Andruw Jones Placed On Waivers
Rob Bradford of Massachusett’s Eagle-Tribune writes that Andruw Jones has been placed on waivers by the Braves. I discovered this via Buster Olney’s blog. Said Olney:
"In any event, I seriously doubt Jones will be playing for anybody but the Braves, despite the fact that in the next week, he’ll earn the 10-and-5 right to veto any trade. But we’ll soon know if anybody has placed a claim, and whether the Braves are willing to discuss a trade."
Jones makes $13.5MM next season in the last year of his contract. He’ll turn 30 in the beginning of the ’07 season. Andruw’s .350 OBP and .514 SLG are right in line with career norms. Baseball Prospectus expects him to remain at this level until about 2009. Remember, National League teams would get the first crack at Jones if more than one club puts in a claim. I could see the Cardinals and Astros putting in claims. If the Braves can’t make a deal with the team that claimed Jones, they can always just pull him back.
For a good summary of how waiver trades work, consult Steve Phillips’s article from a year ago.
Viva El Birdos: Cardinals Acquire Jorge Sosa
You might have a hard time getting over there, as SB Nation’s servers have been overwhelmed. But the Cardinals blog Viva El Birdos reports that the Cards have acquired pitcher Jorge Sosa for Triple A reliever Rich Scalamandre.
Sosa’s progression this year was as follows. First, he signed a $2.2MM deal with the Braves in January after posting a very flukey 2.55 ERA in 134 innings. Then Sosa pitched for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic as a reliever in March. The Braves decided to begin the season with Sosa as their #4 starter and John Thomson in the pen. By late June, Sosa was moved to the bullpen due to his poor pitching. After mercifully removing him from the rotation, Bobby Cox decided to make Sosa the closer. By the middle of the month Sosa lost his job to Ken Ray; he was demoted yesterday.
Scalamandre, 25, was promoted to Triple A on June 21st and has been OK in 19 innings.
Olney: Red Sox Discussing Andruw Jones
According to ESPN’s Buster Olney:
"The Red Sox and the Braves have talked about a deal that would send Andruw Jones to Boston for Coco Crisp, Craig Hansen and a prospect. But according to an executive familiar with the discussions, the Braves made a counter offer, asking for Jon Lester to be the third player."
This may be the surprise blockbuster that’s been rumored; it’s a testament to Theo Epstein that there hasn’t been a whisper of this til now. We’ve got just 2.5 hours to go.
If I’m John Schuerholz, I’d just try to get Lester involved and not worry about the rest.
UPDATE: Gordon Edes of the Boston Globe tells us that the Andruw Jones talks are dead, and that they didn’t really go anywhere. He says the Sox may still be in on Soriano. He also throws Chris Young of the Padres into the mix for the first time.
Braves Swap Betemit For Baez, Aybar
I step out for a twenty minute jog, and another deal goes down. Ned Colletti and the Dodgers made a nice move by snagging Wilson Betemit from the Braves for Willy Aybar and Danys Baez.
The Braves add another free-agent-to-be reliever with closer credentials in Baez. While the 28 year-old has been more hittable than ever this season, he’s compensated by posting career-low walk and home run run rates. The hits may stem from a strikeout rate that’s become dangerously low at just 5.26 per nine innings. While Baez is a decent reliever overall, he’s not the shutdown guy the Braves needed to differentiate their bullpen.
In Betemit, the Dodgers get an acceptable stopgap at third base for the rest of the season. More importantly, though, they’ve acquired a young, cheap second base candidate who could put up an .800 OPS in regular duty for several years.
Willy Aybar profiles as a poor man’s Betemit and profiles as more of a utility infielder. There’s a good chance Willy can commiserate with his brother Erick soon enough. Erick is the Angels’ primary trade bait.
Seems like John Schuerholz and Wayne Krivsky are a step behind the other GMs lately, trading away solid, affordable regulars for very questionable bullpen help.
Trade Rumor Roundup: 4 Days Left
What’s cooking this morning in the world of MLB trade rumors?
