The annual GM Meetings will be held this Tuesday and Wednesday in Orlando, and although most of the items on the agenda involve off-the-field issues, the Braves' pursuit of a middle-of-the-order hitter could gain momentum according to Dave O'Brien of The Atlanta Journal Constitution. GM Frank Wren declined to comment on the team's rumored interest in Dan Uggla, but he did offer this…
"There's a number of things we'd like to do, but with the realization that there's 29 other clubs that want to do things as well," said Wren. "We're hesitant to trade from our base, which we think is getting stronger all the time. That's what is going to sustain us for a long time, and we need to be mindful of that."
O'Brien says Wren made it clear that a right-handed power hitter is a priority, and that said hitter is likely to come through trade rather than free agency. He also acknowledged a desire to add a veteran reliever, unsurprising given Billy Wagner's retirement and the likely departure of Takashi Saito. O'Brien speculates that Colby Rasmus might be the most attractive trade target, though he's a lefty hitter and Wren will certainly have to part with some pieces of his young core to acquire him.
Its gonna take an army of talent to nap Rasmus
David O’Brien
November 14th, 2010
4:08 pm
Here’s what Cardinals GM John Mozeliak told Post-Dispatch’s Joe Strauss, regarding Rasmus and unlikelihood of trading the 24-year-old CF:
“Every player in the right deal could be traded,” Mozeliak said, “but we are not shopping him. More importantly, I think it would be very difficult or almost impossible for us to replace him. So the way we’re planning on moving, he’s a big part of our club.”
Joe wrote: Mozeliak has worked to improve a sometimes jagged relationship between player and manager that in July led Rasmus to request a trade during a heated exchange with La Russa. Mozeliak does not deny an issue existed but insists edges have been smoothed.
“We’ve all talked through it,” Mozeliak said. “I really don’t see it as a big issue anymore.”
Mozeliak added: “I don’t think someone with his service time (two years) can pick and choose where he wants to be. That’s the nature of this business. If somebody didn’t want him here — the manager, for example — we’d have to do something about it. But Tony realizes he’s a talented player and can help us win some games.”
So……………we can stop with the Rasmus talk please!
You have to realize because a rumor was floated about Rasmus prior to the off season that people are going to make trade proposals about him until at least February. And hell, Mozeliak said it himself: “Every player in the right deal could be traded.” It just so happens that the right deal in this case is one that would make the fan base of any team hypothetically acquiring Rasmus wish the trade had never been made.
They They
I agree, and I dont wanna give up Terhan.
I know I am probably one of the few, but I don’t want Rasmus. Yes he is a great young CF, but I don’t want the price it would cost to get him in terms of players and prospects.
The Braves are setup for a ton of success in the near future with their young core and great pitching prospects.
I would rather go get a player who will cost more in terms of money but less in terms of prospects.
I agree completely…With that said though, the Braves have some of the best pitching depth in Baseball, although I wouldn’t trade them, thats not to say that Frank Wren won’t.
I like the idea of Carlos Beltran, but that won’t happen. What about someone like Magglio Ordonez possibly?
To me…Jair Jurrjens is your most tradeable starting pitching piece.
To me, the ideal situation would be for Texas to resign Lee, then Jurrjens for Gardner with the Yankees spending their money on Crawford.
Gardner would give the Braves speed at the top of their lineup, and Jurrjens would fit in the Yankees rotation at the 3rd or 4th spot.
Then I would do my best to go get Alex Rios from the White Sox, but I think a realistic options would be BJ Upton or Mike Cameron.
Interesting
Interesting, but this makes no sense. How do you go from Cliff Lee to Jair Jurrjens. I love Jurrjens, but he doesn’t have the resume to be in NYY’s rotation. For one, he’s not paid enough. Yes, that sounds stupid, but their fan base is massive and they want someone they’ll pay $50 minimum a ticket to see. Jurrjens is a great baseball decision, but not a great business decision. And from what I know about NYY baseball, he’s the hustle that Jeter cannot be all the time. No way they trade him, but I don’t know why ATL would trade that much for that little in return. When JJ’s name is talked about in a deal for Rasmus, no way would we deal JJ for Brett Gardener.
