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© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
250 comments Add your comment
bfred
August 1st, 2011
12:47 am
As much as I’d like to give Wren credit for this, I believe thanks go to the Houston front office. They have now traded away four all-stars (in order, Oswalt, Berkman, Pence, Bourne) in less than a year with effectively nothing to show for it.
Just Wanna Say
August 1st, 2011
1:59 am
There is no e on the end of his name.
BravesAC
August 1st, 2011
2:06 am
For everyone thinking Schafer is a washout, remember that Bourn was a project himself when he first came up. With the big field working to his advantage, and his acceptance of the type of player he needs to be, I think Schafer can make it. I sure wish him well. The guy who gutted out the long game with Pitts, after being hit on the wrist, showed me something.
Sam Potts
August 1st, 2011
2:24 am
What a great trade, solid player and we didnt have to get rid of a whole lot! Great job Frank
bobbybrave
August 1st, 2011
4:12 am
good trade…but pence would have been better….
David O'Brien
August 1st, 2011
4:13 am
good trade…but pence would have been better…. — bobbybrave
I respectfully disagree. For the Braves’ particular needs, I think Bourn was better. For the Phillies, Pence was obviously better, but not for the Braves.
Trade Deadline Winners & Losers | Sports News. By Bums Like You.
August 1st, 2011
5:36 am
[...] are highly touted, but they’re years away from making an impact in the majors. In the Bourn deal, he acquired Jordan Schafer, a center fielder who can’t hit, and prospects the Mets [...]
1. Bourn Becomes Brave ‹ The Daily Dunk
August 1st, 2011
6:51 am
[...] Read the story at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution [...]
Sailor
August 1st, 2011
6:53 am
Great move for you guys..now take care of the Giants in the NLDS and we’ll see you in the NLCS…..GO PHILS
Arkie
August 1st, 2011
7:59 am
Good luck Jordan, hope you have a great career. I have been asking for speed and defense. The old saying “you have to be strong up the middle” wins ball games. We still have holes to fill. Gonzo hits well for a few games and strikes out alot when a hit is needed. Will Heyward rebound to be productive? Needs – right handed, left fielder with power and bull pin help. We may be ruining our young pitchers arms using them too often. Wren, is working on the remaining pieces. He needs more money to be and stay competitive. New owners would be GREAT. Go Braves
BoatDoc
August 1st, 2011
8:29 am
Chipper is wise when he responds “ask me in two months” if it was a good deal or not, but on paper it looks like the Bravos have the leadoff hitter and CF they haven’t had since Otis Nixon.
William O
August 1st, 2011
8:37 am
I really dont know why you guys are talking about trading such a talent. next season we will be 14 million less because of chipper retiring and the possible 13 million less because we will get that cuz its lowes walk year. not to mention KKs contract. we will be in great position to sign both JJ and bourne. This team has dealt with SB before with maddux and they can do it again. That way they can have the ability to go for it for years to come. We lucked out on this trade . It would be sacrilidge to trade him in the middle of next season. We have pitching DOTF but nothing else that comes close to what we have in bourne. You dont want anoither texiera trade on your hands. the same goes for JJ. you guys are all nuts if thats what you want to do. You never get true value in those kinds of trades Lets keep the players and get rid of the owners lol
scbrave
August 1st, 2011
9:06 am
well kinda wonder why astros trade him if he that great? he got one yr left on contract and they got guys who are not that great. trade is over we got nothing else. chipper needs play off bench now for rest of season unless someone else gets hurt.
John
August 1st, 2011
9:32 am
I am happy to say that I think this is the absolute best deal the Braves could have done within reason. He fills a huge need as a CF and as a leadoff man. It does not force us to platoon corner outfielders. If Chipper does get hurt, Prado can go to second and Hinske can play left. McLouth can also fill in at LF if we need him too (once off the DL).
Doug Price
August 1st, 2011
9:48 am
To the guy suggesting Chipper should retire
I love the Chip but Wren should have told him “Chipper, we love ya and we’ll always have a job for you after retirement, but we’ve just got to say goodbye and take that money to sign Tiexira to a long term contract. Tex may be the best 1st base/hitter in baseball. We’d be right there with the Phils if we had him.
John
August 1st, 2011
9:49 am
1. Bourn
2. Prado
3. Chipper
4. McCann
5. Freeman
6. Uggla
7. Heyward
8. Gonzalez
Someone earlier mentioned benching Gonzalez, starting Prado at SS, and playing McLouth in LF. This makes no sense now that we traded for a CF. Gonzalez’ defense helps us alot, while having McLouth and his little league arm in LF really hurts us. Plus, McLouth is not much, if at all, better at the plate than Gonzalez. Gonzalez is also right handed at the plate which we need in our line up. Moving Prado to SS maybe made sense if we traded for a corner outfielder and if Gonzalez’ struggles continued at the plate.
alanfalcon
August 1st, 2011
10:05 am
Bourn is a nice addition, we’ve seen what speed does for the team, now lets move forward and learn how to play small ball when needed, it seems that all want to be hero’s instead of scoring runs just look at how many body’s we leave out there. Now a question, what is it with Braves pitchers when they get alead, it seems as though they feel compelled to give the lead back, it would really be nice if they could start keeping the lead and not have to go back and recapture it.
