Maybe Braves get back to LaRoche, maybe not

Mr. Lentz

We are awaiting your arrival

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Man, it’s kind of rough in here tonight. Can we talk about the Braves? Any guesses as to the market on Lowe? Do you folks think we’ll have to eat much of his salary to make the trade?

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billy boy (TBFKB)…………most people do not agree with my Derek Lowe rants. Most on here feel that the Braves can either trade Lowe without eating any of his contract….OR……..trade him for prospects and eat $3 mil or less of his contract.

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Do you folks think we’ll have to eat much of his salary to make the trade?

I think $5M outta do it.

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I still think a trade for Swisher and a signing of Russell Branyan would give us a contending lineup.

Lineup in positional order stats based on 162 game average:

C – Brian McCann – .293/.356/.497/.853 24 HR 41 2B 103 RBI

*1B – Russell Branyan/Matt Diaz – .265/.364/.509/.872 37 HR 31 2B 93 RBI

2B – Martin Prado – .307/.360/.451/.811 9 HR 38 2B 58 RBI

SS – Yunel Escobar – .301 /.375 /.426 /.801 13 HR 33 2B 72 RBI

3B – Chipper Jones – .307/.406/.541/.947 32 HR 35 2B 108 RBI

LF – Nick Swisher – .245/.357/.460 /.817 28 HR 32 2B 86 RBI

CF – Nate McLouth – .260/.342/.454/.796 20 HR 33 2B 66 RBI

**RF – Jason Heyward – .303/.371/.465/.835 17 HR 27 2B 78 RBI

Thats a pretty powerful lineup

* based on Matt Diaz vs LH and Russell Branyan vs RH combined 162 average.
**based on Bill James projections (fangraphs)

And I know Chipper wont hit 32 again in all likelihood but upgrades in Prado and Escobar should make up those 7 as I expect about 25 from Chipper.

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Quote:
The Braves are still looking for a right-handed bat for the 2010 lineup. There’s still plenty of time to find one, and it might even take into the new year before the Braves get a new offensive player.

That new bat will probably play first base or left field, and there are several options still on the market.

Atlanta would probably be best served to see what it can get for pitcher Derek Lowe, who is on the trade market due to a crowded rotation. The amount of money the Braves save could determine what kind of player they are able to bring in for the lineup.

If the Braves trade Lowe for prospects, they would get a $15 million net gain for their payroll. And that could make things very intersting.

Right now, our calculations have the Braves at about $87 million for 2010. This includes projections for arbitration cases and renewals of contracts for players not yet eligible for arbitration.

If the Braves are operating under a potential $95 million dollar budget, there is still some room left to spend. But if Lowe’s $15 million is taken off the books, there would be significant flexibility in the payroll.

If our numbers are correct, or close to being correct, the Braves would be around $23 million under their budget if Lowe were traded for prospects and that net gain on his contract would be the full $15 million.

If the Braves are able to pull that off, would they then consider a different type of free agent?

Let’s say the Braves were $23 million under budget. Would they then say, “Well, heck, why don’t we see if Jason Bay would be interested in coming here?”

And here’s why: Bay has not signed yet, and the one team that reportedly has a current offer on the table is the Mets. From all indications, Bay does not want to play for the Mets. If that’s his best offer, Bay may instead wait to see if something else opens up after the new year before signing with a team he really doesn’t have an interest in signing with.

If the Braves more or less replaced Lowe’s salary with Bay, they’d still have the funds to bring in a first baseman (Xavier Nady for $6 million?), and then sign another utility guy (or even two if they were priced no more than $1 mil each). That would put them right at the $95 million mark.

The Braves almost got Bay two summers ago in a trade, but the Pirates’ ownership turned down the deal. Several weeks later Bay was traded to the Red Sox, and then the next spring many of those same players involved in the Bay discussions were traded to Pittsburgh for Nate McLouth.