You go from Cliff Lee to Jurrjens because like I said, that would be assuming the Rangers resigned Lee.
There are no other options on the FA market that would be as good as Jurrjens, if the Yankees miss out on Lee, they will do their best to acquire starting pitching via the trade market. Jurrjens may well be the best, cheapest, most cost controlled player available.
The Yankees fans would get their tickets worth knowing they could go see Crawford in the OF, because as I said, the Yankees would use their money on him if they missed out on Lee.
Braves fans with high hopes; who don’t know anything about anything are talking Jurrjens for Rasmus, not people who actually have control over anything.
Jurrjens for Gardener would actually make sense for both teams.
Braves need a power bat, why would they want Gardner? I could see a deal for Swisher if that was the case.
The goal is to get better. Yes, Gardner is not a power bat, but he is a perfect leadoff hitter who is under cheap control for 4 more years. He is a great defensive OF who could play CF or LF giving us more options for who the other OF we obtain this offseason could be.
I wouldn’t mind getting Swisher, but he is due for about $17 million over the next two years, as opposed to about $4 million for Gardner over the next two years. That extra $13 million is not worth the change in production.
Yankees trade Swisher for JJ, then go sign Crawford?
I say trade for Rajai Davis and let him platoon with McLouth in center and sign Maggs…it would make the team a lot bettr and davis provides SPEED
I like that idea
It would also give them around 6 million to find an experienced reliever and a back up for Freeman like Ty Wiggington….hopefully they would sign wiggington to a 2 or 3 year deal so he can play ther when chipper retires
We have a lot of good pitching prospects, but not as much cash. That’s why we can’t go after someone like Werth, Crawford, or Beltre, we don’t have the kind of cash with commitments to Lowe, Chipper, Hudson to afford them. We could make them an offer. They could laugh. We could look stupid.
No one has the pitching depth that we have and we need to exercise that. Minor has been said to be off-limits (he should, he’s a 1st-rd. pick for a reason), but Beachy certainly could be expendable. As long as it doesn’t include Vizcaino (the prize of the Vazquez deal) or Teharan, we can easily recover.
As a Met fan, I hate to say it but the Braves may have a good shot at landing 1b Adrian Gonzalez from the Padres!
Trade Idea:
Braves acquire RHP H.Bell & 1b A.Gonzalez from Padres in exchanged for 4-Prospects(Julio Teheran(RHP), R.Delgado(RHP), C.Kimbrel(RHP), & F.Freeman(1b))
Braves Lineup:
C- McCann
1b- Gonzalez
2b- Prado
SS- Alex Gonzalez
3b- B.Conrad
LF- Melky
CF- McClouth
RF- J.Heyward
Melky was cut already
Thank you Mets fans. Always dependable for a terrible trade idea.
I would burn Frank Wren.
I would hang him above a big bucket of acid from his toenails. That would be more painful.
The Padres might as well give Petco Park, the city, and the convention center as well…I do see the Braves as a fit for Adrian Gonzalez, but no way they are giving up Kimbrel or Teheran…
Don’t forget Freeman.
I might give up Freeman for A-Gon. Maybe Freeman/Oberholtzer/Perez for A-Gon.
From what I have heard and read, Freeman, Teheran, and Heyward are untouchable. I should add Hanson to that also.
I wouldn’t unload Freeman for A Gon, a one year rental because there is no way the Braves can afford to keep him when he hits free agency.
You are obviously a very sick man if you think we’d give up our closer and 1B of at least 5 years for 1 year of 2 more expensive versions of what we are trading away, while throwing in 2 of our top 5 prospects. You are a very sick man.
