The Braves have released right-hander Scott Proctor and placed outfielder Joe Mather on waivers, tweets David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Proctor, 33, signed a one-year deal with the Braves back in November with a $750K base salary. O'Brien tweets that the Braves will owe him a little over 25% of that figure. The right-hander appeared in four games for Atlanta in 2010 and allowed four earned runs in 5 2/3 innings of work. This Spring, the veteran allowed 14 runs (six earned) through 10 2/3 innings of work. He struck out 12 but also allowed 12 hits and walked nine batters.
Mather, 27, was selected off waivers from the Cardinals earlier this offseason (the day after signing Proctor). He owns a .233/.287/.415 line through 211 Major League plate appearances, all coming with St. Louis. Mather has seen time at both infield corners and all three outfield positions with the Cardinals in parts of two seasons.
Nice seeing you Mather. Can’t say the same thing with you Proctor. I think Braves could have gotten something good for Mather on the trade market, but guess he will be picked off waivers.
taking the risk they can keep him in AA?
Braves tidying up a bit lol. Now just trade KK and Rodrigo Lopez and we’ll be all set
Yeah, no kidding. Get KK and Lopez outta here. That’d be awesome.
IMO id rather trade kk and keep lopez, but not both, after minor Lopez would be the only starter with mlb experience, and hes signed to a minor league contract so its not like he has a burdensome contract
Well, better late than never on Proctor I guess. At least we didn’t have to pay him much of the $750,000; although it was what, $60,000 more than if they released him last week. (I think he’s owed around $185-$190K right?)
I’m just glad he’s no longer an option. There are at least four better options with Marek, Abreu, the guy who’s name used to be something else, and Martinez.
I personally hope we keep Lopez. Good to have him as a back up option and he’s pitched decently enough to be a fill-in fifth starter.
Acsencio or w/e, who used to be Valdez or something lke that lol
None of these moves are surprising; I like what we’re doing thus far, but we really really need to get rid of KK.
Why, so Liberty can pocket more money? If no one gives us anything for him, might as well keep him in the Minors all year.
For his well being, he is a capable mlb starter and shouldnt have his career thrown in the toilet because of his mishandling
Ah, and a very valid point. The whole sending him down to Minors thing didn’t work too well and hindsight is always 20/20, so Wren is made to look like the bad guy here. Not really his fault he didn’t get much run support, but if other teams actually thought he’d have a shot, they’d have given up that prospect.
The Braves did mishandle him, but they have more pitching depth than any team in baseball. The depth is what’s keeping him from being in the rotation, not the mishandling of him. The Braves simply have better options.
Now, Kawakami has two choices if he’s not traded. Stay in the minors all year or accept a trade back to Japan.
Thank god. Proctor was just terrible. No surprise Mather is getting placed on waivers.
Next up KK and Rodriguez get kicked to the curb.
Hicks, Conrad, Young, & Martinez made all final spots according to Mark Bowman
Was hoping Lucas won the job over Hicks…..
Glad to see Young though. Hopefully Conrad won’t be used on defense like……at all.
Well, Lucas stopped hitting after a while. I didn’t really care who won or not, because they all could use some seasoning. I think Hick’s upside is higher. He was the guy who would replace Jones a few years ago.
He was supposed to replace Jones until it was discovered that he couldn’t hit…not even minor league pitching. I hope he continues what he’s doing offensively this spring, but I’m not holding my breath.
I don’t hate having Hicks on the team, I am just going to be as wary of him hitting as I am of Conrad fielding. I guess Conrad could be a late inning pinch hitter and Hicks comes in to play defensively. Lucas, on the other hand, had the potential to do both. I’m not losing any sleep either way seeing as how it is the end of the bench.
Well, Hicks is better defensively than Lucas and I think the Braves feel they have enough offense on the bench and went with Hicks because of his defense. Lucas is next in line, so I expect to see him at some point anyway….
As far as upside goes, I’m going with Lucas. Guy had a .307, .398, .480 line last year, which was his 2nd season in a row posting an OPS above .800. Lucas’s AVG was higher than than Hicks OBP last year and not far off of his SLG……
They said on ESPN during the game that Hicks worked on his hitting mechanics this offseason, so I believe he can keep this going into the season.
Hey, I hope your right. Love for Hicks to do well. I did read he worked a lot with McCann and feels more confident in his approach now. I’m hopeful – I’m just not holding my breath.
Lineup:
Prado – LF
McLouth – CF
Chipper – 3B
Uggla – 2B
McCann – C
Heyward – RF
Gonzalez – SS
Freeman – 1B
Rotation: Derek Lowe, Tommy Hanson, Tim Hudson, Jair Jurrjens, Brandon Beachy
Pen: Craig Kimbrel, Jonny Venters, Peter Moylan, Eric O’Flaherty, Scott Linebrink, George Sherrill, Cristhian Martinez
Bench: Brooks Conrad, Brandon Hicks, Eric Hinske, David Ross, Matt Young
Heyward hitting sixth is a colossal waste of his OBP. You’re right, though – that’s the lineup it appears Fredi Gonzalez wants to use.
I totally agree with you. I’d like Heyward in the forth spot and slide Uggla and McCann down one.
I’m bummed it’s looking bad for Wilkin Ramirez to make a spot, hopefully he’ll make an appearance later on this season. Good for Hicks and Young however if that’s correct. I’m not sure if Martinez deserved a spot over Abreu and Asencio however.
Good riddance to Mather, never cared for the idea of getting him. Proctor was a good try but of well, 25-man looks solid.
I remember reading Fredi’s comments about WiRam a couple of weeks ago where he mentioned the word “consistently” a lot. It made me think they were going to want him in AAA to see if he could sustain the production. It sounds like he has really good tools but there needs to be some evidence he’s put them together in a way where he can sustain production at the MLB level.
Young is a great story and I’m glad he made the team, but he is reaching his ceiling as a 4th outfielder. I think they see Ramirez ceiling potentially being a little higher than that and want to give him more AB’s in the minors. It would be awesome if he does really well and gives the Braves another internal option for next year when we will likely need a replacement in LF (assuming Prado moves to IF) and CF (assuming McLouth option not picked up).
I love the way the team looks. Can’t wait for Thursday!
I have to say, I really think Bobby would have kept Proctor and Mather on the roster because of their veteran status. I like the way Fredi handles things. “You can’t advertise that it’s an open competition and then not give it to the guys who deserve it.” Very well-said. I still remember last year when Bobby elected to start the season with Jo-Jo Reyes on the Opening Day roster instead of Jonny Venters. Although, in hindsight, this may have saved Venters’ arm from the strain of making 85-90 appearances instead of 79.
The Phillies are getting older and injured. The Braves look young and refreshed. I bet we can unseat them this year!