The Braves asked the Padres about right fielder Will Venable, only to hear he’s not available, Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports reports (all Twitter links). It was reported over the weekend that Atlanta GM Frank Wren seeks depth for the infield and outfield.
The Braves would prefer to add someone who can play center field if they acquire an outfielder, Morosi writes. Venable has MLB experience at all three outfield positions, though he spent most of last season in right field. He has great speed for a right fielder to go along with outstanding range, according to The Fielding Bible Volume III. The Braves are reluctant to trade Kris Medlen for an outfielder, since they value the right-hander’s versatility.
We’re gonna have to trade a pitcher at some point. Someone has got to become available. You can’t keep EVERY pitcher, especially with our surplus.
First it was Minor/Beachy/ and the two studs. Now it’s Medlan? meh.
Personally, I’d trade Delgado.
Unfortunately, their isn’t much surplus right now. The Braves should have traded Vizcaino for a young hitter over the winter before he hurt his elbow. He was expendable since they only planned to use him in the bullpen anyway. Right now the Braves are dealing with the Hudson injury as well as the injury concerns of Hanson and JJ. There is no way they can or should trade Medlen right now.
We can afford to move ONE. Delgado/Teheran maybe? Listen, it’s nice to have a stockpile, but we have other holes.
Move one.
The Braves need a backup OF. No reason to part with a stud prospect for a part time player.
The Braves traded Paul Clemens, Brett Oberholtzer and Juan Abreu for Bourn last year. They are ranked #5, #8 and #16 in the Astro’s farm system. You can’t blame the Braves for holding onto their best pitching prospects, especially when they have such depth. Considering JJ, Hanson and Hudson are all injury risks and Teheran doesn’t look ready for MLB, I don’t see any way they could trade a solid arm without risking a big hole in the rotation when someone goes down with an injury.
That speaks more to the Astro’s farm system than anything
marlon byrd may be a fit for the Braves. this is his last year in chicago with jackson almost ready to take over
I don’t see Byrd as a fit for the Braves at all. He is an older player who is owed 6.5M this season. If the Braves are going to trade prospects I would rather they get a younger player in return, not an older guy makings lots of $$$$$.
Then who do you propose they target?
Not trying to offend anyone, but they are really scraping some with Venable. Agreed he is capable of playing every OF position at a “fair” amount of decency, but this is not someone any team wants to see at the plate even half the amount of 400+ PA he has been getting the last 3 seasons and Byrd is not someone a team wants to pay 6.5m (or a mid market team) to only get 200-300PA and then sit on the bench.
Cody Ross has been snapped up already at 3m and that is about the high end for a platoon player capable of being respectable with both the glove and bat it seems.
Really have a hard time understanding the Padres not wanting to move venable if they could have gotten anything for him. he already was arbitration eligible as a Super 2, got 1.5m and will probably get a raise on that next season meaning he will be non tendered more than likely.
Why doesn’t Atlanta just offer Boston anything at all for mcDonald, the same thing only older? He is makink barely over league minimum (500k) and will probably be a roster casualty when CC comes back from the DL within the 1st couple of weeks during the season?
Maybe the Braves realize that Will plays half of his games in Petco Park and has done pretty well otherwise. He’s a career .272/.336/.435 hitter away from Petco along with exceptional base stealing ability, great defense on the corners, and enough ability to play CF. His tools are even better than his results thus far.
Venable is a flawed player in some ways, but he does bring a lot to the table. He struggles with lefties as well as playing at Petco. Against righties away from home he’s fared quite well:
.279/.342/.466
Personally I think his a pretty great platoon RF who still has four years of control for the Padres. If you’ve got a solid caddy to face those pesky lefties (Hello Denorfia), you’d be doing quite all-right with those two.
Venable has been just awful in Turner Field and every NL East park other than PNC.
When he is not the starter he is incredibly awful. If you are hoping he is the guy that will come off the bench and jump start a comeback in late innings you are barking up the wrong tree.
If you are looking to put Venable in as your starter in CF, expecting good defense and speed on the bases and just go with it through stretches of absolutely putrid baseball at the plate to get the occasional brilliance, then he is your guy.
I agree. I don’t see why they would be interested in Venable at all either. He’s left handed and not what they need.
“Really have a hard time understanding the Padres not wanting to move venable if they could have gotten anything for him”
He’s the lone guy on the team who has the bat/defense to play most every day in RF. Propsect wise, the best next bet is still a good 3 years away.
