AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2009 > January > 23
Friday, January 23, 2009
Sutton and/or Andruw returning?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A few thoughts while we wait for possible announcements that Don Sutton could be returning to the Braves broadcast booth and Andruw Jones to the outfield.
Neither is a done deal, though I’ve got a feeling both will happen. I’m more confident about Sutton’s return than Jones’. If they can get Don out of his contract with the Nationals, he’ll join new Braves radio hire Jim Powell, a Univ. of Georgia and Roswell High alum who’s spent the past 13 seasons sharing a booth with Brewers legend Bob Uecker.
Powell’s hiring hasn’t been announced by the Braves, only because they were hoping to introduce him and Sutton together.
And I should clarify regarding Andruw: I think the Braves are leaning toward re-signing him, but I don’t think it’s a given he’ll be returning to their outfield, even if they give him a major league contract.
Because first, he would have to show this spring that he’s ready to play, that he’s repaired some of the grossly damaged swing that’s made him one of the very worst hitters in baseball over the past couple of seasons. Otherwise, the Braves could cut him in spring training and only pay a percentage of the already small salary he’d have in his contract with the Braves.
It should be noted again, whatever salary he gets from the Braves or any other team that signs him this year will be in addition to the $21.1 million he’s still owed and will be paid by the Dodgers, to complete the two-year, $36.2 million contract they gave him after the 2007 season.
He gave the Dodgers 33 hits including three homers, and they’ll give him $36.2 million for the production. Every time I type that, I’m astounded.
In case you missed my update buried within the comments section of the last blog, I talked to agent Scott Boras on Thursday, and he said Andruw wasn’t likely to make a decision before late next week. Boras also said again that eight teams called him about Andruw last week after the Dodgers released the center fielder.
(For those unfamiliar with the details, Boras worked out a deal with the Dodgers in which the team agreed to release him Jan. 15 if they hadn’t traded him by then, and Jones agreed to take a $5 million salary from the Dodgers this season with the rest of the $21.1 they owed him to be deferred over six years.)
I don’t know which other teams were among those Boras says called him, but I do know the Marlins have expressed interest. For what it’s worth, Andruw once said Dolphins Stadium was the worst ballpark in the majors to play in, but he does love South Florida and has a condo on South Beach in Miami.
But really, I think he’s just waiting for the Braves to make an offer, and the Braves might be waiting to open a spot for him. But I should add, they’ve not shown any real enthusiasm about the idea of bringing him back, and he’d not be considered the bat they’ve been and continue searching for.
Rather, he’d be a very small gamble they’d hope would pay off, nothing more. GM Frank Wren, who’s said very little other than they’re discussing Jones, has made it clear the Braves have no sense of urgency now in pursuing that big outfield bat they’ve been looking for since the end of last season.
But that sense of urgency being eliminated has nothing to do with Jones. Rather, it was a result of improvements they’ve made to their starting rotation and the availability of many hitter options still unsigned or possibly being offered in trades.
My feeling is that in the Braves’ view, they’ve beefed up their pitching staff enough that it’s not quite as urgent that they add offense right now, though they clearly are (and should be) still exploring many options, ranging from signing a free agent like Adam Dunn (less than likely) to trading for guy like the Yankees’ Nick Swisher (he’s under contract for three more years, so Yankees are reluctant to trade him for anything less than multiple young players) or the Yankees’ Xavier Nady (very attractive, good fit for the Braves, but potentially too costly in terms of trading young talent for a one-year rental — Nady’s a free agent after the 2009 season, and a Boras client.
Ken Rosenthal has also mentioned the interesting possibility of the Braves trading for Orioles 2B Brian Roberts, which makes some sense because he fits much the way Rafael Furcal would’ve fit — the Braves could move Kelly Johnson to left field, plug Roberts at 2B and have the proven leadoff guy they need.
Again, the Braves don’t portray a sense of any pressure to do anything right away. But part of that might also be that they don’t want other teams believing they are determined to do something, not like the Padres must have felt when Kevin Towers believed the Braves were so determined to get Jake Peavy that Towers allegedly keep asking for more young talent and the Braves would keep agreeing to add it to the package for Peavy.
(By the way, it looks like that Peavy-to-Cubs thing might finally happen, but you all are probably so numb to the whole Jake thing that you might not care. So I won’t bother repeating the latest update on that scenario.)
Change we can believe in: Did you see the Braves’ non-roster invitee list released yesterday? Now that was a nice change of pace from past years.
Instead of the flotsam and jetsam the Braves usually invite, the Borchards and Thormans and other has-been’s or never-were’s, the Braves are bringing to Dark Star some dynamic young talent from their minor league organization - an organization that, we should add, is once again one of the most highly regarded in all of baseball, after some lean years when the Braves’ top prospects were mostly at the lower levels of the organization, several years away from making an impact at the big-league level.
