Rosenthal On Andruw, Nady, Lyon, Madson

Madson must be crazy. What if he sucks it up this season. Bad form.

"Would Lyon close in St. Louis?"

I hope not. It should be Motte/Perez.

Wren -

You should sign Andruw at league minimum because its the safewest way to keep your job.

If he goes elsewhere and starts to perform you will be fired.

If he does not perform for the Braves, well you are in the same position you are now. Take a gamble or sign Dunn!!!

crzyman2, if the Braves want a cheerful CF with a great arm who can't get on base, strikes out a ton, and has totally lost his former power, they can just move Jeff Francoeur over. There's no need to bring back Andruw.

It would have been more informative if Rosenthal had reported what the Yankees actually were asking for Nady rather than merely mentioning the Braves didn't like the price.

"captkeith17, another upside, could be a type A free agent."

Nady pretty much is a Type A FA. Even if he reverts back to career norm numbers, he's a Type A as long as he doesn't get hurt and miss a ton of the season. His monster 2008 will take care of that.

"cryzman2 is right though, people in Atlanta will be calling for Wren head if he doesn't bring Andruw back and then AJ proceeds to show signs of life elsewhere."

People are always calling for Wren's head. Has Wren made even one bad move since being appointed GM?

Since when does Andruw Jones get the Manny Ramirez/Ben Roethlisberger treatment where we just drop the last name?

melonis rex,
I've been against the Wren bashing from the get go, but at the same time if he lets Andruw go elsewhere just because he doesn't want to give up a spot on the 40 man roster and Andruw proceeds to start hitting at a ML level again, that would be a pretty bad move on Wren's part.

B Fu,
Its the internet, people don't want to type out entire names, and have you ever heard of anyone else named Andruw?

ink-stained scribe,
That out doesn't work if Andruw shows he's not quite done yet. In that case, not getting him because you didn't want to give up a spot on the 40 man roster is a huge mistake. I also think there's plenty of reason for the Braves to give him a major league deal (he'd probably be our best CF option against LHP), and I think they'd do so in a second if their 40 man roster wasn't already filled.

What Wren needs to do in order to make a proper decision without fan backlash:

1. Announce to the press that the team will have a work out with Andruw Jones.

2. Based his weight and Bobby Cox's and Terry Pendleton's opinion offer him an appropriate contract. i.e. league minimum.

3. At end of negotiations announce what happened and why.

If they have a work out with him his old hitting coach is going to be able to see if he has his swing back. Plus Bobby will be able to see if the work ethic is back. If its not obviously we dont want him. If it is do what it takes. Either way given that Wren is the guy associated with John Smoltz leaving he needs to be informative with the fans. At least for now.

nixa37,

Blanco's lefty/righty splits were pretty equal last year. Dude could get on base at a decent clip, but that's about it.

Blanco might already be a better option vs. lefties than Andruw.

I agree they'd be awfully tempted to sign him to a major league deal for the minimum if they had a roster spot open. Question is, would they engage in even a minor bidding war for him if other teams showed interest? I certainly hope not.

Would Lyon close in St. Louis?

Posted by: KG2577 | January 16, 2009 at 09:19 AM

For part of the season, Tony isn't comfortable with handing the closer role over to Perez or Motte yet because their command isn't very good...so he would close until he thought one of them was ready and then be moved to set up role, but I don't think they sign him anyway, Rosenthal usually doesn't know what he's talking about when it comes to the Cardinals.

Wonder what the Yanks are looking to get for Nady?

Up side: It's a contract year

Down side: Agent by the name of Boras

does the positive outweigh the negative?

Posted by: captkeith17 | January 16, 2009 at 09:38 AM

POSITIVE #2 - He can play LF, RF and 1B

POSITIVE #3 - You get .280 25 90 for under 8 mill per. A bargain rather than signing someone like Dunn to a multi-year.

POSITIVE #4 - He'll be a type A free agent so you get the picks if you can't sign him.

ok here is my question. how good is simmons? He beat Javy last year (I wanted javy back) :( and then turned out he doesn't have the bat. so with us having Ross why not take him off the roster? Or are they saving him in case he can learn to hit or for when we sign a LF? Any ideas?