So they liked Bay before, and if the market presents itself where he would be more attractive, due to Lowe’s money being off the books, then you wonder if they would revisit that possibility.

What would a lineup with Bay and Nady, for example, look like?

Nate McLouth
Martin Prado
Chipper Jones
Jason Bay
Brian McCann
Yunel Escobar
Xavier Nady
Jason Heyward

Not bad. Not bad at all.

What are Bay’s options right now, other than the Mets? The Red Sox have moved on, signing Mike Cameron. The Yankees (Cabrera, Granderson, Swisher) don’t have room for him. The Angels (Rivera, Hunter, Abreu, Matthews) seem to be crowded in the outfield.

Seattle was mentioned with Bay, but they acquired Milton Bradley and have Franklin Gutierrez in center and Ichiro in right. Bay has pretty much let it be known he does not want to play for San Francisco.

So if he does not sign with the Mets, where is Bay going to go? Could he be waiting to see if the Braves are going to be interested after they trade Lowe?

Bay is 31 years old. He’s averaged 30 home runs per season in his first six full seasons in the big leagues. He would fit what the Braves are looking for, if the price were right.

If you’re wondering about Matt Holliday, it’s just easier to put the Braves with Bay, a player they’ve had interest in before. Plus, if the rumors are true about what Scott Boras is wanting from St. Louis for Holliday (8 years, $128 million), the Braves would not be interested in that type of deal.

The Braves may get something back for Lowe that would eat up part of the payroll and not give them that $15 million net gain in the budget. Let’s say the Braves add a player that might give the team only a $10 million net gain in the payroll, or simply prefer not to invest that large of a contract in Bay, regardless of how much money they have available.

Would they instead be interested in Johnny Damon? The last few days that has been mentioned by David O’Brien of the AJC, and then Saturday by Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune, and then Sunday by Ken Davidoff of Newsday.

Damon reportedly went back to the Yankees, before they signed Nick Johnson late in the week, and asked for $22 million for two years. That’s off what Boras had put out there earlier in the winter that Damon would be looking for on the market.

The Yankees said no, and now you wonder who will be after Damon. He’s a left fielder, so you can look at the same teams mentioned above that may or may not be in on Bay. If Bay were to say no to the Mets, they could turn to Damon, but there’s no idea if he’d be interested in playing for the other New York team.

Two years ago when the Yankees talked about moving Damon and the final two years of his contract, the Braves were rumored to have some interest if the Yankees would eat part of Damon’s money in his deal. So you have that, plus the knowledge that Damon lives in Orlando, near the Braves spring training home. And you wonder if Damon would have an interest in playing for manager Bobby Cox.

Damon made $13 million dollars in each of the last four years. So if he’s already been turned down by the Yankees for $11 million per year for two seasons, his price tag is going to go down lower.

Damon has already made, according to baseball-reference.com, $97 million in his career. He just turned 36 years old, so he may accept less for a couple of seasons to play in Atlanta, especially if he believes the Braves have a chance to take him back to the World Series.

Now, Damon would not be the right-handed hitter the Braves are looking for this winter. But he would present an interesting option of moving McLouth down in the batting order. Damon mainly hit second last season, but in 2008 he hit leadoff for the Yankees and did very well in that role.

How solid would this lineup be?

Johnny Damon
Martin Prado
Chipper Jones
Brian McCann
Yunel Escobar
Nate McLouth
Xavier Nady
Jason Heyward

That’s not a bad lineup, either.

Damon’s speed has decreased a bit, as he stole only 12 bases last year – much lower than his average. But he’s still a very productive hitter. Damon hit .282 last season with a .365 OBP, 24 home runs, and 82 RBI.

Sure, Damon hit more home runs at Yankee Stadium (17) than on the road (7). But Damon is still a guy that can be dangerous at the plate.

Defensively, Damon is not what he used to be, but if the Braves had Garret Anderson in left field last season, Damon would be a huge upgrade.

