AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > July > 29
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Salty-for-Tex simply common sense
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
I like Salty. You like Salty. We all like Salty. But sometimes common sense trumps infatuation. If Jarrod Saltalamacchia can be packaged in such a way as to make Mark Teixeira a Brave, Salty needs to go.
This organization has been trying to subsist on kids and retreads. The result has been a clear decline: The team that won at least 90 games 13 times over 14 full seasons is 133-134 since Opening Day 2006.
Over the past fortnight we’ve seen the Braves’ cheapjack method carried to its silliest extreme. Julio Franco, who couldn’t get an at-bat for the first-place Mets, has become the starting first baseman here. It’s safe to say no other big-league team, not even a lousy one, would have been reduced to such a thing.
The Braves are not lousy. Neither are they very good. They have the 15th-highest payroll among 30 major-league teams; as of Sunday morning, they had the 14th-best record. They’re about where they should be. They need to aim higher.
Saltalamacchia should become a really good player at some position, but as a Brave he’ll be forced to learn a new position to be a regular. (Brian McCann is and will remain the No. 1 catcher.) And, as promising as he has looked, Salty hasn’t dazzled to the extent that he’s starting ahead of Franco, who’s at least 26 years older. That tells us something. That tells us the Braves have seen — or, more to the point, haven’t seen — something in Salty.
Say what you will about John Schuerholz, but he’s sagacious regarding young talent. How many prospects have the Braves jettisoned that they’d want back? Answer: Jason Schmidt (dealt for Denny Neagle in August 1996) and Adam Wainwright (included in the J.D. Drew deal of December 2003). Where’s Andy Marte? Whatever became of Luis Rivera? And, for all the outcry raised in this space and others over the loss of Wilson Betemit, has the absence of a .232 hitter proved debilitating?
Braves president Terry McGuirk admits the club has in recent years made the considered decision to err on the homegrown side. “Our payroll was going up like a rocket ship, and the fans stopped coming,” McGuirk said in May. “That seemed a major statement as to what this franchise should be about.”
So the Braves stopped pursuing the Gary Sheffields and A-Rods and banked instead on the Jeff Francoeurs and the B-Macs. That approach has merits, and also its limits. This has become a .500 team, give or take, and the emphasis on cuddly youth hasn’t triggered a run on the box office. (Home attendance ranks 14th in the majors.) While the Braves are proof you don’t need an All-Star at every position to be competitive, they’re likewise proving you can’t win big without big-time players.
Teixeira is one of those. He’s the first baseman the Braves have lacked since Andres Galarraga got cancer. Yes, Teixeira will file for arbitration this winter and for free agency in 2008, and yes, he’s represented by the demon Scott Boras, but at worst he’d give the Braves a middle-of-the-order thumper once Andruw Jones takes his Boras-negotiated leave. And without Andruw eating up one-sixth of the payroll the Braves might actually have a chance to keep Teixeira.
Another hitter won’t necessarily make the 2007 Braves a playoff team. This team needs a starting pitcher more. But Salty-for-Tex wouldn’t be so much a fix-it for this season as a signal that the Braves have conceded they’ve gone as far as they can with the status quo. If they honestly expect first-place results, they’ll have to find first-rate players. Their farm system has produced its share, but no system can be so bountiful as to generate a star at every position.
The Braves might well have gotten twice lucky at catcher. It’s time to use one of those to secure a first baseman, and not a Rico Brogna or a Robert Fick or a Scott Thorman this time. Something more along the lines of a Fred McGriff. Someone like Teixeira.
Permalink | Comments (163) | Categories: Mark Bradley
