Olney's Latest: Peavy, Braves, Lowe, Sheets

1. Umm, no to the sign Cabrera and trade Escobar. Seriously. Yunel Escobar should be untouchable. If I were a Braves fan, I'd be livid. The downgrade from Escobar to Cabrera and the giving up of a draft pick. Ehhh, no thanks. Yes, Peavy is a very good player, one of the best pitchers in the game. Better idea: Sign Lowe, keep Escobar. Lowe + Escobar >> Peavy + Cabrera.

2. Signing Burnett over Lowe could really bite the Yanks in the a.ss. Lowe is all the pitcher Burnett is, minus the injury risk. Yes, he is old, but the natural age injury risk is MUCH lower than Burnett's injury risk. And, Lowe would never get 5 years.

3. Giambi and his crappy defense won't be a significant improvement over Barton. What Giambi provides over Barton with the bat, he negates a good portion of that with the glove. The difference b/w the two players won't be worth 10MM.

4. The A's have Matt Holliday. They're planning to contend in 2009. They're also not interested in Orlando Cabrera. I wonder if Ben Sheets could be an interesting idea there. The dealbreaker with whatever team that signs Sheets is that they have the pitching depth to withstand a Sheets injury. The A's, frankly, have plenty of that, just not that many guys who are frontline starters right now. Sheets on a 2 year deal for Oakland could be interesting.

As a Braves fan, I'm completely over this whole Peavy saga. As Melonis mentioned, signing Lowe would be far more productive to the team at this point than dealing Escobar and other prospects to land Peavy and then giving up a draft pick to sign Cabrera. As for the current players being ok with Peavy getting special treatment, that really has nothing to do with why the Braves wouldn't give him a NTC. If they were willing to cave on that for Peavy, then other players will use that as precedence in the future and demand the same thing. You can't make an exception to an anti-NTC policy and then expect that policy to stick in the future.

melonis rex

Gio Gonzalez better get some more time in AAA because with the exception of one start, whenever i saw him pitch he was roughed up a bit here in Oakland

he had control issues but I believe he will be a good pitcher in the Majors

Once again, the problem with Peavy to the Braves is Kevin Towers outlandish requests. I guess it all depends on how much patience Frank Wren has left with the whole situation.

Braves don't need to go over 3 years/$39 mil for Lowe.

People were assuming the Pads were in a position of desperation to trade Peavy so Wren and company made BS offers. So now, with a new owner and some financial stability, the Braves will REALLY HAVE TO MAKE IT WORTH THE PADS WHILE.
And Drp, its not outlandish to want alot for your best pitcher. That's just sour grapes.

Peavy isnt going anywhere, Lowe to me is Braves bound and Giambi to Oakland makes sense where he can wrap up his non hall of fame/non championship ring holding career.He had his chance and now he is past his prime.
Watch Ben Sheets stay in Milwaukee because they need pitching and everyone is scared to sign Sheets with his injury issues. Sheets for 1 yr is all he might get, and an option yr. The injury ruined his value.
If the Braves sign Lowe and decide to take the plunge and trade for Peavy then their rotation would be really good along with Smoltz and Glavine around.

I think braves should just make sure they out bid Mets or Phils. If the Braves plan on contending in 09 they can't let other teams in their division get any better, especially the Mets and if that means going 16mil a season for Lowe then they should, although I hope Braves don't have to go that high.

There's also The Fielding Bible, which had Yunel voted as the 3rd best defensive SS in all of baseball, compared to Cabrera who was 6th. Dewan's +/- rankings had Escobar as the 2nd best defensive SS in baseball, while Cabrera didn't crack the top 10. The idea that Cabrera is in someway a clearly superior fielder is just outlandish.

Braves fans, what is so special about Escobar? This isn't a rhetorical question. I haven't really seen him play, but his numbers indicate a bit of patience at the plate, but not much power and not much speed, so I'm just curious...

Theo Epstein is a fool. Saying that Escobar is a below average defensive SS is one of the most uneducated things I've ever heard. He's actually the second rated defensive SS according to the fielding bible.

Jaywest-
He is really an unbelievable defensive SS. He is under team control for 5 more years. He had a lingering shoulder injury for some of last year which hurt his numbers a bit. Next year I am looking for around .300 AVG with 15 HRs and unbelievable defense. He is not Jose Reyes or Hanley Ramirez, but he is still extremely valuable.

jaywest-

I'm not a Braves fan, but I think Yunel Escobar is heavily underrated, so here I go.

Escobar is not elite at any one skill, but he's really good at a group of skills.

