Frank Wren Chat At MLB.com

Well, with the Royals now saying that dejesus is not really available unless they are blown away, and the redsox asking a lot for coco crisp, my suggestion would be why not go feel two of our biggest needs, a short term centerfielder and young established starter, in the same trade.

The braves should perhaps go after kotsay and blanton from oakland, as has been suggested in several places (most recently that i have seen is mark bowmen over at mlb.com). Billy Beane, as I have stated in the past, loves prospects who are MLB ready and can be be effective, and we have those options in Brandon Jones, Brent Lillibridge, Martin Prado, Chuck James, Jair Jurrjens, and Joey Devine. I think that the cost for a starter and centerfielder will be lower if we got them from the same team instead of seperate teams, and if the braves are fully convinced that kotsay can stay healthy, I would not mind at least opening up inquiries with Beane about getting those two. Besides Dejesus, Crisp, and Kotsay, (I do not know if we have the package to get crawford) I mean is their anyone out there whom the braves can trade for that will be effective

I'm kinda disappointed that he said that the Braves will be done looking for starting pitching if we sign Glavine. He goes on to say that we'd have 8 starters competing for 5 jobs...those 8 starters being:

Smoltz
Hudson
James
Glavine
Hampton
Jurrjens
Reyes
Carlyle?

Not to be critical, but I'd like to get another bonafide starter behind Smoltz and Hudson. I just don't trust Smoltz, Hampton, and Glavine to be able to make it through an entire season. If two of those three go out, then we're left in the same position as last year: Chucky as our 3rd starter, then kids and AAAA players coming up and being stopgaps for our 4-5. Now, if they think Jo Jo Reyes is ready now, then by all means. But I think he'd be more valuable in a trade. Maybe I'm dreaming but I think we can scrap together something to get Dan Haren, along the lines of 3 or 4 of the 5: Chuck James, Jo Jo Reyes, Lillibridge, Brandon Jones, and Jurrjens. Granted, I'm not the most knowledgeable in what it would take for a trade, but does that seem reasonable for Haren?

I think it would be better to sign Andruw to a 1 year deal with a club option for a second. If he bats around 260-270 and hits 30 HR I believe to pick up the option. Then you could trade him for prospects. Or if he plays like i hope we could pick up type A draft picks. Than we dont have to rush our young CF's and we can wait 2 years. Think we could get andruw for 12 to 15 mill this year.

Does anybody else get the impression Frank Wren is intentionally trying to be like the exact opposite of John Scheurholz? Like, going out of his way to be very public and vocal with the fans. JS would never do something like this. This is like an FDR fireside chat. I do like it, it's nice to hear the organization's plan from the main source. But at the same time, there was rhyme and reasoning to JS keeping his cards to himself. While making a baseball trade isn't exactly like playing poker, there must have been some net gain from JS philosophy of keeping everyone in the dark, and not letting his trade partners know exactly what he's trying to do. I like this, but I hope it doesn't come back to bite Wren.

Something Profound:

Smoltz
Hudson
James
Glavine
Hampton
Jurrjens
Reyes
"AAA options"

That's as about as deep of a rotation you will find. Outside of Hampton, the others are above average durability.

i had mentioned trading for blanton and kotsay awhile ago as well because it would clear 8 million from the A's payroll. with this being done it may take one or two less prospects to make the deal happen. I was then saying the braves could maybe eat 3-4 million and try to spin kotsay to another team maybe looking for a stop gap CF. Or just bring in kotsay keep him have lillibridge be his backup CF, and then we have the backup SS as well ( saw something saying braves dont like prado and aybar at SS) Basically if we pull a trade that brings us Blaton ( or Haren highly doubtful there) and kotsay the braves are going to be in a very good postion.

ejruiz, i wouldnt prefer to have kotsay but if it means us getting blanton then i am all for it. IF healthy Kotsay would be that nice stop gap guy we are looking get him in the trade then it might save us a prospect in the process, and if we were to eat some of the salary i think a team would give up a prospect for him back to us. It all comes down to we are not going to be trading for kotsay without getting one of the SP as well.

My guess is that unless something surprising happens on the trade front, the Braves offer Andruw arbitration, both sides check the market at the Winter Meetings, and if nobody else is offering him a long-term deal for big bucks, then Druw comes back for one final season without an option for a second year.