Hudson To Ink Three-Year Extension

why does this seem like a bad idea, anyone?

and maybe because they already have a sur-plus of pitchers at their disposal?

I see them trading Lowe or Kawakami though.

glad the deals almost done, huddy belongs in atlanta

I think that you can pretty much book it now, either Kawakami or Lowe will likely be dealt.

They just can't afford to pay big money to four starters when they already have one of the best young pitching duos in the game in Hanson and Jurrjens.

A fine move by Atlanta, assuming that they can find a suitor for Lowe, ideally.

Wren is a savvy GM. If this deal goes down I'd bet he already has a suitor or several suitors for Lowe.

I would've been surprised if Hudson didn't return to Atlanta. He's already signed a team friendly contract with the team he rooted for as a kid.

Hudson could easily get 3/13 or 3/14 out on the market right now. He is a good #2 and great #3. Along with Vazquez, Jurrjens, and Hanson, they have 4 pitchers that can legimately get a sub 3 era. And I don't think any organization in the league would be upset with Lowe as their 5th starter.

Don't trade Javy! You won't get a ton in return, as he is signed for 1 season, and he has a ntc to all west teams.

"And I don't think any organization in the league would be upset with Lowe as their 5th starter."

This is true.. right up until they realize that they're paying him $15M per season.

"It balances out by the fact that we are paying Jurrjens and Hanson next to nothing. Overall you aren't overpaying the rotation, and with Lowe at the back of it, it's one of the best rotations in the league."

Definitely, it might be the best rotation in the NL.

But the Braves could potentially get Lowe's production at a fraction of his cost, and given his track record, they may have the opportunity to move him and all of the money that they owe him.

If the options are Lowe for $15M as your fifth starter, or Kawakami for $6.5M, then you take Kawakmi obviously. The Braves may potentially have the priviledge of having such a nice problem on their hands.

But given the state of their offense, you have to agree that moving Lowe and reallocating those resources to the lineup would be ideal, yes?

Braves don't have a Vasquez. Vazquez isn't gettin traded in my opinion.

Yes, I would move Lowe if possible. But I'm not going to be angry if we go into the year with all 6 of them.

We were good enough to make the playoffs in the second half. So I'm not buying into this whole "Offense needs major changes" thing. With the additions of McLouth and LaRoche and guys like Diaz and Prado stepping up, we were a good enough offense to pair with a great rotation.

This is great news for Braves fans. Huddy has been a solid pitcher for several years and should have a few more good years left. TJ surgery is no longer a big deal.

Ideally Lowe should be traded even though the return would be minimal. I really want to see KK stay. He is ideal as the #5 starter and had a better WHIP and ERA than Lowe last year. Honestly, if the Braves can trade Javy and get a decent middle of the order bat in return I wouldn't be against it at all.

Cool. Even if Huddy slips to a low #2/#3, its still a fair price.

24-27 over 3 years? Boy I hope that's true. 3/24 would save 4m and would be essentially adding Gonzo as a closer for free.

Why are people so surprised?

$24-27M is an awful lot of guaranteed money for a pitcher that's thrown just 42 innings this year, and 184 innings in the past two years.

Why are people so surprised?

$24-27M is an awful lot of guaranteed money for a pitcher that's thrown just 42 innings this year, and 184 innings in the past two years.

Posted by: scribbletone | October 28, 2009 at 07:05 PM

I think it's a great deal for the Braves. Considering without this contract you either let him walk or pay him 12 mil next year. I can't see them letting him walk, so even at 3 yr 30 mil they are pretty much paying him an extra 18 mil for 2 years. Not bad at all when your talking about a guy he has the stuff to be a #1 on alot of teams

Anyone who doesn't like this deal probably didnt watch Hudson pitch last yr. First and foremost they took his rehab slowly and didn't bring him up until his was 110% ready.

I may have missed 1 or 2 of his starts last year. But I'll tell you something, he was solid. He had two bad games vs. STL and FLA in which he allowed 4 runs in both games. But other than that he was pretty solid.

As for the trade, I think Javy should get the door. We won't resign him after this season and his value is at a peak. Whereas Lowe's is low. And a lot of ppl are not impressed with Lowe. But he as pretty good, just not spectacular.

Strikethree, my logic is as backwards as your response to my question.

You mention' plenty of teams' but mention none by name because none make sense. Believe me I've looked at each one. Then you mention a 'big bat'. Noone tells me who this mythical big bat is. They just throw it out there like every team has some available big bat.

Posted by: bbxxj | October 28, 2009 at 07:19 PM

Mention none by name? How about EVERY single team in baseball that has prospects. The reason I don't bring up a team is because I'm not the one shopping the guy. Almost every team could use him.

