Melky’s gone, which tells us much about the Braves and Wren
"As long as I'm managing, you're on this team, Melky." (AJC photo by Curtis Compton)
Sooner or later we’ll start to ask ourselves, “How in the world did the 2010 Braves make the playoffs?” And I’m thinking that time is …
Right about now.
The Braves dumped Melky Cabrera and Takashi Saito on Tuesday, eight days after the former had made the 27th out of Game 4 of the Division Series. These were two of the bigger acquisitions Frank Wren made last winter — others were Billy Wagner, who has retired; Troy Glaus, who had nothing left after July, and Eric Hinske, who kept pinch-hitting home runs — and now they’ve been tossed aside.
The Saito move was expected. The Cabrera one was expected if you’d watched him play. And that’s kind of the point: The 2010 Braves had a lot of guys who didn’t do much — Cabrera, Nate McLouth, Yunel Escobar, Matt Diaz, Rick Ankiel, Glaus in April and August and September — and lots more who got hurt. And somehow they qualified for the postseason, same as the Phillies and the Yankees.
To say that every Wren move of the last offseason and this regular season panned out would be incorrect. Most of them didn’t. But the sum total of his tinkering was just enough to bleed out one more victory than San Diego, and that was enough. We can critique individual trades and signings, but we cannot carp about the overall effect. This team shouldn’t have been good enough, but it was, just.
Which is why the guy who traded Javier Vazquez for Melky Cabrera should be named executive of the year. Seriously.
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468 comments Add your comment
PMC
October 20th, 2010
1:46 pm
Frank can’t get manager of the year because of how many of the moves he made in season were almost if not complete duds.
None of the position players made the team much better. Lee played better defense, but you wound up with GLAUS at 3rd…which was at best an emergency. The Short Stop….was dreadful. Poor average, worst fielding and barely any run production and he’s older than the guy you gave away.
Walker, Texas Ranger
October 20th, 2010
1:47 pm
Mark, the Melky deal alone was enough to win Exe of the Year. Gettin Vizcaino alone was worth that but to throw in Dunn, holy crap. And this for a pitcher with one, I repeat, one good year. Everything else was gambles that either worked or it didn’t. Wagner was a gamble that paid. Glaus was a gamble that was a push (3 Bad Months and 1 Month that he carried the team). And then there was Saito and Ankiel, loss.
Skeezix
October 20th, 2010
1:50 pm
NO way Wren is executive of the year. Too many boneheaded moves (not going to name them all here-too numerous), some which still weigh on the Braves like an anchor (K.K., McOut, etc.)
The credit goes to Bobby Cox for motivating these guys to over achieve.
Frank Wren
October 20th, 2010
1:52 pm
Mark Bradley is insightful and brillant!
GTSteve
October 20th, 2010
1:55 pm
2010 Braves made the playoffs with alot of key players lost to injury…somebody deserves some credit.
The Dogkiller Returns
October 20th, 2010
1:55 pm
Have some faith, guys. This outfield can’t be as bad as it looks, can it?
Suckers.
siskel_god
October 20th, 2010
2:01 pm
I like the results with FW the last few years, but I wonder if he’s been more lucky than good. Remember this is the guy who wanted Peavy who hasn’t really done much the last few years, he also wanted Furcal who is now signed to a contract that is undesirable to say the least, and he also wanted AJ Burnett who the Yankees would probably give to anybody who’s willing to take him. He traded Renteria to give the job to Yunel, only to take the job from Yunel and give it to Alex Gonzalez. He clearly seems to favor veterans but stockpiles young talent. The guy has so much going on at once I don’t even think he knows what he’s going to do next. I can’t complain about the results since we were in it to the end last year and made the playoffs this year but I can’t help but wonder why we would trade Yunel for some really good young prospects and then send some of those prospects away for Rick Ankiel and Kyle Farnsworth? I really don’t think he has a plan other than hold on to his blue chip prospects, and throw enough crap at the wall and see what sticks.
