Here are some links from the NL East on the day Chipper Jones turns 40 and Jose Reyes returns to Citi Field…
- The Braves optioned right-hander Jair Jurrjens to Triple-A Gwinnett following a disappointing start against the Dodgers yesterday. The right-hander has a 9.37 ERA through four starts, so he's returning to the minors, where he last spent considerable time in 2007. Jurrjens' path to free agency could be affected if he spends two months or more in the minor leagues.
- Phillies manager Charlie Manuel hasn’t ruled out the possibility of playing Chase Utley at first base when he's activated from the disabled list, Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. If Utley returns before Ryan Howard, the Phillies could mix things up defensively. "We'll figure that out when we get there," Manuel said.
- Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada has the unenviable task of replacing Reyes, but as Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com shows, the 22-year-old has already earned the confidence of his team. Meanwhile, Tejada says Reyes was a "great teammate" in New York before signing a $106MM free agent contract with the Marlins this past offseason.
- Ken Davidoff of the New York Post suggests there's no rush to lock David Wright up long-term despite the third baseman's hot start. Davidoff points out that it's April and that Wright is under team control through 2013. If he's still hitting this well when summer trade talks begin in earnest, the Mets will face a major decision, but we aren't there yet.
Anyone still wondering why Baltimore didn’t want to trade Jones for Jurrjens and Prado?
Like MacPhail saw Jurrjens’ fall coming. If he could evaluate talent accurately he’d still have a job and the O’s would be challenging for the division title every year.
Except MacPhail was out before those talks/rumors ever started….
Yea they did, they saw his injury history and saw that he would get lit up in the AL East, which is why the O’s wanted more.
As others have said, MacPhail has nothing to do with the Jones to Atlanta trade rumors. The GM you’re looking for would be Dan Duquette.
I know it’s cool to kick a team while they’re down, but at least get your facts straight …
How can you kick a team “while they’re down” when they haven’t made the playoffs since 1997?
If not for the Pirates the Orioles would be the laughing stock of the Major leagues.
Whew! Guess all the losing makes you guys touchy. The Braves and the Orioles were talking about Jones around the trade deadline last summer. Since they were talking about Jurrjens for Jones in December even after Jurrjen’s poor second half, it wouldn’t surprise me if they were talking about him in July. But hey, either way I agree, you guys dodged a bullet there.
The Jurrjens-Jones talks were in December …. well after MacPhail was gone. Last July, I highly doubt the Orioles were considering Jones for Jurrjens, it would of been Jones for prospects.
When Jurrjens was red hot they weren’t interested in him? C’mon, this is MacPhail you’re talking about here.
You can’t seriously think a team that was well below .500 was looking for an “ace” at the deadline, can you?
Either you really don’t understand the game that well, or you’re just being too stubborn to say you meant DD because MacPhail was never linked to JJ.
Unless, of course, you’d like to show some proof of this rumor .. I could only find Minor mentioned.
Whoa, did I miss the O’s becoming contenders suddenly in December?
So your contention is that the O’s couldn’t possibly have been interested in Jurrjens in talks with the Braves back in July, when Jurrjens was red hot and looking like a #1 to someone with a limited understanding of advanced metrics (love you, Andy), simply because they were under .500 at the time? Because what’s the sense of obtaining a seemingly good player when you’re under .500 for the nth year in a row? Nope, they wisely were only interested in him after the season ended and he had in fact proved that wasn’t a #1- then he fit what they were looking for. Because the O’s are only interested in players AFTER they show they were playing well over their heads.
Yep, you’re right, that makes much more sense. It certainly goes a long way towards explaining their results on the field over the past decade+.
Show me any other team that trades for an “Ace” when they’re well out of the race by the deadline. It doesn’t happen.
Go back and look at the articles from the summer. They mention Minor and other prospects for Jones, but unsurprisingly, your JJ rumor is no where to be found.
Of course you didn’t find it- I never claimed I saw it reported, or even on this site. I was simply stating that if they were interested in him at Point B, after his performance weakened, it is a reasonable assumption that they also might have been interested in him at Point A, when his performance was still strong. But I can see the error of trying to use logic with you, for the fact that you remain an O’s fan after all the crap they’ve put you through shows you’re immune to it.
Instead, I’ll leave you to cling to your “but they weren’t above .500 at the time” log while you conveniently ignore that they were no closer to contention in December than July, but apparently had an interest in him at that point in time.
Good day to you sir, and for your sake and that of your brethren I pray that the Orioles front office someday exhibits the competence you ascribe to them.
Just because DD may have been interesting in buying low on JJ in December does not mean that AM was interested in him during the summer.
That’s a silly assumption to make based on absolutely nothing other than your mistake in your oringal post.
Making the assumption that the Orioles have a clue about what they’re doing is even sillier, since there is even less evidence supporting that contention
Go to the bottom of the thread.
Well, I’ll eat my hat if Jones slugs .618 all year. And if Prado keeps up that 9.9% walk rate this year, he will probably be more valuable than Jones.
