Braves explore options during GM meetings

Gary O – Please ask DOB to give us his 2010 roster based on who’s rumored to be available, available FA’s, and who he thinks is available. Thank you Gary O

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I wonder what’s the upper limit of what the Braves would be willing to eat of Lowe’s salary? The Nationals continue to say they want a veteran, innings-eater pitcher to sit atop their rotation the next couple of years and take the heat off of Straburg, Lannan and Detwiler (and Jordan Zimmermann when he comes back from TJ). Lowe seems to fit that bill perfectly–especially given that the Nats have a lot of salary coming off the books. But Willingham is such a good contract right now, and the middle of the lineup of Zimmerman, Dunn, and Willingham pretty solid, so the Nats do seem to want a lot for him. I think they’d be very interested in Lowe, but probably not all $15 mil/per…

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ugaaccountant-I just wish I could get to see them in person more often-hard to do in central Vermont. They won’t even be going to Boston this year. I’ve seen them at The Launching Pad, The Ted, at Fenway, in Montreal (numerous times), in Toronto and even at the HOF Game in Cooperstown (on my birthday, no less-gift from my wife) and quite a few Spring Training venues over the years. Even saw them as the Milwaukee Braves with Hank at Connie Mack Stadium in Philly (two stadiums ago).

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VJ,

Another USC loss, and maybe they play W&M in the Mineral Water Bowl?

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VJ-

It is “artic” by Southern California standards! (and I was not the one shivering on Saturday…)

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Soph – sorry there’ll be no Michael Turner against the Giants…

VJ – I know and I’m worried. It seems to be going a bit downhill for the Falcons right now. Eh, I guess it’s the same for the Giants too so we’re in the same boat.

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Soph – the Giants did have an excellent day yesterday, courtesy of Green Bay and San Diego

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MLBTR says Wagner might be getting multi years offers from teams even though he’s 39. With Kimbrel waiting around the corner I’m not sure Atlanta would be willing to go more than a year with an aging closer. Who knows, I guess this all depends on what they do with Gonzo/Soriano & when they think Kimbrel will be ready.

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Soph-

Just to be clear- I am NOT a Clippers fan (or a lakers fan for that matter…)

Bobby’s Cox-

Sorry- the tickets were from a client…
(and we can blame the cold weather for just about anything- one of the advantages where “cold” is anything below 70 )

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Bobby’s Cox-

$$$$$$$$$$$$

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Awww cab, why not? The Clippers could use all the love they can get. You should jump onboard. Blake Griffin! If he doesn’t bust…

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Soph-

Have you ever attempted to watch a Clippers game? They are not even “amusingly bad”…they are borderline “Unwatchable-bad” (Sorry Bobby’s Cox )

And on that note I am heading home…back in a bit all!

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DOB —-
Or I could go down on Wednesday and catch Dan Auerbach solo (with special – unknown – guests) … ?

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I am guessing that something I said must have pushed your buttons……Would it surprise you if I said I was working on something on 3 different computers right now? But, if it bugs you that I am here, I would happily leave so as not to bore you any further…..

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i like talkingchop.com where gondee discusses the miguel cabrera situation. though, it’s pretty certain the braves would not take on miggy’s salary. i did like his proposal of trading vazquez, freeman and another prospect (not named heyward of course) for cabrera, while tigers eating some of that salary. if the braves had $16 or $17 million to spend, i would definitly consider trying to pull off that trade.

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Enter your comments here

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Anyone know how to get tix for the Truckers Dec 3 show in Charleston? They are only available throught he Jack Daniels site and you have to register to ‘win’ tickets….kind of weird. I hope they give them to the first 500 that register…if so I am good. Weird they would do tickets that way instead of the good ol fashion way.

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Kemp? Really? In the same sentence with Barkley, Ewing, Malone, Stockton?

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What is the nba anyway… oh wait i remember that… its with the baskets on each end right… yeah the sport jordan made popular and brought down time and time again

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That means 15 of 32 writers didn’t think he belonged in the top three. That’s difficult to understand. He’s gotta be in top three, in my view.