Mini Me
October 20th, 2010
2:03 pm
Wren just signed me to replace Hinske and Glaus.
59bulldawg
October 20th, 2010
2:04 pm
Well I’ll just say this. For the most part the team gave us everything they had night in and night out . . . even if some guys didn’t have much left in the tank to give us. They had heart and were a fun bunch to watch. Even though the Smoltz and Glavine PR debacles could have been better handled, Wren has done better than I thought he would. You don’t always get the best of every trade and if the Andrus for Teixeira deal had ended up with Teixeira staying in Atlanta it would be viewed more favorably. But I’m excited about the future. Just wish we could find an Atlanta owner who wouldn’t view the team as little more than a tax write-off.
JTH
October 20th, 2010
2:07 pm
The Braves played with passion this season like no other before. Good coaching, a little luck, and making the right moves (except for not going after Dunn instead of Glaus was stupid). Nearly a storybook ending but the lack of talent(Brooks Conrad’s defense) due to injuries finally caught up.
All in all a fun season and not disappointing at all. They weren’t even supposed to make playoffs.
Looking forward to next year and a fresh start with F.Gonzalez.
Bobby Cox
October 20th, 2010
2:08 pm
Huh?! Executive of the year? If he hadn’t signed so many .180-.230 hitters we would still be playing. Wren doesn’t know his ash from a hole in the ground.
NEW CARS
October 20th, 2010
2:10 pm
If we could get a Rasmus, Kemp, Upton type for CF then I would be ok with signing a Magglio Ordonez type for LF and letting McLouth play some and come in late in games as a defensive replacement.
A guy that I think will be revisited in the offseason is Ellsbury, but he needs to prove healthy before I would want him.
Nate McLouth
October 20th, 2010
2:12 pm
Frank sure gets my vote!
Doug Markham
October 20th, 2010
2:12 pm
One of the “pickups” or “trades” the Braves made that I personally think pushed them over the top in the 1995 World Series was the acquisition of Marquis Grissom. Seems like that is seldom discussed or noted. He was great in 1995 and 1996, wien I think he had 200 plus hits in 1996. Maybe that was 1997.
NEW CARS
October 20th, 2010
2:16 pm
Doug,
Had to be 96 because he and Justice were traded before 97 to keep the pitchers together. In hindsight, it might have been better to let one of those guys walk and hang on to the bats. We got him for Roberto Kelly in a Montreal contract dump. Kelly we had gotten from Cincy for Prime Time.
Ted M
October 20th, 2010
2:22 pm
When is executive of the year awarded?
JoeBrave
October 20th, 2010
2:23 pm
Whilst we are making trades, I’ll play Santa for a moment….
To: KC
A Vizcaino
J Jurrjens
F. Freeman
C. Kimbrel
C.Joihnson
To: Atl
Z Greinke
B.Butler
J.Soria
any takers
jeffrey d
October 20th, 2010
2:24 pm
Which is why the guy who traded Javier Vazquez for Melky Cabrera should be named executive of the year. Seriously
It wasn’t Javy for Melky!! The Braves got a top young pitching prospect, and lefty reliever Mike Dunn in the trade
sg10
October 20th, 2010
2:24 pm
I like the fact that Wren is decisive in his moves.. doesn’t waste any time. It is impossible to be perfect in making these moves. You just have to go by which one has the best chance to work out, given our budget. It is like buying stocks. Some of the players are safer investment with guaranteed return but because of that they are priced high. With our budget, we can not make majority of those investments.
JeanE
October 20th, 2010
2:24 pm
The platoon in LF was fine and were were only a few injuries short of making more noise in the playoffs. I’m not an advocate AT ALL of trading arms for bats. I do agree the team needs to be better conditioned and if they can’t do it themselves, veterans included, it needs to be mandated they do it. Although Fredi is lookin’ a little chunky, too!! But he sits in the dugout and doesn’t play the games so I guess that’s OK…McLouth really has us hamstrung. But I would not be trading JJ away just to watch him shine for some other team, that would be sickening.
