Good news, bad news
ESPN.com - MLB - Braves, Smoltz agree on contract extension
No confirmation yet from the official site or AJC, but ESPN says that it is a contract for $14 million next season with an option for 2009 that kicks in if he pitches 200 innings, then a team option for 2010. You would assume that would take him to the end of his career.
Cormier has soreness in throwing arm | ajc.com
Well, that's not good. After the Hampton Experience, any time a pitcher has mysterious muscle soreness I worry about his elbow.
UPDATE: Smoltz confirmation from the official site, though no press release yet.
UPDATE UPDATE: Press release, which is essentially the same as Peanut's article.
posted by Mac @ 4/26/2007 07:14:00 PM
47 Comments
47 Comments:
So long, Andruw.
The Smoltz contract does worry me a bit. $14 mil is a lot to pay a pitcher who's 40+ years old. I know I know its Smoltz... I'll try to be optomistic.
The market for quality pitching has gone crazy. I like the structure of the contract, though. Big money short duration contracts are pretty low risk. It will be nice to have one of our big three finish in Atlanta.
Just a random thought here, but Buster Olney is saying that the A's should trade Rich Harden and Jason Kendal is hitting pretty bad right now, just .192/.241/.205 0 HR 5 RBI. So maybe Salty would tempt them to part with the 25-year old. Hudson,Smoltz,Harden,James, Hampton/Davies/Cormier looks damn good to me.
Also the Tigers are very interested in Salty as well and Mlbtraderumors mentioned a deal that would send Nate Robinson plus a good prospect to Atlanta for Salty.
This is from DTNews,
Atlanta is sitting pretty on the trade front. The Braves have the best catching prospect in baseball in Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who is having a monster start at Double-A Mississippi.
What it means is that Saltalamacchia soon enough is either going to beat out current Braves catcher Brian McCann, which isn't likely for obvious reasons, or the Braves will pull a position-switch with McCann or Saltalamacchia.
The other option is to trade one of the, two with Saltalamacchia looming as the more likely bet there.
Three-quarters of the teams in baseball -- a conservative estimate -- are looking for young catching, the Tigers included.
The Tigers have been trying since at least last year to trade for a legitimate catching prospect. Their problem: everyone else has the same needs, and good young catchers are scarcer than at any time in memory.
I don't know... Robertson is pretty ordinary. I mean, he's a lot better than Redman, but that really doesn't mean anything at all. Of course, they aren't going to trade Verlander or Bonderman, and their other starters suck.
"The other option is to trade one of the, two with Saltalamacchia looming as the more likely bet there."
Note to whoever wrote this article: hell would freeze over before the Braves trade Brian McCann any time in the foreseeable future.
I'd like one of two things:
1. Keep Saltalamacchia and groom him for first (McCann is not moving to first.)
2. Trade him for either a good starting pitcher on the cheap or a nice centerfielder who can take over when Andruw Jones goes.
I know this is going to sound crazy, but...:
The Braves are getting nothing from the offensive position of leftfiend and the Mets are also looking for a young catching prospect, as they will need a new catcher in 2008, so how about a Jarrod Saltalamacchia for Lastings Milledge trade? Anyone?
Hell No!
Milledge really isn't all that. Do you know how many home runs he's hit in his minor league career (1100 AB)? 30. He's one of those guys who has to hit .300 to help the team.
Sorry, I don't mean to sound so blunt, but there is no way I would advocate sending Salty to a division rival, let alone the Mets. I kind of like the idea of contacting Billy Beane about Harden or Haren.
Harden is good when he's healthy, which isn't very often. Kurt Suzuki is one of Oakland's top prospects and is a catcher. Not sure why they'd want Salty anyway.
Milledge is a clubhouse cancer. He's over-rated just like every other prospect out of NY, Seriously, though, if he's not better than Alou or Shawn Green, then he isnt worth our best prospect...
Also, why do I have to keep signing up everytime I can to this page?
Defensive positions don't matter to Beane. He'll put anyone anywhere...as long as you can get on base, Beane will want you.
