While looking for bats, Braves fortify ‘pen

Choo is a much better hitter and basestealer than Gordon, not as good on D but will still be a + LFer

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Kevin McAlpin ‏@KevinMcAlpin

Frank Wren there’s mutual interest between the #Braves & Reed Johnson but they’re “not quite there yet”

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Mark Bowman ‏@mlbbowman

Ernesto Mejia’s stock has soared over the past six months. A chance he could begin next season as a RH bat on Atlanta’s bench #Braves

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Jon Morosi ‏@jonmorosi

Source: Dodgers have become clear favorite to land Greinke.

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A chance he could begin next season as a RH bat on Atlanta’s bench

I think so too

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“BJ Upton at 5 years 75 million is a good deal. Being the youngest CFer on the market who provides the Power/Speed combo.”

It isn’t a good deal if the speed doesn’t translate to good defense in CF and the power is at the expense of his on base percentage. This deal could turn out to be a MAJOR bust or if BJ Upton gets his head on straight, learns to walk and play defense, could turn out to be a decent signing. The guy isn’t a superstar, but is getting paid by the Braves to be one, especially for their payroll. Hope it works out…we shall see.

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I am still leaning toward Gordon, but Choo seems more attractive. If ultimately you want to lock up people already on the roster, you could have the following under pretty long term expensive deals, among your position players

Heyward
Prado
BJ Upton
Freeman ?
Gordon ?

So do you want the 2014-16 version of Gordon for 35M?

Or the 2014-16 version of Gattis for 1.5M, plus the option to shop around next offseason? This option would dictate Choo. And he’s cheaper in terms of the trade pieces needed.

I think I’m talking myself into Choo.

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Appreciate the insight regarding the bullpen, and leadership, DOB. Good stuff

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they feel like Francisco, Constanza & Gattis could fill role

why am I not surprised????

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Reed Johnson platoon wouldn’t be the worse thing in the world. Just need a partner in crime with him…

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Boy I’d be very upset if Wren settles with in-house options.

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Jon Morosi ‏@jonmorosi

Justin Upton has drawn active interest from 3 teams today: Mariners, Rangers, Indians. @MLBONFOX

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I’m so over Jose Constanza, the guy shouldn’t sniff a 25 man roster at all, hell if were gonna not do anything just give the job to Gattis and see what happens, if he fails then give Cunningham a shot, after all the guy did hit well in the minors and is 23 years old and projected make majors by 2013.

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I love Choo.

Awwww… I love Choo too.

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Frank Wren says if the #Braves don’t trade for or sign a FA, they feel like Francisco, Constanza & Gattis could fill role

Translation: “We are working very hard to fill this need.”

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that is not my translation….

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“Frank Wren says if the #Braves don’t trade for or sign a FA, they feel like Francisco, Constanza & Gattis could fill role”

Translation: No, [insert name of team], we’re not offering more for [insert name of player].”

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But Lew, I really wanted to see the blog spectacle when Wren announces he just signed Nate. That’s entertainment!

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I’m starting to wonder where our game is heading.

Upton – 75 million – below 300 OBP.

Pagan – 40 million – I wouldn’t mind him being up at the plate at all with 2 outs and he has to get the hit to beat me.

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“At least one would rise to the occasion, wouldn’t they”

Didn’t happen the first time with Schafer and McLouth, wouldn’t see why the 2nd time it would develop into anything. And guys like Schafer, McLouth, Francisco, Constanza are settling. The Braves don’t need to settle. Not this year. There is money available and two very valuable trade pieces. No reason we can’t get an impact bat for LF. And we need another bat on this team that is better than BJ Upton that’s for sure.

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From the previous blog which had 6,189 comments, TheOnlyBravesFan led the way with 446 posts. There were 335 different poster names. Here are the Top 25:

Rank Poster Frequency

1 TheOnlyBravesFan 446
2 Efrim 367
3 Brava 231
4 ncscoots 213
5 Murph 196
6 old man 171
7 TennesseePaul 164
8 Lew 153
9 Disgusted 149
10 JasonInFL 126
11 richbrave 115
12 VaBravesFan 106
13 Jeff R 100
14 BravePack(FreeFan) 99
15 David O’Brien 99
16 George_George 96
17 cabravesfan 96
18 Ward 95
19 Venice Jim 94
20 DAP 88
21 Bobby H 85
22 CB 82
23 RC 79
24 ncgary 75
25 P-Town Brave © 71

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I can see filling bench needs i.e. back up 1B internally, but LF has to be done via FA or trading. I am not confident with the in house options at all.