1. He is a good defensive SS. Nixa and myself have posted defensive metrics from various sources which indicate that Yunel is good defensively.

2. Shortstop is a premium position. There just aren't that many good SS prospects that are close to MLB ready, and most of them are not available. And, very, very few teams actually have a legit surplus at SS (I think Brewers are the only one which comes to mind) And, you're giving up some really, really good stuff to get a SS. The FA market for SS is barren next year, and Hardy's the prize after the 2010 season.

3. He's got a good OBP. Career .373 OBP is pretty damn solid. He's not a slugger, but he's a great cog to set the table for Chipper/McCann.

4. He's entering his statistical prime. The Braves control his entire age 26-30 seasons.

5. This isn't a reflection on his talent, but his contract status is sweet. He's under team control for 5 more years. I doubt he gets super 2 status, so 2 of those 5 years will be at league minimum. And, pre-FA arbitration is almost always much, much cheaper (especially in the 1st 2 years) than what a guy would command on the open market. When you're talking overall team construction, team control is a huge thing.

I agree that Yunel Escobar is a better asset to the Braves than Orlando Cabrera and if it means trading Yunel Escobar along with other prospects for Jake Peavy, the Braves should look elsewhere to acquire their ace. Whether it be a free agent signing of Derek Lowe or a trade for Zack Grienke (which make a lot of sense to me) the Braves need to acquire an ace before 2009 if they wanna compete because right now besides Javier Vazquez and Jair Jurrjens the Braves rotation is somewhat of a question mark because no body knows if Jorge Campillo will have a good year, or if Tom Glavine or John Smoltz will return.

Its always good to see someone who is willing to have their mind changed by new information and admit that they were incorrect in the first place. It actually allows for reasonable discussion, as opposed to the other things that we see on this site from time to time. I agree that Escobar needs to cut down on the errors if he wants to reach his full potential defensively, but as we can agree, he has the range to more than make up for them at this point.

bravesfan,

We might even be ablt to sub in Francour instead of Johnson since Dayton Moore has a mancrush on Frenchy. I think this would set us up better for next year then if we traded Johnson

Yeah, as a Braves fan, I agree those offers are outlandishly light on value. Any deal would likely be something along the lines of KJ, Rohrbough/Locke, Schafer/Hernandez, and probably at least one more guy of the C+/C variety.

"I wonder if Ben Sheets could be an interesting idea there. The dealbreaker with whatever team that signs Sheets is that they have the pitching depth to withstand a Sheets injury. The A's, frankly, have plenty of that, just not that many guys who are frontline starters right now. Sheets on a 2 year deal for Oakland could be interesting."

Just think how much more "interesting" it would be if the Angels signed him.

forgot kelly, my bad

would give atlanta a rotation of lowe, greinke, jurrjens, vasquez, smoltz/morton/reyes. thats a playoff caliber rotation

Alright, if you meant to have KJ in the package as well, then its not bad.

Just wanted to note that it won't cost the Braves a pick to sign Cabrera...Our 1st round is protected...

It would still cost our 2nd round pick ksesxe...still to much to give up for Cabrera

I would love me some manny for two years. As much as I hate the way he went about the game in Boston, I respect the way he acted in LA. I think the same would go if he were to play for Bobby. Give the man 50-55MM for two years, sign smoltz, garland and call it an offseason with an order of anderson cf, yunel ss, chipper 3B, manny LF, mccann C, frenchy rf, kotchman 1b, kjo 2b, P and a rotation of Vasquez, smoltz, jj, garland, campillo

I would love me some manny for two years. As much as I hate the way he went about the game in Boston, I respect the way he acted in LA. I think the same would go if he were to play for Bobby. Give the man 50-55MM for two years, sign smoltz, garland and call it an offseason with an order of anderson cf, yunel ss, chipper 3B, manny LF, mccann C, frenchy rf, kotchman 1b, kjo 2b, P and a rotation of Vasquez, smoltz, jj, garland, campillo

Posted by: lueds20 | January 04, 2009 at 03:21 PM

The Braves are actually an organization with some class. They don't want head case slackers on their team like Manny.

the A's should try to get a pitcher like Randy Wolf

a veteran who can mentor all those young pitchers

The Big Unit could have helped but my Giants got him =)

The only reason Manny behaved himself in L.A. is because he was playing for Joe Torre.

The only reason Manny behaved himself in LA was because he was playing for a big fat new contract that he THOUGHT he would be getting. Ooooops.

melonis rex

i know sheets is better than wolf but wolf has more experience and that is what the A's young staff needs

plus what are you gonna do when Sheets gets injured in the 2nd half like he always does
Sheets is too much of a risk