How can you count on Nady to give you a season like:

280 / 25 HR's / 90 RBI's?

He's had exactly ONE season of 20 or more HR's. He's hit above 280 for ONE season. He's also had ONE season where he posted more than 72 RBI's.

Remember, Nady's one good season was really half a season in Pittsburgh. Prior to that AND after the trade Nady is just an average corner outfielder posting an OPS+ between 100 and 107.

With an OPS of 105 he is not worth $8m. I also don't think he is a lock for Type A status.

I'm not suggesting that Nady will stink or anything. Just pointing out the fact that the Nady we saw last year in Pittsburgh was exception, not the rule.

BJ -

That is a valid point. However, he also had not been given the opportunity until 2007 to play on a full-time basis.

In 2007 in only 431 ab's, he hit .278 20 72. In another 100+ ab's he could easily project another 5 hrs and 18 rbi's.

Also, in 2006 with the Mets...he hit 14hr's 40rbi's in only 265 ab's.

Put that together with last year...and yes, he's proven that if he gets 500 ab's that he's capable of hitting 25hr 90rbi's.

Hernandez and Locke would be way, way too much to give up for one year of Nady, especially when you're also throwing in Prado and Redmond.

Personally I wouldn't go beyond one of Hernandez and Locke and another prospect who ranks between 15 and 25 in the system.

"Was the Devine/Kotsay trade his or JS? Either way that was horrid."

Oh. I forgot about that.

Bad deal, but still not franchise crippling in any way, shape, or form.

I for one don't care right now about an outfield bat. I think the Braves should still focus on pitching. They will survive with what they currently have from the offensive standpoint. Going after a guy like Sheets plus a reliever will benefit the braves more.

OH, and I'm all for bringing back Andruw.

""Was the Devine/Kotsay trade his or JS? Either way that was horrid."

Oh. I forgot about that.

Bad deal, but still not franchise crippling in any way, shape, or form."

Yeah, it wasn't really that awful. Kotsay was solid for them, and they turned Kotsay into Sumoza, who is an intriguing prospect in his own right.

If by goofing around with Lowe you mean, offered him a contract, and then told him they did not want to match the 4/60 he got, then yeah, they "goofed up".

Once again, guys like MetsMadman are my favorite type of posters. He would like the Mets to up their offer to Oliver Perez, even though nobody else has shown even the slightest inclination that they are interested in Ollie, and we have the only offer on the table. All so we can have our guy more quickly. Love that logic. Probably bitched about the way they handled K-Rod also. This idea that the Mets blew it because they "lowballed" Lowe off the bat is just honestly laughable. Even if the Mets offered 4/56, Boras wouldn't have accepted, and he would have went around looking for better offers. Atlanta would have still made their 4/60 offer, and the Mets still would have passed. The speed at which you negotiate honestly means nothing whatsoever when dealing with Boras. His guys don't sign quickly, so there is absolutely nothing to gain by trying to get in early with an offer.

How can you count on Nady to give you a season like:

280 / 25 HR's / 90 RBI's?

He's had exactly ONE season of 20 or more HR's. He's hit above 280 for ONE season. He's also had ONE season where he posted more than 72 RBI's.

Remember, Nady's one good season was really half a season in Pittsburgh. Prior to that AND after the trade Nady is just an average corner outfielder posting an OPS+ between 100 and 107.

With an OPS of 105 he is not worth $8m. I also don't think he is a lock for Type A status.

I'm not suggesting that Nady will stink or anything. Just pointing out the fact that the Nady we saw last year in Pittsburgh was exception, not the rule.
__________________________

How can you count on Shafer or Heyward to give you anything near what Nady has done in any year?

"How can you count on Shafer or Heyward to give you anything near what Nady has done in any year?"

You cant, prospects are just prospects, weren't Philip Hughes, and Homer Bailey the next all time can't miss great prospects, just a year or two ago.