AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2009 > January > 26
Monday, January 26, 2009
Unsigned Ohman, others waiting
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We found another reason to like Will Ohman: His wife’s apparently as sarcastic and dark-humored as many of us here.
To wit, last night we called Ohman’s house in Arizona to see if there was any update on the free-agent lefty’s contract status. He was holding a crying baby when his wife, Allyson, came in and Ohman told her he was talking to me.
Her immediate reply: “Doesn’t he want to talk to actual Braves players?”
Ouch.
Anyway, Ohman is one of the 100 or so unsigned free agents in this glacial-like market, guys who still don’t know where they’ll be playing when spring training opens in less than three weeks (Braves pitchers and catchers report Feb. 14).
Ohman said he’s not getting antsy, but he didn’t sound too convincing. When I told him that I thought there’d be a flurry of free-agent signings this week, after teams took care of arbitration matters last week, he seemed to agree.
But he also didn’t indicate that he was on the verge of signing. He still wants to return to the Braves, and the offer they made to the reliever in November is still on the table.
Ohman has not divulged the length or dollars involved in that offer, or said how many other teams have made him offers, though he did say a while back that about 10-12 had expressed interest.
This is a guy who’s held lefties to a .197 batting average throughout his career, including .200 with a .257 OBP last year in his first season with the Braves. The numbers were better before his late-season slide, when Ohman pitched like a man who’d led the majors in appearances much of the season, which he had.
He had a 2.52 ERA and .185 overall opponents’ average in 63 appearances through Aug. 14, and a 10.38 ERA and .409 opponents’ average in 20 appearances over the rest of the season.
The Braves have potentially one of the best bullpens in the NL, headed by a trio of Mike Gonzalez, Peter Moylan and Rafael Soriano and young power arms Blaine Boyer and Manny Acosta. But Gonzo, Moylan and Soriano all are coming back from surgeries (though Gonzalez showed enough last season after Tommy John surgery to lead us to believe he’ll be near full strength in 2009).
With Moylan and especially Soriano still coming with some question marks, the Braves could take a big step in solidifying that ‘pen with Ohman. Right now, they have two talented but not exactly proven lefties, Boone Logan (acquired with Javier Vazquez from the White Sox) and the splendidly named Eric O’Flaherty, who was claimed waivers from Seattle and has a 5.91 ERA in 78 big-league games.
They need Ohman or a similarly experienced lefty. What separates Ohman from most lefty relievers, besides his appreciation for The Big Lebowski, is the fact that he’s also quite tough on right-handers, which makes him a viable closer option in a pinch.
Then there’s the fact that Ohman says he wants to be in Atlanta, provided offers are equal or even close to equal. Though he and his family make their home in Arizona, he has said consistently that he enjoyed everything about his year with the Braves (except not making the playoffs) and wants to be back in Atlanta.
When I asked him if he was waiting to sign because the offer from the Braves was such that it just didn’t make sense for him to sign until seeing what else was out there, etc., he said: “Ostensibly, when there’s an offer, you counter-offer and go from there. If things had gone to the point I was comfortable with it, it could be done…. I’m waiting to get to the point where for me, with my family situation, it’s right.
“It’s about what the market will bear, and whether a situation is right for the family, a lot of things. Money isn’t necessarily the major factor. Everybody says that, but for me, I honestly believe it’s not the only factor.”
OK, read into any of that what you will, folks.
In the meantime, in light of our weekend blog discussion about movies, and knowing his passion for all things Lebowski, I asked Ohman if he wanted to a favorite-movie list. I told him don’t give us what you believe to be the best movies ever made, but rather, the ones you’ve enjoyed the most.
It didn’t take him long to get back to me:
“I had to divide it,” Ohman said, “based on the fact you can’t say the greatest five movies for you are all comedies, or you’d be typecasting yourself. It’d be like saying drama is the only genre. So I divided it like this.
“The top four comedies were easy — The Big Lebowski, Dogma, Blazing Saddles, Fletch. And No. 5 was a tie, just due to difference in styles — High Fidelity and Snatch. They’re both dark comedies, but I love British humor, so Snatch had to be in there.