Oh, and if you won't cost too much...
Milledge was quite young for every level. While he plays a less premium position, he's a good defender and certainly a high quality prospect. I wouldn't do it, but it owuld be an extremely defendable swap.
I have Smoltz's 2006 valued at $16.6 million.
Oakland already has Jeremy Brown & Kurt Suzuki as catching prospects. Also, Dan Johnson and others at 1B. Unless you are planning on moving Salty to RF, I doubt that Beane & the A's would be interested in making that deal...they want at least two GOOD prospects for a Harden/Haren. I also have to wonder if the Charles Thomas/Dan Meyer for Tim Hudson trade is looming in Beane's mind...?
someone suggested this and i thought it was a rather innovative idea to keep salty and mccann in the same lineup. do a first base/catcher platoon giving each one day of rest every 10 games. lets just say that mccann catches hudson and smoltz next year, and salty catches james, and the other 2 starters. days that salty catches, brian plays first. days that mccann catches, salty plays first, and once every 10 games each gets a complete day of rest. i know it probably would never happen and this is very much useless, but auburn had a similar situation (ok, this is a little but of a stretch, but i promise i make a decent point) with carnell and ronnie brown in the backfield. they restructured their offensive system to accomodate both players.it seemed to work out good for them. why couldnt this be done? it puts stability in a position that looks as though needs it as of now,the catchers dont put near as much wear and tear on their bodies throughout a 162 game season, and it keeps 2 catchers that the organization does not want to get rid of. also, it will add some much needed power to a post andruw lineup. i know i am probably not seeing it, so what would be the problem with this idea?
What about Chipper? Is there really no thought that he has to go to first to finish out his contract? I say move McCann then. Salty needs to be learning the ropes at 3rd or he and the school marm will be gone soon enough. Milledge for Salty would be awful, worse than awful. Have you seen Milledge's myspace page, the guy is like Kenny Lofton with a bad attitude.
Besides, if we can land Bob "the Body" Wickman for Maxi Ramirez, then Salty should fetch the moon.
Milledge is an super-overhyped prospect which only stupid team will trade for him, and it's not going to be the Braves. Look at Milledge's minor league stats closely and I am sure you will not be impressed.
I seriously doubt that Bobby would do that, and few managers would. It's innovative, but most managers are risk-averse, for good reason. Of course, few teams two have catchers as good as McCann is and Salty seems to be, but if you look back upon those situations -- say, Del Crandall and Joe Torre -- the most you'd see is one regular with the other backing up and playing first the rest of the time.
OK, if myspace.com/lastingsmilledge44 is REALLY Lastings Milledge's MySpace, I now cannot stand that man. I don't think I've ever seen more arrogance in a MySpace page every before. My goodness...
Jeremy and Bamachum,
I didn't even think to check their farm system for catching prospects. Oh well, i'd love to keep Salty but if we can get a very good starter(among other things) then I say go for it.
Ok, that can't be legit! No one can be that arrogant.
Lastings's Interests
General Getting Hits, Stealing Bases, Throwing out baserunners, being the Messiah.
Music
The sound of my own thoughts is more pleasant than any sound man has created. Oh, and the *RIP* sound the air makes when I throw the ball. And the sound of the wind flowing through my dreads as I steal third.... from first.
Movies
I have actually played every part in every movie ever made. I do my own makeup. And I wrote and directed each film as well... except The Ringer.... I couldn't do anything that bad if I tried.
Television
I TiVo all my at bats. And loop them on the 98 inch plasma screens on all the walls in my house.
Books
The Tao of Milledge, it will change your life.
Heroes
Lastings Milledge. Jim Henson.
It also says that he is 6'11"
Yeah, Jay, I saw that and I was just shocked. There's no way that's real. People would absolutely hate him everywhere he goes. You got MySpace?
No, I had one but was never on it so I deleted it.
It is most definitely made up. McCann and Francoeur are on Facebook and it really seems like a fan made their pages.
The Dan Kolb Bolg, however, is 100 percent real. I swear.
