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!

MLB Winter Meetings: Yankees swooping in for the kill

[sources mlb.com]

There is competition out in Vegas for pitcher AJ Burnett. Mark Bowman writes that the Yankees are going to make an offer that will beat the Braves offer. Then it will be decision time for Wren; do you counter attack or just lick your wounds in defeat? It is clear that there are pros and cons to having Burnett. For one he could be a solid addition to the staff in the 1 hole next year with the absence of Hudson, but as a long term ace there are doubts about his health. I would like the braves to continue to compete over Burnett while still remembering that sinking big money into a pitcher won't solve all our problems.

However, the biggest reason to continue to compete over Burnett is it may help convince Peavy that we are taking winning seriously. Perhaps that may sway him to waive his no-trade-clause in favour of Atlanta. That is a big hope since only Jebus knows what the hell is going on out there in wilds of San Diego.

Hang in their Wren, show those blow hard Stank-ees that you got a spine - if only to get Peavy.


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Peavy continues to play hard to get

[sources ESPN]


On another note from Vegas, it seems the Braves biggest competition for Peavy, the Cubs, is also balking on a deal for big time pitcher Jake Peavy. GM Jim Hendry said a deal for Peavy is not "remotely close." Thank goodness we are not the only team that has been circle jerked about by the Padre leadership. Perhaps they can flutz around some more while their owner gets a divorce. I am tired of this news.

I quote fellow dirtysouthsports poster Jonesin on this one:

[Padres] 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.

You tell'em.

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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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Peavy Talks Back On? (MLB)

[SOURCES: MLB] [MLB] [AJC]


Yesterday the Chicago Cubs re-signed free agent pitcher Ryan Dempster to a four year deal. What's that got to do with the Braves, you might ask? The Cubs were the only other major player for Jake Peavy. The Cubs now will be bringing back their monster front four of Zambrano, Harden, Lilly and Dempster. Common sense says, you're rotation is amazing enough, keep the prospects and pass on Peavy.

So where's that leave Padres GM Kevin Towers? Back on the phone with the Braves. The best offer they got was from Atlanta. Peavy's (most likely) preferred destination is Atlanta. He has to waive his no-trade clause in order to be traded anywhere, and with Peav saying that he'd like to stay in the National League, and with Atlanta being the closest team to his home in Alabama, its likely he would waive that clause to come to Atlanta. Peavy has also mentioned something about not wanting the team he's traded to to be screwed by dealing too many quality players to acquire him (in essence, dont trade me to a crap team). Again, thats the Braves. Atlanta GM Frank Wren has put his foot down on not trading top prospects Jason Heyward, Tommy Hanson, and Jordan Schaefer. Players all with the potential of being called up no later than 2010. And let's be honest, Charlie Morton, Jo-Jo Reyes, Blaine Boyer.. these guys were never in our plans for the future. If Schaefer pans out, we wouldn't have room for Gorkys Hernandez (who we stole from Detroit anyway). The only big time loss for us would be Yunel Escobar at short, and replacing him might mean dipping into the free agent pool (would we bring back Furcal or Renteria?). But if we land Jake Peavy... its more than worth it.
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Braves End Peavy Talks with Padres

[SOURCE: ESPN]


Atlanta Braves General Manager Frank Wren has told ESPN that trade talks with the San Diego Padres regarding ace pitcher Jake Peavy have ended. Assumption is that San Diego GM Kevin Towers was asking too high a price for the Cy Young winner. The last known offer from Atlanta included shortstop Yunel Escobar, pitchers Charlie Morton, Blaine Boyer and minor league center fielder Gorkys Hernandez. Towers had been pursuing top Braves pitching prospect Tommy Hanson, deemed untouchable by the Braves GM.
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