AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2008 > November > 20 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The leaves are off the big ol’ oak tree I’m looking at in my front yard. Thanksgiving is just a week away. And the Braves haven’t filled any of their three stated top-priority needs — power-hitting outfielder and two additional, proven starting pitchers (not Smoltz, Glavine, Hampton or Tommy Hanson, though one or more of those fellas is likely to be on the 2009 pitching staff at some point, and it really wouldn’t shock me if that last one, young Hanson, is on it from opening day).
The denizens of the Braves/Man in Black blog, and plenty of other Braves fans, are understandably getting impatient. But while some of you are already turning attention to comparatively little dogs — can I interest you in a Randy Wolf, an Oliver Perez, or a rejuvenated Mike Hampton (no, really….) — the Braves are still aiming for a Big Dog.
Jake Peavy fits that description. So does A.J. Burnett. And certainly, so does Roy Halladay, who it’s rumored might possibly be available for trade, though I find that a bit hard to wrap my brain around and accept.
Still, veteran scribe Dan Graziano of the Newark Star-Ledger has heard the Blue Jays might explore the market for 2003 Cy Young Award winner. If so, you can be assured the Braves would be in the line of teams interested in Halladay, who has two years and $30 mill left on his contract.
The epitome of a “horse” pitcher, Halladay won 20 games this season and has churned out 52 wins and 691-1/3 innings over the past three seasons while finishing in the top five in AL Cy Young Award voting each year. No one has been as effective and durable as him these past three years. Repeat, no one.
Again, I have doubts about whether the Blue Jays would really trade their 31-year-old ace, but if they do you can bet the asking price in a trade would be comparable to what the Padres want for Peavy, if not greater.
Which brings us back to Peavy….
I don’t care what’s been said, what water has flowed under, through and around the bridge that was Braves-Padres negotiations, I still believe this deal is going to get done. As ham-fisted as this thing has been handled from San Diego’s end, the fact remains, they almost have to trade the 2007 Cy Young Award winner now, given the state of their payroll-purging franchise and GM Kevin Towers’ statement two weeks ago about how the train had left the station, in regards to the possibility of the Padres keeping Peavy, etc.
The Braves need him - badly. The Padres need to trade him - badly. The Braves have offered the best package for Peavy including a very good young, affordable player in shortstop Yunel Escobar, who could turn out to be a star and will almost certainly be no less than a solid major leaguer for many years to come. They would also likely give up center-field prospect Gorkys Hernandez, who is at least two years away but who has legitimate big-time potential, according to every scout I’ve talked to and opposing managers in the low-level minors.
If the Braves pull it off, they’ll do so without parting with top-rated pitching prospect Tommy Hanson (one more time, folks: Hanson isn’t getting traded) and apparently without parting with center-field prospect Jordan Schafer, who might not have quite as high a “ceiling” as Hernandez, but who could be ready to take over in center on opening day and also has star potential, in the eyes of Braves officials and a few scouts I talked to last fall when he was tearing up the Arizona Fall League (months before his reputation was tarnished a bit by the 50-game suspension for alleged use of human growth hormone).
Schafer struggled initially in his return from the suspension, but played very well in the last couple of months of the season at Double-A Mississippi, reestablishing his status within the organization and his spot on the organizational ladder. He also helped himself by agreeing to play winter ball in Mexico, hardly a glamorous assignment (Josh Anderson declined to play winter ball; I don’t know if that will do anything to his candidacy or not, but also keep in mind that Schafer last spring impressed Bobby Cox and Braves teammates with his play and his attitude during spring training, when Cox said he’d be comfortable with the kid in center field if something happened to Mark Kotsay).
Schafer hit .276 with one homer and nine steals in 27 games with Navojoa — “He was playing well,” GM Frank Wren told me — before injuring a middle-finger tendon last week and returning home to be checked out. There was no break, but he’s done with winter ball — going to rest for three weeks, then rehab for a few weeks. Should be fine for spring training, Wren said.
Trading Escobar would open a big hole, no doubt, and the Braves aren’t inclined to turn his job over to anyone in the organization. They like Omar Infante in a utility role, Martin Prado’s weakest defensive position is shortstop, and Brent Lillibridge simply hasn’t shown he can hit major league pitching well enough to turn a starting job to him.
But it’s easier for team with a budget to replace a shortstop in this market than it is to acquire a pitching ace, and Escobar is one of the few young, affordable and extremely attractive players the Braves have who they’re willing to entertain offers for (Brian McCann, Jair Jurrjens, Hanson, OF prospect Jason Heyward _ those are guys teams would love to get, but they aren’t going anywhere).
There are plenty of potential shortstop replacements, though all have a flaw or two and a few would be very pricey, including former Brave Rafael Furcal, who would cost at least $10 mill per season in a multi-year deal, and perhaps closer to the three-year, $39 mill deal he just played out. Other free agents include aging-but-still-intriguing former Brave Edgar Renteria (great in the clubhouse, played very well for Braves in 2007, and not well at all for Detroit in 2008), Orlando Cabrera and Cesar Izturis, and trade possibilities including Julio Lugo (plenty of warts), Jack Wilson (ditto), Maicer Izturis and J.J. Hardy.
Whether the Braves trade Escobar for Peavy or not, their willingness to include him in the deal tells me the Braves would probably trade him in another big deal if this protracted Peavy negotation finally is irretrievably broken (ouch, I just had a personal divorce flashback typing that sentence.)
But this thing is not broken, or at least I don’t think it is. Frank Wren told me he hasn’t spoken with Towers since the Braves announced Friday they were pulling out of their active pursuit of Peavy and turning attention toward other potential trades and free-agent negotiations.