JoeBrave
October 20th, 2010
2:25 pm
Sign Cody Ross for Lf
BooBoo
October 20th, 2010
2:26 pm
The Braves hired Cox’s boy Fredi Gonzales because he can communicate with latinos making under $1-million a year, and make a bunch of no-names evolve into trade bait when they come of age (market value). The Atlanta Braves have become Pittsburgh South, or Marlins North. Either way, once Chipper had his final oblique-removal surgery, and retires in a wheelchair ceremony, expect to see all the sings on the outfield wall in Spanish. Like a drive down Buford Hwy.
Skeezix
October 20th, 2010
2:30 pm
Mark: The main problem going into the 2010 season was the lack of offensive punch, especially the OF. I can’t think of a single move Wren made that helped in that area-except Glaus during the month of May (but he fizzled out completely after that) and Hinske, but he’s a pinch hitter. We got to the post season because of players who were already in place–stellar pitching by Huddy, Hanson, Lowe, J.J. (when not hurt),Medlen,and the bullpen, some timely hitting,and super years by Infante,Prado, and Conrad (except his postseason errors). Chipper, McCann, & Jason also made solid contributions. Wren did sign Wagner, which gave us a “turn out the lights” closer, so I’ll give him credit for that. But Wren doesn’t get my vote because his attempts to address the primary problem- lack of offense-were ineffective.
steve
October 20th, 2010
2:30 pm
There is an easy answer to our problem, we loaded our minor league system for years with good pitching and few hitters, now we have so many great young pitchers that it is time to trade a few of them for some good hitters, left and center fielders preferred, J.J. and Beachy should get us 2 good hitters in a trade, put their names out there and see what teams would be willing to give us, Kemp should be a given as he needs a change and the Dodgers need at least 1 more starter.
JoeBrave
October 20th, 2010
2:33 pm
Sign Vazquez for the 5th starter
The Dogkiller Returns
October 20th, 2010
2:33 pm
Sign Garrett Anderson for Lf
VaHiDawg
October 20th, 2010
2:34 pm
JoeBrave you are what is known as a moron for that trade proposal…
JoeBrave
October 20th, 2010
2:35 pm
And why is that VaHi?
VaHiDawg
October 20th, 2010
2:35 pm
The problem with the braves is that we keep doing business with these damn losing teams. The players we receive are the reason why their teams have sucked. Over the past 3 seasons, how many players have we gotten from the Royals or Pirates?
DAMN!
aikenbravesfan
October 20th, 2010
2:35 pm
Liberty Media paid their CEO $188 million in 2009. You’d think they could spare some of that for the Braves? http://www.thestreet.com/story/10885718/1/liberty-medias-maffei-made-188m-in-2009.html
Peronowski
October 20th, 2010
2:35 pm
The Braves need Chipper’s presence and Chipper wants to stay with the Braves. Think about paying him a couple million to be on field hitting instructor and defer what’s left of his salary over the next 5 years. He does not need money as much as he wants to be a Brave and the Braves do not need to lose him. Worth considering.
Chief Grandaslama
October 20th, 2010
2:36 pm
Not a bad idea, BooBoo. Maybe the Latinos in Atlanta will actually sell out Turner Field, unlike the current fans from “Braves Country.”
skip
October 20th, 2010
2:37 pm
Given the financial constraints Wren is forced to work under there is no way any first tier outfielder is landing in Atlanta. You can forget about a Carl Crawford or a Jason Werth. We’re just going to have to make do with lesser players and hope there is another Heyward somewhere in the minor league system. Just the way it is.
