But, adding Huddy to an already pitching-heavy patroll would make it difficult for the braves to add a good righty bat like Hiliday or Bay ro anyone via trade.

SS Escabar
2B Prado
CF Mclouth
3B C. Jones
C McCann
LF Adam Dunn
RF Diaz
1B Laroche

Pitching:

Vasquez
JJ
Hanson
Hudson
Maybe Billingsey from LA send Lowe back to LA.

If you take away the non-producers on the team, you will LITERALLY save about half of the team’s payroll.

Let’s start with Derrick Lowe. Wins don’t mean jack. Wins mean your team got more runs on that particular day. The fact is, his ERA was by far the worst of any of the Braves starting pitchers. Trade him, cut him, do whatever you have to do, but let that monkey go. He AIN’T going to help you win a pennant. ERA near 4.6 for $15 million a year.

Next, we part ways with Choker Jones and his $10 million salary. He hit roughly .230 the last 2/3 of the year, yet Bobby Cox would have rather slapped his own mother than to move him from the Number 3 spot. I thought the object of baseball was to give your hottest hitters the most chances to bat in a game. Apparently, Bobby believes otherwise.

Let Soriano and his $6 million contract walk.

The Braves need to shop for a big bat and let Kawakami and his $8.34 contact go elsewhere.

Bobby’s talking about Kelly Johnson at 2nd base next year, after his .220 season and his $2.8 million? Bobby, lay off the weed, Dawg! The fans want to win whether you do or not. If you no longer can analyze performance and salaries, you need to take YOUR wrinkled rear end on out of town, also.

Throw in Church (who did very little at $2.8 mil, was it?), Norton of course, and Carlyle. What you have left will be the nucleus that put 86 wins on the board this year that you can build on next year.

And Bobby, quit picking your nose during the games and quit smoking the weed. Play to win this year and don’t wait until two months left to go in the season before you quit managing like its still Spring Training.

How can you not want someone that had Vazquez’s season? He put up those numbers pitching for an inept, anemic offense. Hardly a chance of post season the whole year (except for the early Sept streak). He is a strikeout machine. He is on the top of his game. He is peaking.

Hudson looks frail to me. I think his light frame is catching up to him. I’ve seen him literally melt on some of those scorching mid-summer days. Now, with the surgery, I’m a bit uneasy with his long term value to the team.

I certainly wouldn’t mind Hudson staying, as long as they keep Vazquez. It will be interesting to see what happens with the starting pitching. Something has to give.

1) Sign Hudson long-term

2) Keep Vazquez one more year, resign him if the situation arises, otherwise let him go via free agency after 2010. If they suck it up next year, he would be awesome mid-season trade bait.

3) Trade Lowe for a bullpen depth (don’t think they will be able to do this though)

4) Let Kawakami take the #5 spot in the rotation, if he pitches well, great. If not, give Medlen a shot and move Kawakami to long relief.

None of this will matter if they don’t add more offense and a few stable bullpen arms.

Your argument for giving Vazquez the edge is that Hudson had a bad year in 2006? That’s fine and he did (ERA of 4.86). However, you conveniently overlooked the following:

(1) The ONLY other time Hudson’s ERA was over 4 was his second season, 1999 (4.14);

(2) His ERA was 3.33 in 2007 and 3.17 in 2008 before TJ surgery;

(3) Huddy pitched very well in 2009 (ERA of 3.61) despite having only 7 starts and without the benefit of spring training;

(4) Hudson’s CAREER ERA is 3.48 whereas Vazquez is 4.20;

(5) Vazquez’s ERA in 2006 was 4.84 while pitching with the Yankees;

(6) Before this year, Vazquez’s ERA was over 4 from 2004 through 2008, with the exception of 2007 when it was 3.74;

(7) I don’t ever recall any manager pulling Hudson from the rotation during a pennant run because he lost confidence in his ability and then trading him in the offseason for the same reason which is what the Chisox did with Vazquez this past offseason;

(8) Vazquez only is signed for 1 more year; and

(9) The Braves would get no compensation if they don’t re-sign Hudson.

Trust me, I would prefer that the Braves keep both Hudson and Vazquez, if possible. However, if the money situation and the tradeability of other candidates makes it such that the choice is whether to keep Hudson or Vazquez, I think fans need to look at the broader picture and not just what Vazquez did this past season. If you do, keeping Hudson should be an absolute no brainer.