(Happ was the only guy named on all 32 ballots, by the way. SEVEN voters didn’t have Coghlan in the top three. Huh?) DOB

That’s just ridiculous. I understand that the race was supposedly “wide open,” but in my opinion, those 3 were the frontrunners. Oyy.

Anyways…I’m ok with Coghlan winning ROY. At least Happ didn’t win it. I certainly don’t think Happ deserved to be in front of Hanson. Happ got all his attention because he was the only reliable pitcher the Phillies had the first half of the season. I’m not discounting what he did, because he certainly had an excellent year, but not better than Hanson’s. For me, it would’ve gone:
1. Coghlan
2. Hanson
3. Happ
…but I’m just a lowly college student. What do I know?

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i remember when shawn kemp was going to be the next barkley. and he was for awhile, but didnt perform as well at end of his career.

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nah, kemp got fat, and had 27 illegitimate kids

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Where’s the new blog that DOB said would be up today? macdwolfpack

Uh oh…now you’ve gone and done it!

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ROY – the McCutchen kid got how many votes…………squadoosh or nearby

The most deserving player won but was HAPP twice as good as Hanson

In 2 years we will never hear of JAY CRAPPPPPPPPP but plenty of one Master Thomas Hanson

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nolie – did the Jones kid from the Bucs get many or any votes, the dude hit 21 homers in like 80 odd games

OH the calamity of it all

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Olney’s take on the most popular free agents

1. Brandon Lyon: There are a billion closers available on the market, so Lyon isn’t going to get a big-money contract. But he is perhaps the best of the guys who might be OK coming in as a set-up man, and he’s coming off a solid season in which is posted a 2.86 ERA for the Tigers, allowing just 56 hits in 78.2 innings, with 57 strikeouts. He would fit great in Philadelphia (where the Phillies could bring him in as a seventh- and eighth-inning option, while knowing Lyon has the experience to step in as a closer if Brad Lidge falls apart), with the Angels, the Yankees, the Mets, etc. And oh, by the way, he is a Type B free agent, which means that he wouldn’t cost you a draft pick.

2. Mark DeRosa: He can do a lot of different stuff, he can help fill in gaps created by injury because of his versatility, he hits for power, he’ll give you some tough at-bats. And this is undoubtedly a number that will catch the eye of the Phillies, the team that is regarded by rival executives as the most likely to sign him (among many interested teams): He hammers left-handed pitching. He generated a .587 slugging percentage and a .928 OPS against lefties in 2009, which certainly is an indication for the Phillies that he could help balance their lineup.

3. Jermaine Dye: He is in the twilight of his career, at age 35, and he’s no longer in position to command a long-term deal — but that means a lot of teams will check in to see if they can get him with a short-term obligation. Last season, Dye hit .250 with 27 homers and 64 walks, but keep in mind that his numbers absolutely plummeted after the White Sox both picked up Alex Rios and made it clear Dye wouldn’t be back on the South Side. He hit .189 in August and .175 in September. Up until that point, he had been having a solid season. He will be hearing from NL teams who don’t mind carrying a power hitter who is no longer a good outfielder, and AL teams looking for a DH (He makes a ton of sense for the Baltimore Orioles).

4. Miguel Tejada: Like Dye, he’s an older guy who can command only a short-term investment, but Tejada has demonstrated he can still be a very productive player. He hit .313 for the Astros last season, with a .340 on-base percentage. Now, there will be concerns about his home/road splits — he batted .343 in hitter-friendly Minute Maid Park, versus .283 on the road — but he is regarded as a high-energy player who can be a good complementary piece, with some versatility. Tejada has indicated he is ready to make a move to third base, if asked, which means he could fit in Philly, or Oakland, or in other places, and you can bet there will be a lot of teams that will be ready to offer a one-year deal.

