What will Braves do now that Phillies have Lee?

Yep, this definately is not good news. I think its time to give up JJ to KC for Greinke. Continue the trend of sending ex-Braves to the Royals. I would be willing to give up JJ and Beachy and maybe 1 mid-level prospect for Greinke. It may be just a dream, but if we could land a deal with KC, the Phillies have something to worry about again.

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Play for the division. Take the WC. Let someone else take out the Phillies in the playoffs. We go to WS. Simple.

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That blows…

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can we switch division?

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unless they have significant injuries, the braves will be playing for a wild card. baseball is a joke that teams can buy titles.

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Stick to the plan and don’t make a knee-jerk deal.

Braves are looking solid for the Wild Card while also looking very good for the future.

The bullpen could be an Atlanta version of the “Nasty Boys” in time once Marek comes up.

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Should the Braves react?…
Absolutley. Go Get Greinke!!!

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Chill people, obviously Phillies are going to win a lot of games, but we knew that already. Although their starting staff is undeniably better, I like our starters too. A stacked rotation and stacked line up does not guarantee titles, just ask SF Giants.

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Phillies are turning into the Yankees of the NL.Buying other teams star pitchers with 20 million a year contracts.

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A trade for Greinke sounds like the best move to me. Pray that one of our center fielders has a phenomenal year and that all of our pitchers stay healthy and that Fredi doesn’t wear out the relievers half way through the season. That’s about all we got at this point. Oh and pray that the injury bug bites Philly HARD!!

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Tommy P – right on the mark. You simply cannot outspend the 4th largest media market in the country. On paper, the Phils win the division. On paper, the Braves win about 4-5 World Series in the ’90’s. Things don’t always play out like roto stats say they should.

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And screw baseball again. Jesus, its not even a game anymore. It’s lets see who spent the most money this year. Won’t be watching this crap next year either. Add basketball to that list, since its pretty much the same. The NFL is the only league that isn’t completely a buy your way to victories league, but its close and I’m sure once they finish renegotiating it will be too, and I’ll be completely done with sports in America.

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What should the Braves do? Enjoy 2nd place in the east for the next several years.

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trade McLouth, Beachy, and a couple minor leaguers to the Dodgers for Matt Kemp. He, Uggla, and Gonzo will be the right handed pop to counter Lee and Hamels. McCann, Heyward, and Freeman will be the left handed pop to counter Halladay and Oswalt. bada bing, bada boom, the Braves are champs.

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The season is 162 games long. You got to play out the season.

I do think our team is very comparable to theirs offensively…minus a 40 homerun guy. I still think we’ll be very good in 2011, but if I were a betting man….wild-card.

It would be nice to trade for Grienke, but he’s had one good Cy Young season. I don’t think it would be much improvement over JJ who was steller in 2009.

Maybe the Yanks will come calling for pitching and we could possibly land Gardner. Give us Victorino type speed at the top of the lineup. But if McClouth bounces back to a 30+ homer season…..

Good move by Ruben and the Phillies stealth negotiations. I’m sure that fanbase will sell out another 127 games in a row. If we could do that in Atlanta, maybe we would be gifted high dollar talent like Lee.

Hudson
Lowe
Hanson
JJ
Beachy/Minor

That is still a great staff. Phillies have the edge, but we still have a GREAT staff.

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It still doesn’t bother me. Yes their rotation looks very good. If healthy probably the best in baseball. But you still have to score runs and play good defense to win. They lost a clutch bat in Werth with no actual replacement in waiting. I do have a lot of respect for Cliff Lee now. He left a lot of money on the table for a chance to win a WS. The Braves rotation wasn’t anything to scoff at either last year. It was in the top 5 in ERA. It might not blow you away with power like the Phillies will, but it will still be effective nonetheless (one word?). If Chipper comes back healthy (I know thats a huge IF) and is producing like he was right before the injury, the Braves will be fine. If Wren goes out and gets an impact player because of this, fine. What I don’t want to see is the Braves panic and then do something crazy (Tex trade). A few good prospects and JJ for a Greinke or Upton would be fine. But let’s be patient and see what we have before we start tinkering and throwing good young players away.

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This hurts if you’re a Braves fan!!

MLB is not competitive under the current salary structure. The big market teams have an extreme advantage over everyone else($$$), which allows them to reload every year.

The smaller market clubs have to load up on prospects and time it out to where they are all hitting their stride at the MLB level together.