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Teheran, Spruill, Gattis to CLE for Cabrera

Cabrera, Venters, and mid-level prospects to AZ for Upton

Or… how about we stop prancing around and just give KC Mike Minor for Will Myers and call it a freakin’ day? Enough of this 3 way trade circle jerk. Minor for Myers, done and done. If it doesn’t work, cry about it next offseason. If it does work…. you’re welcome.

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I have a feeling we will miss Bourn. He played good defense, got on base and he manufactured runs. He proved why it is important to have a bona fide leadoff hitter with speed. We dont have that now and by mid-summer I think we will regret not having him on our team. I know he has a HUGE contract demand but come on, really, I am not impressed with this Upton guy at all. We need a that guy people come to the park and see because he “wows” you. I think Heyward and Freeman have that potential but nobody with that big time name that fill seats and draw media attention. Media attention means nationally televised games which means more revenue which pays for big names to stay here and wins championships rings not a wild card rings. Do they even have “wild card rings”???

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they ARE NOT gonna give KC Minor for Myers,and you can take that to the bank

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Brava with a big return to the countdown thanks to the power of retweeting…well played!

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Indians looking for 3-4 players for Choo, that’s a steep price for a 1 year rental

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Wren should be fired for even mentioning that Constanza or Francisco could be starting for this team

Ridiculous

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Someone explain this to me: If Wil Myers is all that, why doesn’t KC keep him, play him, and work to move Gordon (or the French one). Wouldn’t that be what you’d do in their position?

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Bourn didn’t even score 100 runs. Everybody knows that good leadoff hitters should score 100 runs every year, Bourn ain’t done it even once.

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Buster Olney ‏@Buster_ESPN

The Arizona Diamondbacks have constructed a four-team deal that’s currently dormant. Would net them Asdrubal Cabrera, if it’s revitalized.

That’s what I keep hearing via the Philly media, that there’s a couple loose ends that need to be addressed

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Thanks, VJ. I did better than I thought I would.

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LOL @ Comfortably Dumb

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I wonder if the Braves are part of the 4 team deal? Probably has them kicking in a bunch of prospects without getting any players in return.

Ok, Frank? You there? Ok, here’s what we’re going to do. We’ve got 2 more teams in on this thing. You agree to send Teheran and Spruill to Cleveland, ok? No no no, when they ask, you say “I agree that I’m sending Teheran and Spruill to Cleveland.”… that’s it. That’s all you have to do.

What am I getting in….

Look Frank, this deal is about to fall apart. Don’t worry about the logistics, just agree to it over the phone and I’ll make sure it gets sorted out after the fact, ok? Ok, sweet.

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nolie – And why would you even think Prado would play only one position this year? Cause he has in the past?

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I guess we need to dig a little deeper to other trade options that haven’t been mentioned much. What about Jason Kubel? He might be LH but I say he’s better than some platoon with Prado bouncing around… What about Curtis Granderson or Brett Gardner, both who are possibly available?

Justin Upton isn’t happening, we could probably say the same for Alex Gordon. Shin Soo Choo is a rental with a high asking price, the Rockies want Mike Minor for Dexter Fowler… The Twins don’t wanna trade Josh Willingham, and I don’t see how we land Wil Myers.

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“why would you even think Prado would play only one position this year?”

He won’t. And not because the Braves won’t have players at every position. Prado is just the X-factor on this team and can fill in at soo many positions while giving them a quality hitter and defender at multiple positions.

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Just bring back Franceour to play left

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Murph:

I was thinking the same thing. What if there was a 4-way and some team gave up players, but it was so complicated, the same team ended up getting nothing back?

That would be cool.

