Results tagged ‘ AJ Burnett ’
Furcaled
Apparently the word “furcaled” will become a new phrase in baseball from now on.
Furcaled (pronounced fer-call-d) verb
Definition: Saying you will play for a team and then choosing another a day later.
Words Close to it: Played, Lied to
Example: Griffey just furcaled the Braves.
Don’t mind my last post since it has no real meaning and I don’t want to change the title.
Reaction:
Am I mad? Of course. That and disappointed. When your 2nd favorite baseball player doesn’t choose your favorite team, you will be a little upset.
Are we not gonna be as good? The good thing is that we can easily improvise. He wasn’t what he was 10 years ago, so he is not as important. It would have been a great thing morale-wise and could have probably really helped our team, but I guess this is the way it goes.
Fire Frank Wren? No of course not. He has done a great job this offseason. Griffey WANTED TO go to Seattle. Burnett WANTED TO go to New York. Furcal WANTED TO go to L.A. Peavy COULDN’T come to Atlanta without giving up Hanson, which I totally agree with. Anyways Burnett, Furcal, Peavy, and Griffey not coming to Atlanta could have actually been a blessing. All 4 have had an injury over the last 2 years.
Who will play LF now? It will probably be Schafer in center with Anderson and Diaz in LF. That could definitely help us in the future by getting Anderson and Schafer lots of early playing time. Plus Frenchy could have a good season again. I think it’s very likely.
Has this been a horrible offseason? Nope. To me it has been pretty decent. We were luck to have enough money to change our pitching staff. The outfield was really just extra. We got 2 extra bullpen arms (they could actually be decent next year), we got a backup catcher which we also really needed, we got 3 very good pitchers, and we don’t have Corky Miller or Chuck James on the team. Decent enough for me. Oh and we never lost any important players other than John Smoltz, but he was a free agent.
Should we blame David O’Brien of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution? No that has got to be a joke. If Griffey didn’t come because of that, then good since we didn’t want him. If you can’t take the media giving their opinion of where they think you will go, then you shoudln’t play baseball. Plus Jr’s friends told David a lot of the info.
Who are still options in the outfield that aren’t already on the Braves? Swisher, Nady, Anderson, Edmonds, Gonzalez, Ankiel, and Ludwick.
I still think we can win the East. We have some really good players on our team.
Other news
The Braves are talking extension with Chipper Jones.
That is music to my ears. This really needs to get done. I think he will probably get around a 3/18MM to a 3/24MM deal. There might be some options in it.
Braves avoid Arbitration with Jeff Francoeur.
Some more good news. He’ll be getting around $3.375 this year.
Gone to New York for the Hollidays.
Well This might be the last post I will be doing until 2009 (Hopefully not, but most likely it will be). I’m going to New York for Christmas and New Years and won’t be back until the 4th of January. I’ll try to get on every once in a while and send comment, but I will be site-seeing the majority of the time so I’ll do as much as I can.
I’m going to be staying near New York City and it will be my first time going up there. It’s suppose to snow and be around 25 degrees there so hopefully I won’t freeze. Down here in Alabama it’s 70 degrees. That’s a major temperature change.
The only thing I need for Christmas is for Atlanta to get a big-name player and for Alabama to beat Utah in the Sugar Bowl. The 2nd one is likely, the 1st one has a chance to happen (hopefully). Hey! While I’m down there I might pay Mr. Burnett a visit and ask him why he is not in Atlanta! Just Kidding =)
Alright I’m going to start packing.
And just in case I don’t get on here until January….
Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!
P.S. I promise I won’t be spying on the Mets or do anything to them!
-Darion
Burnett a Yankee
Yankees signed A.J. Burnett to a five-year, $82.5MM deal. We essentially did nothing over the last week, and that may cause our season to already be over. You may say we had no chance to sign him, but we really did. Right now we are 1-4 with pitchers this offseason (Tazawa, Peavy, Burnett). We seriously NEED to steep it up right now.