Gotham Baseball’s Mark Healey spoke to all sorts of baseball sources; here’s his latest Rumor Mill. New developments: the Mets could pursue various Rockie pitchers, and the Yanks crave John Smoltz.
My Mets guy indicates that the Wilson Betemit for Scott Linebrink deal that’s been bandied about could go down at the last minute. What? He hears things outside of the Mets.
SportsBlah sorts through the Alfonso Soriano rumors.
Jimmy Gobble was scratched from his start last night. Let the rampant rumormongering begin. Actually, KC just switched him with Runelvys Hernandez to break up the southpaws in the rotation.
As the days go by, Doug Melvin sounds more and more like he’ll trade Carlos Lee.
RotoAuthority gives the fantasy take on Shin-Soo Choo, Ben Broussard, Scott Kazmir, and many more recent developments.
All the newspapers are reporting that the Yankees have deemed Scott Proctor "untouchable." I know good relief help is hard to find, but should a 29 year-old middling reliever at the peak of his value really be deemed untouchable? Especially the way Joe Torre is abusing him.
Hadn’t heard of the Mets’ interest in Juan Cruz and Jose Valverde until Dan Graziano mentioned it this morning. Could be a great buy low situation for a real live arm in Valverde. Cruz I think could be tough to pry away.
There was just no reason to try to start Roger Clemens trade speculation. The Astros, five games back in the wildcard, have invested way too much to suddenly wave the white flag.
Bidding war for…Cory Lidle? Looks like Toronto has the lead so far; Lidle starts tonight.
Buster Olney mentioned today in his blog that the White Sox are willing to discuss trades for Freddy Garcia. He also indicates that the Red Sox are working on a large, creative deal with more than two teams.
Add the Mariners and Cardinals to the Yankees for Shawn Green’s interested parties. He can veto a deal to any of these three teams and is happy in Arizona.
Braves Shopping Wilson Betemit
It’s well known that the Braves are shopping infielder Wilson Betemit for more relief help, with the Yankees and Padres interested.
At this point, Betemit is a .282/.340/.434 career hitter in about 500 ABs. The 24 year-old has played second base, third base, and shortstop in the Majors. Any team acquiring him should use him in the middle infield, where his offense is above average.
As far as projection goes, Baseball Prospectus sees Betemit peaking in 2009 with an OPS around .815. Scouts have always loved him. Baseball America ranked him 99th in 2000, 29th in 2001, 8th in 2002, and 49th in 2003 among all prospects. Non-contenders should get in on this – Betemit is a good, cheap middle infielder who can help you for the next three or four seasons.
Trade Rumor Roundup: 8 Days Left
To begin with, this just isn’t true. With the Kearns deal and probably Soriano trade, the 2006 deadline just can’t be classified as a dud. That honor belongs to 2005 for sure. The trading action never matches the buildup, but this year’s still a good one.
Read Ken Rosenthal’s latest. The White Sox are in the Soriano game, the Rangers have interest in Luis Gonzalez, the Braves could add another reliever, Julio Lugo still might become a Blue Jay, and the Brewers look like sellers. In my opinion, some Brewers besides Carlos Lee that could be unloaded: Geoff Jenkins, Corey Koskie, Brady Clark, and Dan Kolb. Koskie will need to recover quickly from his concussion, however.
Still hearing that the Cubs like Willy Taveras, which would definitely fit their m.o. of players who don’t get on base. Phil Rogers also mentions that Seattle’s Rafael Soriano is being asked about. It would be surprising to see the Mariners deal that kind of young talent.
Tons of great rumors coming from Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. He’s got a rundown of the Red Sox, all sorts of teams scouting Humberto Sanchez, and more.
Buster Olney mentioned in his blog today that the Astros are among various teams scouting Elmer Dessens. The Astros are also looking at Damaso Marte.
Unfounded rumor department: Could the Dodgers be after Aramis Ramirez? Ramirez has picked a fantastic time to heat up, and L.A. has some top shelf young talent…is there anywhere Julio Lugo could go besides Toronto? How about the Rockies?