Man did the Orioles dodge a bullet by not trading Jones for Jurrjens and Prado!!
Now we know why the O’s wanted more.
Prado is worth Jones straight-up.
Prado>Adam Jones.
Jones plays in more games per season and has been putting up better numbers than Martin since last year… not to mention the fact he plays on one of the worst teams in baseball.
Ben Stein says WOW!
It’s going to be quite comical now just waiting for Boras to come up with some hog wash line about how Jurrjens should be on the MLB roster within the next 2 months and how all players have hiccups in their careers.. It still does not matter.. Jurrjens did this to himself and Boras, being his normal “to the last shiny penny self” have given Atlanta the perfect opportunity to let him stew at AAA for 61 days if they wish.
You play hard ball, expect it to be thrown right back at you.
Lol I remember when Braves fans were telling Dodger fans that Jurrjens was going to be better than Kershaw and Kemp for Jurrjens wouldn’t be enough in a trade. LMAO!
I’m a Braves fan and I remember arguing with other Braves fans a couple of years ago that a Kemp for Jurrjens trade would be a huge win for the Braves. For some reason a lot of Braves fans seemed to think Jurrjens was an ace.
He was. That would have been a win-win for both teams. Now times changes.
It is a testament to advanced statistics for all of the people who have refuted the claims that he was an ace at any point in time. His strikeout numbers were always un-ace-like, he walked too many people and his home run rates were bound to regress. You’re half right, it definitely would’ve been a win for the Braves. However, please explain to me how it would have been a win for the Dodgers, given what we know about their respective stats post-2009: Kemp 11.1 WAR, Jurrjens 2.2 WAR.
People love to refute sabermetrics, but WAR is one of the most useful stats in all of sports.
WAR is one of the stupider stats in all of sports, but really most of the “advanced metrics” are beyond stupid. Boy, it’s too bad that Tom Glavine turned out to be such a bad pitcher, given his walk and strikeout rates in the early part of his career! I could come up with 50 more examples like that.
You mean there are occasionally exceptions to the rule? Wow. That sure proves advanced stats are useless.
before all of you get all high and mighty saying how you “called” how jurrjens was gonna fail, i’ll just throw a name out there… cliff lee. sent down to the minors in 2007, 6.29 ERA in half a season… only went on to go 22-3, 2.54 ERA the next season. sometimes, a pitcher just needs to right the ship in the minors. the talent is there, and he’s only 26. trust me when i see you haven’t seen the last of him, AND as an elite pitcher.
Cubs, Bears, or Grizzlies fan? Given this is a baseball site, I’ll guess Cubs. Which begs the question- why would a Cubs fan be so high on Jurrjens?
Forgetting JJs ridiculous first half numbers last year and this years really AWFUL numbers- he’s a solid 3 guy with an attainable 3.2 to 3.5 era. For right now though he needs to go get the 6 inches between his ears fixed. If he does he should be okay, no real fan here in ATL expected JJ to keep up the work he did in the first half last year- nor did we expect him to be THIS BAD either.
I remember jurrjens’s first half last year, his awesome rookie season, beating the domincan republic in the world baseball classic. He was good, very good.
He does deserve a shot to prove himself, but I still wish the braves would of traded him when they could of received a decent package in return. Jurrjens and Lowe (thankfully gone) held up pitchers like minor and delgado.
Thank you Yankees for not trading for him.
last year around the dead line the braves should have traded jj. I never expected him to drop off this much but his value would never get that high again. Im a fan of his but sometimes u got to trade away pitching
Exactly right
I agree. I like JJ but a trade last year would have been proper. The funny thing is it’s kinda Derek Lowe’s fault. If Lowe would have at least been serviceable then JJ would have been expendable. But they saw themselves as a contending team and werent sure if they would have enough “right now pitching” if they had dealt JJ. So Frank had to sit back and hope JJ didnt ruin his value in the second half of 2011. Which JJ did.
I’ll admit I was wrong on JJ- I thought he’d bounce back hard. I hope he still does, but it’s unlikely.
Shame, he’s a good guy and seemed to be liked by everyone.
Wow…must be nice to send a #3 pitcher to AAA and still be 3-5 deep with other #3’s!
In reply to Chico: ^
So, because the Orioles have been a poor team, any ridiculous, completely unfounded rumor becomes plausible? Is that really what you’re going with?
Like I said, DD may have been interested in December because he’d be buying low and hoping for a comeback. I don’t think DD considered him an ace if he was asking for JJ, Prado and possibly two top tier pitching prospects for Jones. And from what I understand, the Braves came asking about Jones, DD wanted a ransom, and the trade never happened.
So, do you have any real evidence that MacPhail would have traded for JJ while the Orioles were clearly sellers? Do sellers typically trade for an established player at their peak value? Do buyers typically trade a vital piece of their rotation at the deadline? And before you go back to your default answer, MacPhail had a quite successful trade record despite his other shortcomings.