Now, the Braves have a handful of prospects that many rank among the best in all of baseball, and these are guys who could all be in Atlanta within the next two or three years, including pitchers Tommy Hanson and Kris Medlen, who I believe will both make their major league debuts this season.
Hanson is the gem, of course, a 22-year-old who dominated the prospect-laden Arizona Fall League, outpitching the likes of Phil Hughes and Max Scherzer and leaving a strong impression on hitters including catcher Matt Wieters, who cited Hanson as the toughest pitching prospect he’s faced.
Hanson, rated the No. 1 prospect in the Braves organization by Baseball America, and Medlen were on the list of 16 non-roster invitees to camp, along with the Big Man from Henry County, 6-foot-4 outfielder Jason Heyward; slugging first baseman Freddie Freeeman; and center fielder Jordan Schafer, who should be taking over the starting job at some point in ‘09, possibly even by opening day.
ESPN scouting guru Keith Law rated Heyward even higher than Hanson in Law’s list of the top 100 prospects in baseball, which came out Thursday. Law had Heyward rated the third-best prospect, behind Wieters and Tampa Bay pitcher David Price, who you may remember from the World Series. Just 19 years old, Heyward is four years younger than Price and three years young than Wieters.
Hanson was ranked No. 9 by Law, who ranked the Braves’ farm system fourth in the majors, behind Texas, Tampa Bay and Oakland. The Braves helped fortify the Rangers’ No. 1-rated farm system when they sent five prospects to the Rangers in the July 2007 trade for Mark Teixeira and Ron Mahay, including pitching prospect Neftali Perez, who has shot up the charts to No. 4 on Law’s top-100 list.
Of the Braves’ talent pool, Law wrote: “Still one of the best and deepest systems in the game despite the trades for Mark Teixeira and Javier Vazquez. Scouting director Roy Clark and his staff are among the game’s best, with a knack for finding talent beyond the first round while they remain quietly productive on the international front.”
(By the way, Law ranks Tyler Flowers the fourth-best catching prospect in baseball. The Braves traded him to the White Sox in the Vazquez deal this winter.)
One other thing: I stand in awe (not meant as a compliment) of the sleaze and greed displayed by one Jay McGwire, who not only threw his own brother under the bus, but backed the bus up and ran over Mark McGwire’s bloated body a few dozen times for good measure. Hey, anything for book sales.
Seriously, the steroid accusations levied by Jay McGwire against his brother were a new low. Can you even imagine the tension that must exist between those two? How can anyone do that to his own brother? Not that Mark’s reputation wasn’t already ruined by the (alleged) andro use that most in baseball believe fueled his 135-homer binge during 1998-99 (at ages 34-35, by the way).
But seriously, this is way beyond simply piling on and being a lower-than-low opportunist desperate to sell a book that would otherwise probably not have gotten published (and if it had, it would’ve gone straight to discount bins).
We’ll go out with a tune we’ll dedicate to Ray McGwire:
“HIGHWAY PATROLMAN” by Bruce Springsteen
My name is Joe Roberts I work for the state
I’m a sergeant out of Perrineville barracks number 8
I always done an honest job as honest as I could
I got a brother named Franky and Franky ain’t no good
Now ever since we was young kids it’s been the same come down
I get a call over the radio Franky’s in trouble downtown
Well if it was any other man, I’d put him straight away
But when it’s your brother sometimes you look the other way
Me and Franky laughin’ and drinkin’ nothin’ feels better than blood on blood
Takin’ turns dancin’ with Maria as the band played “Night of the Johnstown Flood”
I catch him when he’s strayin’ like any brother would
Man turns his back on his family well he just ain’t no good
Well Franky went in the army back in 1965 I got a farm deferment, settled down, took Maria for my wife
But them wheat prices kept on droppin’ till it was like we were gettin’ robbed Franky came home in ‘68, and me, I took this job
Yea we’re laughin’ and drinkin’ nothin’ feels better than blood on blood
Takin’ turns dancin’ with Maria as the band played “Night of the Johnstown Flood”
I catch him when he’s strayin’, teach him how to walk that line
Man turns his back on his family he ain’t no friend of mine
Well the night was like any other, I got a call ‘bout quarter to nine
There was trouble in a roadhouse out on the Michigan line
There was a kid lyin’ on the floor lookin’ bad bleedin’ hard from his head there
was a girl cryin’ at a table and it was Frank, they said
Well I went out and I jumped in my car and I hit the lights
Well I must of done one hundred and ten through Michigan county that night
It was out at the crossroads, down round Willow bank
Seen a Buick with Ohio plates behind the wheel was Frank
Well I chased him through them county roads till a sign said Canadian border five miles from here
I pulled over the side of the highway and watched his taillights disappear
Me and Franky laughin’ and drinkin’
Nothin’ feels better than blood on blood
Takin’ turns dancin’ with Maria as the band played “Night of the Johnstown Flood”
I catch him when he’s strayin’ like any brother would
Man turns his back on his family well he just ain’t no good