O'flarity's water bottle
August 1st, 2011
10:35 am
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O'flarity's water bottle
August 1st, 2011
10:49 am
Gonzales needs to hussle on offense. One play he hit the ball to the SS in one one of the recent games. He didnt hussled out the box, beacuse he hit the ball straight to the player. The SS fumbled the ball and the play at first was very close. So, he probably could have beat out the through if he wasnt lazy.
BraveMan
August 1st, 2011
10:49 am
The acquisition of M. Bourn looks like a good deal, but does it help the Braves counteract the major shortcoming — driving in runs? Look at Sunday’s game: 13 hits, 1 run, 10 LOB. How many times this season have we watched the Bravos leave men on third when all that was needed was a sac fly? I was hoping Carlos Quentin was in the mix at the deadline (20 HR and 62 RBI). McCann leads the Braves in RBI with 55. Speed on the bags helps, but runners need to be driven in!
Bird Flu
August 1st, 2011
11:06 am
CHIPPER JONES :
“Yeah, Schafer kind of reminds me of myself. Gets hurt a lot and prevents Braves from being a solid team. Hell, he’s the younger version me. What am I thinking ?”
Matt
August 1st, 2011
11:06 am
Can’t wait to watch the game tonight
This is so exciting! We have a leadoff hitter again! Watch him steal 70 bases for us next year, and at least 25 for the rest of this season.
Bird Flu
August 1st, 2011
11:09 am
Bourn will be just another man LOB so instead of a runner stranded at 3rd by Gonzo or Ugglait will be runners stranded at 2nd & 3rd by them. Is Wren an idiot or what ? Braves needed a power bat to drive in men LOB not another speedster.
Bird Flu
August 1st, 2011
11:12 am
DOB “Bourn better for Braves then Pence.”
Are you serious ? A 2 tool player like Bourn is never better than a 5 tool player like Pence. Ever.
Dougger
August 1st, 2011
11:13 am
Yup, Gonzales not only doesn’t hussle, he’s not a clutch hitter either.
Somehow the Braves need to figure out how to get runs home when they’ve got runners ISP with less than 2 outs (or with 2 outs for that matter). Bourn won’t likely be that. More LOBs then I would like to see.
The Swami
August 1st, 2011
11:16 am
I agree about benching Gonzo and playing Prado at SS. Let’s be real, Gonzo doesn’t know how to swing the bat very well…
Brooklyn Braves Brawler
August 1st, 2011
11:18 am
Like the Bourn deal, but did not like the way Fredi managed yesterday. Ross should have hit for Boscan earlier in the game when we had first and third and one out and Boscan struck out.
Brooklyn Braves Brawler
August 1st, 2011
11:19 am
I have said once before Prado or a guy like Nick Punto will be playing SS next year
The Swami
August 1st, 2011
11:19 am
Wren reminds of my son. I ask him to go to the store and bring back a loaf of bread and milk (power hitter) and he brings back a Pepsi 2 liter and eggs (leadoff hitter)…
The Swami
August 1st, 2011
11:22 am
What’s up with playing Boscan any way ? i mean Ross should be fresh to be the starter now since he played only about once per week all year. I hate platooning. The good teams just play the starters and scrap the platooning crap.
Brooklyn Braves Brawler
August 1st, 2011
11:33 am
Catcher is one of those positions where you have to give them a day off when you can. Fact is Dave has pl-ayed every day since the 19 inning game in which he played 10 of those innings. The Bravos don’t get another day off until Thursday I believe.
David O'Brien
August 1st, 2011
11:34 am
“Bourn better for Braves then Pence.” — DOB
Are you serious ? A 2 tool player like Bourn is never better than a 5 tool player like Pence. Ever. — Bird Flu
Yes, I was quite serious. To not take into account a specific team’s needs when judging such matters is so simplistic. By your reasoning — you said “ever” — a team could have two perennial All-Stars, even two future Hall-of-Famers, in their prime at the outfield corners and McLouth playing CF and leading off, but would be better off adding Hunter Pence than it would be adding Bourn. And that’s just silly.
Also, which scouting report are you looking at that rates Bourn a two-tool player? Speed, defense and throwing are three tools, and one could argue that now that he’s hitting .303 and steadily raising his career average, he might even be four-tool. Only tool that’s obvious glaring deficiency is power, and that’s not his game, like it’s not for the majority of top leadoff men throughout history. Besides Rickey, how many five-tool players can you think of who were leadoff hitters?
