Links from around baseball as the Cubs look to snap their ten-game losing streak tonight in Pittsburgh..
- Twins GM Terry Ryan said Jason Marquis was placed on release waivers, tweets Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. Other clubs have 48 hours to claim Marquis, who was DFA'd on Tuesday.
- Braves centerfielder Michael Bourn could be a possible target for the Nationals and while he wouldn't directly talk about playing for Washington, he told reporters that he likes what the club has to offer, writes MLB.com's Bill Ladson. "They are good. They have some real good pitching," Bourn said. "They made some key acquisitions, and they have Gio Gonzalez over there now. They bring a good starter every night."
- The Athletics met with Clorox CEO Don Knauss but the team is definitely not for sale and no offer was made, tweets Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. Clorox and a handful of other East Bay Companies recently announced that they are working to keep the A's in Oakland with a new stadium.
- Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com writes that the Athletics knew that they were getting a promising righty when they acquire Ryan Cook along with Jarrod Parker and Collin Cowgill in the Trevor Cahill trade, but they weren't expecting this kind of dominance.
losing bourn to the nationals would hurt pretty bad
I really like Bourn and what he brings to the Braves, but I don’t see them as being able to sign him. He’s having a very good year and is a Boras client, so he’ll be way too expensive.
I’d much rather see him go to the AL or at least out of the NL East. If Washington signs him, it’d be terrible.
Could you imagine him going to DC? It would be his third team in the NL East alone.
ATL has a relatively good history with Boras. I like Bourn but he’s getting up there in age and history states that his speed will decline sooner than later. I don’t think he’ll all of a sudden start to carry a .300 AVG and his defense will come down when his speed goes.
We’re not getting rid of Heyward (which I don’t want to) and I’d rather see him move over to CF (where he’s played this year) and search for a new leadoff hitter and corner OF. Corner OF are easier to come by even if we don’t acquire Upton/Victorino for CF.
Regarding the comments, Bourn sounds like he’s out for himself. ATL isn’t about that and this is the first time I’ve read something like this coming from him. If he truly feels like that, I really hope we don’t re-sign him.
I don’t think he sounded like he was “out for himself”. It sounded more like he was keeping his options open, which makes good financial sense for him.
Bourn on the Nationals “They bring a good starter every night.” and the Braves don’t? Also, who would play centerfield for the Braves if they traded him?
Why does Bourn appear to be politicing to play for the Nationals especially when they are a division rival?
A’s had a good crowd today at the game, maybe “New Ownership” is in order over there. The fans deserve better than the current regime.
Hey Lefty.. There is Duquette’s next project SP for ya, just wait until the Twinkies release him and eat his 3m salary… Jason Marquis, bringing his “parade of hits” to Camden Yards.. Glory to the orioles and wear a batting helmet in the bleachers.. You’ll need it…
Except the Braves don’t bring good starters every night. Not this year anyway. Beachy and Hanson are it, with Hudson being good more often than bad, with Delgado flopping between ok and bad, and with Minor being completely awful.
Delgado and Minor could easily be replaced by Teheran/Medlen and not lose a beat. They’re rookies and need to be given time to struggle so they can work through for the long-term.
WSH has some impressive arms, but they don’t have our starting depth and our bullpen blows their’s out of the water even if O’Flaherty/Venters are touchable this year.
Chien Ming Wang and John Lannan can’t even get a start with the Nats. There’s no shortage of SP depth in Washington. That’s 7 proven big league starters for 5 spots. Sure, the Braves have a lot of potential, but until Teheran, Delgado and Minor start living up to that potential, I’ll prefer the Nats.
And I don’t know how the Braves bullpen blows the Nats’ out of the water in any sense. Kimbrel and Venters are both very good, but they’re pretty comparable to Clippard/Storen. Then after that the Braves BP drops off quite a bit. Besides O’Flaherty and Medlen, who is of any value in the Braves bullpen? Durbin and Livan? They both just got cut from the Nats.
I’d take the Nats BP of Clippard, Storen, Stammen, Burnett, Mattheus, Gorzelanny, Lidge and Rodriguez over Kimbrel, Venters, O’Flaherty, Medlen and the other retreads any day.
I’m a Braves fan and even I say that is ridiculous. The Nats have a much better overall pitching staff than the Braves this season. The #4 and #5 starters for the Braves have been bad and something is clearly wrong with Venters this year. Even Medlen has been shaky for the last couple of games.
They rant talking about a trade, the article is about his free agency.
Cook still needs to learn to throw strikes. 23IP and 4H is phenomenal – but when you add in his 12BBs, suddenyly 16 baserunners in 23IP is, while still ‘above average,’ far from phenomenal. He didn’t throw strikes in his brief stint in ’11 and he still doesn’t throw enough yet. Until he does, he won’t be “dominant.” He can still be pretty darned good.
This situation is interesting because IMO it comes down to Upton or Bourn for who the nats strongly pursue (well we will strongly go after both but you get it). Upton has a leg up in the fact that he is childhood friends and from the same area of VA as Zimmerman and is younger. OTOH, Bourn is older with no ties to the nats (for what they’re worth) but is more of a true traditional leadoff hitter that we could use.
All things considered..of course a lot of It depends on the price and moreso years, but I slightly prefer Upton, but just slightly. I would love to have either…but thats a ways away, I’m more concerned about this year ATM haha
No way is the braves starting pitchers better than the nats… As of today the nats are #1 in baseball in era.. Batting avg against.. And whip and rank 3rd in quality starts…
I really hope that the Braves extend Bourn’s contract. Losing him to a division rival would be horrible.