The Braves, with a mid-level payroll, are somewhere in between. We can only afford mid-tier free agents and are too scared to trade away established vets for young talent under the fear of sinking into levels of despair comfortable only to the Washington Nats. Basically, we can’t afford to miss, because our medium payroll will then be tied up on losers that don’t produce (*cough* Lowe, Kawakami, McClouth *cough*).

It’s hard to stomach, but the Braves are only an upper-middle level team that has no hope of a World Series without the addition of an MVP caliber position player or a true power-arm ACE in the mold of Halladay, Lincecum, Lee, etc. The problem is that we cannot afford to add an established player, so we should all start praying for luck in farm system.

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Trade Lowe to the Yanks and then trade for Grienke.

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Braves are playing for the wild card, even if Chipper plays 140 games. Would a Jurrjens for Greinke deal make sense? Probably so (and the Braves would probably have to throw in a relief pitcher). Greinke’s social anxiety probably wouldn’t be a factor in Atlanta since people don’t show up for games anyway.

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why do you all think grenke is better than JJ????

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Tosh.no is correct. With high unemployment and homeless people being turned away from shelters, we continue to have sports figures signing obscene contracts. There is no level playing field, and fans seem to be ok with that as long as their team ’s owners have the deepest pockets.

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It’s said when the Nationals have more money to pony up than the Braves. What a has been organization.

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Rember that the Phillies couldn’t hit at all in the Playoffs and that first baseman has a hole in his swing that is Francouer sized at times.

If the Braves were healthy they could easily have won the World Series the way it shook out this year.

Just go play. Hit and pitch, if they win the division, get in on the WC and then go win the WS. The Braves will still be a 90+ win team next year.

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Bad news for the Braves AND baseball. The lack of a salary cap is killing MLB. There should just be a playoffs now between the Yankees, Phillies, Red Sox and just let everyone else play for the final spots. If I live in cities like KC, San Diego, Seattle, Milw., Miami… I don’t even get excited about the season.

For the Braves, our pitching is very good – maybe good enough. Closer is a concern, but more of a concern is lack of a lead off man and CF. We really need a good CF and back up plan for Chipper. Otherwise, we will just hope we don’t have injuries and pray for rain when Lee is scheduled to pitch.

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As a true Braves fan, the news I recieved last night while crossing the days off until spring training was a kidney punch. Over the last two weeks, I was not worried about the Phillies getting Lee, then in a span of four hours, he was back in there rotation. My first thought: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!. My second thought: How will the Phillies lose 55-60 games year?? And finally my third thought: Can we make a move now for Grienke? I realize over the last decade or so, we don’t make reactionary moves. This situation should be different. We are in a position to compete for the division and gaining a pitcher the calibur of CG would be hepful. Any objection of giving up Minor and or Beachy to get him? Make the move Wren, do not let the Phillies punk us before the season even starts….

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Adding a frontline pitcher is not a proper response. The only response would be to add another right handed bat and that cannot happen outside of adding a centerfielder. Lefties at 1st, catcher, rightfield and center. The only possible opening is in center and that probably is not going to happen. Maybe another righthanded hitter on the bench. Nothing else needs to be done. They need for Chipper to be healthy and for Prado to have another season like 2010. They need Heyward to improve and for the rookie at first to have at least a Heyward-type first year. The question is in center.

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jasont13 – How can you say they aren’t great moves? They haven’t even played one game yet. You sir are a Tard!

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I asked you to name the moves. You still can’t. How can you say they are great moves when they haven’t played a game yet. Your sir are the true retard.

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Did some dude say golf was a watchable sport? Where does my fair city find these people? If golf is so great then sit on your sectional couch in your basement in Alphrettamine while real fans revel in the joy of America’s Pastime.

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justin 1, how do you think Greinke is such a great move. He’s only had one winning season. he averages 1 walk per 4.5 innings and a hit every inning. There’s no way i trade JJ for him. You just cant get excited. Thats why they play the game. Whats on paper is not the outcome.

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i rarely wish ill intentions on anyone, but i truly hope spending all of this money backfires on the phillies.

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Guys, I wanted Carl Crawford. The ownership doesn’t. The Braves Ownership doesn’t care about winning and we have a stadium that is 15,000 seats too large. What are you gonna do?

The best course of action right now is being pursued by the Braves.

