Show #88: Updating the Braves’ 2009 Off Season
The Roy Halladay trade. Soriano accepts arbitration. Gonzalez signs with the Orioles. And Lowe and LaRoche speak out.
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152 Responses to “Show #88: Updating the Braves’ 2009 Off Season”
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December 20th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
FINALLY!
December 20th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
You guys made the Buzz Report…do you always make the buzz report? I think that’s freakin awesome! Can’t wait to hear the show…tomorrow.
December 20th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Lowe gets traded
December 21st, 2009 at 12:11 am
Great show, as always.
Steve, I dunno about holding onto Soriano yielding a higher return. I’ve read a couple articles this week about how overpopulated the closer/ late inning market is this year. I predict the Rays will end up seeing they could have done better by holding off.
Also, consider this: by the time the Rays took the bait, they were the only suitor left. Astros, Yanks, Orioles, and other rumored suitors had officially bowed out. We were down to one stinking team, and the fact that we only got the bare minimum in return AFTER the other teams backed out tells us that the other teams were wanting the Braves to eat money. I mean, it’s not likely the other teams were offering to take the whole salary, but Wren wouldn’t pull the trigger because the player offered was less than Chavez.
Soriano was suspect to a lot of teams. Even fan sites were lit up with distaste for the guy. Reporters loved him, thought he’d be at the top. But teams just didn’t come calling as if they believed that. ANY of those teams could have gotten him for a return approximately equal to Chavez. And they all passed. As hot as some of Soriano’s stats were, he wasn’t coveted.
I think Wren dodged a MAJOR bullet by getting the Rays to take his salary. And to be honest, I think it’ll take a second near-miracle to deal Lowe without eating some serious cash.
Enjoyed hearing about the kids.
December 21st, 2009 at 10:23 am
Chip Caray received an early Christmas present on Monday morning, when Fox Sports Net hired him to serve as their play-by-play announcer for all the Braves games televised by Fox Sports South and SportSouth.
This was the role previously held by Jon “Boog” Sciambi, who accepted a full-time role with ESPN at the conclusion of this past season.
Later this morning, Fox Sports Net is supposed to officially announce this hiring of Caray, whose role as TBS’ lead baseball announcer was terminated on Nov. 30. That decision ended his association with Turner Sports, which handles all of the Braves games broadcast on Peachtree Television.
This arrangement will allow Caray to once again call a majority of the televised Braves games. During the past two seasons, he saw his workload with the Braves limited by the travel requirements that came with TBS’ national baseball package.
December 21st, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Better than Bob Rasmus… I guess
December 21st, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Rathbun
December 21st, 2009 at 1:43 pm
I’d take Bob Rasmus over the both of them.
December 21st, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Nationals sign Jason Marquis.
December 21st, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Oh Steve made a joke. HAHA! He’s SOOO funny… NOT!
December 21st, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Poor Jason Marquis! That’s terrible. Worse than his latest hairstyle and “look.” My hairdresser was highly disappointed after seeing him - his wife (girlfriend?) used to send him to her in Vinings when he played for the Bravos. Yeek. Well, at least he’ll have a nice place to pitch in…and no one to watch.
December 21st, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Thanks, guys for the latest installment of ABT. What?? We have whiney players?? OMG! I guess we or they will just have to get over it.
Really I don’t think much is going to change in the near future. Trade a pitcher, our rotation will be ok. Sign or trade LaRoche, we still have Freddie coming. Heyward will come up and hopefully have an impact but he’s still going to be a rookie.
The Braves biggest concern for the future is third base. Chipper, hurt and part time is still miles better than anyone we have in the minors. We won’t have him much longer.
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:12 am
Tcc,
I suspect Prado will be the future 3B until further notice. He had above average 3B defensive skills.
December 22nd, 2009 at 2:08 am
Trade Lowe to the Mets. Do it. It’s beautiful. Check it out:
1. Mets are desperate for a starter.
2. The last player we dumped on them, at this point, looks like gold to them.
3. Eat 3 million per year and take a minor league scrub, it doesn’t matter.
Then sit back and watch the dream:
1. Lowe hangs a 4.90, 5.54, and 5.99 ERA over the rest of his horrid contract.
2. Frenchy falls to pieces about late May after Wright calls him “On Base Percentury” in the press.
3. And since our signing of Lowe last year forced NY to sign Perez, they’ll have TWO terrible Boras contracts, and one Frigged Frenchy, all because of ATL!!!
4. BOTH Atl whiney babies got shipped to the funkhole of baseball.
It’s the most elegant sucker punch in baseball history.
(okay, lame maybe, but “On Base Percentury” is pretty good. Come on.)