So is Langerhans. I think I'm all their "friends" on Facebook. In fact, Langerhans joined the "I have a man-crush on Brian McCann" group I started. We got a lot of Braves Journal people in that group.
Here's what the Big Lead posted as Milledge's real myspace page. Judging from the pictures, they may be right. I'm not sure how a random fan would find so many web cam photos.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=73120085
I wonder what Tampa bat would give us for Salty and Lerew.
I'm really baffled about what to do with Salty. This Smoltz signing seems to make it even more likely that we will lose Andruw. How do we replace his power? Well I think Salty at first is a start in the right direction. At the same time, would it be more beneficial to trade Salty at his peak of value for a Starter? If you are going to trade him, I think you have to get legit starting pitching because it is much harder to come by than an outfielder. I just don't know which way is the best way to go.
maybe we put smoltz in CF.
Okay, I am not goint to get into it betond this, but Milledge is not an "overhyped prospect". I don't know how much faith you have in PECOTA or Nate Silver, but I think we can agree he's not biased one way or the other.
Nate:
"Milledge’s PECOTA comp list includes some of the game’s studs: Adrian Beltre, Grady Sizemore, Elijah Dukes, Carlos Beltran, Sheffield, Andruw Jones...PECOTA’s stars and scrubs chart gives Milledge a 50% chance of being a star by 2011..."
He may be a jerk, he may flame out, but he is a legitamate top prospect right now.
i'm hope james has his "stuff," i'm not ready for another episode of homerun derby.
Detroit has a prime CF prospect in Cameron Maybin. I doubt they would give him up, but for Salty.. potentially.
He's #6 on Baseball America's list:
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/features/263445.html
Salty comes in at #36, by the way, but that was after a terrible, injury-plagued year.
I'm not necessarily advocating this trade, but just matching suitors with needs.
--Cary
Dan Duquette, the old Red Sox GM, is now the director of player operations for the Israeli Baseball League.
It would be a mistake I think to trade a top prospect this early for short-term pitching help. There is no reason to think Harden will ever by healthy and anyone else likely to be available would not be worth it. If you are going to trade Salty, wait until the offseason when you aren't under pressure.
I don't see the need to make a trade right now. We'll be just fine. Let's wait til mid-May before seriously thinking about making a deal. It's too early.
I'm a little unconvinced by the Cormier-as-savior mentality. He's a crappy reliever who's occasionally useful as a spot starter. But I'm not at all sure he's better than Davies over the course of a season. Sure he's better than Redman... but then again, so is Smitty.
Why don't we just put Villarreal back in the rotation? He's been terrible in the bullpen so far.
If we are talking 4th and 5th starter material, I say we try the Vulcher before moving a top prospect.
alex,
i was with you right up til point of throwing the vulture in the rotation.
isn't it sick that Redman can go out and throw the way he does and the Braves win, and then Hudson can go out and strike out 12 in 8 innings and the result for the Braves is a loss.
I say if we can get the "good" Redman in 1 of every 3 or 4 starts, it will be the same result as having the vulture in there.
also, why move a top propect for a 4/5 starter? in another month teams that are falling out of contention will be ready to deal better players than we could get now at lower cost. i say we hold our cards.
man this Schilling sock drama is getting out of control.
one reporter can't pick up on sarcasm and now you've got Schilling putting up a $1M to anyone who can prove it wasn't a hoax.
i think he protests a bit much.
what's next, the stigmata?
Keep Salty!
There may be a hole in my logic, but when there are obvious problems at LF or 1B, it's easy to discuss the availability of "above replacement level" players at those positions.
But if Salty is the offensive force I think he can be, I'd prefer a "star" for 5-8 years at 1B to someone we might get in trade.
Of course, if someone makes us an obscenely stupid offer that favors the Braves, please disregard this argument!
You guys seen this?
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6153
Lillibridge at #12? Damn!
http://profile.myspace.com/73120085
Lastings' myspace page
So, is everyone as excited about the draft tomorrow as I am?
I can't wait!
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