How would having Damon, who won a World Series in Boston and last year with the Yankees, in the clubhouse help Atlanta? Well, they are trying to get to a World Series, so having someone with that experience would not be a negative.

Would Damon agree to a two-year deal with the Braves for $9 million each season? Depending on the Lowe trade, that would still put the Braves under budget.

Say the Braves got that $15 net gain on a Lowe trade, and then gave Damon $9 million for next season. They would actually still have the funds to give Nady $6 million for next season, and even still be able to afford giving Mark DeRosa $5 million for next season. If they did that, the Braves would be around $93 million – $2 million under a $95 million payroll.

So after seeing these scenarios, it makes you wonder if the Braves are just going to wait to see what kind of net gain they get from a Derek Lowe trade before moving forward with an outfielder. That makes sense. Get Lowe traded, and then know what your budget is to go after a Bay or a Damon or anyone else.

The Lowe deal is very important. Maybe Frank Wren has something up his sleeve where he’ll get an outfielder in return for Lowe, making a run at Bay or Damon unnecessary. But if he gets a lot of money off the books by trading Lowe, it opens up more possibilities in his search for a productive bat for the lineup.

Last edited Today 2:48 PM by BillShanks

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Yeah, if they can keep in the race until Zetterberg and Franzen (and Kronwall. And Filppula, Williams, Cleary, Helm, and Ericsson) get healthy, they should be fine. Oh, and they really need to hope Jimmy Howard makes the strides he needs to, because Osgood just ain’t gonna cut it.

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keep waiting – Paul Lentz

guess you still haven’t come up with an answer yet. I wait think it through

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Okay folks, I’m gonna retire for a while. Come join us for fellowship and discussion at the PLFC: http://paullentzfc.wordpress.com/

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out of curiosity… any other screenwriters on the ol’ blog?

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I think that we’ll see some major movement on the free agent market. With Christmas coming up on Friday, I cant imagine that the 2 biggest hitters on the market (Holliday and Bay) will be free agents past New Year’s (assuming that most of the front offices will be taking the week between Christmas and New Year’s off).

If Holliday and Bay are signed before the Braves are able to dump (eh, trade) Derek Lowe, then it could be awhile before the Braves make a move. I think that the teams out there looking for pitching are going to go bargain hunting like the teams did last year with hitters like Abreau and Dunn. It’s a buyer’s market right now.

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Steve McP the only site that says it is wikipedia (not very credible) every other site list him as a free agent. So I am to believe he hasn’t sign anywhere yet

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Move along people Nothing to see here. That is unless you’re a glutton for punishment, and wish to read the train-wreck that is Paul Lentz

Not me. Two posts “shaded in grey” after page 14 tells me what I need to know today…. that there isn’t any Braves news to reports.

Which means that there is likely too much Lentz for anybody to have to sift through.

Have fun people.

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What the hell is a cassette?

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Lentz,

I take back what I side, everyone has a bad side, unfortunately you’ve been the victim of attacks and you have to respond back , and because of that were all seeing your bad side. I know your not like that. I know your not evil. I’ll just wait for tomorrow when everyone will have a clean slate, and we can get back to baseball.

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N8, I got to see proto-Oingo Boingo on the Gong Show as a result of today’s blog. Not sure if that is worth sifting throw the crap-heap that is pages 11 through 19. But hey, it’s something.

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Classy move, Jurrjens4NLCY. He’s been ubernasty, that’s for sure, but it sure brought out the ugly in a bunch of us, didn’t it?

(Still gotta be pulling for a ban, though, lol.)

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Paul Lentz,

I’m sorry. I’m sorry I continue to feed you. I sorry for the website, even though it was hilarious, not just funny, hilarious. I know I didn’t help in the efforts of helping you avoid name calling. I know Steve and Wayne and all those others pick fights with you. And I know you will not be the bigger man. You you took it too far with the ****bang comment, and for that you will probably be banned. Before you make a choice, think about the ramifications of it.