Still, I don’t think it’s over. Not by a long shot.
And the fact that we’ve gone more than an entire day without hearing anything out of San Diego regarding Peavy, that only raises my antennae a bit and makes me wonder if something _ oh, OK, I’ll stop talking about it. But I’m just saying, when you least expect it ….
Wren on talks: After Ryan Dempster re-upped with the Cubs and the Yankees were said to be preparing a five-year, $80 mill offer for Burnett, I asked Wren on Tuesday night if the Braves were any closer to getting a pitcher or outfielder.
“We’re continuing to explore every opportunity,” he said. “We made some calls today, talked to some agents, also talked to some clubs about possibilities. We have a lot of conversations going on. I can’t say at this point how hopeful we are with any of them.”
Was he at all alarmed by the seemingly thin-and-getting-thinner availability of top-of-rotation starting pitchers?
“Not at this point,” he said. “There’s still guys out there that we like. I don’t see, in talking to representatives [agents], that anything is going to happen real quickly.”
As for the possibility of re-signing lefty Mike Hampton, Wren said, “We’ve had some discussions with him, some talks about an offer. Real good dialogue…. I don’t expect anything to happen [with Hampton and another team] before we at least have a chance to talk to him. We’ve had a number of conversations.”
And on re-signing Smoltz and/or Glavine, both attempting surgery comebacks, Wren said, “There’s no timetable. Just continuing to watch their rehab. A lot of it will depend on the progression and when they get to point of where you have a more educated idea” of whether they will be able and ready to pitch.
Wren said he talked to Smoltz recently “for quite a while. He’s happy with his progress.”
Chipper’s contract: Veteran Chipper Jones isn’t signed beyond the 2009 season, and told me late this past season he expected to get together with his agent and Wren about a possible extension at some point in the offseason.
When I asked Frank about that this week, he said, “Our focus right now is trying to get our club put back together. If there’s anything we need to do with guys under contract, we’ll look at that once we have everything else in play.”
By the way, the Braves have six arbitration-eligible players: Omar Infante, Casey Kotchman, Jeff Francoeur, Kelly Johnson, Mike Gonzalez and Matt Diaz. The tender date is Dec. 20, and the Braves don’t appear to have any cases for non-tender consideration, like, say, Marcus Giles a few years ago.
Outfield targets: The Braves, of course, aren’t saying who they’re targeting in the power-hitting outfield market, but we do know their talks with the Cardinals about 37-homer man Ryan Ludwick aren’t dead.
Another one that we mentioned late in the 2008 season, Seattle free agent Raul Ibanez, has also drawn interest from the Braves. He’s 36, but has hit at least .280 with a .345 OBP for the past eight seasons and totaled at least 20 homers and 100 RBI for each of the past three seasons.
Great clubhouse guy, good character, fits the Braves’ mold in that regard, and wouldn’t command a long-term deal. He only made $5.5 mill last season and hit .293 with 43 doubles, 23 homers, 110 RBI and a .358 OBP, the fifth consecutive season with a plus-.350 OBP and seventh in a row with more than 30 doubles.
He’s solid, folks, and the Braves are one in a field of suitors that could include the Phillies, Mets, Cubs, Cardinals and Rangers, among others.
Diversions: First, The Sopranos and The Wire were put to rest at HBO, and now The Shield is coming to an end at FX. What promises to be a deliciously, impossibly tense 90-minute series finale next next. I don’t want it to end, man. It’s too good. What must we do to get a Vic Mackey spinoff? (Or do you folks believe that’s going to be impossible, that our very bad man is going to meet his maker in the finale? Oh, the drama.) And we’re also drawing to a season’s end with the excellent Sons of Anarchy, which better be brought back for a season season or I’ll march on FX headquarters with a torch like the one they used to burn off the SOA tattoo from the ex-member’s back earlier this season. All I can say is, 24 had better bring something fresh and real to the table after its ridiculously long sabbatical, or it’s going to pale next to what we’ve had on FX.
A tune: Listening to the Cash/Dylan bootleg that one of our denizens was kind enough to burn for me a while back. Never tire of this thing, and can’t believe they never released this as a proper album. It’s incredible.
Anyway, I’m on another Cash jag lately. Here’s another that J.R. wrote himself, which contains one of my favorite lines ever (“I met here accidentally in St. Paul, Minnesota”).
”BIG RIVER” by Johnny Cash
Now I taught the weeping willow how to cry,
And I showed the clouds how to cover up a clear blue sky.
And the tears that I cried for that woman are gonna flood you Big River.
Then I’m gonna sit right here until I die.
I met her accidentally in St. Paul, Minnesota.
And it tore me up every time I heard her drawl, Southern drawl.
Then I heard my dream was back Downstream cavortin’ in Davenport,
And I followed you, Big River, when you called.
Then you took me to St. Louis later on, down the river.
A freighter said she’s been here but she’s gone, boy, she’s gone.
I found her trail in Memphis, but she just walked up the block.
She raised a few eyebrows and then she went on down alone.
Now, won’t you batter down by Baton Rouge, River Queen, roll it on.
Take that woman on down to New Orleans, New Orleans.
Go on, I’ve had enough; dump my blues down in the gulf.
She loves you, Big River, more than me.
Now I taught the weeping willow how to cry, cry, cry
And I showed the clouds how to cover up a clear blue sky.
And the tears that I cried for that woman are gonna flood you Big River.
Then I’m gonna sit right here until I die.
.JPG)
Services »
Comments