Oh, and why is Melky still on our team? also, why is Brooks Conrad the 3B over Omar Infante and Chipper Jones?
A Met fan would want the Braves to give up those players so they won’t have to see them for 6+ years!
first of all melky got released,but second of all bell and gonzalez in the same trade?and if so,the padres are going to need more than 4 prospects
San Diego would take that trade in half a second flat and never possibly think twice about it. Are you kidding? Or just that dumb?
The old quantity over quality guy. Please think about your comments before you post them. If you knew anything about the prospects, you’d know how dumb the trade would be for Atlanta.
Thanks for the good laugh.
“Braves acquire RHP H.Bell & 1b A.Gonzalez from Padres in exchanged for 4-Prospects(Julio Teheran(RHP), R.Delgado(RHP), C.Kimbrel(RHP), & F.Freeman(1b))”
Yuck. That’s the Teixeira trade, version 2010.
That’s worse than the Teixeira trade.All 4 guys are in the top 100 prospects.
Gross. Good think you’re a Mets fan. That would ruin the Braves for years. Great thinking.
Mark Teixeira trade: the sequel. Can always count on a dumb idea from a Mets fan. Cheer for the Blue Jays and you’ll be less sad.
absolutely no chance….why would the braves trade their top two pitching prospects, their closer, and 1B for a one year more expensive rental and a more expensive closer? One of the worst trade scenarios Ive ever seen posted on here
hell, they might as well just offer Derrek Lee arb overpay for JJ Putz and keep all their prospects
I honestly want to stay away from him, the fact he didnt get along with Tony makes me think he is another Escobar. Plus Another LEFT hander???? Id scream when Cole Hamels throws a no hitter against us.
frank wren with cryptic comments? Nooo wayyy….
I think if the Braves don’t wanna let go of their prospects, it’s best to trade Jair Jurrjens for Rasmus, have Brandon Beachy hold down his spot until Kris Medlen comes back. I think it’d be: Hudson, Hanson, Lowe, Minor, and Beachy.
But if we could keep Jurrjens and our prospects, After Lowe and Huddy retire. Terehn, Hanson, Jurjens, Minor, Visciano, Delgado.. Beachy/Medlen.. Itd be crazy.
It’s going to take a ton more than just Jurrjens to pry Rasmus out of STL.
Jair’s value is down a lot this year because of injuries and off year. He will still command all that money and is a Boras client, so he’s not a top trade piece, though he is still worth a lot. Perfect for a trade for say a Kemp or a OF RH power rental + prospects, but neither will happen & I think neither should.
I’m just waiting for the first person to seriously propose the trade: Freeman for Rasmus…
Id move Freeman to OF before trade him for one.
And you talk about serious trade talks? Both GM’s would hang up.
My point is there’s no match up.
I personally think they should have did the Ludwick for Johnson trade.
I love those proposals though. Both GMs would think the other is insane, yet one has to be better. Sadly, that’s not the case in that proposal. No way STL needs 1B help and no way Braves would trade their top position prospect for a questionable, yet very solid, early career player. ( one that has already had “troubles” with his team )
Freeman for Rasmus.
BJ Upton is intriguing to me. He fits our needs perfectly. And a change of scenery could do him wonders. Get it done, Frank!
Even though id much rather have little brother upton, i would like to have BJ on our team. Speed, and a little bit of power could do us wonders… But look what happened last time we traded for a twenty homer/twenty steal person…..Sent down to the minors.. Yes im talking about McClouth.
McLouth had only 1 really good year. B.J. Upton has had a few. Still it’s another CF risk that Wren has already tried (& failed) 3 times in the past 2 years.
Question to Braves fans: What kind of athlete is Freddie Freeman? How would he fare in the outfield?
He’s a decent athlete but would not be a very good outfielder. Think Pat Burrell. He’s an outstanding defensive first baseman though. He’ll be one of the elite defenders over there in the NL as soon as he steps on the field.