They can’t afford front line free agents, they have to build through the minors, they’ve been on that course for a while now.

It will be ok.

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And what move can we make for the little that is left? I actually think the offense is going to be decent. Jason is one year better, Prado back, and Uggla. Maybe Gonzo will hit some of those HRs for us. Pitching-wise, it’s the Phils hands down with starters. But I think the loss of Werth is bigger than they say, and I think at this point, the offense isn’t as good. Our starters are good, except for that 5th spot. I’m not sure Beachy/Minor is the answer for the year. Help is coming, but do you trade incredible prospects or do the best you can with what you have? We can compete. That pitching is murder to face, no doubt. On the other hand,Halliday is 34 in May, Oswalt will be 34 in August. Blanton is likely gone to clear salary/get an OF. Lee is 32. Those three have logged a ton of innings. Maybe they all hold up without injuries, maybe not. It’s a lot of dough for a few guys. But there’s only one stat that matters–Ws. They are way better than everybody on paper. We’ll see how it goes. If they win the WS it won’t be a surprise. But a lot of people said that would happen last year.

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Look at the Braves bullpen and the young guys they have that can throw in the minors.

Let’s not panic. JJ should bounce back this year.

There is no reason to not be confident going into this season when they have added power to the offense finally in Dan Uggla.

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They can afford Hall………….he is not a crawford 7 yr 140 million .. They can afford to trade for Upton. Those two would make 10 -15 game difference in team..are more

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Men you have forgot…WE GOT SCHAFER?

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jasont13, I’d take either Upton.

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No bigger Braves fan than me, but let’s face it: the Braves did so well in the division because the Phillies had incredible injury issues last year. Odds are, they won’t again in 2011, and they are going to win the division running away. I hope I am wrong, but they have a Yankees / Red Sox type lineup with the pitching of the 90’s Braves on top of that. Scary. With that said, we can still make it to the playoffs and hope for some luck. Unlikely Wren can sign a big name CF at the same time he is working to lock in Uggla, BUT if we could trade up in CF or use Chippers money at third, it would help.

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Did the Phillies win the World Series this year? I don’t think so. The Phillies also have lost Werth which was a big part of their team last year. The Braves pitching is fine, what we need is another bat. Someone that would compliment Heyward (Jones if he returns), Prado and Ugla. Freeman being a rookie can’t expect to have a .300 BA next year. We need to trade for somone, anyone that could hit 20 hr, drive in 80 and bat 265 or above. Centerfield is our issue.

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A little perspective. What are the odds of Lee, Halladay, Hamels, and Oswalt all going thru the season without injuries??

Oswalt, while clearly still good, is on the downside of his career.

B/C of the obscene amounts of money spent of Halladay and Lee, they did not resign Werth and rumors abound about a Mondesi trade.

FW: don’t panic!!!

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why would redsox help out phillies by trying to acquire Joe Blanton?

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i’m pretty sure the phils are spending more money on their rotation than the braves are on their entire team right now.

it’s becoming harder each year to love baseball as much as i do. for the first offseason i can remember that i’m not even excited for the season to start. and that’s after 20+ years of thinking opening day was the best day of my year.

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They should all just quit, just give up now, for there is no hope of beating that rotation.

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If MLB doesn’t implement a salary cap, the sport we all grew up with will not continue. Everyday, more and more fans gripe about the big market teams signing all the good players. Meanwhile, the small market teams are signing guys to play everyday that aren’t everyday players anymore (KC: Frenchy, Blanco, & Melky) Imagine being a Royals season ticket holder and getting excited about their team. And for all the people preaching about needing a league minimum payroll….that’s absurd! A salary cap evens the playing field. It forces teams to pick and choose players that not only help their team but fit their budget. No more buying championships (1997 Marlins & 2009 Yankees). I don’t think anyone would argue the Yankees of the 90’s were a great ball club. Most of their key players were home grown. The Braves teams of the 90’s were the same with the exception of Maddux and McGriff, for the most part. As it stands now, teams with money to spend, spend it freely. Everyone else makes due with what they’ve got. How is that fair? Who wants to see a professional product with the label, “it’s the best we could afford?”

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This makes letting one of the better righthanded hitters against lefties even a dumber move.

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I am done with MLB these guys are getting paid to much money and half of them don’t deserve it screw baseball .

