Furcal Signs... with the Dodgers?!

I'll keep this short. Frank Wren and the Braves have proven this offseason that we are no longer the Braves dynasty of old. No longer are we the team that free agents flock to, want to play for, hope to get offers from. Former Braves Rafael Furcal, on the verge of signing a contract with Atlanta, quickly changed his mind after the Dodgers said "Whoa whoa whoa hold on a second, let us get our offer in!" And boom, Furcal remains a Dodger. Now unless we were going to parlay his signing into trading a middle infielder to the Padres for Jake Peavy, I don't think we should have signed Furcal. I'm glad we didn't. I'm glad we didn't get Burnett for that matter. But still, these free agents have made it abundantly clear that despite getting the same or similar offers from Atlanta, it's more appealing to play someplace like New York or Los Angeles. So how does Frank Wren begin to rebuild this ball club when high-profile players who either have roots or friends in Atlanta choose not to play here? That's a good question.

UPDATE: While I'm still upset that the Braves aren't the appealing franchise they once were.. it appears as though Furcal's agent stabbed us in the back. He verbally agreed to a deal with the Braves, Dodgers got a hold of it, and he used our deal to leverage L.A. to getting Furcal a new offer. Guess he was going to land in Los Angeles all along. And Frank Wren is pissed. But oh well, funny how a couple days ago it was Oakland and Toronto who were the frontrunners.
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DUI Furcal: Does anybody Remeber?

Does anybody remember how Furcal left the Braves? Wasn't it because he was free agent? Yeah, but he also got busted for a speeding and a DUI on Interstate 85 and I believe that played a part too. The Braves are not a team that lends itself to controversy or normally keeps players around that have had poor conduct off the field, but there has been exceptions. Lest we forget Chipper and his divorce from his first wife. If that happened in new york, it wouldv'e been bigger then A-Rod and Madonna. We also can't forget the Gold Club where Andruw Jones had his choice of some fine stripper tail. Neither of those incidents resulted in indictments and charges. Rafael on the other hand was arrested, charged, and prosecuted for his actions.

This is the first time I can think of where the Braves welcomed back somebody who has had such a bad and public personal violation. Is this a sign of things to come? Are the Braves more willing to deal with off the field antics of its star players? I don't think so. What I think is going on here is that Furcal was quite young at the time of the incident, just 25, and now he is older and wiser. The Braves will likely not forget, and I bet somewhere in the fine print of that generous contract is stipulations on drinking and driving. They will be willing to dump him at the first sign of trouble (can we forget the infamous motorcycle and Ron Gant). As Rafi matures so do the Braves expectation. The willingness of the Braves to accept him is not a softening of the Braves towards problem players but rather a new respect for a wiser and more mature Rafial Furcal.


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WTF Braves? Furcal?

[SOURCE MLB.com] [MLB.com]


The Atlanta Braves appear to be on the verge of signing SS Rafael Furcal, the same Furcal who spent six years with us earlier this decade. The 2000 Rookie of the Year would be accepting a 3 year deal with a fourth year option, probably in the range of $11M per year. Cool, we got Furcal back. Great. He plays left field right? No no no he's a starting pitcher! Wait no his arm's good enough to play those positions, but he's a shortstop. A SHORTSTOP. Let's consider the many holes the Braves have in their lineup, excluding pitching. Left field. Center field. Right field (should Francoeur's downward spiral continue). Leadoff hitter. Power hitting righty. What does Furcal fit? Leadoff hitter... and.... aaaand........ well he's a switch hitter at least! Look, Frank, if you're going to sign Furcal in order to make Kelly Johnson or Yunel Escobar a trading chip, can you make the trade first at least? Trade Escobar while we appear reluctant to do so (like, for Peavy?) and then just go sign Furcal cause you were going to anyway. Then we'd have Furcal and Peavy for the next four years. Now we have one too many middle infielders, and sure we could consider moving Kelly back to left field since he's pretty awful defensively at second, but I don't see that happening. I expect to see Kelly traded and Furcal leading off, playing second. But now that teams know we need to trade Kelly, won't we get less value in return than we would have a week ago? Think of it like Fantasy Baseball, you drafted Hanley Ramirez.. five rounds later you draft Rafael Furcal thinking this other team got this pitcher you like, and they don't have a good SS. So you offer Furcal for the pitcher and he says screw you, give me Hanley you can make Furcal ride the bench. No deal is made and you wasted your fifth round pick. Wren better have some kind of brilliant move ready to follow up this signing, or I will continue to be disappointed with his ability as a GM (I almost want to chalk up the Jurrjens trade to Schuerholz setting it up and the Tigers losing their minds).

