Braves, Wren send right message with deadline trades
Rick Ankiel, a converted pitcher, hit 25 homers in 2008 and will fill the Braves' void in center field.
Sports fans scream for a championship every season. But really all most expect is for somebody in the executive suite — whether it’s the person who’s making trades or clutching the checkbook — to care as much as they do.
As a general rule, “We’re building for next season,” just doesn’t play well with the guy in the $6 seat.
Given that, the Braves should be commended today. They’re being as passionate and proactive off the field as they have been on it. They’re trying to win now, not sitting back and praying for unicorns.
Maybe Philadelphia’s acquisition of Roy Oswalt spooked them a little. Maybe they see something special in this team. Maybe they’re intent on trying to send Bobby Cox out with a championship.
Kyle Farnsworth excelled as a closer for the Braves in 2005.
Does it matter?
Drink this up Atlanta: You have a team going for a championship.
Faced with a tight trade market and a thin budget, general manager Frank Wren managed to improve the team anyway. This is the way things are supposed to work with playoff contenders at trade deadlines.
Trade deadlines highlight the serious players and expose the pretenders.
The Braves made a five-player trade with Kansas City. Outfielder Rick Ankiel and Kyle Farnsworth come this way. Gregor Blanco, Jesse Chavez and prospect Tim Collins go that way. If you break this deal down by player, Chavez’s exit will result in the loudest single cheer. At some point, the question became not whether he would make it as a Brave, but whether he would make it to the parking lot.
He had a 5.89 ERA. He had given up six home runs, 40 hits and 12 walks in 36 2/3 innings. Torch-carrying villagers were starting to wait for him outside the stadium.
But Ankiel and Farnsworth provide immediate help. Ankiel can fill the Braves’ black hole in center field. He brings some power (having his 25 homers in 2008), even if he’s currently hitting only .261 with four homers. Farnsworth, who was briefly a lights-out closer for the Braves in 2005, has been strong out of the bullpen this season (3-0, 2.42).
Neither is a centerpiece. Neither has to be.
They fit what the Braves need and what this team has become. The roster lacks star power, but makes up for it in depth, aggressiveness and chemistry. They just needed a boost lately, with Philadelphia rising, the lineup settling and Troy Glaus looking more and more like a one-month wonder.
Credit Wren. If this and other recent moves lead to the Braves’ first postseason berth since 2005, he may have just sewed up Executive of the Year honors.
Approaching the trade deadline, Wren had to feel like he was duct-taped to a lamp post. Dead money was killing the budget. Fact is, for all of Wren’s success in rebuilding the roster over the past three years, he still was paying the price for three significant miscalculations: Derek Lowe (four years, $60 million), Kenshin Kawakami (three years, $23 million) and Nate McLouth (three years, $15.75 million). The three read like a bad 401k portfolio.
Lowe was signed to be an ace. He quickly become a fourth starter making $15 million a year. Kawakami was signed to be a second or third starter. By midway through this season he couldn’t even hang on to the No. 5 job and was jettisoned to the bullpen.
Nobody has seen him since. He’s like D.B. Cooper.
McLouth, acquired from Pittsburgh, was expected to be the perfect bridge to Jordan Schafer. That’s an “oops” to the second power.
Expensive mistakes hamstring general managers. Lowe, Kawakami and McLouth represent $27 million of an $85 million payroll (31.7 percent) this season. Factor in Chipper Jones’ $14 million contract, and that’s $41 million for four players (48.2 percent).
Wren suggested in recent days that he likely wouldn’t do anything. The market was too tight. The budget seemed blown. He also kind of liked his team.
“We’re talking to teams,” Wren said a few days ago, “but we’re not putting a full-court press on.”
Either he was being less than truthful then or something changed. Doesn’t matter. He chose not to sit back. Serious teams don’t do that. The message about this season seems clear.
♦
You don’t need no stinkin’ DVR: Last 3 posts
♦ Dwight Howard opens up on LeBron, Shaq and Josh’s wedding (sssh)
♦ Roy Oswalt going to Phillies, and Braves need to respond
♦ Blank says Falcons are playoff team again (and maybe more)
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490 comments Add your comment
keith
August 1st, 2010
12:19 am
*they’re instead of their
TheAntiMe
August 1st, 2010
12:20 am
Rick Ankiel- oh, he, of the game-changing dynamic of a Fred McGriiff? (No, say!).