Sheets is the next thing on our agenda. We could possibly bid for Derek Lowe, but it’s very unlikely. Right now I wished we would have keep Hampton. We also need to get a power-hitting outfielder. Since we aren’t gonna have that awesome rotation, we might as well get some major offense to heal the pain.
Someone like Ludwick might help, if he does prove last year wasn’t a fluke. We also need Sheets and another pitcher such as Garland. We night have to throw Smoltz in the rotation just because of experience and the fact we might end up with a rotation similar to
Vazquez, Jurrjens, Campillo, Morton, and Hanson. Throw Smoltz in for Morton and it might be a 3/5 star rotation. Maybe. Chuck James just got non-tendered, so he is a free agent. Didn’t see much in him anyway. He was just a trading chip at the best. Plus we freed a couple of thousand dollars and gave us back couple of extra wins that he would have made us lose.
Parr, Redmond, and Reyes are the other starters we have, so we are seriously screwed if we don’t get Sheets or just Anybody!
Come on Wren! Make something special happen!
Maybe we will be good in ’11 or ’12.
Pros and Cons of getting Burnett
Ok let’s talk about the pros and cons of signing AJ Bunett to a 5 year deal.
PROS
- He is a DOMINATE pitcher when he’s on the mound. It’s hard to go up against him because he is SO good.
- He can strikeout a lot of guys. He lead the league this year and has 1278 K’s over 1376.1 Innings. With Vazquez and Burnett, we can make a lot of guys swing and miss.
- He can bring that “Ace” presences that need. Yes you can argue that he’s not a “true” ace, but once you have a rookie as an ace while only winning 13 games, who cares. Honestly, Burnett is an ace to me.
- He actually would come down to Atlanta. When he was talking about teams that he would consider, he named a bunch of North Eastern teams and then included us. That’s good.
- We need an elite pitcher. As much as I hate to say it, Peavy chances of coming here are very small. We need someone who is good, otherwise we will end up with Garland as our ace or someone like that. Very sad.
- Everyone wants him. Maybe not some of my fellow Braves Bloggers want him, but Cox, Wren, Chipper, and even Javy Vazquez want him. I’m sure that everyone in the Braves organization want him and would do almost anything to get this guy, no matter the medical history.
- He might not get injured like he did in the past. Yes it’s likely he will be on the DL, but if you think about it, he has the same chance of getting injured as Sabathia does. Burnett actually went a full season without getting injured, so to me he is on a clean slate.
- We can prevent the Yankees from being the best team in history. Which one would you rather face? Burnett or Garland? That is their backup, and it would be a lot better to face Garland than it would Burnett.
CONS
Alright now the bad things.
- He’s always injured. We all know the story to that. Look at his stats.
- He wants 5 years. That’s a little crazy, but obviously some teams have shown that they would do it.
- He wants a lot of money to go along with that 5 years. around 80-90 million/5 years is his goal.
- He only pitched over 200 innings 3 times over his career since ’99. That was ’02, ’05′ and ’08.
- We just got done with Mike Hampton. Ok a positive to this is AJ is better than Hampton, but still do we want a guy that will miss 2-3 seasons?
- We will have to bid higher since we are not near his hometown.
- We are bidding against the YANKEES!!! If we outbid them, I think the Braves saved baseball from a crazy-good rotation that would not even be fair.
We can still go and get other guys that might not have better results, but they won’t be as injured as he is. - Burnett might want to be on the Yankees because they are getting CC and it’s close to his home. Go figure
- We would have to make other special deals where we have to transport his wife to Atlanta 8 times a year. Ok that’s not even that bad, but I just wanted to mention it.
- It might take a while and we have other needs we need to address.
- We can still get Peavy. Only if we just forget about this deal and just focus on trading Peavy. We still have a chance to make the best package for Towers. Yes it’s unlikely, but it isn’t impossible.
- We have a history of pitchers getting injured in the organization. It would seem like it would effect Burnett, and he would most likely would be on the DL a couple of times. Thank God for James Andrews though in Birmingham. Where would we be without him?