On another note, the Padres front office has announced that the Peavy talks appear to be over now that no one has stepped in to negotiate after the Cubs dropped out. The Padres appear to be content with keeping the ace. I'll say it again, with Furcal on the roster, can we please just throw the original offer back to the Padres (Yunel, Gorkys and a pitcher like Morton) and try one last time to snag the Cy Young winner? Read Full Article!

Jonesin' for a GM With Balls

Its December! Two months from two weeks from this past Sunday, pitchers and catchers report! That means Brian McCann! Jair Jurrjens! Jorge Campillo! and .... aaaand....... no one else! Meanwhile the Cubs bring back the best starting rotation in baseball! The Padres still have Peavy. Mike Hampton just took a pay cut to go back to Houston! Houston!! So where's Frank Wren? Where's Franky boy, and what has he done with all of my hopes and dreams for a future where the Braves lose less than 90 games?! As of today our starting rotation is non-existent.

Right now our rotation would be what? Jurrjens, Campillo, Morton? Reyes? PARR?? Not one of these young'ns was projected to start, make the team, play any role for our team LAST SEASON. Not one of them. Now while Jurrjens is a bonified stud, he's not a number one ace! Not yet! So what's Frank Wren going to do to address any of the issues facing this desparate squad? I have ideas! I have plenty of ideas!! Like how, I don't know, maybe we should have closed the deal with Peavy. Maybe be aggressive and just get the players you want! You don't see the Yankees gripping tightly to their buckets of cash! Now I hope he proves me wrong. I hope two, three weeks from now I'm eating my words in a delicious sandwich with pickles, mayo and two types of pastrami. I hope I wake up on Christmas morn with a Peavy, Burnett, Furcal and a left-fielder under the tree! But even if I did awaken to such pleasurable news. We'd still have only four starters. I say Tommy Hanson is now under the gun to make this Spring count... and come into the season as the fifth starter. Or maybe the number three starter. He's that friggin good. Without him emerging we're stuck with getting some past-his-prime veteran or an overrated potential-filled rookie to just eat innings until Hanson is brought up! So here's what we do. First we break AJ Burnett's elbow since he'll probably hurt it anyway and this way the Braves won't sink a bunch of money into a highly talented (but highly fragile) pitcher again. Next we tell Padres GM Kevin Towers to stop making out with the Cubs because the Braves will let you get to third base on the first date. Give us Jake Peavy, give him to us now, you're screwing up our entire offseason you greedy, sneaky bastard coward. Finally, after trading for Peavy and signing Rafael Furcal and Raul Ibanez, we offer everything else we have for Derek Lowe. Boston wants him. I don't care what other teams might have interest, and, true, Boston expresses 'interest' in EVERYONE, despite having a nearly perfect roster as it is, but if Boston bids for him, we have to outbid them. Be aggressive, sign Lowe. He's an ace. He's a postseason stud. He's just like Tim Hudson. And he's just old enough so that you don't have to give him 6-8 years.. 3-4 should do just fine. So for the love of God, Mr. Wren. Help this team regain the respect John Schuerholz built up over a decade and a half, and give the Mets and Phillies to beating they so rightly deserve.



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