If that’s not enough of reason, think of this – Venable and Denorfia platooned in RF last year, with Venable getting the larger shake. RF was the Padres most productive position in OPS, XBH, SB% (34/39) while providing plus defense. Why break that back if there just getting something, “anything” for him???Not how I would run a team, particularly a guy making south of 2m with still four years of control.
Although I agree with your valuation on Venable, I disagree that the next best is 3 years away. Tekotte could be every bit as good if given the opportunity and J Decker might be fighting for a roster spot this time next year.
Padres have at least 2 guys closer than that. Tekotte and Decker.
Venable has always had great upside, but at 29 those days are over. He is what he is. A mediocre RF, a better CF. Still not a great starting option on a playoff team.
Jason Bourgeois would have been a good target. One of the young Blue Jay outfielders would be good.
If they trade with the Cubs I would prefer Reed Johnson to Byrd.
I think Byrd-to-Braves makes tons of sense, but they need to figure this out soon, if it’s going to happen. Cubs would need to find a stopgap in CF until June/July. They don’t want to kickstart Jackson’s arb clock, for sure.
unless you absorb the rest of his contract, doesn’t he have like 6 million this year?
I’m sure the Cubs would be willing to eat the $$ if the it gets them a better return. They don’t have to eat money, though. Byrd is worth his contract and they will be able to get rid of it at some point this season.
I wonder if Garrett anderson is available.
If not, vlad is.
Venable would have been a solid addition. I don’t blame the Braves for holding on to the pitching though with the ailments going on and the ability to add a star with the pitching we’ve got as well. Don’t sell the farm for someone average, save it for when you go for the star (like the Braves never do).
Teixeira?
After seeing how that turned out, do you really think a move like that would happen again? The Braves aren’t down with selling 5 prospects for a star to watch him leave (unless they could guarantee an extension on trade), that’s all I’m saying.
So you’re criticizing the Braves for not making these moves happen, but then you’re saying this kind of move probably couldn’t happen again?
McGriff?
How many years ago?
Fewer years ago than “never.” Also, I would add the trades he made for Bourn, Uggla, Javy Vazquez, and Jurrjens. Jurrjens wasn’t exactly a star when we got him, but getting JJ for a washed-up Edgar Renteria was shrewd.
Bourn: Schafer and some minor prospects.
Uggla: Omar Infante (and a spec?)
Javy: Tyler Flowers (Blocked), Brent Lillibridge (Blocked), and several other prospects.
Jurrjens: Renteria (and a spec?)
None of them matches up to what was given up in the amount of Mark Teixeira. I’m not talking about the trades where we give up a few prospects, but I mean one with the magnitude to give up like we did with Teix. Andrus and Feliz would have been HUGE difference makers these past two years with the Braves, I believe. Both are highly serviceable. None of those other players you mentioned had the magnitude of impact like the Teix one did, that was all I was saying. I see where you went with it though. My fault for not making it as clear on my side of the argument.
Why are Braves fans so negative? Braves have been a solid organization for years, of course there are going to be growing pains in the post-Cox era, but come on.
Disclaimer: I love the Braves, Falcons, and UGA… This is the best down-to-earth comment I have ever read at MLBTR. I wish the “sour southerners” could all see what an objective fan of another team thinks of the Braves. BTW, I’m from Savannah, GA-Born and raised…but the fact is that fans from Georgia are just sour for some reason. They are hard-headed, dilusional, cynical, and flat out annoying. All they do is talk…they never listen. I’m to the point that I would rather talk about my braves with a Yankee fan. Or talk about my Dawgs with an Auburn fan. And that sucks.
I quit reading Dave O’Brien’s blog long ago for that reason. The collective whining and ranting of all the “fans” over there made my stomach churn.
But then, as Forbes said, we really do have the worst sports town in the country.
I’d much rather see Delgado traded at this point than Medlen. I’d say Minor as well if we had another lefty in our rotation. Kris really has shown he belong in the big leagues and gives us an amazing swingman who has only shown he has #3 starter abilities.
Venable is the first name I’ve seen on one of these rumors that I found exciting, outside of Petco he could be a 20/20 guy. Really hope the Braves convince San Diego otherwise. Otherwise, hopefully we can beat Washington to acquiring Gerardo Parra.
I love Medlen! He is one of my favorite Braves. I hope he stays with the team for a long time.
Obviously Wren plans on plugging Prado in at 3B…after this year of course..but why not make that “wow…never saw that coming” trade? I know my team has budget restraints but next year’s LF fa class is’nt stunning(I like Swisher but know NY will over pay to keep him) so why not get a true LF’er and just realize Chipper is’nt going to play more than 80-100 games? It looks like Tehran/Delgado have more than one season to complete in the minors so why not toss their names out and see who bites? I’m down for whatever just not a rent-a-LF’er!
will venable and clayton richard for brandon beachy
Oh no.