5. Nick Johnson: He is now regarded as a way below-average defensive first baseman by scouts, and he really doesn’t hit for much power. Because of his lengthy injury history and the questions about his commitment to conditioning, teams might be reluctant to offer him a deal of more than a modest year at a modest rate. But he does something better than any other free agent on the market: Johnson gets on base. He drew 99 walks in 133 games with the Nationals and Marlins last season, and batted .291, and could draw interest from teams closest to his home — the Giants and Athletics — and could fit with any number of clubs, including the Rangers and the Orioles. He might not get big dollars, but he’ll have a lot of choices.

6. Coco Crisp: He has been limited to a total of 167 games the past two seasons, largely because of injury, and the Royals declined to exercise an $8.5 million option on him in 2010, understandably; Crisp hit only .228. But there is so much that he does well: He plays strong defense, he’ll draw a walk, he’ll steal a base. It’d be a stunner if someone offered him a three-year deal, and the two-year offers he might get probably wouldn’t be more than two years/$9 million total. But he is capable of helping a good team, as part of a mix of outfielders.

7. J.J. Putz: Because he is coming off a significant injury, he is more likely to see one-year offers than multiyear proposals. But everybody remembers the dominant, hard-throwing right-hander who struck out 56 batters in 46.1 innings for Seattle, and you can bet that there will be teams — especially big-market teams like the Red Sox, the Angels, the Yankees, etc. — who will be willing to roll the dice on a chunk of change in the hope that Putz bounces back.

8. Placido Polanco: He won’t get any big offers — he almost certainly won’t get any offers of three or more years — and all of the offers he gets might not necessarily be to play second, the position he has manned since being dealt to the Tigers. But Polanco is a highly respected pro who can catch the ball and can put the ball in play, and last year, he did rack up 45 extra-base hits (in 618 at-bats).

9. Rafael Betancourt: There is a big “if” involved with Betancourt. If the Rockies don’t offer arbitration to the veteran right-handed reliever, a ton of teams will look to sign him. But if he is offered arbitration, a lot of teams won’t touch him because he’s a Type A free agent, and any team (other than the Rockies) that signed him would have to give up a top draft pick. (The guess here is that the Rockies will offer him arbitration, after playing this out for a while. And by the way: the same “if” applies for Billy Wagner, Jose Valverde, Mike Gonzalez and Rafael Soriano).

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(DB)

Jones got 2 third place votes which put him 7th

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which it seems to do at about 3,000 comments (30 paginated pages). (DOB)

can’t say that I notice that on my puter

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NP on the new blog DOB, hope you get to feeling better!

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VJ, congrats on the New Hampshire win – believe it or not, this Spider was rooting for your boys, if only to make this Saturday even more meaningful. And you’ll love this – in recognition of the Tribe’s victory over the No. 7 team, vs. our pasting of winless Georgetown, the FCS Coaches Poll … dropped you out of a tie with us, back to No. 5 (updated just a couple hours ago). D’Oh!

Doesn’t mean squat, of course, as the game will settle the pecking order. If there were any justice, given how head-and-shoulders the CAA is above any other FCS league, the winner of our game would get one of the four seeds along with Villanova. Instead, the winner will most likely get one only if Delaware upsets Nova. At least this year it’s not a winner-take-all game just to get into the playoffs, as last year’s screw-job turned out to be for y’all.

National semifinals is your baseline? Been there two years straight – sure, we’ll beat you again in the semifinals!

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Thanks for pointing out the poll, Keeper – since I had looked at the poll midday today, I thought I had the new one. That is a perfect example of the perfection of polls. I only grabbed semis to not sound greedy – since we lost to JMU in the semis five or six years ago, I’d like to do better than that. We would have been better off if you had beaten ‘Nova, but it’s better than the days where they didn’t set the second round until after the first ended, to cut down on travel and reward teams more likely to draw a lot of fans.

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nolie I’ll bring the tar, McFann can bring the feathers…she has birds, right?

Haha! Well, I have a bird, but I know plenty of ‘em…I’m sure they wouldn’t mind giving up a few of their old Summer feathers.

Night, all!