I hate to break this to you but there were no Fred McGriff type players out there this year at the deadline. The only player that was even close to being in Fred McGriff territory is Adam Dunn and you see that he did not go anywhere.
You can’t just wish for great players to magically appear out of thin air. Well, you can but that usually only happens in video game baseball, where you can trade your worst players for the best players in the game. It just don’t happen that way in the real world.
Carl Jung
August 1st, 2010
12:31 am
Level: How about as hard to find as Amelia Earhardt
Sonny Clusters
August 1st, 2010
12:37 am
We was wondering how the trade deadline would play out. We guess the deadline is what its name means, the dead weight players get thrown over the line to a new team. We was impressed Wren could throw that dead weight Chavez over the line to a new team.
Dem Clusters
August 1st, 2010
1:12 am
be dern funny
sid's bream
August 1st, 2010
1:13 am
the thing i like best about this trade deadline is that we didn’t sell a large part of our future for a short term hope that may not pan out. We may not get much out of Ankiel, but we should out of Farnsworth and we didn’t lose much either way. As much as I want the braves to win this year, I couldn’t bear to watch another raping of the farm for a guy you know we won’t resign.
I think FW did what he could in his limitations but I certainly wouldn’t call this or the escobar/gonzalez trade a message of commitment to winning. The only message I got was if you’re going to have an attitude, you better hit .300. Perhaps a secondary message is that something is up with our team when Escobar can’t hit here, but leaves and rakes.
All in all, I’m hopeful of what Ankiel can do, but have low expectations.
Even if he does well though, we have too many other problems to stay in first. Chipper isn’t hitting and Bobby refuses to take him out of the 3 spot, Glaus is injured and horrible lately and he bats in the heart of the order, and nobody on this team seems to get a hit when men are on bases. This teams loads the bases with no outs or one out and then hits into a double play almost every night lately.
Roland's Office
August 1st, 2010
1:21 am
WREN OUTHUSTLED
“As for Ludwick, the Pads got him as part of a three-team deal that netted the Cards Jake Westbrook. Hard to believe the Braves couldn’t have satisfied the Indians’ demands for young talent. Ludwick can play CF, by the way. Either Liberty Media is cheaper than we thought, or Wren got outhustled by Jed Hoyer.”
Mitchell
August 1st, 2010
1:28 am
Kyle Farnsworth excelled as a closer for the Braves in 2005.
Except when it really mattered and on that one special occasion, he excelled at making Charlie Liebrandt seem like a Hall of Famer.
Rick Ankiel was on steroids in 2008. He was probably on steroids in 2000 when he threw nine hundred wild pitches in that playoff game and yet still managed to win.
Imagine that. Of all the years in the playoffs, the one time a guy tries to give it to us we couldn’t even take it.
God I’m gonna miss Bobby Cox.
Mike McDonald
August 1st, 2010
1:33 am
Fish stink from the head: McGuirk, Schoerholtz, Wren and Cox. Not a bona fide professional baseball player or executive among them.
Bush league media reporting, broadcasting and inane and insane, wise-ass blogs complete the ugly picture of Atlanta MLB.
2010 will be the end of a pitiful era of lost opportunities and downright boneheadedness.
Malone of Liberty is nobody’s fool. He’ll cut the crap at the head office and fire sale the personnel/staff that has no serious talent assets except for McCann, Prado, Infante and Hudson. All the rest are poseurs, eating up payroll and producing sub par results.
Look for a new breed of ownership once Malone’s IRS holding time requirements are met. In the interim. instead of supporting inflated, under-performing assets, epitomized by Larry Jones et al, Malone will milk (without Melky) the Braves and drive down the payroll and overhead to a de minimis position. Then he will sell the team and extract a king’s ransom for a valuable franchise without costly baggage, in a highly lucrative geographical market place.
Perhaps then, the new ownership will be able to rebuild the brand. But only after they fix the local media coverage in print and broadcast and foster a big league attitude in every facet of the team’s make-up and communications.
benchwarmer
August 1st, 2010
1:34 am
Bring up Freeman, Move Chipper down or up in the order. He is not a 3 hitter anymore.