Have a good life Paul Lentz.

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Paul Lentz:

But for god’s sake it’s called a post, not a posting!
Post is a noun, as in: “The person who made that post is a moron.”

Posting is a verb, as in: “That moron keeps posting about Matt Holiday even though there’s no chance in hell he’s coming to the Braves.”

Whew…. I feel better now.

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Can we NOW as of 9:44 stop?

Can we all just put our guns down?
Lets ALL, ALL, move on…

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Oops, haha, I live in the central time zone, I meant 10:45

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Whew…. I feel better now.

And don’t even get me started on his ridiculous misuse of quotation marks.

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I just opened two windows and copied and pasted the information

ahh…that’s what I should’ve done if I wasn’t a MORON

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Then again, who the hell we going to have to make us all feel smarter?

I think Lentz has given us enough to last us for years to come

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Abwright, one other thing, who’s your SP? James Parr?

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Braves_Fan_RFDildo………I’m not going anywhere MORON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glad you finally accept this about your life Paul admitting it is half the battle

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Paul, I’m not the one banning you. If you weren’t such a hot-headed morong (seems to be the word of choice), you’d realize it’s not in my control. But I have no problem reporting your obnoxiousness.

There are many things that it is known by all not to bring up here.

Politics, Religion and Whitesnake. They are just a given.

But if you have to be told not to bring up penis size and rectums? I can only assume that your mother had to also tell you many times “why you can’t play with the toaster in the bathtub”, well into your teens.

So yes. I cannot ban you. But if you really think those comments aren’t going to get your current IP address banned? You sir, are the moron.

Thanks for playing.

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FYI – you can’t say a word that rhymes with “rocky” and is a synonym of arrogant on here. It will get eaten.

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I cant believe that a bunch of adults who call themselves Braves fans advocate for things that will only ensure that the Braves dont compete for a championship.

Is this what started it all??

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I cant believe that a bunch of adults who call themselves Braves fans advocate for things that will only ensure that the Braves dont compete for a championship

So you retaliate by making cruel, disgusting, and uncalled for sex jokes??

None of us want to see the Braves lose (except maybe Anders). But right now there’s circumstances that are making fielding a competitive team difficult.

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Two problems with that, Lentz.

1. You’ll never be able to keep yourself concealed.

2. DOB isn’t going to let you hijack this joint permanently, IP changes or otherwise. “Oh, there’s Paul. *click*. Oh, there’s Paul again. *click* See?”

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Paul Lentz-
I have tried to stay out of this converstaion, but if you have multiple IP addresses to try and say the stuff you say on a site you get banned from, then you are one disturbed person. My guess is that you live a miserable life, and try (and fail) to make others miserable because of it. People like you are what is wrong with the world

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I SAID LETS STOP THE FUSSING AND THE FEUDING!!

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Oops, that wasn’t supposed to be as Bill Cosby

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Blog’s going crazy

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Posts are being deleted

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Post’s are being deleted?

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Jurrjens4NLCY……….looks like it.

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Post’s aren’t being deleted, and I doubt that’s DOB’s job.

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So can’t you just ignore it and be the bigger man? I hope you’ll realize the stuff you’re saying makes you look less and less credible.

jeffrey!… Drop it.

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N8,

DROP IT!

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This has happened before, and it’s gonna happen again if we don’t learn from what happened. We can’t just pretend it didn’t happen.

We can stop instantiating and start learning to be civil and coexist

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Goodnight Paul, enjoy your night.

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What did they call Tommy John surgery before Tommy John was around? Joe R

career ending injury surgery

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blog tonight looks like a bunch of high school girls going at each other. Really mature guys

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suggestion – kidding or not, that is a horrendous post

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It was deleted… GOOD.

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cabravesfan, you do realize I was talking about your cigarette smoking, beer drinking, 3-legged female dog, Nala, right?

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As the dust settles, we resume normal Braves related talk.

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Yes

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