Willits Not On Braves' Radar

I suspect one of their young shortstops would be involved. maybe lillibridge.

Kelly Johnson? We could shift him to SS...

the only thing i can see making sense is texiera or francour mostly texiera a SS is pointless unless its a superstar because we have aybar,wood,and izturis tht can play SS

texiera would be sweet and the angels have prospects the braves could really use

No way the Braves move Teixeira after they essentially gave up half their farm system for him 6 months ago. I could see it being Brent Lillibridge though. Or maybe Jo Jo Reyes.

Teixeira for Willits...yeah frank wren jump on that

obviously not just willits adenheart,wood could be involved as well maybe santanna as well he could be a nice pitcher in the NL and i just cant see the angels trading for a prospect SS it would be a stupid move when you have wood,aybar,izturis who could benefi from some at-bats.

The braves could offer some relief help or lower level arms, but I just do not know. I do like the target, Willits would definitely be a nice addition, but I do agree with the rest of the posters so far, and it is taken into account with the fact that the angels are intersted in burke, so why not take on a more talented player in lillibridge.

How about Chuck James?

halo27 are u saying Teixeira for Willits or more prospects with Willits for Teixeira?

The Angels really have no need for chuck james with all teh arms they have, and I agree with what tim said, this may be a move that is only made if the angels trade howie kendrick, and then we could send them lillibridge for willits/

The Angels already have TOO much pitching, and too much GOOD pitching at that. The Braves need to hang on to all the young pitching they've acquired, as Glavine will be gone next year and Smoltz could retire at the end of the year, or in 2 years. You just don't know. But there's no sense in gambling. James, Reyes, and Jurrjens will likely all be major cogs in the Braves' 2009 rotation. So, yeah, I don't see the Braves trading them away, particularly to a team stacked with pitching already.

I don't know anything about Willits, but for Lillibridge Willits would have to be a heck of a player. Anyone care to share some info on the guy?

Chuck James for Willits and maybe a low level prospect would be about right. I imagine the Angels will be turning their attention to Tejada now that Cabrera has gone to Detroit.

Who cares whether its just Willits or Willits plus prospects. Moving Teixeira doesn't make sense after everything they gave up so much for him. It'd be implied then that whatever the Angels offered would have to be more than Saltalamacchia, Elvis Andrus, Matt Harrison, Neftali Perez and Beau Jones. Thats a lot of really good talent. The Angels would have to offer at least Casey Kotchman, Brandon Wood, Nick Adenhart and one more guy

i dont know much about lillbridge but i really like willits he is your prototypical leadoff hitter with a very high on base percentage and steals tons of bases and never gets caught he also plays very good defense in all 2 OF positions but CF is his strength. i was hinting at maybe a willits/adenhart/wood for texiera
hear me out adenhart will be rady to play in teh majors by next season exactly when glavine leaves and could be ready even as soon as late this year in case of injury, wood would be the heir to chipper at 3B in a year or two and could play SS as well, willits solves the braves CF problems and is a great leadoff hitter this also gives thorman some playing time who i believe can turn out to be a very nice player.

Willits was 5th in the rookie of the year voting. I'm from Richmond and Lillibridge is not on the same level as Aybar or Woods. Nice player but no stud. Angels just have a glut of outfielders with addition of Hunter and return of Juan Rivera. Maybe they're picking up a piece for another trade.

Willits is an overrated 4th outfielder... he had one good month, and people loved him.
he walks a ton and plays average centerfield.
i dont think he's anything special, but many people disagree

why would the angels trade for chuck James?James would not be an upgrade at all and would stugle in the Al plus the angels currently have 6 major league ready starting pitchers and adenhart waiting in the minors as well, chuck james makes no sense maybe its francour who teh angels are targetting they targetted francour last year but came up short im not sure what francours value is at the moment but im guessing juan rivera+reggie willit could do it possibly depending on how high braves fans are on francour rivera has 30+HR potential if its not enough maybe the angels throw in someone like saunders to get another prospect in return as well

Jeff Francoeur is one of the best young players in baseball. You're not getting him for Willts-Rivera. How about for Kendrick straight up? Or Aybar-Adenhart?
halo27, your judgement of your own players as well as the Braves players is very far off.

halo27,
please use punctuation.. it's getting really hard to understand what you're trying to say.

and besides, why would we trade for ANOTHER outfielder??
Francouer makes absolutely no sense.

im sorry i was looking at francours stats and after 3 years of MLB time he has been just above average striking out alot he had 29 HR 2 years ago with a horrible avg,OBP and this year his disipline got better but his power went considerably down. i was going purely of stats in his 3rd year he hasnt showed me he is a great MLB player yet.Howver why is my judgment off is it because i said rivera has 30+HR potential? i can garantee you Rivera has 30+HR potential i am sure of that at the very least 25+HR and willits is everything i said i did not lie i never said he was a star but he is a prototypical lead-of hitter.

francour i beieve has played 1B if im not mistaken?

Halo 27, the Braves see Francoeur as a possible face of the franchise, no way do they trade him, not even in a straight up trade for Johan Santana. Your scenario for Texeira is not bad but the moves the Braves are making and are currently trying to make indicate that they are trying to win next year and not just for the future. And if they are trying to win next year they are going to need Texeira

There's no way Willits is going to the Braves.

Dream on.

Halo27, give up. Francoeur is a Brave and will be for quite a while. He's a Georgian native, has superstar potential and is under team control for a while.

