Padres ace this week, but the groundwork could at least be laid as the Braves and other teams ramp up the Peavy negotiations with San Diego GM Kevin Towers.
Oh, while I’m thinking about it, I’d just like to say that if my hearing’s permanently damaged — we awoke this morning thinking it might be — I’m blaming Mike Cooley, as I was standing 15 feet in front of the Truckers guitarist during the concert at Tabernacle, third stop of their “Rock and Roll Means Well” tour with The Hold Steady.
Anyway, that’s the price a middle-ager pays for serious rock from close range.
But back to the GM meetings. Are you good people ready to finally get this offseason market open in earnest, to replace the same old rumors with new developments and actual negotiations? Something tells me you’re (at least) as eager as I am for that.
A warning: We might go four days without anything significant happening at the general managers’ gathering at a posh resort in Dana Point, Calif. These aren’t the Winter Meetings, after all.
That’s where the action really gets going, and that’s not for another month, out in Vegas (where there might be plenty of other action, too. What pagan picked Vegas?)
But there’s reason to pay attention this week, because Braves GM Frank Wren has shown in the past that he’s not shy about pulling the trigger on a deal if the opportunity presents itself. That could happen at any time.
It’s been quite a while since the Braves entered an offseason with as much money to spend (probably more than $40 million) or as many major needs to fill (two proven starting pitchers and a power-hitting outfielder).
So there has been, and will continue to be, a lot of interest and rumors involving the Braves’ push to fill those needs. But they’re also not going to be pressured into making a move quickly out of panic or just to satisfy skeptics.
“We’re prepared to move on something if the opportunity is there,” Wren said when I talked to him Saturday, before he and top assistants headed to Southern California. “I still think people are going to be, to some degree, looking at free-agent market and how that develops, and that’s still a couple weeks away.”
Plenty of teams will be patient and see how the market begins to shape up, and which free agents are offered arbitration by their current teams before a Dec. 1 deadline to do so. By waiting until then to sign some players who aren’t offered arbitration, a team can sometimes avoid giving up a compensatory draft pick.
If a free agent isn’t offered arbitration by his current team, that team doesn’t get compensation, regardless of the free agent’s ranking.
“It’s all part of it,” Wren said of offseason process. “We’ve got some ideas of what we can do and what we want to do, but until we get in that market we won’t know exactly. But we’re prepared. If a trade presents itself in the next seven to 10 days, we’re prepared to make a deal.”
Speaking of free-agent rankings, in case you missed it when I posted the blog comment Saturday regarding Will Ohman: His end-of-season slump dropped him from would-be Class B status, meaning the Braves won’t get compensation if another team signs the lefty reliever.
“We would have liked to have had a draft pick for him, if we don’t re-sign him,” said Wren, who at the July 31 trade deadline said the Braves held onto Ohman in large part because they didn’t get any offers they deemed good enough to forgo a draft pick they might get for Ohman if they lost him as a free agent.
Wren told me Saturday the Braves have interest in re-signing Ohman, as well as their other key free agents, John Smoltz and Greg Norton.
The Smoltz matter has been covered at length here and elsewhere. But just to reiterate: Wren and the Braves plan to wait until later this winter, perhaps not until January, to see if the 41-year-old pitcher, recovering from shoulder surgery, has a better idea whether he’ll be able to pitch next season.
The Braves might also have to wait to see where the market goes for Ohman and other lefties before knowing if they can/will make a competitive offer for the reliever, who has indicated a desire to return if there’s a good offer.
As for Norton, Wren said he’s talked to the veteran pinch-hitter’s agent a couple of times. Sounds to me like that could be a deal that gets done and perhaps relatively quickly, though that’s merely my gut feeling.
In the meantime, the Braves won’t put all eggs in one proverbial basket regarding Peavy, the 2007 Cy Young Award winner who’s under contract for four more years, or five if an option is exercised in 2012 (he’s owed $63 million over four years if that option isn’t exercised, $81 mill over five if it is).
They want him badly, but talks have been at a standstill for more than a week as the Braves have refused to include top prospects including pitcher Tommy Hanson and outfielder Jason Heyward in the multi-prospect/player package the Padres want for a 27-year-old who is a top-tier pitcher by any reasonable standard.
Peavy’s a bonafide ace, an Alabama native who loves the South and grew up a Braves fan and has indicated he’d waive his no-trade clause to come to Atlanta. His only resume blemish: DL stints for elbow soreness — one this season — and an unorthodox delivery that some have described as “violent” and have speculated will make him more prone to major injury.
Regardless, at least a handful of NL teams that Peavy might agree to be traded to have expressed interest, and the Padres were expected to talk this weekend to the Cubs, Brewers and Cardinals to gauge what they might part with to get him.
The Peavy rumors will undoubtedly pick up this week when the GMs convene in Dana Point, which is on the Pacific between Los Angeles and San Diego (by the way, Dana Point is where Peavy mentor Greg Maddux has a home).
Wren will not even acknowledge Peavy discussions, much less provide updates on where the sensitive talks have progressed. But he did say the Braves are approaching the task of filling their offseason needs on many fronts, not focusing all their attention on any one potential blockbuster trade.
“You’ve got to have your plan in place overall,” he said, “which is what we’ve tried to do. We’ve got a good sense of what we want to do.”
He won’t name names, but that could mean if the Peavy deal falls through, the Braves focus even more attention on free agents such as Derek Lowe and A.J. Burnett, whose price tags are likely to surpass the average amount owed to Peavy over the next four seasons, but wouldn’t cost the Braves prospects in a trade.