"Believe me I've looked at each one."

Huh? Are you a GM? What does that even mean? You mean to tell me that you've seen all the offers from other teams?

In baseball, you can almost never predict offers from teams. Unless you're a baseball executive, how would you know what's being offered? The only thing we can gather is that Vazquez = wanted and Lowe = not wanted.

If you were any other team, who would you rather go after? Vazquez, a quality pitcher or a guy who had a mediocre season and has a hefty contract? Let's not forget about Lowe's age and that his peripherals went down this season.

Tell me how Lowe's contract is easier to move. Wasn't that the premise of your prior statement?

You wanted me to name names but can you find one team that would take Lowe's contract with 45 million left?

I will readily agree that Rosenthal is a disreputable source. That said, this rumor makes some sense for both the Braves and Hudson. What makes no sense at all is the final tag line, where the Braves supposedly will trade Derrick Lowe for a hitter. The Braves will have to pay someone to take Lowe from them. They'd be fortunate to get a bag of balls in return after paying 30-40% of his next two years' salary just for some team to take him off their roster and out of their rotation.

I readily agree that Rosenthal is an unreliable source. But this rumor makes sense for both the Braves and Hudson. What makes no sense is the suggestion that the Braves will move Lowe for a bat. They'd have to pay 40% of Lowe's salary for two years just for the benefit of getting rid of his contract, and would be lucky to receive a bag of balls in return.

So basically the Braves let him walk or sign him to a two-year $15 million extension. This is likely a decent deal for the Braves, though like ANY pitcher, it obviously depends on Hudson's health. I'd be a lot more worried if it were a shoulder as opposed to the elbow. Nice work by the Braves.

@strikethree

I thought you were meaning trading Javy for a big bat. I can't see any matches with any big bats out there. If Wren choses to flip him for specs then sure I bet a team like MIL could offer something up to match. Sorry for the confusion.

But really, the Braves are in a win now mode not in a rebuild mode. Trading Javy for specs doesn't help us next year but only takes away our only 200K threat in the rotation. However if we dump off Lowe and his salary for little or no return or taking some contract back, it would allow us to add some offense through FA like both LaRoche and Cameron without neglecting the closer situation.

So this basically gives us Hudson+$3MM for 2010 instead of just Hudson. Cool.

Now we just have to figure out how to score more runs, and trading Lowe for someone else's problem or for a "meh" hitter or two is not the answer.

Maybe it's time we fleece Pittsburgh or Detroit? It's been a while ;>

Actually, the more I think about it, I think I'd actually kinda like a Lowe for Magglio swap.

Solves a defensive liability in RF (Diaz brings back memories of Lonnie Smith out there), gives Detroit the ability to shed a rough contract (Robertson? Willis? Bonderman?) in the rotation with a decent backup plan, and is almost a zero-sum financially for both teams.

I think Lowe will have a better year in 2010, as I think his hand was bothering him more than he let on. Furthermore, Magglio almost HAS to hit for more power next year, and Turner Field is certainly spacious enough to give him the ability to go gap-to-gap, and would be a nice upgrade to Loaf Anderson power-wise in the corner outfield position.

Maybe a Tigers fan could educate me on how/if this could work?

Magglio is a Boras client with a full no-trade. He has a $15 mil option for 2011 that will not vest. Any idea what Boras would ask for to waive the no-trade.

Tigers have a lot of money tied into pitching. I don't think they'd be interested...

Hudson, Hanson and Jurrjens are guaranteed to be in Atlanta's rotation next year. That leaves Lowe, Vasquez and Kawakami as trade bait. Vasquez has the highest value as he is owed the least money overall ($12 million compared to $45 for Lowe and $14 for Kawakami) and he is coming off the best season of his career. A one year rental for an ace caliber pitcher for $12 million is a serious bargain, especially when you look at the free agent pitchers on the market. The problem with this scenario is that a team who would want to add a $12 million ace next year obviously has world series aspirations and probably wont want to part with the right handed bat that OPSes over .900 that Atlanta is looking for in return.

Owed a combined $45 million over the next three seasons, Derek Lowe could be seen as an albatross of a contract. Fortunately, we might be able to swap him for an overpaid position player who has less money guaranteed. Magglio Ordonez for example. Atlanta's payroll would increase for next season, but then they would no longer be obligated to Lowe for $30 million for ages 38-39.

Kawakami is fairly inexpensive with around $14 million left on his contract for the next two years. He had a decent year in 2009, and he showed he could be lights out in big game situations. I think a lot of teams would be interested in acquiring him but I don't know if he would net the kind of bat Atlanta needs to add this offseason.