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I’ll be back in about 8 hours to report on the Springsteen Concert – wonder what the over/under is on new pages to page through…

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much faster blog today. Hope it keeps up. Must be the magical new blog

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DOBerino,
With all these backup catcher signings, do you still see Bethancourt getting a shot at opening the season as Laird’s primary backup?

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Of course I like your song choice, old ‘five and dimer’ that I am. On a baseball note, I am reading that the Dodgers have offered Victorino 3/38 and that the dearth of pitching has bid up the Rays’ 1-3 starters. Whoa! – I understand market forces, but the ‘country’ in me cautions about knowing the difference between “holding and folding”. Classic supply and demand has bid up the value of this years’ crop of free agents, but the Braves simply can’t compete against the Red Sox (flush with money), Dodgers (still flush), Giants, Rangers and Phillies. All of these teams have learned lessons – the Yankees ‘12 experience shows how vulnerable you can be with a bevy high priced, but aging free-agents, and they are clearly receding from this model (temporarily, to be sure). At the other end, the limitations of small-market economics is evident in the Rays: home-grown, cheap – but no rings. Braves historically have huge home-grown success, and have also struck out on “spending” (whether dollars or players)to get further down the championship road. (Major exception: Fred McGriff).

To paraphrase: “I knew Fred McGriff, and B.J. Upton – you’re no Fred McGriff”. The “blogdom” (this blog, to be precise)bullied Braves’ management into making serially poor, and expensive decisions: Lowe, Kawakami,Uggla (so far), and the Big One, Texiera (prospects, not money, same thing).

Yet, some on the blog, yell for releasing or trading Uggla, seemingly without any real understanding of what a contract means in this market-based climate. Let me be clear, I am NOT making the point that we should not have paid what we did (and the market over-priced him, but that’s the market), but the idea that you then go out and pay another huge market based salary for Josh Hamilton (hey, he has issues, McGriff didn’t, and he is a class one mercenary – that’s not all bad, but…Chipper wasn’t, for example)- but, no matter, we can’t afford him.

Where does that leave us? We added a .297 OBP guy for what $13m a year – ok, maybe; we re-signed a declining, historically injured, but once all-star caliber, catcher, Ok, but another maybe. We let David Ross go, not good, at any level,but money matters. Two rotation pitchers gone: good riddance, but wish them well. Journeyman Hinske gone: oh, how I once celebrated ye – but no more! Oh, and a no-brainer: Huddy back. My only BTW on the David Ross replacement was that we salvaged the best possible position from a bad move.

Christmas list: sign Reed, and quickly. Resign Moylan, but this is not imperative. (Good move that Janish was re-signed today.) Consider Pastornicy expendable.

Who did I miss? Oh, yeah, that left-fielder to keep Costanza in a back-up role. My advice: wait until there are buyers with regrets or fire-saleable assets. Remember we got McGriff late in the year.

New Year’s Wish: that everyblogger will look at his (or her) own income and assets before criticising Liberty for its business practices. You and Liberty live in the same world. It’s not a world where you “send down” or release an Uggla, or “trade” him to some team who is willing to pay a salary that you wouldn’t dream of paying him.

Finally, I don’t think we have $25M a year for 6-8 years to pay Josh Hamilton. Please give your fingers and us bloggers a rest on this.

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I agree that it’s pretty sad that Wren would make that comment about being ok with Gattis, Constanza, and Francisco. Doesn’t seem optimistic at all about getting a LFer.

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maybe the reason Bourn hasnt scored 100 runs is because our sh***y offense always leave him on base! Which is why we dont need any more “Uggla’s” on our team….

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MFin04 – My thought exactly. He’ll play different positions because he can and sometimes they’ll need him to.

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The blog has improved a little lately… DOB’s twitter feed is again updating when it hadn’t for months. I had a bunch of error messages this morning, but this afternoon has been pretty smooth.

There’s hope. If the AJC IT department can fix the blog, maybe Wren can fix LF… right?

Right??

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Enter your left fielder here

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@Comfortably Dumb: It would probably be best if they allow Bethancourt to hit at the AA level for the entire year. Hopefully the FO can restrain themselves from continuing to rush the kid in 2013. Just let him figure things out at the plate.

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TP,your prize is in the mail for being 6th. Or you can call BR-549 for instructions on how to pick it up.

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