“Then I had the category of ‘other,’ and I went with Glory, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, Fight Club, The Departed, and then I had a three-way problem — Tombstone, The Untouchdables, and The Boondock Saints, which is a great movie I bet you haven’t seen.
“Then for honorable mention, have Kentucky Fried Movie, Life of Brian, Office Space, Princess Bride, Vision Quest, In The Name of the Father, Zoolander, Dumb and Dumber, and Anchorman. Oh, and one more, PCU, with Jeremy Piven before he was big.”
(Have I mentioned the Braves need to re-sign this guy? And that we need to get Allyson on the blog?)
By the way, Ohman (the pitcher, not the wife) said he’d be glad to come on the blog, but until he signs with a team he doesn’t think he’d be much good, because he’d have to be so vague with answers to a lot of the questions he thinks he’d get about contract offers, etc.
But he said he’d be glad to do it, now or later, to have some discourse with the denizens.
As for Chipper, I don’t know when/if he’s coming on. He said he’d be here at some time after the New Year, but so far, nothing. So we’ll see. Unlike Ohman, I’m pretty sure Chipper won’t be carrying a laptop to spring training. So if we don’t get him in the next three weeks, it probably ain’t happening with Hoss.
In the meantime… Still waiting for announcements about Don Sutton’s likely return to the Braves’ broadcast booth (this time on radio) and Andruw Jones signing a small one-year contract with either the Braves or another team.
The Braves were still negotiating with the network that carries Nationals games to get Sutton out of the remainder of his contract.
As for Andruw, agent Scott Boras told me Friday that it probably would be late this week before Andruw signed with a team. Whether that’ll be the Braves, I’m not sure. I’ve heard that Andruw has told some people he’s returning to the Braves, but Boras seemed to downplay that when I mentioned it to him.
Maybe that’s just posturing, trying to get more than a minimum-salary deal for the center fielder, even though Jones is being paid the full $21.1 mill still owed him by the Dodgers from the two-year, $36.2 mill contract he signed with them before the 2008 season.
Whether he can get his career back on track remains to be seen, and there were some mixed feelings in the Braves organization about giving him a chance to do it in Atlanta.
Regardless of whether the Braves sign him, you all should understand: If they do, he’d not be considered the bat they’ve been looking for in the outfield. He’d be signed to a low-salary deal and given a chance to show what he’s got this spring, not guaranteed of a job for the 2009 season.
The Braves continue to search for another productive bat, either for their outfield or possibly (though it seems less likely) for second base, if they could get leadoff man/2B Brian Roberts or Orlando Hudson and move Kelly Johnson to the outfield.
Stay tuned. Should be a lot of teams signing a lot of players in the next week or two. Don’t know if Braves will be among them, but it’s going to get interesting seeing where the likes of Adam Dunn, Hudson, Bobby Abreu and so many others end up, and how big their contracts are going to be.
“WHENEVER KINDNESS FAILS” by Robert Earl Keen
I crossed the desert on a dining car
In the spring of ninety-one
I met some people drinking at the bar
They were laughing having fun
I told ‘em that I hadn’t heard the joke
That was so hilarious
They said that I was just a dumb cowpoke
I didn’t want to make a fuss
So I shot ‘em down
One by one
Then I left ‘em ‘long the rails
I use my gun
Whenever kindness fails
The moon was in the sign of Scorpio
The sun was at my back
I didn’t know how far the train would go
Until the law would find my track
I saw the brakeman and the engineer
Drinking wine and eating brie
I asked ‘em who would brake and who would steer
They started pointing back at me
So I shot ‘em down
One by one
Then I left ‘em ‘long the rails
I use my gun
Whenever kindness fails
I only have a moment to explain
Just a chance to let you know
When it’s time for you to board the train
There are two ways you can go
You can ride the wheels into the sun
Feel the wind upon your face
Or you can laugh into a loaded gun
and you’ll likely lose your place
So I shot ‘em down
One by one
Then I left ‘em ‘long the rails
I use my gun
Whenever kindness fails
Yeah I shot ‘em down
One by one
Then I left ‘em ‘long the rails
When I use my gun
That lonesome whistle wails