Thanks for the info. Knew exactly what you meant when you mentioned Pat Burrell. Haha. Always wondered what Pat would have looked like if he had stayed at his natural position at third base.
I don’t think he’ll be as bad as Burrell, he’s not that slow plus Freeman has a cannon but having said all that Freeman is a plus defender at 1B so he’s not moving.
Ive been trying to look that up, he is an exceptional athlete, but no record of outfield.. And doesn’t look like he will transition there.
He’s actually a very good athlete, he’s shown some power as of late. He has never played the OF in his minor-league career.
Yeah, I was pretty sure he’d never been out there, but I saw someone mention above about trading for Adrian Gonzalez, and the addition of Gonzalez and Freeman to the lineup would definitely add some pop.
They should try to dump Freeman while he still has value
Whats the point? He might have 10x more value in a year or two…I don’t get it?
true,freeman could be a star within 1 or 2 years
Mets fan are we?!
I feel alone here,since i’m a Yankee fan.
Well I was in the right city!
What do you mean dump>? You dont think Freddie will be good?
I’m not convinced he’ll be a can’t miss prospect that Heyward is/was. I wouldn’t hesitate to put him in a deal for a game-changing player especially with the market for 1st basemen being strong. With that said I think he’ll be a very good player but not a great one.
I’m thinking he will be more along the lines of Adam LaRoche, but with higher BA, OBS, and OPS stats.
I feel the same way. I, of course, would love to see him prove me wrong, but I’m worried about banking on him at first. He didn’t look ready in his at bats. I know it was a small sample size, but he was overmatched. He just happened to run into a Halladay pitch with that powerful minor league swing. Other than that, what was there?
I wouldn’t say that’s a fair assessment. He hit the ball hard in his first 5 ABs but they were right at the defense. He’s got a pretty good swing. I just think he’ll be a real streaky offensive player.
And I think the *insert team name here* should try to dump *top prospect of the team name here* while he still has value.
He is gonna be a bust, might as well.
i don’t like the idea of moving freeman to LF so we can get a 1b, or maybe a 3b. Look what happened to Chipper when he moved to LF so it could improve the team, now he’s always hurt and it’d be scary to know what his stats woulda be if he didn’t move to LF
Chipper is always hurt because he is 38…not because he played LF 7 years ago.
But it did slow his game down, and he started always being hurt around that time. I agree he’s always hurt because of his age…. and that move to LF
Trade for Rajai Davis and have him platoon with McLouth in center and sign Magglio Ordonez would be the most realistic option and would improve the Braves a lot
where’s the j-hey kid in that outfield
Right Field.
Wait, there’s a right field?!?!
Not to Abbot and Castillo.
Jesus. This is a worse idea than having Dye play first base.
rajai davis sucks…he’s got speed, nothing more. Add him to the outfield with Nate McLouth and once again we’ll have a terrible offensive OF bunch in 2011
IF we sign someone like Ordonez we wont need much offensice production from that spot just very good defense oh and by the way speed can create its own offense
we need uggla. move prado to 3rd and let chipper retire. he is done
What about Mike Napoli For Gordon Beckham?
Lol
I heard Kenny laughing at you on that one.
I hope we trade for Uggla, he’d be stupid power and with the MArlins so intent on trading him I feel like that would negate the issue of them trading him intra-division
I’d sign Adam LaRoche — 2 years, 13 million, with a club option for 2013. The guy smashes for ATL. Move Freeman to LF. Give Schafer another go in center and batting lead-off.
Schafer, Heyward, Jones, McCann, Prado, LaRoche, Gonzalez, Freeman.
I’m against ATL trading for anyone.
Their pitching staff is solid. Kimbrell can move to the closer’s role. Moylan and Venters remain the set-ups.
GO BRAVES!!!
LaRoche hits about .250 before the break, and about .290 after, which is why his average is higher at the end. And, why would Braves move Freeman to LF when he has probably never even played OF? Schafer SUCKS! The LF will come from a trade, and Wren has made that very clear.
