While looking for bats, Braves fortify ‘pen

@JeffPassan: #Dodgers filed for bankruptcy in “11. Since, spent $684M on Kemp, Ethier, Puif, Gonzalez, Crawford, Beckett & Greinke.

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SUNDAY, 8:31am: Greinke has a full player opt-out clause after the third year of the deal, a Dodgers source tells Jim Bowden of ESPN.com (via Twitter). Furthermore, if Greinke is traded during the course of the contract he can opt out at end of year.

He needs to opt out then… come to ATL. We may be able to use him then.

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Well you also gotta factor in the Braves would receive a draft pick after he leaves

Exactly… makes it worth trading TRex imo.

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Basically nobody wants Michael Bourn. We chose to sign BJ for a much cheaper deal, Nationals chose to trade for Span, and Phillies traded for Revere, Red Sox signed Victorino. All to avoid a huge long term investment for a pure speedster over 30 years old.

With our Braves giving BJ Upton 5 years 75 million, you really have to think that Wren offered something close to that for Bourn. Would be pretty funny if he now only get’s a handful of 4 year offers with less money than he expected. There just really isn’t any major fits for him where a team would go all out to bring him in.

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Well, under the current CBA it’s the average of the Top 125 player salaries. I think it’ll probably be a one year, $14 million dollar deal next year or perhaps a bit less. I think both McCann and Prado will receive those offers if they have career average type years. No real reason for them not too with the current free agent contracts being handed out. And once again, plenty of teams will have money to spend next winter.

I do still expect the Braves to re-sign either Prado or McCann, but I’m less sure about that now than I was six weeks ago. Prado has every right now to demand a big deal – five year extension on top of the 2013 season. Six years, $63 million if I was his agent – five year, $55 million dollar extension. Insane that I was hoping for a $38 million dollar, four year deal for Prado. That is not happening with these prices.

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Mark

It wouldn’t be that easy to trade Grienke now, Main reason he signed with the Dodgers cause they obviously offered more money than anyone else, and if things don’t work out what team would want to actually give us something valuable for a #2 starter making that much money… Also if things are not working out there’s a good chance that Grienke isn’t performing up to the standards of his contract. They overpaid big time. Blows my mind he is the highest paid RH starter in the game has produced this…

91 W 78 L 3.77 ERA 1 Time All Star, 1 Time Cy Young Winner, 1 Time received MVP/CY consideration. (All the same season, back in 2009)

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Efrim

If Prado was a free agent right now, He’d easily be the best 3rd baseman on the Market. Oh and we could throw in that he’s a gold glove caliber LFer as well, Hell he could be a ok everyday 2nd baseman as well, all while having to ability to play 1B and SS in a pinch. 290+ Career Hitter, XBH machine, #2 hitter that teams would love to add. He would easily get a 5 year contract over 50 million for sure.

After all a older Angel Pagan with his lesser track record was given 4 years 40 million, A toasted Shane Victorino received 3 years 39 million…. Prado would cash in big time.

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Vabraves

Makes sense. I was just looking at it froma trend standpoint money wise. These contracts appear to be rocketing out of control and Grienke will probably be the highest paid a month or so as teamstry to lock up their good ones.

I’m afraid we will never sign another dominant pitcher or be able to keep one that comes through the system. Can you imagine what Smoltz, Maddux…would get now?

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Greinke: 3.37 ERA since 2009… 23rd best among starters, right behind CJ Wilson who signed 5/75 last year. Damn.

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Mark, we’re just waiting on a new owner to see if we get back in the upper tier ballgame. With Liberty, we won’t be. Simple as that.

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I think Graham’s legit, feel better about him than I ever did about Teheran… don’t know much about Sims other than stats and scouting reports, haven’t seen him pitch live. But I did see Wood a few times at Rome… I think he’s gonna be a good one. Wonder if they’re gonna keep him at Rome to start the season, he sure looked dominant already

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VaBravesFan…yeah, that Figgins deal should scare them. It would be kind of funny for Bourn to get an offer that was less than what the Braves offered initially, but I doubt it. His deal should be around what BJ got…shouldn’t be a whole heck of a lot more.

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Off to church guys. You all have a great Sunday morning!

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need my Falcons to win, and the Niners, Packers, and Bears to all lose… #1 seed would be ours

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Andy McCullough ‏@McCulloughSL
Zack Greinke from 2010 to 2012: 604 IP, 3.83 ERA, 106 ERA+, 3.78 K/BB. R.A. Dickey, 2010 to 2012: 616.3 IP, 2.95 ERA, 129 ERA+, 3.12 K/BB.

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Figgins was a 292/365/390/755 hitter while averaging 45 steals a season before signing the contract at 32 years old. Then he totally feel off the cliff.

Also note that his final year with the Angels he walked over 100 times and produced a 298 AVG and 395 OBP… Then signed a 4 year 36 million deal… Lets pretend he was 32 years old this offseason and a free agent again after inflation he’d easily net 4 years 50+ million

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Greinke, Gonzalez, Crawford, and Kemp basically are being paid what the Braves entire payroll amounts to.