December 22nd, 2009 at 7:22 am
Front Sports page AJC article on Chip Caray but why does the AJC devote front page and nearly full inside page to Jeff Francoeur and his dad and their golf holiday. Lame.
December 22nd, 2009 at 8:03 am
Lame AJC is an oxymoron, Will. Too bad - it’s a crime that our newspaper “of note” looks more like my high school newspaper these days.
Is it just me, or was the sound quality this week better? I listened on my iPod, just like always, and raspy rough voices aside…I thought everybody was clearer. Maybe Santa got me better hearing for Christmas (early?).
December 22nd, 2009 at 9:20 am
Let’s not give up on Wrenta Clause just yet. Granted this is my first year to really pay attention to the offseason but it seems like there’s still time to get a big bat. Whiney Behiney ain’t it.
December 22nd, 2009 at 10:23 am
Man were we wrong. Braves have apparently traded Vazquez to the Yanks for Melkey Cabrera
http://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-braves/reports-braves-sending-vazquez-251942.html
December 22nd, 2009 at 11:08 am
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Crap, Curt! Why you got to bring us down?? Guess the whiny wheel gets the grease.
How do we feel about Cabrera?
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Huh…who knew the baseball gods hated me in the offseason also? Never posting again…ever. Wrenta Clause my ass.
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I don’t hate the trade, but I sure don’t love it. I had NO idea why anybody EVER thought we would be able to trade D. Lowe. I mean, when we signed Tim Hudson, I was like, “well, see ya later Vazquez.”
Then it was reported, something like “it didn’t take long for Wren to discover there is definitely a market for Derek Lowe” and I was like, “okay, maybe, if that’s what they’re saying.” But what were we thinking? That’s an untradeable Scott Boras contract right down the middle.
So, is the writing on the wall at this point: Adam LaRoche?
Hudson
Jurrjens
Lowe (I am absolutely pissed that he’ll get more starts than Hanson, but he will)
Hanson
Kawakami
McLouth (20+HRs)
Prado
Chipper (20+)
McCann (20+)
LaRoche (20+)
Escobar
Heyward/Melky (15+)
Melky/Diaz (15)
I know we got burned on the several-guys-who-hit-twenty argument last year. But two of those guys were KJ and Frenchy. This looks more reasonable.
Poor Javy Vazquez. Bobby was a tonic for his fidgety mind. He might get killed up there.
This has been a very BLAH turn of events. Not terrible, but… not happy. There is no big bat coming here, we are going to keep our worst contract, and whatever dreams we had of being the beastliest pitching staff east of the Mississippi (waves at Leah)… we’re going to have to settle for just being pretty good. Not gonna cut it without a slugger.
Some positives: As albatross contracts go, Lowe’s is small beans. Remember Mike Hampton’s millions?
Here’s the happy Math:
Lowe: 6.7 million
Hanson: 6.7 million
Jurrjens: 6.7 million
Kawakami: 6.7 million
Hudson: 6.7 million
That’s our staff’s salary divided evenly. Not bad.
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Note to Derek Lowe:
Do you see now that it was just business, dummy? Would you like to have those words back? Would you like to not be the guy who hurts the chemistry for the whole Bobby’s Last Run thingy they’re trying to build, before the thing even begins? We traded our Cy Young vote getter instead of you. What does that tell you? It isn’t personal, or even very much about performance. It’s business.
December 22nd, 2009 at 1:26 pm
I hate it! I feel like we can seriously hand the trophy right on over to the Yankees. Steve, where are you with your positive outlook on life? Bub doesn’t hate it and Curt’s not allowed to comment unless he finds a silver lining. I feel like eating my unopened package of Trader Joes Brandy Beans in it’s entirety. My dream is dead. I have to stop typing or I may type words I will wish deleted as soon as submitted.
December 22nd, 2009 at 1:44 pm
“I feel like we can seriously hand the trophy right on over to the Yankees.”
Not a chance. Listen, the Yankees were already going to win the division or wild card, so we’ve increased their presence in the playoffs by 0%.
Once they get there - and I LOVE Javier Vazquez - he is not going to handle it well. He’s just not. It’s not just regular Yankee pressure, it’s Yankee pressure in that freaking new stadium of their’s, where they give out HR’s like candy on Halloween. To me, Javy in the NY postseason is subtraction by addition.
But I LOVED him here, please nobody think I’m down on him. LOVED him. Wanted very much for him to use ATL to prove Ozzie wrong. But he won’t do that up in Yanktown.
December 22nd, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Ugh. Cabrera hit 13 homers last season, 9 in Yankee stadium. I wanted Lowe gone. I wanted a big bat. Do you think this is the first step in a series of moves?