A Real Fan
August 1st, 2010
1:37 am
This town doesn’t deserve a pro sports team with people like you smashing this deal. Its terrible to think that you even call yourselves a fan of a sport. No of our teams should win a championship for the simple reason that you people as ‘fans’ will get the pleasure of saying you rooted for them. If you dont like it, dont go to a game…wait, thats right you aren’t cause the Braves don’t have any revenue to go out and get someone that can do it all. If it doesn’t break the bank then you poop all over the idea. Face it, Escobar was a disease, Chavez couldn’t pitch, and Blanco didn’t have a spot to put him. I didn’t want to see Blanco go but he’s going to a place where he can play more. Its a two horse race in the East and we play the Phillies twice in the last two weeks of the season, and end the season with them…at home. You remember what this Braves team did last year in Mid-August and September? They went crazy to get back near the wild card. The Braves are the best home team in Baseball and we play 19 home games this month. So go to a game to help the Braves increase their revenue so they can get you a star player to make you fair-weather fans the happiest you can be.
Whats going to happen when the Falcons lose two games, everyone of you “fans” will be jumping ship calling the season over? Probably. Absolutely disgusting that you call yourselves fans.
READ THIS JEFF:
August 1st, 2010
1:46 am
What if Ankiel/Melky take right field and Diaz/Hinske take left while Heyward roams center? think of that anyone? (im not reading all those posts so i take credit for this idea.) that way we’re strong up the middle and platoon against rhp’s and lhp’s as necessary with our other four of’s. i think its brilliant what you think Atlanta? maybe that’s what Wrenn & Cox are up to with this one. We’ll see…
PHIL
August 1st, 2010
1:48 am
Why couldn’t we just trade the Collins kid and Chavez for Farnsworth? Why Blanco for this other guy? He’s nothing.
The only way it made any sense to make a trade was to get Bautista from the Jays and pay the, for him. Nothing else out there would have helped this team. It’s gonna be gut wrenching watching them fade. Rick who? Seriously Jeff you think him for Blanco sent a message to anyone?
Pacuvio
August 1st, 2010
1:55 am
Executive of the Year? With 48.2% of the payroll locked up on four players? Wren’s bad trades are a huge part of the problem.
J-Man
August 1st, 2010
3:10 am
Chipper’s contract was Schurholtz’s deal. But FW failed with Lowe, KK, and the trade for McClouth. Whats worse is the earlest they can come off the books is 2012 and Lowe 2013
J-Man
August 1st, 2010
3:11 am
I guess if you get the big contract you will take plays off and not give it your all
J-Man
August 1st, 2010
3:16 am
I kinda think KK might retire or go back to Japan next year and Chipper might retire and Wagner will retire (which I don’t want) if that happens the Braves will get around 29 million to work with but with Arbutrationt probably something like 22 mil. which I say sign Prado to a long term extension 5 yr. 45 mil and go after Carl Crawford 4 year 65 mil. There I go again similuating this stuff on my PS3
J-Hey
August 1st, 2010
5:17 am
“I can’t think of one brave fan that I have talked to that thought Lowe was an “ace” when he was signed”
wasn’t Lowe signed with big money because Wren kept failing with other moves he tried to make? So he slipped up and made a desperate move by signing Lowe to a large contract.
Ace wasn’t in mind, Wren didn’t want to look bad by losing out on another potential signee so he threw a ton of money in Lowe’s direction so that Lowe would have to take the deal.
keef
August 1st, 2010
5:23 am
$85 million payroll.
Thanks Liberty Media.
We’re only $120 million lower than Yankees.
Only $100 million from the Red Sox
This entire: Win one for The Gipper (Cox) is a sham. How can we even CONSIDER playing the Yankees who will be one of the W.S. teams…
Until we have a new individual as owner, this entire point is moot..
And rumor has it the payroll will be trimmed to $74 million next year…because Chipper will be off the books…
skip
August 1st, 2010
7:02 am
Ralph…you’re on point,son. I’ve been saying the same thing about Cox for a long time. Yesterday’s game was just another example of his bone-headed reluctance to pull his starters before the game is out of reach. Remember when he allowed Charlie Liebrandt to pitch to Kirby Puckett in the ‘91 Series? Did the same thing a couple of years later against Dave Winfield. The guy just nevers learns.