Why would you want to move Francoeur to first? He just won a gold glove in right field and I believe he lead the majors in outfield assist. He easily has the strongest outfield arm in the national league if not in all the big leagues

and there's what wildmike just said too..

Why is Francoeur even being discussed here?

The Angels have plenty of outfielders already.

I don't see any chance of a deal being made for Willits. He might have been discussed, but Frank Wren has had a bunch of discussions.

The Braves have nothing the Angels need and won't do anything stupid to get Willits.

I don't know if the Braves are going to get Willits, but the Angels have 6 outfielders on their 25 man roster right now so something's got to give. The Braves have a need, it wouldn't surprise me.

From reading the Braves beat writer's blog though, they like their roster now, so if they do trade for Willits, it'll be with minor leaguers, not an established guy.

Whiel the Braves and Angels don't immediately match up, my guess is the Angels are looking for pieces to be used in future trades... Lillibridge or Reyes could fill that void.

Francouer is not going anywhere! The guy has 30+ hr power himself note his first full season. The reason his hr total dropped off last is because he became alot more disciplined at the plate and was driving the ball the other way a bit more. He raised his average over 30 points his walks went up and hes had back to back 100+ rbi seasons, not to mention one of the best 2 out rbi men over that stretch. His HR totals will be back around 30 next year and his average will be around 280 as well. THIS KID IS A STUD and he and maccann are the faces of the francise!

Well, now at the moment that we can scratch Dejesus, Willits, Crisp, and Hamilton off the list, I really do not see how duffy is any better than the guys that we have in josh anderson and gregor blanco. The only way I could see us getting duffy is if we perhaps inquire about one of the pirates young starters, and that seems less likely as well. This is really the first time i kind of question why Frank Wren will not try and see if he could get Willits and Hamilton at a reasonable price. Not that I want to overpay for either one of them, but again with the uncertainty of Smoltz, Glavine, and Teixera being in the mold beyond '08, it seems as if we should try to get an established CF to further give us a chance to be a contender next year.

I believe Josh Hamilton for Chuck James would be fitting for both teams. The Reds cannot afford to give up Bruce, Bailey, Cueto or Votto. Hamilton is surplus and they get the lefty starter they need. As far as their bullpen; Cordero, Weathers and Rule 5 Jared Burton along with Bray and Majewski who had almost an entire year to shake off their damaged goods ailments and the Reds have the elements of a good pitching staff. As for the Braves Hamilton is high risk, high reward and is cheap to pay for the risk.

If Santana doesn't get traded too the Red Sox than Coco or Ellsbury will be dealt. Most likely Crisp. Anderson is better than duffy and McClougth. Really high avg. for his short stint for the Stros. 338 avg. Guys left who we should inquire about are Freel, Winn, Roberts, Kotsay. Not sure on Kotsay though. Nobody is really interested in Jones so maybe just maybe we get him for 1 year. Wouldn't mind picking up another starter. Not a free agent or 1 that will cost us alot. Anthony Reyes could swap him for lillbridge. Love Bridge but theirs nowhere for him too play. Reyes is out of favor in the Cards Org. Did we draft Reyes or was that Wainright?

It was wainwright, and lillibridge could bring in a better young pitcher than reyes.

This wouldn't happen though but we get Felix Pie and Prior for lillbridge and 1 or two other people. Start taking hits at me if you wish.

Well, besides the obvious, pie is not really the type of centerfielder the braves are looking for. We have enough centerfield prospects, we are more interested in an established centerfielder who can man the position until those prospects are ready, and then we can move that centerfielder off in a trade for pieces that we will need at that point in the future.

Agree i was just throwning it out there for some odd reason. I think though Hernadez will be the better CF between Schaffer and him.

braves077, you're right, that definately wouldn't happen. But it's not completely preposturous, except for the fact that there is almost zero reason for the Braves to go after Pie. I just don't get this. It seems like even Braves fan themselves aren't aware of the kind of outfielders in their farm system. You guys have four outstanding outfielders in your farm system. Jordan Schafer, Jason Heyword, Brandon Jones and Gorkys Hernandez are all very good prospects, and Schafer is their centerfiedler of the future. Any acquisition that is more than just a stopgap doesn't make any sense for this team.

Im just havin fun like all fans do. Still think Hernandez is better than Schaffer. Schaffer is pretty freakin good though. You forget about Cody Johnson who hit 17 HR and batted 330 something or somewhere around there for his first year at the minor league level. He was drafted the year before Heyward was drafted.

I apologize to all Brave fans out there. It appears that Yankee myopia has leaked into Southern California. Angel fans have suddenly become insane about the value of their prospects. Tex for Willits?

Look, Willits is a solid player. He can certainly hit .320+, he can walk 100 times, and he will steal 30-40 bases. Before being called up he posted a 326/448/425 line in AAA. He walked 77 times in 353 AB's. He stole 31 bases in those same 77 games. As others have mentioned - he was 5th in the ROY voting and was the leader for a good chunk of the year.

All that being said, he is a little old for a rookie (26). He doesn't posses a great arm. His speed makes up for sometimes poor routes to the ball.

I think Willits would be a great addition to the Braves.

From the Angels perspective they are looking for upgrades. What we don't need is another starting pitcher, a decent arm in the bullpen, an outfielder, and 2nd baseman. The other positions can all stand to be upgraded to various degrees.

Looking at what the Braves have I don't see an immediate upgrade at the ML level. So, if it were me, I would flip Willits for low level/high upside minor leaguers. Not sure what is left after the Tex trade but there must be something of value.