News and notes out of the Eastern divisions..
- Braves General Manager Frank Wren knows that the club may have some financial flexibility this winter, but he would prefer not to put all of his eggs in one basket, writes MLB.com's Mark Bowman. "We're going to be looking for premium players," Wren said. "I don't think there is any doubt about that. But there [are] a couple things we're always mindful of. We're putting a team together. We're not trying to put a player on this team. That's overriding philosophy — to put a team together. If we think we can add two players that give us more than one player, then we're going to do that."
- The Red Sox have been granted permission to interview Tim Wallach by the Dodgers, a source tells Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times (via Twitter). Earlier today we learned that Boston reached out to the third base coach to gauge his interest in their managerial vacancy. We can safely assume that Wallach is interested.
- As Ben Cherington & Co. work to revamp the Red Sox after a 93-loss season, the club will look to quantify what extent injuries played in their disappointing campaign, writes Brian MacPherson of The Providence Journal. MacPherson notes that Boston was just 7.5 games behind the Orioles for the second wild card spot at the time of their blockbuster deal with the Dodgers. With Andrew Bailey, Carl Crawford, and Jacoby Ellsbury healthy for the first-half of the year, that differential likely would have been much closer and may have led to Cherington declining to blow up the team.
- Buster Olney of ESPN.com (via Twitter) notes that the Orioles were the only club to offer right-hander Miguel Gonzalez a minor league deal in early March. The inexpensive, low-risk signing worked out well for the O's as he is tonight's starter against the Yankees in Game 3 of the ALDS.
hidden msg in FW’s statement :”We aren’t going to get in a bidding war for Josh Hamilton, so if he doesn’t accept our initial offer we will move on to trying to get max value out of CF and LF rather than paying more years and $$$ than we are comfortable with”
Remember when Boston took Gonzalez years ago in the Rule5 draft and he promptly went down for the season.. Lost nearly 2 years as recall for a serious arm injury. Not like he was pitching regularly and as recall.. not a hard tosser at all.
No use crying over split milk.
You mean split beer.
I know your name is slider but split beer?
Seems like a few of the Sox old players in the playoffs, Moss, Reddick, and Gonzalez.
Hope the braves lock up bourn and maybe make a run at bj or heck just trade for his brother. Kinda wishing the braves would have pulled the trigger on the adam jones trade. Now he is off the table and most of the braves part of the offer has lost value
I don’t know Prado is a little too much
The Braves tried to trade for Jones but the Orioles didn’t want to give him up. It wasn’t the Braves not pulling the trigger because they made quite an offer and Baltimore turned it down.
Considering Jones was re-signed this season, we couldn’t afford to re-sign Bourn if we re-signed him. So, it’d be Jones in CF – which would be a defensive downgrade – and Jones isn’t a leadoff hitter, which we wouldn’t have when Bourn inevitably walked. Then, to make matters worse, we wouldn’t have Prado to rely on at 3B/LF – who is also affordable. I like Adam Jones, but he wouldn’t be what would make us a more complete team. Frankly, we could have a better OF without him especially if we do decide to trade Teheran/Delgado.
Except for Prado, who had a better season than Jones and is more valuable overall…nevermind the other three pieces the Orioles wanted. So glad that trade was a no-go.
-C
Prado did not have a better season then Jones.
Prado had a better year in just about every area except HR and RBI. And the latter is more so because of where he hits in the lineup.
Jones Ops: .839 Prado: .796 Jones OPS plus 125 Prado: 114 Jones Total bases: 327 Prado: 270 Jones runs scored 103 Prado: 81 Jones oWar 5.2 Prado oWar 3.2..which is pointless anyway since war is a pointless stat. Hits are the same doubles are about the same. Braves fans need to stop acting like Prado is so much inferior then Jones. He’s not. they are both on the same level but Jones hhas more power and Prado walks more.
Why would ATL take the top 2 CF on the FA market when there’s only 1 CF to be played? Trying to make up for year’s of having no true CF? BJ is a good option, but not better than Bourn. If we’re able to re-sign Bourn, move on to someone else. Justin Upton would be great, but if Bourn was in CF, I’d much rather pay top dollar for 3B Chase Headley in SD and leave Prado where he is – keeping one of the best OF defenses in MLB together. Headley is controllable, hits for power/AVG, and plays a great 3B. He’s a younger, cheaper version of David Wright without all the press and questions about power.
I can’t imagine SD trading Headley right now.
That idea is based on prado moving to 3rd. B.j. in left bourn and heyward. That outfield would be quick and pretty powerful getting headly would be awesome but he had a great year and atlantas big three didnt help their stock so dont see that working out. A deal involving arodys,jj and some other fillers i feel could have got jones. Prado was not the deal breaker. Wren not wanting to part with the big three did. The terdo plan failed and prado is the best bet at third. i have faith in wren. He has money to spend and whatever he does is better than fanasty league ideas.
IIRC, the Orioles reportedly wanted Prado and 2 of Vizcaino, Delgado, Minor, and Teheran.
