Chipper Jones Prefers To Remain With Braves

Chipper ain't leaving. He's already adjusted his contract a couple of times just so the team could afford to pay everyone else. Team player all the way, and even speculating otherwise is pretty pointless.

I'm surprised there isnt more talk of letting Tex go and moving Chip over to play first.

I would think that if Tex does leave then why move Chipper to First? I mean the dude is a gold glove Type third baseman. I have NEVER seen a Third baseman make the bare hand play that Chipper makes and he makes it with ease. The thing about it is who knows about Lillibridge at this point. He might put it all together or might not. But I think the plan is to move Heyward to First next year in the minors if Tex leaves. We really dont have a third base prospect that might play in the majors. Gilmore is an unknown, Pope I still dont know if he will hit enough and Campbell I dont even know bout him with his problems. So we really have nobody to play Third in the future, mainly because Lilli has looked so awful this year.

Dude why would you want Escobar to move to third? I mean I like Escobar he is one of my FAVORITE players but dude he aint a Third baseman. He could prolly handle the position defensively but definately not offensively. Unless he hits .330 every year. Because his homer total will be at BEST 15 homers a year. Same goes for Lillibridge. For next year we could platoon folks at First base or sign somebody to a 2 year deal. We have alot of money coming off the books in the offseason we can get somebody for a one year deal or two year deal or bring up that international guy that we signed last year that plays first base in AAA, he is doing good right now, he is not young but I figure he could handle First in the majors at least in a platoon role. We have soooo many options, but Chipper moving to first is a bad idea at least thats what I think. Chipper playing first base could make his feet bother him again. First baseman CONSTANTLY have to move back to the bag, hold runners on, and all kinds of stuff. he fits better as a third baseman.

As a Mets fan, I'd LOVE to see him leave Atlanta but it'll never happen. However, could you imagine him playing in Texas? He could almost be guaranteed to hit .400. I really hate that he is so good especially against the Mets but he has some serious talent.

escobar is the shortstop and will be for quite a while. right now, he is ranked as the #1 defensive shortstop in the nl (factoring in range, arm, errors made).

chipper wants to play at 3rd as long as possible. i would think he might consider a move to first after the 2009 season. with hampton, glavine, probably tex, and probably smoltz coming off of the books after this year, it will be interesting to see where atlanta does decide to spend their money. i would prefer to see them go after 1 power bat for left field, and look into stealing laroche back to man first.

jordan schafer is back in the minors, and looks to be on pace to be the starting center fielder next year. i do understand that the braves' organization has the reputation of "overvaluing" their prospects, however, this guy really looks to be the real deal, hgh scandal or not. also, charlie morton is ripping it up in the minors and looks to be a potential #2-3 starter, and that will help with glavine and smoltz likely to be gone.

the one thing this year's lineup doesnt have, and it has killed all year, is a power right handed bat. both chip and tex's power numbers drop off from the right side, leaving yunel and francoeur as the other regulars to pick up the slack. yunel is not a power hitter, even though he might hit 10-15 per year, and francoeur's "muscle" has pretty much been a flop thus far. a strong right handed presence that can play left field and bat behind chipper would be a much needed boost to what will likely be a teixeira-less lineup. people (including g.m.'s) tend to forget that in order for a lineup to be technically "balanced", the power needs to be evenly distributed from both sides.

if glavine and smoltz retire, WHEN hampton finally leaves, when tex goes for top dollar, we might see the braves have some flexibility they have not had in years. calculating arbitration raises, the current braves salaries might increase around 10-12 mil, leaving apprx. 30 million to be spent acquiring a much-needed ace to this staff, and a decent left-fielder with a lot of pop. i just hope that the money spent is on young players that can be controlled for years to come.

First of all if you can commit 21 errors and still when a gold glove at third then I'm pretty sure Chipper is gold glove caliber. Second you guys are forgeting that Chipper isn't the only guy who is going to need the move to 1st.McCann might already be the slowest man in baseball (No offense Mac your still awesome), and 2 more years behind the plate will probably take 5 years off the end of his career. His bat is too good to waste by keeping him behind the plate indefinitely. That said if Frenchy doesn't mature more this year Atlanta has to get a Righty for left field to protect Chipper.
The jury is definitely still out on Shafer. It might be best to let him actually prove himself before handing him the position, and he still has a lot to prove about himself after this hgh scandal. All in all I agree the braves have to get an ace this off season and they desperately need some production from there outfield. I think 4 spots in the rotation are going to be full for next year with Hudson, JJ, Reyes, and Morton, which means 30 to 40 mil for two major holes could make for a very interesting offseason in Atlanta.

But I would guess an even better trade deadline.

"Gee Chipper, are you interested in winning games and championships with the Braves or just putting up big numbers?

Posted by: Logger | June 06, 2008 at 02:51 PM"

In case you didn't read the whole quote, he also said "I want to accomplish some things here." You know, like winning a championship. If he wanted to pad his numbers he'd hit the FA market and play in a small park. Not one that's neutral to hitters at best.

Chipper won't get moved to 1B because he still has the reputation as a Gold Glove defender. He's the Derek Jeter of 3Bs, except he hasn't won a GG yet. Both look good and are good with balls near them. Neither has particularly good range.

Wright is better than Chipper at 3B but the real 2007 Gold Glove belongs to Ryan Zimmerman.

Escobar is one of the top defensive SS's in the game. He's the best in the NL East. Better than Rollins or Reyes. He's up either with the best. Tulowitzki, Cabrera. That elite group.

"I mean the dude is a gold glove Type third baseman."

No he isn't. Not even close. Jones is a good defender, but not a GG one.

"The only 2 thirdbaseman who showed good leather in the NL last year were Chipper and Ramirez..."

You are joking, right? Rolen was still in the NL last year, and Wright deserved every bit of his GG last year, particularly because of his range and arm.

I understand your confusion AA, as an obvious Mets fan you are so used to Chipper beating you with a bat, that you don't have time to notice that he makes the charging barehanded pickup better than anyone in the game.

ChrisH,

About the same as the last place showing in the AL West your Rangers are putting up.