Bradley’s Buzz: SI’s Heyman calls Braves’ offseason ‘cheap’

Sigh.

The bottom line is that the Braves could start Cookie Monster in left field and have the Pants on the Ground guy batting cleanup and I would still watch and cheer for them. Against my better judgment, I love this team and I always will. My grandpa taught me how to love and appreciate the game, and he was Braves baseball to the bone. He died about 10 years ago, but I am still carrying the torch for him. So I will be there on opening day, hoping for the best but knowing they will probably break my heart like always.

Come to think of it, Cookie Monster might be a solid pickup. Dude has great speed to the gaps, and he could hide cookies in his pockets for little pick-me-ups during long innings.

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Melky has only gotten better only in HR because the Yanks now play in a bandbox (career high 13 HR last year. The rest of his offensive numbers are generally the same or lesser than previous 3 years. I don’t have time to post his stats, but look him up on baseballreference.com. What you’ve seen is what you’ll get, except for now he doesn’t have that all-star lineup hitting around him.

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Stuckey’s Braves. Maybe we can get a free Pecan Log at the gate.

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Elmore Spencer

February 8th, 2010
2:42 pm
(Cabrera is seen as a fourth outfielder.)

I dont see him as that. He has consistently gotten better each year in the majors. He is only 25.

No, he hasn’t gotten noticeably better every year. However, that was a nice argument if you don’t let facts get in the way.

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Melky an exciting outfielder????????

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Jesse Stone – Exactly! More homeruns does not equal better player. Especially when such homeruns were a factor of the ballpark not the player.

It’s so sad that on this blog within the first 200 posts we’ve got someone saying W’s is the most meaningful pitching stat and HR’s for offense.

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True or False: The Realist’s claim that the Braves are closer to the Nationals than the Phillies for dumbest post of the offseason! No actual vote required since this is obviously TRUE!

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I feel like there is some Gold digger cougar trying to move the team. I love replacing healthy young guys with post-op Roger Dorns

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Melky an exciting outfielder????????

Absolutely. The guy has amazing range and a cannon for an arm. go to mlb.com and look at his player page. There are about 7 pages worth of highlight reel catches and throws from the guy.

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Many would say you would have to be an idiot NOT to Trade Vasquez. In baseball today you don’t keep star players in the last year of contracts and risk getting nothing. Prospects and building talent has never been emphasized so much as it is today. Look at the Astros, Mets. Huge payrolls but can’t win and can’t build a farm system.

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TheRealist,Todd,Whopper Dawg,extremus,Gayle,Elmore Spencer,Ted M,Clearance Sale,Darrell Starks,thickfreakness and especially you Big Cox…….You are all morons and idiots.Get a life you fr@@@ing jerks!

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You people are crazy. The Braves didn’t “dump” Lowe because every team that was interested wanted the Braves to eat almost half of his remaining salary. How, if that was the case, could you trade him and come out better than what you got in the Vazquez trade? The Braves traded Vasquez, because quite frankly, who else was going to be traded? Kawakami? No the Braves traded the only piece that any team would take. Now, I can see the argument that the Braves could have gotten more for Javy and agree with that somewhat.

Facts need to be pointed out here. In 2010 you get:

1) A full season of Tommy Hanson
2) A full season of Nate McClouth
3) A healthy season from McCann
4) Wagner closing and a solid pen to set him up
5) A full season from Hudson – who says his arm feels better than it has in years
6) A chance to see the next big thing in Jason Heyward
7) No Kelly Johnson booting routine grounders.
No Jeff Francouer striking out and looking mystified on his way back to the dugout.

The Braves were very close to winning the wild card last year. The offense will be fine. If Glaus bounces back, which all indications show he is healthy, then that is the pop we need. Chipper needs a bounce back as well and we know McCann will be fine after his latest lasik procedure. I don’t like Liberty Media owning the team anymore than you guys do, but it could be worse. We could be owned by the Spirit and have our best players traded away in the middle of a playoff chase. Javy was not going to emulate his 2009 season. Kawakami was pitching very well in the second half before Hudson came back and took down some of the best pitchers in baseball – Halliday, Santana, Lee, etc….

Real Braves fans would be excited that baseball is back and then root the team on as the season started. I remember everyone saying last year that 2009 would be a rebuilding year and the Braves were no better than a .500 ball club. Then in September they went on that great run, just to come up short and it seemed no one cared.