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I love J-Hey and he is just touching his potential, but I am still in love with a healthy Kemp…!

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kenhotlanta

December 9th, 2012
10:16 am
I hope the Phils do sign Swisher and Ross…their antics will drive Charlie crazy.

**************
I did not know SWISHER was a bad actor like BJ, what has SWISHER done?

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MIBravesFan: Nice post of “Garden Party” by Rick Nelson who today is almost forgotten and underappreciated as a musician and singer. He was a teen idol in the 50’s due to his television show “Ozzie and Harriet”, where he performed his hits at the end of the weekly show, and that was a tremendous advantage to his record sales. Ozzie and Harriet was one of the better shows from the 50’s due to an appealing cast (they were a real-life family), great writing and excellent guest stars, including many starlets as girlfriends for Ricky and David, plus a lot of baseball and football players had roles as their jock friends.
Rick was a major teen idol and music star (he was 2nd to Elvis in number of charted and number 1 hits) until the British Invasion in 1964 reset the landscape and changed the rules. Rick put a real band (as opposed to just back-ups, which was the norm for most artists in those days) together, The Stone Canyon Band and was a pioneer in the country rock movement along with The Byrds, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Commander Cody, etc., but Rick didn’t have the commercial success that those other bands enjoyed. In fact his only big hit after 1964 was a novelty song “Garden Party” in 1972.
However his country rock albums in the late 60’s to the early 80’s under his name and The Stone Canyon Band are all very good and sound better with age.
Even his Top 40 hits of the 50’s and 60’s are rarely played on the oldies stations or channels, and that is a shame as he made a lot of great hits that were also great songs. His body of work is astounding as is the constant quality, but possibly due to bad career choices and relationships, drug use or whatever, he is not remembered today for the true pioneer and great musician that he was.
He and his band were killed in a fiery plane crash on New Years Eve 1985 and the cause of the crash has been shrouded in controversy since then…it was believed it was due to cocaine freebasing in the passenger compartment, but tests discounted that and said the cause was a faulty heater that caught fire. Supposedly all of the passengers were found laying at the exit door and burned to death trying to get out.
Rick Nelson was one of the great music talents in the mid 20th century and it is sad he is all but forgotten today.
And so concludes todays sermon.

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Heyward will have a better next 5 years than Kemp, barring injury. Beyond that who knows. That’s why most of these contracts are thankfully 5 years or less. Those 10 year ones are just insane.

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NEW YORK (WFAN) – Surprise, surprise: Alex Rodriguez isn’t beloved among his peers.

The slugger, who continued his assault on the record books Tuesday night, was voted by 100 big-league baseball players as the sport’s second-most hated star (10 percent) behind White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski (34 percent) in a “secret survey” by Men’s Journal.

And look who came in third with 9 percentage points: jovial Yankees outfielder Nick Swisher.

“Everything about (Swisher) is annoying, from his mannerisms to his always wanting to ‘bro’ it down,” an unnamed American League veteran told the magazine. “Being around him is just exhausting.”

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Dare I say it? Blog seems fast today.

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VaBravesFan

December 9th, 2012
11:12 am
Thank you for the INFO.

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Can’t give up on Greinke even after he’s signed an absurd deal somewhere else?

And if you take out that outlier season of 09, his ERA is much closer to 3.80 in the three intervening years. It would have been nice if he’d ever come close to repeating his 09 numbers, but – unfortunately – it never happened, did it?

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Lew

Nope, Grienke had 1 elite season, and has been darn good over his career, but he’s being paid like he’s a elite starter each year, and he’s just simply not. Now if he had that Cy Young season in 2012 I could understand the all the whoola.. But he didn’t.

Still coming off a 212 INN and 3.48 ERA season which is damn good, but 147 million good? I don’t think so.

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In reality, Greinke in 2010 was 63rd in MLB in ERA, 58th in 2011 and 27th last year. Yep, he’s trending better, anyway.

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Well then why don’t you move over to a Dodgers’ blog and tell them how lucky they are to pay $24.5 mil a year for the next six years because he has a good xFIP. Honestly, I’m pretty sure we’re tired of hearing about it – and his WAR, too. Apparently he’s not coming to Atlanta for $16 mil a year – even if we do trade O’Flaherty.

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And if you take out that outlier season of 09, his ERA is much closer to 3.80

So when you take out the stats that don’t support your argument, your point of view is bulletproof

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GREINKE to the DODGERS.

So NOW the dominos start to fall? And we get a starting LF’er and two bench bats, or not.

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jeffrey d – I think the reverse is true as well – you add the one season that makes your point of view look better, even though there were three much worse seasons since then. Had he actually come close to repeating that 09 season it might be different. But in the “what have you done for me recently” world of pro sports, the past three years are more important in seeing a current picture than one season four years back that resembles nothing else in his entire career.

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I like MINOR because his worst was back a ways, and his good was toward the end of this season. His overall trajectory is up it appears.