Ok I’m done talking about it. You can choose whatever, but I say get him. This to me is a all-or-nothing thing. Our chances of being competitive is on this guy right now.
Oh by the way, don’t listen to most ESPN guys. They really don’t know what they are talking about, so don’t pay attention to the Smoltz to Tigers, Mets, or any other team. He will be a Brave next year.
UPDATE
It’s only between us and the Yanks and it might be close. They are most likely gonna bid higher and add a 5th year, so we need to do everything we can to get him, even if it means putting in a 6th year option or anything like that. We really need this guy. Our backup will probably be Sheets, (same injury deal, less years and less money though) but I’m hoping we won’t need to use our backup.
ANOTHER UPDATE
Apparently the Peavy to Cub deal is dead, and that is good music to my ears and other Braves fan. I think we can benefit from this and we might have another chance to land Peavy! Also, if we do go for Peavy, we won’t be including our SS Yunel Escobar. Way too late for that one. We could still package a good deal though, just not as good as the other one. You have to wonder who the Padres will have at short since they got rid of Greene.
-Darion
Braves Interested in… Everything?
As you can tell, the Braves have been in many trade discussion, with the addition to a couple of free agents. I thought we were mostly going to focus on the free agent market with the exception of the Peavy deal and a couple of others. Speaking of Peavy, it looks like he will not become a Brave this season. It’s not impossible, but it looks like Towers wants to be, well lets just say stupid for the sake of the kids, and only trade him to the Cubs.
Well anyway the Braves have their eyes on Ludwick, Ankiel, Dye, Hart, Hermida, and Ibanez for the outfield. The also are exploring the possibility of sending Frenchy to the Royals for Zack Greinke. That would be a steal for the Braves, but I really don’t want to trade him. Every player has a bad year, maybe not as bad as his, but they all have one. Let’s give him one more chance Atlanta! Especially since he’s always got that smile on his face, even if he screwed up, you never see him frown. That’s a god attitude.
Plus he’s a fan favorite
I say keep Frenchy.
The Braves have also been in a lot of talk with Burnett and many other pitchers. I just hope we have a solid rotation, Peavy or no Peavy. Wren, I wanna hear some Smoltz talk. Everyone knows he is going to pitch, so please just talk to him about a contract, preferably a cheap and short one. No Glavine either. Thanks.
Well anyway the Braves do need to start releasing/trading/doing anything to get rid of a couple of players, mostly Corky Miller. We need to start reducing the payroll from the not-as-good players so we don’t end up paying millions for players who have a 10.70 ERA or a .100 average. Yes it sounds childish, but we need to get some stuff done
I guess we can pencil in Escobar as the SS of next year and so forth. Thanks Towers.
By the way, We need to work on a new contract with Huddy and Chipper. Maybe even JJ, Esco, Johnson, and Prado. Again Childish, but it needs to get done, especially the first two.
-Darion
Astros sign Hampton
Well I called this one and saw it coming. The Astros have signed Mike Hampton and the deal will go through depending on a physical. The deal is a 1 year deal worth 2 million with possible bonuses depending on health and games appeared in.
Of course, I did predict this and I’ not surprised he did not resign.
Like every other Braves fan, I’m a little pissed since we paid him around 30 million to sit on the bench for 2.5 years, go 3-4, and hit like 4 doubles, but that’s just baseball for ya. It’s sad to see him go, but I hope he does well with them and doesn’t get injured, regardless of how much we wasted on him.
This is bad for the Braves considering he was a backup plan. This is the 3rd pitcher we have had interest in and signed somewhere else (Tazawa, Dempster). Now we REALLY need to go out and get both Peavy and Burnett. They are the people we need more than anyone else that we can actually afford.
In other news, Dale Murphy and Ron Gant will get chances to go the the Hall of Fame. This will be Gant’s first year. Both, in my opinion, deserve to go. Hopefully, they will get some votes.
UPDATE
According to Dave O’Brien, The Braves offered him a higher contract, but he chose to be close to his Phoenix home. I’m a bit disappointed in that one.
Will the Braves go for 5?