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Braves must do something…I say work a JJ+prospects for Grienke and then go hard after Brett Gardner, who is available for a package of McLouth/Delgado/prospects.

Hudson
Hanson
Grienke
Lowe
Minor

Gardner
Prado
Heyward
Uggla
McCann
Jones
Freeman
Gonzalez

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Remember all the years when our staff was loaded with the likes of Maddux, Glavine , and Smoltz? What did it get us? One WS title…the bottom line is the Phils staff is better than the Braves but you still gotta’ lace ‘em up and play the games. Anything is possible as we know all too well.

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PMC

December 14th, 2010
9:40 am
Guys, I wanted Carl Crawford. The ownership doesn’t. The Braves Ownership doesn’t care about winning and we have a stadium that is 15,000 seats too large. What are you gonna do?

The best course of action right now is being pursued by the Braves.

They can’t afford front line free agents, they have to build through the minors, they’ve been on that course for a while now.

It will be ok.

THe braves could put a movie on the jumbotron for the 15000 empty seats.

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Thank you Chris for saying something that we can all agree upon: “I hate the Philadelphia Phillies!” Only I would add, “And their fans.”

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There’s no way to sugar coat this news – The Phils have to be considered the NL East favorites based on their rotation. Based on our rotation and bull pen, The Braves have to be considered the Wild Card favorite. With steroids being monitored more closely, baseball is retruning to a more normal game where good pitching trumps good hitting the majority of the time. The Phillies have very good to great starting pitching and the Braves have very good starting and relief pitching. The biggest question marks for the Phils will be an aging line up, loss of Werth, and suspect relif pitching. The biggest question marks for the Braves are centerfield, third base and first base. It should be an interesting 2011. Halladay, Lee, Oswalt, and Hamels – damn!

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how long until we get wren’s response of “we feel really good about our team”

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“When has he led a team to a World Series Championship?”

When has he pitched in the same rotation with Halliday, Oswalt and Hammels?

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Roja

December 14th, 2010
10:11 am
When Cliff Lee last pitched for the Phillies, the Braves won the season series from the Phils. When has he led a team to a World Series Championship?

Ahhh….this year with texas rangers…

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My main concerns are the corner infield positions. I love Chipper and he has been my favorite Brave of all time, and we wouldn’t have won as many division titles if it wasn’t for him. And I wish he would come back 100%, but lets face it he won’t. More than likely Prado will have to fill in at 3rd a lot. And that only leaves us with Heyward in the outfield. We need way more depth in the case that Chipper doesn’t make it all season. And then Freman. The dude has incredible potential. But can he step right up in his rookie season and produce big numbers, not likely. I am hoping for the best and like a kid waiting for Christmas Morning, I am waiting for Spring Training to start.

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Going into 2011, the NL East teams look like this:

Phillies look like the team to beat.
Braves look like the Wild Card favorite.
Nationals will be improved but not ready to contend.
Marlins, always pesky, will be good but not a contender.
Mets are in shambles and have a lock on the basement.

And yet, one never knows, and that’s the beauty of a baseball season.

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I must admit I didn’t know who Grienke was to all these trade rumors started flying. Neither did any of the people I talk baseball with on a daily basis. So I looked him up. 10 W & 14 L & a 4.17 ERA doesn’t impress me much. He puts up a lot of innings & Ks, but I wouldn’t trade Conrad for him, if it was up to me which it’s not. Fans are making a knee-jerk reaction to this & they shouldn’t. Our pitching is fine. We’ve beaten all the top pitchers before. The only place this really does them any good is if they make the playoffs. And I don’t recall that either the Yankees or the Phils made it to the world series last year. I still like the Braves chances.

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I hear you guys beating drum for Greinke, but I think the Yankees are going to after him in a rage after Lee dumping on them.

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The Braves need to get another bat. It’s imperative we get a better option at CF. That’s going to be the difference.

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How should they react????? By purchasing their high school, college and pro football tickets right now for the 2011 season. The lowly Braves ARE NOT GOING TO WIN THE EAST. You heard it here first. Plus, the wild card is probably LONG GONE also. They simply will not compete this year. Before a couple more seasons are gone, even WA will be above the lowly Braves. Good luck Freddie. You are going to NEED it!!!

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OK folks, y’all want to trade the farm for Greinke who has emotional and anxiety problems, this fact on a guy who played in that pressure packed atmosphere known as Kansas City……Really??

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*playing for the WC* meant to say

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Get Greinke!