Derek Lowe 2009 FIP - 4.00

He's trade-able without eating salary (albeit for nothing in return). Idiots.

I would love to deal Lowe to the Tigers but they already have a ton of money committed to their 4 5 and 6 starters (Nate Robertson - $10MM Jeremy Bonderman - $12.5MM
Dontrelle Willis - $12MM) Plus Verlander and Edwin Jackson are due raises via arbitration. Plus Armando Galarraga is basically left without a spot in the rotation so unless the Tigers are going to move some pitchers I wouldn't expect them to add any either.

I'm not thrilled by this move. What was the rush to re-sign Hudson? Couldn't Wren have waited until after he did the more important work (getting a power bat, replacing or re-signing Gonzalez and Soriano, getting rid of Lowe)? One month is a pretty small sample to use to give a guy in his mid 30s coming back from TJ surgery a 3 year extension. Vasquez would have been a better choice to give an extension.

Oh wow if DOB heard the news about the signing it must be true...(sigh)

Scott would be a good addition, but that doesn't seem like an ideal move for the Orioles.

The Orioles could land some cheap, young talent for Scott, and even if Atlanta ate some cash, the Orioles can probably find a better fit on the open market than Lowe at the cost of 3/30 and Scott.

How about Scott for Reyes, Spruill
and Hicks?

"However, the problem would be that Atlanta's outfield would be atrocious defensively. McLouth is good (but not great in CF) and Diaz is very suspect in RF. Adding Scott to LF would be scary. Heyward is very good defensively but who knows when he will actually make the major league roster."

Why do people think that Scott is bad defensively? Because he's been DHing?

Scott's been in the DH spot because the Orioles have had superior defenders on their roster, not because Scott is poor defensively.

For his career, over 2550 innings, he's posted a +4.9 UZR/150, a pretty nice mark, and that sample size is large enough you can infer that he's pretty good defensively with relatively high confidence.

Diaz posted great UZR numbers in 2006/2007, and while his numbers weren't particularly good the past two seasons, it's more than tolerable for a guy who's so productive offensively.

An outfield of Scott, McLouth and Diaz certainly isn't good defensively, but it's not a huge liability, although it'd likely be below-average.

McLouth and Diaz would be bigger problems defensively than Scott, McLouth's UZR was above-average this year, but that's out of line with his awful track record in previous seasons, it's highly unlikely that McLouth has actually shown that much improvement defensively.

Lowe and Kawakami should do very well next year. You want to trade Lowe, not to get rid of him and his bad season, but his contract. The bad season and possibility of a decline will make him harder to trade, but I believe that giving him up for nothing, might work.
bbxxj, I know the LAA have good pitching, but weren't they lacking it at the beginning of the year. Think Lowe could be dropped off there?
Although you may be able to pull off a Fielder trade, I don't think either team will be willing to pull the trigger. Javier stays. He may even want to come back to the ATL after this year.
They will try to trade Lowe, then try to dump him. If they can't, then there's a big choice. We can live without the big bat, but it will be hard. KK in the bullpen or Lowe as a closer may help. Yet, they may decide to trade KK. I am against it, because he should have a ceiling a good bit larger than his pay.
The question is, do you want to keep KK in the bullpen for that money to use him after next year, or do you hurt your East connection and trade away?

i wouldn't be suprised if lowe for ordonez is already done.. it just makes sense.. lowe has an extra year and 12 million more on his contract.. just about what he would recieve on the open market.. heyward mclouth and Ordonez would provide the offensive puch from the out field atlanta needs and lowe would be the reliable #4 det. needs.. just makes 2 much sense for each team.. i just don't see atlant trading javy. he only has 1 year remaining on his contract.. so baring injury he'll be a type A free agent.. so atlanta could retain him or recieve 2 draft picks.. no way they trade him unless its inn a deal for a-gone or some elite player

I Wonder If The Angel's Would Trade - Howie Kendrick -Kendry Morales-Darren Oliver-Matt Palmer To The Braves For Derek Lowe-Kris Medlen-Kelly Johnson-Garret Anderson..

The Braves Lineup Could Look Like This...
Nate Mclouth (CF)
Howie Kendrick (2ND Base)
Chipper Jones (3RD Base)
Kendry Morales (1St Or Rf)
Brian McCann (Catcher)
Yunel Escobar (SS)
Adam Laroach (1 Base)
Matt Diaz (LF)
Pitcher Spot..

Starting Pitching

Huddy Javy JJ Hannson KK

Well What Do U All Think...