EXBraves Fan
October 20th, 2010
2:38 pm
The Braves are about too be come San Diego/Oakland/KC East. They will go young with a couple of broken down players like Glossed out and Milkdud and Lee. Players much pasted their primes. I have been watching Baseball for nearly FIFTY Years and the Braves since they moved to Atlanta. I have seen them from Henry Aaron, Rico Carty, Mike Lum, Dale Murphy, Tom Glavine, Smoltzie, Maddog, Chipper, too the current bunch of duds. I have seen the 100-plus loss years up close and personal. I remember one season, doing the 250 mile round trip drive to old Fulton County Stadium too watch the Braves lose ALL, yes, ALL 20 GAMES I came too see. They were so bad that the 1962 Mets looked like a power house up against this team. All those Divisional titles really did no impress me. The ONE title did, finally. They beat the stinking Yankees 2-0 games up in NY only too come home and get bounced 3-0 in games and throw away the entire Series. Under present management, the Braves are never, REPEAT NEVER going to win anything. They have 1/2 their payroll tied up in five or six players, ONE, Chipper, who is not going to be much better than a .250 hitter with 12 HRs and 45 RBI season in him. Freddie better have a rabbit up his hat if he is going too win with this mob. Oh, and enjoy Jason while you can. One of these days, the Braves are going too refuse too give him what he will deserve and he will move on to NY or Philly. OR, they will be mired in last place, 33 games out of first place in his final year and they will trade him for 14 class A minor league players none of which will EVER get too AA ball. So, after watching the Braves for 40 plus years here in Atlanta, I give the franchise a SOLID grade of: D minus minus. The ONE title keeps it from being a SOLID “F”!
VaHiDawg
October 20th, 2010
2:41 pm
Butler and Greinke are going to be so expensive in the next two years. Soria is already the 3rd or 4th highest paid closer. Royals haven’t been over .500 since 86 or 87, Grienke has only posted great numbers in 1 year there and Butler has had forever to come around, not to mention being hurt all the time.
A Vizcaino, J Jurrjens, F. Freeman,C. Kimbrel are cornerstones of the entire Braves organization, not just Atlanta Braves. They figure into the equation for the next 7 years. And if you trade cody johnson you’ve essentially proved he’s a bust.
I blame this all on Jeff Francoeur.
Anything else?
FSU stole the Chop from the Pete van Wieren
October 20th, 2010
2:42 pm
BRAVES LOSE!!! BRAVES LOSE!!!
VaHiDawg
October 20th, 2010
2:43 pm
Ex Braves, you’re right- the Braves are extremely top heavy in the payroll
JoeBrave
October 20th, 2010
2:43 pm
VaHi, Butler is only 25 and he’s had forever
VaHiDawg
October 20th, 2010
2:46 pm
JoeBrave- Freeman is at 1st base and he’s 21…
what of it?
October 20th, 2010
2:47 pm
Let me get this straight: you want to give wren manager of the year for assembling a team that should not have made it to the post-season. I thought the goal was to get to and win in the post-season. I’d say we made it in spite of wren’s garbage trades
BravesRule
October 20th, 2010
2:49 pm
Dear Mr. Baseball
You said Lowe, hanson, and Jurrjens are “Big time pitchers”. You my friend are the idiot. Hanson was 10-11. Last time I checked that’s below 500 win/loss record. “BIG TIME PITCHER”!!! Jurrjens pitched 116 innings and won 7 games..BIG TIME PITCHER!!! Hudson = BIG TIME PITCHER if you need help to understand what a stud looks like 17 wins 200+innings and a sub 3.00 ERA that’s BIG TIME!!! You clown shoe!
As far as closers go it’s not how hard you can throw= must be a great closer…see John Rocker for example. If there is one spot on the team you don’t want a young player to be it’s a closer. Venters is 25 yrs old and has 1 career save. Kimbrel is 22yrs old and has 1 save in his whole MLB career…WOW. Good idea giving the closer role to kids with 2 total saves combined. So in 2011 we will turn to one of them and say “ok kid we need you to be the closer with the game on the line all season long..please don’t crack we all need you”. And im the retard for wanting a veteran to shut the door?? Cox could have had a kid do that roll but did he? NO! He went and got a vet in wagner!