Braves Acquire Bob Wickman
As usual, Ken Rosenthal has the scoop: the Braves have their closer in 37 year-old Bob Wickman. The righthander last pitched in the National League back in 2000 with the Brewers. He has 229 career saves.
Wickman has allowed more than a hit per inning this year with the Tribe, up considerably from last year. He’s only surrendered one home run though. His control has deteriorated a bit and his K rate is a bit down from ’05. Wickman is on a one-year, $5MM deal.
The Braves parted with 21 year-old A ball catcher Max Ramirez, who is hitting well this season. Atlanta has good depth behind the plate so they shouldn’t miss Ramirez.
Gammons: Braves May Explore Andruw Jones Deal
Interesting note from Peter Gammons’s blog a couple of days ago:
"The Braves were heavily involved in the Joey Gathright deal and still could get him from Kansas City. Yes, they need a leadoff hitter, but there is the possibility that they will explore dealing Andruw Jones at the end of the season."
A lot of folks have emailed me asking whether I thought Gathright could end up with the Braves, and my knee-jerk reaction was to dismiss the idea because of Jones. But Gammons makes a good point. Andruw Jones makes $13.5MM next year in the last of his deal. He’s reaching the point where his next contract will not offer a positive return on investment for the Braves.
According to Baseball Prospectus, Jones will be worth about $9-10 mil from 2008-09 before the real dropoff begins. Obviously John Schuerholz understands this, and it seems highly unlikely that the Braves will enter the bidding for Andruw’s next deal when you have to offer 5/65 just to get in the door.
The Braves always seem to be one step ahead. They don’t have much in the way of top-shelf outfield talent now that Jeff Francoeur has been called up. It’s time to snatch up a couple more Major League ready outfielders, and the Braves have what everyone wants: starting pitching. The Yankees and Red Sox should come calling for John Smoltz and Tim Hudson. And don’t you just have this feeling that Kenny Williams will make some phone calls, just because he understands that you can never have too much starting pitching? He hasn’t been shy about trading his best prospects and Josh Fields is taking care of business at Triple A.
The Brewers and Nationals were scouting Philip Hughes recently, but that seems to be related to the Yanks’ outfield vacancies. It just doesn’t seem that New York can acquire any big names while keeping Hughes.
John Smoltz Available?
John Smoltz‘s recent comments were blown out of proportion perhaps, but the possibility remains: the Braves could consider trading him this summer. He makes $6MM this year and has an $8MM club option for next year. Though he’s 39 years old, he’s signed to a very friendly deal.
Baseball Prospectus finds Smoltz very similar to Gaylord Perry, minus the spitters. Perry pitched decently until age 44. BP’s projections value Smoltz at $11MM this year and about $7 mil in ’07. He’s shown consistent dominance on the big stage, throwing 206 innings of 2.66 ball in the postseason.
Atlanta has had a top notch farm system for as long as I can remember, and the idea of them being sellers at the trading deadline hasn’t surfaced since I was in grade school. It all depends on whether the team is expected to be competitive in 2007. They should be in the hunt, so trading Smoltz would only make sense if a near-ready MLB prospect came back in the deal – say an Anthony Reyes type.
In 2007, the Braves will have to sort through the following pitchers for the four spots behind Smoltz:
Mike Hampton
Tim Hudson
Kyle Davies
Chuck James
Anthony Lerew
That group in itself could form a competitive rotation. Still, the only sure thing in the group is Hudson. It would be dangerous to count on Hampton to return from Tommy John at age 34 in his old form and for three kids to succeed in the same season. Lerew was highly regarded entering this season but has a 9.38 ERA through 48 Triple A innings this season. He came off the DL a week ago after a back strain. The fact remains: the 2007 Braves need John Smoltz.
The ’07 Braves probably don’t need John Thomson or Marcus Giles, however. I’ve heard Joe Blanton for Giles tossed around, and it would be a smart move for the Braves in my opinion.