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Why does everybody who writes an article on the braves 2010 season, seem to forget about Heyward coming up? They ask for a big bat and even though he will have to prove himself I do believe this kid can really help in the power category. I saw him play and go deep in spring training last year and he is an exciting player to watch and I think he is going to be the real deal. I know he isn’t proven, but the Braves didn’t make huge moves because I think they are planning to see what this kid can do. Also, that extra money might prove valuable if we need to make a big move later in the year. Why doesn’t everyone just quit freakin out and see how it plays out before deciding the braves fate in february! I like the team and I like the fact the everyone seems to be counting them out. I mean who picked Tampa Bay two years ago to go to the World Series? Go get em Bravos!

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DeBrave, why don’t you comeback with a real argument instead of calling everyone an idiot, stupid, etc. In my case you apparently don’t have the intelligence yourself to recognize sarcasm or irony. Look them up in a dictionary, read my post again and get back to me if you need me to explain further.

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WOW. Bad product? They made all the moves last year to be compete and be good in the future. Do they have to win 100 games before you start going again?

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Mark Bradley,

I think your assessment is off because you say that the tradeoff in the starting rotation was basically Kawakami for Vasquez. That’s not true. If the Braves intended to keep both Vasquez and Lowe, then Hudson would not have been re-signed (I know he had a player option for 2010, but the reports were that he would have declined the option to sign a longer term deal). Kawakami was always going to be the #5 starter, unless there was interest in someone trading for KK.

And I don’t buy into the argument that Kawakami was not effective last season because he only had 7 wins. The guy pitched well, but had poor run support. I count no less than 8 games where he gave up 3 earned runs or less and got the loss. He had a lower ERA than Derek Lowe. And he had several clutch performances during the season. He outdueled Johan Santana, Roy Halladay and Dice K.

Javy Vasquez has never had as good a season as he had last year, in fact he has one good year, one bad year and his ERA is often over 4.00. I guess I just think that a healthy Tim Hudson (which is no guarantee, but who’s to say it isn’t time for Vasquez to blow out his elbow) is a more proven consistent commodity than Vasquez. And Kawakami is not a bad pitcher.

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The Braves are not cheap.

Team 2008 payroll 2009 payroll
Yankees $209,081,577 $201,449,189
Mets $137,793,376 $149,373,987
Cubs $118,345,833 $134,809,000
Red Sox $133,390,035 $121,745,999
Tigers $137,685,196 $115,085,145
Angels $119,216,333 $113,709,000
Phillies $98,269,880 $113,004,046
Astros $88,930,414 $102,996,414
Dodgers $118,588,536 $100,414,592
Mariners $117,666,482 $98,904,166
Braves $102,365,683 $96,726,166
White Sox $121,189,332 $96,068,500
Giants $76,594,500 $82,616,450
Indians $78,970,066 $81,579,166
Blue Jays $97,793,900 $80,538,300
Brewers $80,937,499 $80,182,502
Cardinals $99,624,449 $77,605,109
Rockies $68,655,500 $75,201,000
Reds $74,117,695 $73,558,500
Diamondb$66,202,712 $73,516,666
Royals $58,245,500 $70,519,333
Rangers $67,712,326 $68,178,798
Orioles $67,196,246 $67,101,666
Twins $56,932,766 $65,299,266
Rays $43,820,597 $63,313,034
Athletics $47,967,126 $62,310,000
Nationals $54,961,000 $60,328,000
Pirates $48,689,783 $48,693,000
Padres $73,677,616 $43,734,200
Marlins $21,811,500 $36,834,000

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TheRealist:

The principal reason the Braves “quasi-dynasty” is now mediocre is that Schuerholz and Cox didn’t recognize that it was ending and didn’t start the inevitable rebuilding process sooner. Instead, they kept trying to apply expensive bandaids in the naive hope that they could prolong the 14 year run. The most ridiculous example was trading 4 premium prospects, including two, Elvis Andrus and Neftali Feliz, who are well on their way to becoming Allstars for one year “Mr. Mercenary” Mark Texeira who everyone with half a brain knew wasn’t going to sign an extension with the Braves and who also wasn’t going to be enough to get them into the playoffs. I for one like the direction that Wren is going, which is to emphasize the farm system and build around that (which incidentally is how the Braves build that 14 year quasi-dynasty in the first place) rather than blowing the budget now and being financially hamstrung to add players later. By the way, even Mr. Bradley concedes that the Braves have almost always found a way to keep their homegrown talent and will when this crop matures, unless of course, Wren decides to listen to some of the critics on this board and blow it now on overrated players who won’t make them better than the Phillies this year any way. I agree with your points about Liberty Media not spending the money, but given those constraints I think Wren has done a good job and actually appears to have a PLAN for both now and in the future. Finally, can we at least let Cabrera, Hudson, Glaus, Saito and Wagner play and pitch a few games before we trash the offseason moves?