By the way, Pence has a .290 career average and modest 61 stolen bases in 97 attempts (not a good rate at all). I’ll give you average as a tool for him, but his speed/baserunning, you really think that qualifies for him? There’s a difference between hustle/aggressiveness and speed/baserunning ability, when judging it as a tool.
snowflake
August 1st, 2011
11:39 am
Being from Houston, I’m very disappointed to see him go, obviously! One of the few, and maybe THE last, good player the Astros had. But he deserves to be on a winning team, so I truly wish him the best. Congrats Braves! I will have to start watching the Braves and Phillies now that my two favs are with them now. I have no reason to go to/watch anymore Astros games at this point.
Atlanta Braves Make Deadline Deal for Michael Bourn | Out of Left Field
August 1st, 2011
12:22 pm
[...] the Braves sent Jordan Schafer, Juan Abreau, Paul Clemens, and Brett Oberholtzer to the struggling ‘Stros. The Braves certainly gave Schafer a shot, but injuries hampered his [...]
jt
August 1st, 2011
12:24 pm
Oh Boy, all we get at trade deadline is Bourne, Holy S%@T, are we LOSERS or What????
jt
August 1st, 2011
12:36 pm
What are you rambling about DOB?????
The Truth.....
August 1st, 2011
12:36 pm
Before we start kissing each others butts lets get one thing straight….The rest of this team must step up their games! Bourn can’t bat everytime and catch every ball….During Sundays game they had 1st and 3rd AGAIN with no outs and got nothing! Way too many LOB to win.
jimmya
August 1st, 2011
12:45 pm
bourn cf
prado ss
ugga 2nd
freeman 1st
ross or mac c
chipper or conrad 3rd
heyward rf
constana lf
sorry bout that gonzo
Bernard
August 1st, 2011
12:57 pm
Well done Mr Wren:-)!
BravesSince57
August 1st, 2011
1:00 pm
how about trading Frank Wren for someone who knows baseball. we need right handed power hitter so we get another left hander with 1 homer. Ok – beltran is a rental – but Hunter Pence? not only did we not get him, we let the phillies have him – a team we already can’t keep up with. that said, I feared Bourn every time we played the Astros. we will not catch the phillies with this team.
Bourn Ultimatium
August 1st, 2011
1:02 pm
Next thing we need to do is dump Gonzalez(A-Gone) and Lowe….let McOut walk and bring up a couple more good prosects…..Pastornicky and Teheran especially!
Mark's for the Braves
August 1st, 2011
1:56 pm
The reason McClouth wasn’t traded (and Shafer was traded) was the salaries. Astros didn’t want to take on McClouth’s $6 million salary and were happy to get Shafer’s low salary and speed on the base paths.
Glad we have a legit leadoff hitter now. We were in the playoffs all the time when we had Furcal.
Hoggy II
August 1st, 2011
1:56 pm
I agree. Lets see what Pastornicky and Teheran can do.
David O'Brien
August 1st, 2011
2:40 pm
DOB, I read recently that Johnny Cash and Dylan laid down a bunch of tracks when Dylan did Nashville Skyline. But only “Girl From The North Country” made it onto the LP.
Do you know if any of the other tracks were ever released?
Bootleg even? — Phillistein
Those tunes are so freakin’ good, it’s amazing they haven’t been released officially. But they’re widely available on bootleg. Someone on this blog sent me a copy a few years back, and I play it frequently. Great stuff.
Brooklyn Braves Brawler
August 1st, 2011
3:07 pm
I don’t think we can DFA McClouth until he gets off the DL. I think we will first try to place him on waivers and see if someone claims him. If they do, then we let him go.
Joshua
August 1st, 2011
3:08 pm
The Truth…what happened on the previous 63 games we won? Kind blows your theory out of the water – you know the 4th best ML record and all.
God so many stupid Braves fans.
Lobosolo
August 1st, 2011
4:04 pm
BravesFAN=petulant, no-class asswipe… How can you call yourself a fan, Mr. Prickman?
Jon
August 1st, 2011
4:44 pm
I think Bourn helps a little… But we really needed more power – pop from the right side! Oh well… I should learn to accept that we never go for bigger prizes.
Chipper Jones
August 1st, 2011
4:54 pm
Me and Bourn are already great friends. Now welcome your fantastic Atlanta Braves team!
Chip
bfred
August 1st, 2011
5:36 pm
A guy batting .303 is going to leave fewer runners on base than the rest of a team batting .243, even if it’s not with home runs. He slugs a little higher than his HR totals would suggest due to an ability to stretch singles to doubles and has scored 64 runs on a pathetic offensive team (projects to 96).
Yeah Pence’s right-handed bat would have been nice but Bourn makes his own fun offensively. Plus Pence only has 11 HR (tied for 39th in the NL, playing at Minute Maid Park) and 54 runs scored on the season. It’s not like he’s Texiera.