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!
No way do you trade the best young pitcher we got for a lite hitting OF’er! No way.
I’ll take a 2B with a 2.5 WAR.
– Dodgers fan
What about their lineup “is not good on any level?” It’s the same lineup that was playoff-bound last season until a fluke late-season collapse that included four extra-inning losses in the span of 25 days. It’s the same lineup that went 10-4 over the second half of August and had people talking about a possible NL East matchup in the NLCS. The only difference is that this time they get Michael Bourn for a full season instead of only half a season.
What is this “pitching excess” you’re talking about? This isn’t fantasy baseball, where you automatically assume you can deal someone just because you have 6 or 7 guys who seem like legit starters. Look around the league, man. Boston thought they had eight solid SPs last season, and they finished the season thankful that Tim Wakefield was still around. The Yankees thought they might have two solid SPs, and they wound up with one of the best starters’ ERAs in the league…and that was without a decent contribution from one of the guys they thought would surely be in their rotation.
There’s no such thing as an excess of pitching. There’s only your five best SPs, and then they guys who take their places when someone gets hurt.
If Chipper recovers and stays healthy we could have five 20 hr guys and two 20+ stolen base guys. That leaves Prado who is having a hell of a spring so far, I’m more concerned about JJ/Hanson staying healthy than our lineup right now.
He had a bad start to the year. I’m not worried about uggla. and one dimensional? I think not.
The Braves Offense is fine. They basically have the same offense they had in 2010 when they scored 738 runs, plus Dan Uggla. In 2011 the same team scored 641 runs. I think the big difference is the management style of Freddy Gonzalez.
Jay Bruce ring a bell? Lord I wish the reds would have given up on him… I mean, obviously one bad year for a guy younger that 25 means he will never ever get it ..
A lineup ofMichael Bourn, Brian McCann, Dan Uggla, Freddie Freeman, Jason Heyward, Chipper Jones and Martin Prado is “ugly”?????? The reserves worry me but the starting lineup is excellent (except for shortstop).
No offense but
1.Bourn(true leadoff/sb guy)
2.Prado(OBP kinda guy)
3.Heyward(have you seen his stroke this st)
4.Mccann(best catcher in baseball overall)
5.Uggla(yeah he’ll bat .265 but he’ll have 25+ hrs)
6.Freeman(watch out for this guy…can stroke to any side of the diamond)
7.LF(Prado/Hinske/Diaz)…one hole….who gives a shit
8.Pastornicky(I wish Simmons but he needs some seasoning…but the Rev is a stop gap w/decent OBP and speed)
Yeah I’ll take that lineup any day and still be Chief Nokahoma not fourfeathers!
Personally, it seems like your response was just to copy and paste your original post. I’m still not sure I understand where your personal opinion comes from, because for 5/6 of the season last year the Braves proved your opinion wrong. The month when they fell apart also happened to be the month when two of their top three pitchers (Jurrjens and Hanson) were injured and unable to pitch. They’ve got those two guys back, they’ve got Bourn for a full season, Uggla is unlikely to bat .178 for half the season again (knock on wood), Prado is unlikely to get a staph infection again (knock on wood), and Heyward is highly unlikely to bat .227 (again, knock on wood.) Despite that perfect storm of injuries and poor play, the Braves record (89-73) was still the 10th-best in baseball last year. If most of their guys stay healthy and Uggla and Heyward are merely league average players, this is a 90+ win team.
This is the NL East, not the NL Central/NL West. That lineup, even with the pitching isn’t close to a match to Philly and the pitching does not match their rotation either.
The Fish, even the Nats are at least on par with what Atlanta has to offer and that is counting on old friend Danny Uggla returning to previous form.
“My opinion of Atlanta is not good in 2012. Not good at all.”
You’re right, your opinion is not good, or anywhere near what will actually occur on the diamond.
-C
Rollins, Victorino, Pence, Ruiz, Mayberry, and three guys with serious question marks next to their names. That’s still a good core but concerning to the same degree as Atlanta’s problems. I feel like the Braves, Phillies, and Nats are all on about the same level with the Fish being the wild card of the group. If Utley and Howard come back and give their typical offensive production with no worries maybe the Phillies take the advantage but that’s looking less likely everyday.
We’ll take him too.
– Another Dodgers fan
He has a feeling!
If he says it again it makes it more likely to come true right?