LJ
August 1st, 2010
7:25 am
I didn’t know Blanco had so many relatives.
bob
August 1st, 2010
7:37 am
When Prado is back from injury put him at first, sit Glaus down till his ankle heals, Play Infante at 2nd. Or Play Conrad at 2nd and move Prado to first. Need to set Glaus down for a few games either way
Chris from the Rock
August 1st, 2010
7:49 am
Count me in the minority who really likes this trade. We gave up very little. Everyone forgets 2008 when Blanco’s slugging percentage was sub .300 in 450 ABs. He just got hot pre-demotion and wouldn’t have kept it up. Chavez stinks and Collins will be a decent loogy at best. Meanwhile Farnsworth and Ankiel help now. And oh yeah, KC is paying their salaries for the rest of the season. Edge, Braves. Well done, Wren.
Chris from the Rock
August 1st, 2010
7:51 am
For you guys complaining about the low payroll, go to the ballpark more often. Increased revenue means increased payroll.
scott simet
August 1st, 2010
7:58 am
This is a trade of some nonproductive players for some nonproductive players.
Don’t have to trade for Babe Ruth and Lou Brock every year, but would be nice to have a trade that benefits both teams. Not sure how this is supposed to convince us that the Braves management cares as much as we do.
clint
August 1st, 2010
8:01 am
I agree with virtually everyone but Schultz (who, along with DOB, is obviously sucking up to Braves’ mgmnt) that this trade sux. We give up one of the best pitching prospects in baseball for a guy with an attitude and an ego and another guy who would be a 4th CFer on most teams. We now have an OLD team.
I love the Braves, always have. But to suffer thru BS like this hurts at a time when we really had a shot to win a pennant.
jfreak13713
August 1st, 2010
8:02 am
IDIOTS! You complain when the Braves give up too much to get a star then complain when they give up nothing to get two solid players! This moves works for the Braves because they just didn’t need much.
BravesFan
August 1st, 2010
8:12 am
A Real Fan
August 1st, 2010
1:37 am
I’m a real fan, but this trade is stupid. You say the Braves went like crazy last year to get close to getting the wild card. Why? Because they mad a relevant trade and got a gamechanger in Adam Laroche. Tell me, how are these guys gamechangers? Phillies went out and got a gamechanger, the Padres did, the Yankees did. What did we do? Spend 450k to get some AAAA (yes i mean 4A) players. This is why liberty media needs to go. Mr. Blank doesn’t want the Braves?
BravesFan
August 1st, 2010
8:14 am
Go up and read that real fan says at 1:37, the post below that is mine.
Peter
August 1st, 2010
8:27 am
Jeff, what all sees today is a team that has just lost three straight series, and a team that cannot hit, it won’t matter who we get……… get if Chipper is a 250 hitter in the three hole.
The Braves are a second half team no longer…………. the second half is for young players, and players in shape……… The Braves are fading, and it speaks volume’s about the key players we have.
We have zero speed, cannot manufacture runs, and thus we wait for a home run to hopefully win. BAD BASEBALL, BORING BASEBALL……. the fan base will be frustrated yet again.
The Bobby Cox retirement party cannot come soon enough.
Clay
August 1st, 2010
8:34 am
If I were a professional athlete, I wouldn’t even get in the same area code as these bandwagon-jumping, nitwit fans of Atlanta’s. Most of these jackasses are upset that Glaus didn’t win the Player of the Month, EVERY MONTH! Shame on him! FYI, Glaus wasn’t signed to carry this team, he just happened to do it for a month and a half.
I know, let’s blame Wren. He shoulda known everybody but Prado would hit 20 to 80 points below their career averages with little or no power.
Just remember this, the players Wren brought in here are mostly the reason the Braves are clinging to first place, instead of fighting for last place, where his predecessor left us.
JS left the Braves with two good players, no pitchers and a stripped-down farm system. With a lot smaller budget than JS enjoyed under Turner, Wren has restocked the farm system, including beating the Yankees, Red Sox and everyone else to the then 18 year old shortstop (name escapes me) that scouts are calling the next A-Rod. Wren got Jurrjens. He’s built the best bullpen in MLB. He got 2 current (Melky and Dunn) and 1 future major leaguers (Vizcaino) for Vazquez. He made an excellent trade for McLouth. If Nate was playing now like he was in the two seasons before the trade, we’d be about 10 games ahead of the Phillies. Those two years, by the way, included 42 dingers, 164 RBI, and 41 stolen bases. Yeah, everybody but Wren knew the 27 year old was about to melt down.