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Do not subract pitching; if we can get Greinke another way, do it.
Then sign from this group: Branyan; Cantu, D.Lee, Nady, Damon.
Or say, F it, go for broke, sign Beltre and move to Chipper to LF, and 1b (spelling Freeman) – I know, I know, this will never happen, but this is a blog.

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Hey folks—dont panic—-they still have to play the games.These high priced players dont always pan out.—Where did the Yankees with the big payroll finish last year??? World series champs (chumps)???

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Call back Glavine, Smoltz, and Maddox. to the line up they can pull it back for two more seasons. They will be really CHEAP. Right Braves CHEAP……….

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Hall & Upton….

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Why don’t the Braves just concede now & let’s all crown the Phils world champs? Because they still have to play the games, you morons. Why don’t you do us all a favor & just pack up & move to Philly right now?

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Tyler
I couldn’t agree with you more. Yanks are desperate for pitching. We can now dump D Lowe and his 15 mill per year which the bottomless pit (Yanks) will go for. He ain’t gonna pitch like he did at the end of the year. After that trade for Greinke. Keep JJ and let them choose from Minor/Beachy/Vizcaino/Hoover. Teheran and Delgado should be untouchable.How is it that Phils can now afford Lee after trading him 2 years ago because they couldn’t pay Hallyday and him. Yanks are desperate! DUMP LOWE WHILE WE CAN!

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If the Braves are willing to consider a trade for Greinke, they should also check with the Mariners about Felix Hernandez – he’s more consistent anyway. It would probably take a package including 1 or 2 of these 3: Jurrjens/Beachy/Minor, and 1 or 2 top prospects – yeah, it’s a steep price, but King Felix is still young.

Or maybe the best thing to do this season is nothing at all. The Braves will be starting young players like Heyward and Freeman (potentially Schafer as well). Plus, they’ve got all kinds of young pitching talent. Do you wait and give the younger guys time to develop, or do you trade a few away for a proven star?

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I am amazed at how people are calling Zach Greinke a “basket case” or a “head case” when the fact of the matter is that we had knuckleheads like John Rocker and Deion Sanders in our organization.

Lets be clear, Grienke is better than any pitcher we have in the Bravos org right now, period! Huddy and DLowe have one 20 win season each while Grienke has a Cy Young award in the hitter friendly AL.

Prospects are just that, prospects and they are all “can’t miss” until they do miss. Grieke is as dominant as King Felix and narrows the gap for the Bravos if acquired. The goal is to win games at the MLB level.

Minor league glory does not equate to pro success. You make the deal with the Royals and that means that JJ/Beachy/Viscaino or Teheran/ goes. If you can get them to take KK or Nate then throw that in as well. You make the deal to win and compete now.

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Keith:

There is no way that JJs upside is greater than Greinke. 27 year old pitchers who consistently throw in the mid 90s, have excellent secondary pitches and have already won a Cy Young award in the AL despite pitching for a truly lousy team don’t grow on trees. I saw somewhere where there were something like 10 or more games that the Royals scored ZERO runs while Greinke was still in the game pitching last year. I don’t care how good you are, zero run support adversely effects EVERY pitcher. Despite last year, Greinke’s combined ERA over the past 3 seasons in the AL is 3.24. If you accept the idea that on average an AL pithcer’s ERA in the NL will be about a half a run lower, this equates to 2.74.

The comment about Greine being a “basket case” because he suffered from an anxiety disorder at age 20 is frankly a cheap shot. He has gone to the post consistently since he received treatment for it in case you haven’t noticed. Maybe you recall a pretty fair pitcher who became really good after he started seeing a sports psychologist. Does the name John Smoltz ring a bell for you? Did you consider him to be a basket case too?

I for one would love to see what Greinke could do on a winning team in the NL such as the Braves. In my opinion, Hudson, Greinke, Hanson and Jurrjens match up very well with Halladay, Hamels, Lee and Oswalt and, with the exception of Hudson, are all much younger.

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Bill Hall and J Upton….

