Olney On Penny, Reds, Braves

What the hell is Wren waiting for? I could understand this if we had a 8 game lead but c'mon, we need to make a move very soon. Hopefully, he's just saying this b/c he doesn't want the media fiasco that he got w/ Peavy and Furcal!

would a Jack Wilson for Julio Lugo work for the pirates? maybe if the sox kick in half of Lugo's salary? Pirates fans what do you think?

I've talked to Yankees fans who would also love the fit of Jack Wilson in Boston.

What the hell would the Pirates want with Julio Lugo? They wouldn't take him if the BoSox paid his entire salary. Ridiculous.

What's the attraction of Brad Penny? He's terrible.

I never thought Smoltz would replace Penny when he was ready, but what are you going to do, just goes to show you that baseball is always a surprise.

I think the Red Sox may stabilize when Smotlz is ready, atleast hopefully.

As far as Lugo, I take a bag of rusty bent nails for him at this point. Yankees recycling heap in Green has put a bigger then thought smile on my face

"What's the attraction of Brad Penny? He's terrible."

Upside can be found. His era is through the roof, but he is striking guys out. His contract is purely no risk for almost all 30 teams and suits the 4-5 spot perfectly. He can anchor a team if he has a wicked second half too, this of course is most likely not to happen at this point of course

Wilson = More Shortstop Epic FAIL in Boston

Agree on a Nix/Gomes platoon. You could certainly do much worse.

Granted the Braves need to act now, but bringing up Blanco and his .215 batting average isn't exactly what I'd call upgrading. They need to talk to the Angels about Willits for that spot, he'd be relatively cheap and could hit the leadoff spot. I know he's only hitting about .250 but his experience makes him a much more solid bet than Schafer at this point. Plus he's disposable once Schafer is truly ready. Do that then go after Dye or Willingham, preferably Dye, but Willingham still has two more years of arb and would surely hit better with more consistent ABs.

The Braves need to stop pretending that Garrett Anderson is still useful as a ballplayer. Wren gambled and lost. Let's cut our losses and move on.

Diaz is the only usable piece in that outfield right now. Schafer has lots of potential, but needs to be platooned for the moment.

"Upside can be found. [Penny's] era is through the roof, but he is striking guys out."

Um, what? His K/9 is 5.4. I don't get the interest in Penny either - he really hasn't been good since 2007, end even then he wasn't striking a lot of people out.

"Diaz is the only usable piece in that outfield right now. Schafer has lots of potential, but needs to be platooned for the moment."

You don't platoon a prospect of Schafer's caliber. Either live with him full time in MLB, or send him down to start full time in AAA.

Melonis, in a year of reading MLBTR, I have yet to ever disagree with anythig you ever say.

Call me crazy, but would looking into Kenny Lofton be an idea for the Braves? If he gets in shape, he could be helpful. How's Preston Wilson doing in the indies? Neither of these guys could hurt the Braves outfield further at this point, and both would probably have no risk whatsoever.

Edes and Olney are trying to make a market for Penny as they do for all the players Boston wants to dump.Penny has an era through the roof and pitches no more than six innings.He is a #5 at best.

"You don't platoon a prospect of Schafer's caliber. Either live with him full time in MLB, or send him down to start full time in AAA."

It's been my understanding that the objective of baseball is to win games. There's no reason you can't continue to develop a prospect in a situation where he sees less playing time, especially since he leads MLB in strikeouts.

If Jim Edmonds wants to play ball, the Braves could do worse. I'd love to see them add him and Byrnes.

No one is 'fighting' over Penny. Teams that are looking for starters are simply doing due diligence, because everyone knows the Red Sox really, really want to get Penny out of their rotation in time to make room for Smoltz, or Buchholz and Bowden.

No one - repeat - NO ONE, is going to give up anyone of significance for Penny. Randy Wolf, a far better pitcher than Penny, netted a 26 year old organizational starter. Even with the Sox likely having to front all of Penny's remaining salary, he won't net much of anything better than that. Please don't fool yourselves into thinking there will be some kind of 'bidding' war for Red Sox crap. It never happens.

Most of the Penny comments seem to be of the 'I saw him pitch once awhile ago and he was awful' variety. He's much better lately than he was last season or even last spring when his rehab had just ended. It takes time to recover arm strength and his latest outings show steady improvement in velocity and control (again, you have to actually watch him pitch...the stats don't tell the whole story). Unless Boston finds a quick deal they just can't resist Penny might make a few more starts for them before a trade happens (likely around mid-June)...and those starts could be key to his final trade value.