They could use those prospects they are willing to trade in a deal or deals for a No. 2- or No. 3-type starter and to fill that outfield need, which could become an even bigger priority if the Braves don’t fortify their rotation as well as they hope to through trades or free agency.
So many ways this could go, but keep in mind that some outfielders we might not know about yet could become available in trade when GMs start hashing things out this week over meetings, drinks, rounds of golf, etc.
So, what should we expect out of these meetings?
Wren: “It’s hard to say. I think it could be that a lot happens, or it could be somewhat uneventful. I think a lot of people are ready for something to happen.”
Hanson, Flowers hot in desert: Wren plans to stop off in Arizona on the way back from California next week to see how a few Braves prospects are doing in the Fall League.
Of particular interest will be the aforementioned Tommy Hanson, who’s scheduled to pitch Nov. 6 with Wren and other Braves officials in attendance. Hanson is 3-0 in four starts and has yet to allow a run in 13-2/3 innings, with 19 strikeouts and only three walks and four hits allowed.
The 22-year-old right-hander is continuing the stunning progress he made this year at high-A Myrtle Beach and Double-A Mississippi, where he threw a no-hitter with 14 strikeouts.
“He’s doing very well,” Wren said. “This whole season has been pretty amazing for him.”
Hanson finished the minor league season 11-5 with a 2.41 ERA and 163 strikeouts in 138 innings, and his .175 opponents’ average that led all minor league starters.
Hanson, Flowers and other Braves prospects are playing for the Mesa Solar Sox and manager Rocket Wheeler, who also happens to be the Myrtle Beach manager.
Hanson is doing a blog on his experiences out there. Here’s the most recent entry I could find. Get on their and tell the young man how much you’re looking forward to seeing him pitch for the Braves — or for the Padres (just kidding).
It’s at http://aflbraves.mlblogs.com/
There’s also a link there to “guest blogger” Tyler Flowers’ entry, with a photo of the burly Marietta native.
Speaking of Flowers, he’s absolutely bashing out west. The big boy from the Atlanta ‘burbs, who put on power-hitting displays in major league spring training with the Braves a year ago, is crushing long balls and everything else in Arizona.
The 6-4, 250-pound catcher/first baseman was tied for the AFL league lead with six homers in 12 games before Sunday while hitting a robust .419 (18-for-43) with a .510 OBP and league-best marks in slugging percentage (1.023) and OPS (1.533). Those aren’t typos. He’s going nuts out there.
Twelve of his 18 hits have been for extra bases, including four doubles and two triples (how that big dude has two triples, I’m having a hard time imagining).
Wren also noted the AFL work of Stephen Marek, who’s allowed five hits, no walks and no earned runs in seven innings over seven relief appearances. The hard-throwing right-hander came from the Angels as the largely overlooked part of the Mark Teixeira trade, and it sounds like Marek will compete for a spot in the Braves’ opening day bullpen.
Get to know your doctor: Dr. James Andrews isn’t on the Braves’ payroll. It just seems like he is after a season in which he operated on pitchers John Smoltz, Tim Hudson, Tom Glavine, Rafael Soriano, Peter Moylan, Chuck James … am I forgetting anyone?
Anyway, I thought the denizens might be interested in this story about Andrews that appeared in a trade mag, Fast Company. Here’s the link
Quite a twin bill: The Hold Steady turned in an impressive 90-minute set to open last night’s show, ignoring an early start (just after 7:30 p.m.) and the still-arriving crowd. It’s an outstanding band, if you haven’t heard ‘em, and the Stay Positive CD is one of my favorites this year.
As for the Truckers … well, do they ever disappoint? How can a band lose someone as talented as Jason Isbell and seemingly not miss a beat? Their live shows are, as always, blistering, raging rock-n-roll experiences, and this was certainly no exception.
They ripped it up for just over two hours, and the encore included a sublime, pile-driving, five-guitar cover of Neil Young’s Rockin’ In the Free World, with most of The Hold Steady joining the Truckers for an all-hands-on-deck tour de force that I’m sure they’ll reprise at most stops on this tour.
If you go, don’t dare leave until the end.
”SINK HOLE” by Drive-By Truckers
I’ve always been a religious man, I ‘ve always been a religious man
but I met the banker and it felt like sin, he turned my bailout down
The Banker Man, he let into me, let into me, let into me
The Banker Man, he let into me and spread my name around
He thinks I ain’t got a lick of sense cause I talk slow and my money’s spent
Now, I ain’t the type to hold it against, but he better stay off my farm
Cause it was my Daddy’s and his Daddy’s before
and his Daddy’s before and his Daddy’s before
Five generations and an unlocked door and a loaded burglar alarm.
Lots of pictures of my purdy family, lots of pictures of my purdy family
lots of pictures of my purdy family in the house where I was born.
House has stood through five tornadoes,
Droughts, floods, and five tornadoes.
I’d rather wrastle an alligator than to face the Banker’s scorn
Cause he won’t even look me in the eye
He just takes my land and apologize,
with pen, paper, and a friendly smile, he says the deed is done.
The sound you hear is my Daddy spinning, The sound you hear is my Daddy spinning
The sound you hear is my Daddy spinning over what the Banker done.
Like to invite him for some pot roast beef and mashed potatoes and sweet tea
follow it up with some banana pudding and a walk around the farm
Show him the view from McGee Town Hill
Let him stand in my shoes and see how it feels
to lose the last thing on earth that’s real
I’d rather lose my legs and arms
Bury his body in the old sink hole. Bury his body in the old sink hole
Bury his body in the old sink hole under cold November sky
Then damned if I wouldn’t go to church on Sunday
Damned if I wouldn’t go to church on Sunday
Damned if I wouldn’t go to church on Sunday
and look the Preacher in the eye.
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