Next time you puke out of the mouth know what you’re talking about nerd.
lee
October 20th, 2010
2:49 pm
you know i have been really enjoying watching the Rangers series.. now they have a great Short Stop that can steal the show, and a 20 yr old closer that is totally lights outs!!! now if the braves could have a couple players like them!! O yea!! the braves did have those players!! they gave them away to rent “tex” for half a season!! so the braves “braintrust” have given away an whole entire team’s worth of talen in one stupid traid after the other. everyone hates the yankee’s, but im sure they knew who they were giving us–they knew they were giving us a crappy player and wren was jumping up and down to take him. thats the difference between them and the braves!!! they deal in quality and not someone ele’s crap!!!
WhataboutHIM
October 20th, 2010
2:51 pm
Some ideas to throw out for the outfield (since the obvious big named players are out of our price range) is to bring in David Dejesus to play the outfield and lead-off. This will bring speed and stability to the top of the lineup while only costing $5-6 MM. Next we need to figure out what to do with Nate McLouth. In my opinion, he will stay and obviously plays left field. They’ll give him every opportunity to regain his all-star form. Next I see Dan Uggla as a great RBI producer that’s available at a reasonable price. Check out this lineup:
1. David Dejesus
2. Martin Prado
3. Chipper Jones (or Jason Heyward)
4. Dan Uggla
5. Brian McCann
6. Jason Heyward (or Chipper)
7. Freddy Freeman
8. Nate McClouth
Plus there is Omar Infante as the utility man as well as Hinske (hopefully we hang onto him) coming off the bench. With our pitching staff, I see this lineup taking us one step closer to a title. I don’t see the braves being able to do much else.
Bernard
October 20th, 2010
2:51 pm
Time for fall cleaning…Nate, Rick, Troy, Kawakami, Moylan, Brooks, Diaz, Mike Dunn be gone PPPPPPLEASE…don’t let the door hit on the way out. Hope the new manager doesn’t tolerate non achievers like you know who…too bad we gave away all those prospects (now stars) to Texas… and Adam Wainwright give away really bites!!! yikes!!! Get smart Wren!!
David Justice hit like a girl
October 20th, 2010
2:56 pm
Lower got plenty of time to get his act together, and he did great in September. Why didn’t Kawakami get the same chances? Many of his losses were due to the team’s anemic offense. Give him the same chances next season that you gave Lowe this season, and he’ll be just fine.
Ben Thenkin
October 20th, 2010
2:58 pm
That suggestion by Peronowski looks pretty darn good.
The Braves have to pay Chippers salary anyway so, if he would agree, he gets his salary extended and Wren gets handed about $10,000,000 to work with now.
I wish Wren and Jones would give it serious consideration.
WhataboutHIM
October 20th, 2010
2:59 pm
Whoopsy, I completely forgot about Alex Gonzalez… No way we’re getting rid of him. That presents a hole in my solution.
Troy Glaus's sore knees
October 20th, 2010
2:59 pm
Maybe we could afford more talent if you fair-weather fans would fill up The Ted EVERY GAME like you did for NLDS Game 3. Just sayin’.
Formul8or
October 20th, 2010
3:00 pm
Wren has built all of our pitching staff outside of Hudson. I’d say he did a really good job with that alone to warrant misfires in the offensive part.
Nativebird
October 20th, 2010
3:00 pm
Puulleeease! Enuff about Colby “dont-need-another-.276-hitter-with-23-HR’s-and-66-RBI’s-left-handed-outfielder!” Rasmus!
This team needs one thing and one thing only…a big burly right handed pure HOME RUN hitter…as in 35 plus EVERY year.