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We shoulda beat Nova – Times-Dispatch photos of their first touchdown clearly showed the receiver never got his feet down. Then again, we only beat Delaware by blocking a 23-yard field goal attempt to end the game, so stuff evens out.

Yeah, system is better now, but odds are one of us is going to have to travel to App State in the second round – not because App is better, but because as a larger school, they’ll generate more revenue for the NCAAs. Even without the screwed-up bowl system, it’s still all about $$$$$.

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DOB (November 16th, 2009 3:38 pm): “O.J. — I don’t have a problem with the two first-place votes (because as I said, I would’ve voted for Coghlan to win). It’s the lack of second-place and third-place votes that I’m surprised by. I mean, only six writers voted him second and nine voted him third (in addition to the two first-place votes).

“That means 15 of 32 writers didn’t think he belonged in the top three. That’s difficult to understand. He’s gotta be in top three, in my view.”

Me, I suspect Frank Wren of threats, intimidation and arm-twisting in an effort to keep Hanson’s future arbitration cost down.

A good GM is always thinking a couple years ahead, right, Dadgum?

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Get well Chief and get your girl over there to take care of you.

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DOB —–
Did you get the message I sent you the other day about SP?

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Yeah, that would be nice. I hear a lot of we’re going here and we’re doing that, I sense that there are other things thats holding up the blog these days. Call me nosy, but a cigar? Okay, I am Old School.

Don’t speak it and you can’t jinx it!

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Spent the day trying to shake this cold/sore throat.

You probably didn’t see my free medical advice on twitter, which was that out of date medicines won’t hurt you, they just lose their effectiveness. If you’re not planning to go to the doctor and are just going to try to cure yourself at home with out of date OTC medicines allow me to suggest gargling with hot hot salt water. Listerine and whiskey are good as well. Gargle the listerine. Drink the whiskey.

I sense that BossLady knows a secret. Hmmmm.

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VJ:

RICHMOND cleaned VMI’s clock tonight in BB. 103-62. Best looking team play I’ve seen since JOHN BEILEIN’s teams early this decade, and DICK TARRANT’s of the JOHNNY NEWMAN era of course..

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Goldenglove002

It’s /// Jason Heyward

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Any of you code experts want to help me out? How can I turn something into a link? say I wanted to write “Jason Heyward” and make it a link to his stats. Any help would be greatly appreciated! (GG)

there’s a way to do that but I can never remember it offhand. I just drop the address into the post and say “go look here”

http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_formatting.asp

some formatting at above site. don’t remember if it tells what you asked or not, but you can look

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[...] Will Braves trade Vazquez, or re-up? | Atlanta Braves with David O …Atlanta Braves with David OBrien … better run support, he might have won 18-20 games. Because the Braves … In summary, he said of Vazquez: “It’s not like … [...]

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On different notes, not all interceptions are equally harmful, just not not all touchdowns are equally helpful, and Matt Ryan threw a LOT of harmful interceptions this past season (the two most-notable examples came in New Orleans). I expect much better things out of him in 2010.

Jason Snelling’s running in Tampa Sunday was the most-impressive part of this Falcons’ season; he ran over and through people and broke many tackles. THAT running was old-school.

I watched a little of FOX’s pregame show, which has more cons than pros. Jimmy Johnson is obnoxious and misleading, and that Frank guy is the definition of “white trash.” In response to Johnson’s comments against Buddy Ryan, let’s deal with facts: Johnson wasn’t that good a head coach; he made one awesome trade, to his credit, but did little else. On the other hand, Ryan had very much to do with the Bears’ defense, but who actually benefitted that much from Johnson’s coaching? He went to Miami when they were barely a playoff team. He left four years later, and they were just the same, which says pretty much everything about Johnson. He misused Dan Marino immensely. If JJ wanted to establish to run, taking away the already-there passing game is the worst-possible first step. There’s such a thing as using the pass to set up the run, and vice-versa.

I recommend Mark Bowman’s articles; this blog is too music-oriented.

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