Maybe, some of you unappreciative nutcases should just donate $120 million or so, and the Braves maybe could sign Tex, Dunn, Pujols, and everone else you desire. That’s how much smaller his payroll budget is than the Yankees. And New York has won what, 5 more games than the Braves this year? I, for one, think Wren is doing pretty good.
Fan since 1977
August 1st, 2010
8:35 am
Good article, Jeff, I agree with you completely. I was one of the villagers waiting to exile Chavez. Good addition by subtraction there. Farnsworth is the biggest pickup by far, especially with O’Flaherty still out with that virus and Saito and Wags occasionally showing their age. Can’t throw Venters every night. And glad to have him back, I was disappointed when he left us for the Yankees.
Don’t know how Ankiel will perform but if he’s penciled in every day in CF (provided he produces, I’ll take 10 HR’s and a .850 OPS the rest of the way), that allows Diaz and Melky to platoon in LF, and FINALLY, something I have been posting on DOB blogs now for a month, a PLATOON at first with Glaus and Hinske. Glaus isn’t a one month wonder — he’s just flat tired. A platoon there will increase the productivity at 1st, I guarantee it.
Best (or, I should say worst) part about your article was the painful “stat” at the end: Lowe, McLouth, KK and Chipper account for 48.2 % of this season’s payroll. Even these days most retirement accounts are getting better returns than that. Ouch.
I disagree with those who call this a bad trade. I agree it is not a blockbuster or a great trade, i.e., McGriff. Wren made it obvious in his quote we were going have to mortgage the farm for, e.g., a Corey Hart, and we’re not doing that again (see, Texeira). We were not going to get a bopper, period. It helps the club more than it hurts. I don’t know about the “ego” noted above re: Farnsworth but Wags and Moylan won’t let him destroy the chemistry in the pen. Moylan would whip his ass.
I agree Blanco had a nice stint with us this year but we really did not give up much. For all his speed he was not a good baserunner, and Ankiel is just as good defensively.
And BTW J-Man, Chipper’s CURRENT deal is year two of a 4 year extension given to him by WREN after he won the batting title in ‘08 (but yes, correct, he was already under contract when that was done).
And Wren is responsible for KK, Lowe and McLouth. And we gave up LaRoche for McLouth. Then got LaRoche back. Then did not resign him because Wren thought he wanted a multi-year deal. LaRoche said he never said that and took a one yr deal w/Arizona. LaRoche is a great 2nd half player and was a great clubhouse guy. Wren is slowly redeeming himself with the last 2 deals but has a long way to go in my eyes. 48.2 % of useless payroll (cause Chipper is now a part-time singles hitter) and taking a flyer on Glaus is mighty expensive on the job training. Thought Schuerholz would have trained him better, but I guess Jon can’t pass on his genius and relationship with the other honchos in MLB.
Fan since 1977
August 1st, 2010
8:44 am
Clay, if the SS you are referring to is Salcedo, I saw him in person in Rome (Class A) last month. Kid hasn’t shown he can hit yet. He’s big (6′3″) for a SS and runs like a deer, but his stick has not impressed me yet. Not for a $1.6 million signing bonus.
Clay
August 1st, 2010
8:46 am
Roland’s Office: “WREN OUTHUSTLED”
******************************
Why is it necessarily a bad thing that Wren didn’t “satisfy the Indians demands for young talent”?
keith
August 1st, 2010
8:51 am
RE: A Real Fan and a Fan since 1977.
Both of you made great points.
Go support your team and cheer them on instead of complaining!! No, this wasn’t a blockbuster trade, but I think it was worth the risk with Ankiel provided that he provides half of his potential upside.
Matt the Brave
August 1st, 2010
8:55 am
Jeez people, stop acting like you must play video games. No team in their right mind would want to take McClouth, Lowe, Kawakami off of our hands right now. It’s a bad investment, and maybe they’ll show up in August and September.