A.J. Burnett will not sign a contract unless it is a 5 year deal. The Yankees have declined to do that, opening a huge doorway for the Braves. But do the Braves want to go 5?? Burnett, as most know, is injured ALL THE TIME. Out of his 10 year career, he has only pitched over 200 innings 3 times. Pretty scary.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/b/burnea.01.shtml – this site can show you all his stats over his career. He does have a 3.81 ERA and is usually lights out when he isn’t injured. Sheets is another option and will most likely sign a contract for 2-3 years. He is also lights out when he’s healthy but I don’t know what kind of chances Wren wants to take because of last year’s injuries. I actually want to take a chance on Burnett and the Blue Jays look likely to do that too. It is a huge sign of relief if the Yanks don’t bid on Burnett so we don’t have to compete with a 20 million a year contract. These are our most likely options for next year’s rotation in order: Peavy, Hampton, Glavine, Burnett, Lowe, Tazawa, Garland, and Sheets. I think we can get 2 of those players. The other players on our team to fill in spots in the rotation are Campillo, Parr, Morton, Reyes, Hanson, Redmond, Carlyle, and James. I doubt we will do much this offseason with the outfield. If we don’t trade for Ankiel or Ludwick or don’t sign Ibanez, then look for a Schafer/Diaz, Anderson/Diaz, and Frenchy outfield.
Let the Games Begin!
Well the Free Agent Market reopened today and this is where all the excitement is. There are a few names out there that the Braves are looking at.
Burnett, Lowe, Dempster, Tazawa, Furcal and Renteria(depends on Peavy deal), Sheets, and Garland.
Former Braves in the FAM that the Braves might bring back: Smoltz, Norton, Ohman, and Smoltz.
Although the outfield may be covered by prospects (Schafer and Anderson), Wren might find one through trade with Ankiel, Ordonez, Ludwick, and Andruw Jones the most likely. In the FAM, there is also Dunn, Burrell, and Ibanez.
Look for a surprise trade as well or a trade to get rid of players such as Diaz, Thorman, Miller, Acosta, and a couple of smaller prospects.
Sabathia, Tex, and Ramirez ARE NOT gonna become Braves so stop thinking about it now. If the Braves get the Peavy deal done and sign Burnett or Lowe, then expect them to resign either Hampton, Glavine, or a 2nd tier pitcher. If Glavine retires, Hampton goes elsewhere, and there is not good FA available, expect Parr, Morton, Reyes, or Hanson to get called up. Campillo is most likely a starter next year so it will be a
Peavy/FA
FA
JJ
Campillo/FA
FA/Parr/Morton/Reyes/Hanson rotation.
Outfielder or Pitcher? I’m Hoping Both
As most Braves fans know, this offseason we are trying to find an ace to help out Jurrjens and another pitcher, AND a power-hitting outfielder. Which one should we spend more money on? In my opinion it is pitching. The most possible options are Lowe, Peavy, Garland, Burnett, Sheets, Dempster, Tazawa, possibly Sabathia, and maybe even Oliver Perez. Outfield options are Holliday, Ordonez, maybe Nady or maybe Bay, Manny Ramirez (not likely but possible), Rocco Baldelli, Atkins is possible, Burrell, Dunn, Ibanez, Griffey, Andruw Jones (I have heard lots of talk about him), and Delmon Young. Wren might find most of his needs in the free agent market since he does not want to trade his prospects. 45 million to spend, but who are we gonna spend it on? I’m thinking we need to start trading to make it a little more and then going for Peavy, Burnett or Lowe, Ordonez or Holliday, and a new backup catcher who can hit over .250.
Changes to the Market
Brewers exercise option on Mike Cameron
Yankees sign Sergio Mitre
Rays declined 2009 options on Cliff Floyd and Trever Miller
Marlins Claim Dan Meyer off waivers from Athletics
The Royals exercised 2009 option with Miguel Olivo with possible 2010 option
Giants Sign Josh Phelps
Yankees Decline Options On Jason Giambi and Carl Pavano
mlblogsdarion
Recent Comments