I will tell you, Miguel Gonzalez is on a mission! I really don’t know how he does it, other than filling the strike zone, but he does. He just goes out there and does his job surely and quietly.
Didn’t like the Yanks chances to start with. He’s beaten them twice this year.
Definition of a pitcher.
Not looking good… 6 more outs left. They need to start playing small ball and just manufacture a run. Everyone keeps striking out trying to hit a homer.
Wow!
RAUL!!! (times two)
As John Sterling likes to say: “Raul is so cool!!”
It’s seems as if Buck and the O’s front office have the midas touch this year, I just think they are a little short on talent. Machado and Bundy are the young players that will bring this team over the top in the future.
Yeah, Gonzalez has been amazing for them. Had some great starts at the end of the season and now the one yesterday. He seems so poised out there and strikes out a lot of batters. If he can keep it up this guy should be their ace next year.
I don’t want Bourn back with the Braves. I want the Upton brothers.
I like Bourn a lot, but if the Braves could get both Uptons in lieu of Bourn and a lesser player, I’d be all for it.
I don’t want Bourn because he strikes out way to much for a leadoff hitter. 155 times this year. And he totally disappeared in the 2nd half of the season. He was nowhere to be found offensively when we needed him the most.
Lots of strikeouts and a bad attitude.
A bad attitude? Where are you getting that from?
Bad attitude? The only thing I can think of is his P.C. comments during the season, not saying that he would definitely re-sign with ATL, saying how much he’d enjoy playing for WSH – and that to me, isn’t a “bad attitude”. That’s just business talk. He’s a Boras client.
When did he say that?
6.4 WAR , don’t let emotions get in the way.
yeah, but will he ever do that again? and I think his salary will end up to much for a mid market team, especially for a player who’s entire game revolves around speed.
He’s averaged 5 war over the last 4 seasons, and for how much he strikes out he gets on base at a solid clip and plays insane defence. So yes I think he has quite a few more 4-6 WAR seasons in him personally.
I don’t think he will ever post a 6 WAR season again. a few 4’s yes, but as he ages and his speed decreases, his high WAR gains in defense and baserunning won’t be able to boost up his middling offense.
IMO, the team gives him a 5 year deal for say $75-$90 mill (which somebody will) will be regretting it by the middle of year 3. He could become an $18 mill a year 2.5 WAR player awfully fast.
$60 million will get in the way, not emotions. BJ Upton is younger, could be had for a better contract, he could fall under the “change of scenery could do him well” umbrella, and provides a CF defense not far off with almost as much of a threat of SB. For the money,
Well ofcourse he’ll get a cheaper contract , he’s not as good. He provides more power , worse avg , worse OBP , less SB , Worse defence. So yes, Upton should cost less, because you are getting an inferior player. If you want a worse player so your team can save money then Upton is the way to go.
BJ Upton SO 14 more times than Bourn in 51 less ABs his season. His OBP was 50 points lower too. He obviously does have a lot more pop though.
Don’t “could of, would of, should of”, MacPherson.
IMO blowing up the team was what’s best for the sox. They needed to restructure their team, and I think they’ll be back before long.
So where is the hidden Phillies news?
I dont really agree with the idea of blowing up the team, when they were only 7.5 games out of the wild card and just making a fire sale of the players, but what’s done is done. Since the Sox canned Bobby V, i can’t help but wonder if that was something they have explored in depth before making a fire sale to the Los Angeles Yankees. Perhaps a manager change could have salvaged some games for them…
The panic moves by the Sox the last year have desimated the team. Cherrington is a nightmare. They simply have made all the wrong moves to this point, and I wouldn’t have any confidence in him. I see the O’s and Tampa going one way and the Sox and the Jays going the other.
Cherington has not made many wrong moves. The blockbuster can’t be considered a bad trade when nobody thought they could clear that much payroll and still get prospects. Signing Valentine was not his decision, in fact he was against it. Valentine forced the Youk trade. Ross was a great signing so was Ortiz on the one year deal. Getting a young All Star closer in Bailey was a good way to replace Paps considering there was no way they were going to give him 15 M a year.
Miguel is a machine out there. The man just knows how to pitch and will attack the strike zone in, out, up, down. The best thing though is it is impossible to rattle him. One of the best moves Duquette made all season.
I think that the Red Sox made the tough move only if they dont go out a blow the money on other bad signings. If they go on a huge spending spree this winter and the payroll is once again maxed out on the wrong players then the trade was a bad idea because AGON was a premiere 1B on a good deal. If they are smart and develop their own players and keep payroll flexibility for when it is needed then the trade was brilliant.
I would love to see Wren dangle Tommy Hanson to some teams. No, his trade stock isn’t at its highest, but he’s proven himself at the MLB level and has looked to have elite stuff sometimes. I can’t imagine a team giving up a Latos-like deal (SDG-CIN), but I’d take less to move Hanson who is in arbitration. He could be a better trade chip to fill some of our major league holes.