Oh, and for the people who are just regurgitating the facts from the article, go and do some real research, form an opinion, and then post.
Clay
August 1st, 2010
8:57 am
Yeah, Salcedo. I guess a 19 or 20 year old who is ready for the majors comes along only every 10 or 15 years (A-Rod, Heyward).
Clay
August 1st, 2010
9:00 am
Braves traded LaRoche to the Pirates for Mike Gonzales.
GT
August 1st, 2010
9:07 am
Baseball is the perfect sport for the modern press. It is like the weather, give it a few minutes and it will change so no matter what is written it will in some frame of time be true. The Braves are on a prolonged road trip. They have one bad road trip every few months. This one is mild compared to the early season one out west. They will have almost all August at home. Division Champions job well done. We are lucky to have one team that has a front office that has held serve for two decades.
Yurtle_the_turtle
August 1st, 2010
9:12 am
Jeff… give those of us who are “ant-trade” a little credit here. It’s not that we’re “unrealistic” as you say. We were not looking at a $10.M trade that gives us Matt Kemp or something, but your excitement over this trade and exclaimation that this trade somehow “sends a message” is pretty lame, don’t you think? Come on now, I guess you had to write SOMETHING, but geez, you need to get a dose of reality to slap you if you think this trade a) helps the Braves b) “sends a message”. I don’t believe the Yankees or Phillies are concerned that Ankiel is now a Brave. You seem to believe that.
Idot
August 1st, 2010
9:13 am
Shultz….I hate to say it, but your blog sure does attract a huge contingent of dumb@sses.
DTK
August 1st, 2010
9:18 am
Check out Kansas City writers review of the trade.
http://uponfurtherreview.kansascity.com/?q=node/2398
Yurtle_the_turtle
August 1st, 2010
9:19 am
Christ from the Rock..screw you butt-wipe. Braves have one of the best attendance in the league and they don’t spend. You get your little posse to the stadium. How many freaking season tickets do you own? I’ll not support this team with more tickets until I see them actually trying to win and not with lame-ass trades like this one. Glaus was had on the cheap, no significant FAs in the last 3 years, no upgrades at the trading deadline. When Liberty starts showing me they care, I’ll go back. Until then, you suck-up idiotic “fans” can keep going back to the staduim and spending your $100.00 a night.
Nativebird
August 1st, 2010
9:20 am
“Troy Glaus looking more and more like a one-month wonder”. spot on. once more I’ll say it again, until the Braves get a big time RH hitting RBI producer at first base to anker this lineup…ala the Big Cat (last year that Braves really threatened at the W.S.), this lineup will not deliver championships…no matter the pitching.
first Base has ALWAYS been the key.
Marvin Mangrum
August 1st, 2010
9:21 am
Gregor Blanco was the only player in the trade, now he will become a star. He said, if I have to bunt to get on I will. When he said that he was done. I konow he was hitting 355, but he was bunting to get hits. And that is no good!
nobody
August 1st, 2010
9:24 am
Why are people complaining? Before this season none of you thought anything of Blanco. He gets on base and is fast, but he was expendable. He really wasnt that good. We basically dealt Blanco for Ankiel, Farnsworth, and no more Chavez. Im d@mn happy about that.
dub366
August 1st, 2010
9:25 am
Bobby Cox or Frank Wren one has a problem with dark skin ball players.
nobody
August 1st, 2010
9:28 am
I was very suprised to see Adam Dunn stay put.
MitchC
August 1st, 2010
9:28 am
I dont know how this deal will work out, but I have to give Frank credit for trying. At least he’s not standing pat.
Mclouth mght have been one of the worst players ever to wear a Braves uniform. Anyone has to be better than him. Farnsworth still has a good arm. On nights that Billy Wagner might need a rest, I’d feel more comfortable with Farnsworth closing a game than Saito.
I’m still very apprehensive about the Phillies. There’s two months to go in the season. Hopefully, the Braves can hang on and win the division, but I have a strong feeling that, at the very least, Philly will make a strong run.
Fan since 1977
August 1st, 2010
9:37 am
Clay – I stand corrected, it was Gonzales we got for LaRoche. You are correct.
But still, look how that deal turned out. Net gain = zero.
dub366 that was an ignorant and racist comment.