Rumors are that Boston wants a decent prospect for Penny but there are some MLB players that could make for interesting straight-up trades. Willie Bloomquist of the Royals and Matt Stairs of the Phillies are two that come to mind who could each fill a current need for the Sox. Would love to see Boston make a deal for the Rangers' Marlon Byrd...but Penny alone wouldn't be enough.

As for Jack Wilson...umm no thanks.

Sadly these kind of deals seem to be the only ones the Phillies know how to make. Overpaying in prospects for washed up rental pitchers that are #4's at best and usually #5's. I could actually see them giving the Red Sox Marson for Penny, which is of course ridiculous. They need to be talking to the Red Sox about Masterson, Bowden, and Bucholz. Time for them to realize that they need to get as many young, cost controlled, front of the rotation pitchers as they possibly can.

They will always be able to convince hitters to come play in that bandbox, but never good pitchers. That stadium along with their ridiculous ideal of never giving more than 3 year contracts to pitchers is why the only FA pitchers they can attract are the likes of Adam Eaton. So the more good young pitchers they can get, the better they will be. The rotations of a #1 and a bunch of back end guys aren't cutting it anymore.

IMHO we don't need a Lofton/Edmunds/Byrnes/Wilson type of player, they need an IMPACT bat, someone that can hit the longball, and right now the only viable options in that category are Mags, Dye, and Holliday.

Thats not to say anyone else wouldn't be an upgrade over the "K-Team", but we don't need another aging bat, we need the REAL DEAL to give BMac some protection & drive in runs.

I do not want to see Jack Wilson in Boston. Come the All-Star break Jed Lowrie may very well be ready to play, and we don't need another overpriced one trick pony SS. Nick Green is hitting just fine, and we are in first place. Jack Wilson is a good defensive SS, but has no other notable talent. So yeah Green sucks on D, but our team can probably survive all the same. At least until someone worth acquiring becomes available.

""As for Jack Wilson...umm no thanks"

As if the Sox had a better option on their roster.....

Posted by: enchinga | May 27, 2009 at 04:37 PM

The Sox might not have a better on-roster option but they certainly have the brains to know a poor option when they see one.

"How about Byrd and Teagarden for Penny and Bard?

Posted by: midtown | May 27, 2009 at 04:45 PM

Boston might make that deal but I don't think Texas would. Based on the Rangers' dealings so far it would take the moon and a small piece of Mars to get Teagarden or Salty. I'd rather try to pry Ianetta from the Rockies or Martinez from the Indians than try to meet Texas' demands for one of their we'll- keep'em-till-they-rot' prospect catchers.

"Willie Bloomquist of the Royals and Matt Stairs of the Phillies are two that come to mind who could each fill a current need for the Sox."

I was all for signing Bloomquist as a FA over the winter. The guy plays 7 positions, has speed and is a quality guy off the bench, but the Sox just would not stomach up to cutting ties to Lugo and eating his contract and now they need to go ahead and do it before he hurts them even more.

Laynce Nix and Jonny Gomes are beast.

Question? If Smoltz came back and became the Sox #5 and proceeded to avg 6 IP and gave up 3 runs or less per start would Sox fans consider that a good job?

how about the braves call up barbaro carnizares and see what the 31 year old rookie can do

DO you think the Braves might take a chance w/ a AAA guy who couldn't buy his way into the Yanks lineup right now?

Shelly Duncan, age 28. Leading AAA in Hrs and rbi.

.295/.369, 15 hrs and 40 rbis

But Byrnes would not be a good option, unless the D-backs would trade him for a bundle of bats and pay his salary. He is no good anymore

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As a Braves fan I really like the idea of getting Shin-Soo Choo from the Indians. Maybe Francoeur, Reyes, and Campillo/Acosta would do.

To go with above post and Sox/BB fans may fry me..

get Dice-K on track and might see him go also.

SINCE78, I don't think its so much sox fans wanting to get rid of Penny as it is the anticipation of Smolts debut and/or call up of Buchholz! We simply have a luxury and look forward to seeing what Theo can fetch back for Penny thats all! Also the main reason for getting Smoltz is to have him in top for, hopefully, a playoff run. A healthy Smoltz vs. Penny is no contest. Penny for Marson or packaged with Bard for Teagarden would work for me!

Both of those guys are older than the 3 Reds opening day OFs.

Not Joe Morgan...

I'll give you Bruce, but Hairston is older than both Nix and Gomes by about 4 years and McDonald shouldn't count since he only started because Taveras was sick. So I don't understand your point.