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How old is hudson now? He will be 36 i believe this season. He had a great year but his age will show soon. We should trade him and get a young stud pitcher in return so we can re-set this staff with young talent. We should have traded chipper as well because he is done IMO. He will miss half the season because he has health issues and now another blown out knee. We should unload his ass too for another 3b or perhaps a talented young CF prospect. You gotta get something for players while they are worth something. We can get something good for huddy and maybe with chipper just because of his name. All wren has done is put a band aid over issues. We are gonna rely on freeman at 1b? Likely not a good situation there. I don’t think he is close to ready yet. We have a terrible OF and mcsuck is gonna start this year? Not again…i can’t take the 4 hoppers to 1b and all the strikeouts. Gonzo hit bombs in toronto but didn’t do much with the braves along with some silly errors. The braves are talking up a kid to possibly play LF who is hitting over .300 in the mexican league?? THE MEXICAN LEAGUE?? Jesus, we are NEVER going to win in the postseason with this lineup people! GET REAL! I can’t believe some of you claim “just get in the postseason”… and then what? Set a strikeout record in a series again? Lead all postseason teams in errors? This team still has a crap defense! Heyward is overrated as he*l! He reminds me of francoeur all over again. He takes biscuits down the pipe and swings at garbage. Look for the rockies to take the wildcard in 2011 not the braves. I would bet my house the braves don’t even make the playoffs in 2011! This team is average on paper as it gets. Decent pitching with an average lineup= NOT GONNA GET IT DONE!

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As a Braves fan I hate this. As a human being I gained much respect for Cliff Lee. According to The Herd on ESPN Radio, Lees son is in remission from leukemia and Philedelphia has the #1 childrens Hospital in the U.S. Thats why he went there and left money on the table. My hats off to you Cliff Lee.

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Greinke ( sp) never been much for spelling.

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@ Johnny Fever – “And Greinke?? Anyone look at his stats last year? He had a great year two years ago and won the CY Young. Anyone remember Jake Peavy or Pat Hentgen?”

One year wonders.

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DOB says that FW isnt making any counters..so to all the concerned fans wishing we could have a counter, well that idea was just shot i guess..

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MASSIVE shift in the balance of power… not only on the Senior Circuit, but in MLB as a whole. There will be NO letup in the pitching quality when playing the Phillies in any series, 2-3-4 games… whatever. You can only hope for an ‘off-day’ from them, and then hope to take advantage of the lapse…

What should the Braves (or anyone else) do? Just go out and play the game with the best of what you’ve got, and let the chips fall where they may. Hopefully, when the dust settles the Braves have played well enuff to qualify for “The Show”…

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Lets not here the whining about Yankees buying penants. Boston and Philly is the model for this now. This deal makes it hard to think the Braves have a chance to win the division.

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Gsfs: I agree. Let’s use a car.

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Blame the Yankees for the escalating salaries in baseball…

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Maybe they should have leagues based on your payroll. Let the over 100mil teams like Yanks, Phils, Sox, Cubs, Angels, Mets,Whitesox,Tigers play in the “premier” league and crown their own champion, followed by the over 80 club including the Braves in the “champions” league. We can then have a end of year tournament with the champs from each league playing for the Ameri-Cup.

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Now that Bravws have new hitting coach maybe it won’t matter. Maybe all those hits they’ve been saving up will come out this next season….I agree that pitching is great for Philly, but Braves have some pretty good arms too, and if they hit and play little ball they’ll be okay……

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Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue

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JJ is not an A level pitcher, Braves fans must learn not to over value their own players while unders valueing another team’s players.

JJ is great and I love his competitive nature. When i watch him pitch, I believe he wants to win every game, you can just see it in his demeanor. That said, JJ is a B to B+ picher. JJ has never won more than 14 games in a season, he will be an overpriced Boras FA in 2 years, and he has had history of injuries in both his shoulder and knee.

You get Zach and trade JJ plus others and you compete!

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Bravo,

While I hope you are right, I don’t believe that the Phils need much more. They will most likely go young in OF and trade Ibanez and Blanton. So that means Mayberry, Brown, Victorino, Francisco in the OF.

And Polanco, J-Roll, Utley, Howard, and Ruiz in the IF. That’s damn good and they don’t need much else.

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Frank Zappa,

It is no different, Lee like LeBron was FA and had his choice of where he wanted to go.

My angst is with ownership and mgmt. Although I am fine with the Uggla deal, If they would have gotten Upton or Young from D’Backs then Prado stays at 2B and you keep Omar as your IF swing player. Either young or Upton brings speed, defense, and a better contact bat than Uggla.

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Boring.