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But in the “what have you done for me recently” world of pro sports, the past three years are more important in seeing a current picture than one season four years back that resembles nothing else in his entire career

True. And I don’t think Greinke is as good as his ‘09 season or as bad as his worst season. And I certainly don’t think he’s worth whatever gigantic contract he’s going to receive.

I just don’t like when people will nitpick stats to support their argument.

“If you ignore all the times Uggla struck out, he hit .324 last year!”

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Minor definitely looked great in the 2nd half, hopefully he can pick up where he left off. Could be a very good #3 type pitcher for years to come.

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Dan Uggla is under contract for 3 more years for 39 million. Will be 35 years old in final year

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So Lew can take out Greinke’s good season, as if it never happened… using Lew’s logic…

take out Minor’s 2nd half of 2012 (something he hasn’t come close to before or since then haha), Minor has a 5.52 ERA

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Excuse me – Uggla, not Upton.

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TOBF – Still being a freaking Twit. Don’t know why I expect anything else. Like I said – why don’t you just head over to the Dodgers’ blog and indulge your man love of a player you may see pitch against us twice a year for the foreseeable future.

Dude isn’t coming here and will never put up another 22.09 ERA ever again – just like he didn’t before or since ina seven year career.

Maybe Minor pitches to those numbers again, maybe not, but I’d say there’s more chance he will than that Greinke will ever repeat his trip to Oz.

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But also makes you think that Wren really does plan on adding a real everyday player. Like I’ve said from a money stand point, just about every single player we’ve discussed we can afford to take on there full salary for 2013. By back loading Upton’s contract, the Braves basically made another 2.5 million available this offseason. Also he was able to move Hanson and his estimated 3.5 million salary for a 500k reliever who can help alot.

Seems like he’s been positioning himself for another big move from the start. We havent traded any young pitching and still have roughly 10-13 million to spend. He’d likely only us all of it for a move that makes total sense, cause we all know Wren likes to have a few million laying around to help with mid season moves. But as of right now we only have about 83 million on the books, were expected have have around 95 million total tho

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If Wren is gonna settle with the platoon stuff in LF/3B, I’d like to see Heyward and Prado locked up, while also paying Upton more in 2013 than originally planned. We have the money so we should atleast use it. I’d rather pay Upton more now than in 2016 and 17….

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Doc Halladay only posted an ERA under 3.00 (for a full season) once before turning 28… 2.93 ERA in 2002, when he was 25 (same age Zack was when he posted his 2.16). Doc did post a 2.41 in 2005, at age 28, but he only pitched in 19 games.

Since then, he posted 4 straight years of ERAs under 2.80, from 2008-11.

Don’t say never, Lew. Greinke is a strong #2, could become a #1 if he improves over the next 4 years as most pitchers do. Right now, he’s definitely better than any of our starters. We’ll see at the end of the season.

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VaBraves – I just don’t see them re-doing Upton’s contract and I don’t see that how much we have left now matters in the least on locking up Prado and/or Heyward. That will be much more contingent on what comes off the books the next several years.

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My “eye test” on Uggla is that he should have a nice batting average on balls in play. When he connects, he normally hits it solid. Like really solid, among the best at hitting a ball with some authority. However that stat earlier got me to look and he’s actually well under the average babip over the last 2 years. Guys, I really think we’re going to see some excellent improvement from Uggla just from a steadying out in the luck that goes into babip.

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Gee, I guess Greinke didn’t like Stone Mountain enough to pass up the extra 50 mil, eh?

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Yeah OnlyBraves – Whatever. Enough of this freaking ZG crap. He signed elsewhere, not in our division and we should MAYBE see him pitch aghainst us twice a year for the next six.

Time to face facts – whatever he does or doesn’t do means nothing whatsoever to the Braves. Nothing – not if he goes 34-3 with a 1.21 ERA and not if he goes 3-34 with a 21.10 ERA.

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It wouldn’t be a total redo just to pay some of his 2017 salary in 2013. Just make an adjustment, go ahead an knock out a little more 75 million early as possible since we have so much extra money. It would be a positive move, atleast better than not doing anything and having 10 million for a mid season move which is overkill.

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I would trade Teheran for a one yr rental over Glimartn whom while I am not comparing him to ommy Glavine, I don;t think he will be Jo Jo either.

I see him as something in betweeen. A decent innings eating durable mid rotation SP. He will be needed in two yrs. Maybe he might be needed in ‘14, Malholm is up after next yr.

I don;t think Teheran is going to make it, so a 1 yr rental like Choo is more value than what we will get our of Teheran our of a whole career. I see him as a right handed Jo Jo which is obviously not good. I just do not like what I have seen or read. I don’t believe in him.

He is not the first prospect who failed. Other GM;s may see it the same way.

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Jon Heyman ‏@JonHeymanCBS

ron washington on michael young trade: “if there was crying in baseball … i’d be crying.” #rangers conf call

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My sincerest apology. I should know better by now.

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