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I am saying that as a baseball manager, he is a loser.

Huh?

And for that, I do know quite a bit.

List your roles in building Championship teams. I cant wait to see this impressive resume.

So many managers have succeeded with much less

Name one.

I would much rather have a mean S.O.B. manager who brings home titles than a guy who is the nicest guy and best manager in the world to play for.

Yeah that Joe Torre is a real SOB. Just like Terry Francona and Charlie Manuel. All SOB’s. Hey thats why they won right.

gayle please stop. You are who I was referring to when I talked about Braves fans having a low baseball IQ. You watched a few game in the 90’s when the team got popular and now you think you know the game. you dont.

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Watch out for that Mitch Jones kid we picked up from LA. He was blocked in LA by the best outfield in the majors but he could easily start for us if he can hit at all. Wasn’t he one of the best hitters in all of the minor leagues the last couple of years? I can see him starting until Heyward gets the call up in June.

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Mitch Jones hmmm but he’s 33

Jones was signed to a minor league contract by the Los Angeles Dodgers prior to the start of the 2007 season and spent several months playing for the Las Vegas 51s in the Dodgers minor league system. In June 2007, he was sold by the Dodgers to the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters of Japan’s Pacific League. He returned to the Dodgers organization in 2008 and once more played for Las Vegas.

He received a non-roster invitation to spring training by the Dodgers in 2009 but failed to make the roster and was assigned to the AAA Albuquerque Isotopes to begin the season.

On June 16, the Dodgers purchased his contract and called him up to the Major League team. He made his major league debut that night, appearing as a pinch hitter in a game against the Oakland Athletics. He struck out in his first at-bat. The next night he got his first major league hit off A’s reliever Brad Ziegler after 10 years in the minor leagues. Two nights later on June 19, he got his first major league start against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim as the designated hitter.

Jones appeared in 8 games with the Dodgers, primarily as a pinch hitter. He went 4 for 13, finishing with a batting average of .308 before he was designated for assignment on July 1 and returned to the Isotopes on July 6.

In September 2009, Jones was named the winner of the Joe Bauman Home Run Award, for the most home runs — 35 — in all of Minor League Baseball.[3]

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if guns are allowed in turner field, I won’t be there again no matter who is playing.

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Only 7 managers in the history of baseball have won more than 2 world series. Casey Stengal probably had the best percentage but it was still below 30% and he had the 50’s Yankees. There are hundreds that never won one at all. Bobby Cox is probably too soft on players but that is because he witnessed how not to do it with Billy Martin. The Braves would not have won all of those pennants without him and putting it all together to win it all takes more than a manager’s skills. He has been very good for the Braves and so what if he was a nice guy in the process.

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I never said I knew how to build or manage a winning team

You said you knew something about it.

Let me ask you this way. Is it Cox fault Lonnie Smith stopped running costing the Braves the series? No. Is it his fault Liebrandt who Puckett was 0-4 against with 4ks gave up a HR? No. Did he tell Wohlers to hang a slider to Leyritz? No

I realize the Braves postseason results werent the greatest under Cox but to call him a loser is a tad much.

The Braves postseason failure could just as easily be blamed on these two factors.

1. The AL being much stronger during the Braves run
2. The NL East being very weak some years allowing the Braves to make it when they wouldnt have in another division or league.

To just somehow pretend Cox who is the 4th winningest manager in baseball history all of a sudden forgets how to manage in the postseason is insane. And dont give me this its a different game crap. No its not. Its still 9 innings and 3 outs etc. ONLY difference is a Game 7 there is not tomorrow kind of deal where starters can be uses as relievers.

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$3.1 mil for Melky f—–g Cabrera. Unbelievable.

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