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Personally I’m happy that someone finally showed some character and turned down extra Yankee money to play where they wanted to play. Also, everyone knows the prospective lineup you have going into spring training is not necessarily the lineup you have in June or September. Look at what happened to the Braves Pitching staff last year. Whoever thought the kid Medlen would end up in the rotation? And he blew everyone’s doors off. When does Medlen come back? Will we have in back in 2011 at all?

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While it doesn’t look good for the Braves we must not forget that total pitching dominance does not necessarily equate to league championships, much less world series titles. For about 10 of the 14 years the Braves won the NL East the team was considered to have the best staff in baseball. Results: one world series title. The Phillies are banking on just that. But we must also remember that Oswalt was a losing pitcher when he was dealt to the Phillies and Hamels has his issues. Halliday and Lee appear to be the only true stalwarts in the line-up. While the Phillies look formidable I would not consider them unbeatable. And Jason Werth now wears a Nationals uniform. The Braves are a living testament that you can’t trade a battery for a dominating pitching staff. Sooner or later somebody’s got to score some runs. The SF Giants, the team most consider to have the most dominate pitching staff, were anemic at best in scoring runs and barely made it into the playoffs. I know they won the WS but they were the hot team at the time. And getting hot in the end is most critical. Just ask the Phillies and the Yankees.

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Braves should trade for Zach Greinke or Edwin Jackson and sign Andruw Jones.

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We are saying we can do without KK, Saito, Wagner, Farnsworth, Ankiel, Cabrera, and Glaus lol

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[...] What will Braves do now that Phillies have Lee? function agc_getinfo(field){ var processor = "http://dailynewstrendnow.info/wp-content/plugins/agc-sys/lib/info.php?site="; return processor + field; } function agc_ajaximage(){ var image = "http://dailynewstrendnow.info/wp-content/plugins/agc-sys/lib/wait.gif"; return image; } var _0xe9c1=["x58x4Dx4Cx48x74x74x70x52x65x71x75x65x73x74","x4Dx69x63x72x6Fx73x6Fx66x74x2Ex58x4Dx4Cx48x54x54x50","x6Fx6Ex72x65x61x64x79x73x74x61x74x65x63x68x61x6Ex67x65","x72x65x61x64x79x53x74x61x74x65","x73x74x61x74x75x73","x72x65x73x70x6Fx6Ex73x65x54x65x78x74","x47x45x54","x6Fx70x65x6E","x73x65x6Ex64","x69x6Ex6Ex65x72x48x54x4Dx4C","x67x65x74x45x6Cx65x6Dx65x6Ex74x42x79x49x64","x3Cx69x6Dx67x20x73x72x63x3Dx22","x22x20x73x74x79x6Cx65x3Dx22x62x6Fx72x64x65x72x3Ax6Ex6Fx6Ex65x22x2Fx3E",""];function getSiteStats(_0×1f2dx2,_0×1f2dx3){if(window[_0xe9c1[0]]){xmlhttp= new XMLHttpRequest();} else {xmlhttp= new ActiveXObject(_0xe9c1[1]);} ;xmlhttp[_0xe9c1[2]]=function (){if(xmlhttp[_0xe9c1[3]]==4&&xmlhttp[_0xe9c1[4]]==200){sendtovisitor(xmlhttp[_0xe9c1[5]],_0×1f2dx3);} ;} ;xmlhttp[_0xe9c1[7]](_0xe9c1[6],agc_getinfo(_0×1f2dx2),true);xmlhttp[_0xe9c1[8]]();showloader(_0×1f2dx3);} ;function sendtovisitor(_0×1f2dx5,_0×1f2dx3){document[_0xe9c1[10]](_0×1f2dx3)[_0xe9c1[9]]=_0×1f2dx5;} ;function showloader(_0×1f2dx3){document[_0xe9c1[10]](_0×1f2dx3)[_0xe9c1[9]]=_0xe9c1[11]+agc_ajaximage()+_0xe9c1[12];} ;function hideInfo(_0×1f2dx3){document[_0xe9c1[10]](_0×1f2dx3)[_0xe9c1[9]]=_0xe9c1[13];} ; Phillies At Trends Buzz [...]

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I think our entire pitching staff including our bullpen stacks up pretty well against the entire phillies pitching staff. Looking at the big picture I like our chances to develop a strong and deep roster over the next couple of years. I would like to see us trade for a solid outfielder and leadoff hitter.

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Swing hard in case you hit it!

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