I don’t have faith in Wren making trades. He did deal Andrus and Perez for a few months of Texeira. Both helped Texas into the WS. Then he traded for Ankiel and Farnsworth, who were both well passed their prime. Now they’re both gone.
All the Braves need is one more bat in the line up. A trade is going to cost them big time. There are no prospects I’d like to see shipped away. And dealing one of their current starters would be a mistake. They have to be able to compete with PHIL year after year.
All it’ll take to get LaRoche is money. Spending money is better than shipping young talent. Adam belongs in Atlanta. It’s not a coincidence the Braves have only made it to the playoffs once since he was traded after ’06.
Freeman could easily move to LF. Jones did it. KJ did it. Infante was able to do it. I don’t think it’s as difficult a transition as you’re making it out to be. There isn’t a better bat available than Freeman’s projected numbers.
I still think Schafer has potential, which he displayed before suffering a season ailing wrist injury.
If a deal is made, I’m betting ATL will be on the losing side — the way it’s been since ’06 when Laroche was dealt for Gonzalez, who is also no longer with the team. Instead of building on the promise that were the Baby Braves, they were all given away — for nothing.
wren didnt make the tex deal you jackass
wren didnt do the teixeira deal jackass..do your reasearch or know what your talking about…perez i think you mean feliz so with that being said you have no point and no body is going to take your laroche idea serious..yeah laroche is the missing link huh? freddie will be better defensively than laroche this year and maybe even offensively…think about this the red sox traded him to us last year for kotchman…thats how much they thought of this guy…and you think he is the missing piece of the puzzle to a play off team? stick to checkers because your not very knowledgeable when it comes to what we need
So I made a mistake. No need to get personal. Grow up. If Wren has so much faith in Freeman at first base in 2011, why did he bother trading for Derrek Lee in the second half of 2010? Freeman should have gotten the job when the Glaus signing tanked. You’re forgetting how great LaRoche was when ATL did get him from BOS. He was the only one who was hitting for the Braves. I’m just saying, since LaRoche was dealt, first base has been a major weak point for the Braves. Many players coming and going. Do you not remember the Thorman fiasco?
It’s not like I’m taking my thoughts too seriously, I’m in no position to make any deals — like everyone here, I’m only expressing my opinion.
Wren also let Kelly Johnson go.
And I did mean Feliz, so thanks for that.
I think Frank traded for D Lee, because although the Braves had faith in FF, he had no major league experience and left handed and the Braves were in a playoff run because Chipper got hurt.
Exactly.. we needed a power bat in the lineup that was RH and at the time 1B was the only option to fit someone since we could not find one for the OF.
Wren did let Kelly Johnson go, but that was after he hit .224/.303 and was set to make over $3mil. Prado has filled in just nicely for KJ
It’s remarkable how much sh_t Wren gets for letting Johnson go. There are Braves fans absolutely convinced that Johnson would’ve put up the same line and power numbers had he stayed in Atlanta and played in LF.
LaRoche was never GREAT, he was solid good but not great.And KJ sucked and just couldn’t pull it together.Why keep him?Besides Prado done very well for us.There is no guarantee Johnson would have done the same thing with TP helping him out.
Why would you put that much pressure on a rookie at the end of the year when it’s crunch time?Just let him (Freeman) start opening day and the rest of the season to get experience.We were left handed heavy and we needed a right handed bat like Lee’s in the lineup.
Wow.. I don’t know where to begin. JS made the trade with Texas. Wren has made some decent trades since taking over as GM:
Edgar Renteria for Jurrjens and Gorkys Hernandez
Jose Ascanio for Will Ohman and Omar Infante
Brent Lillibridge, Tyler Flowers, Jon Gilmore, and Santos Rodriguez for Javier Vazquez and Boone Logan
Jeff Locke, Gorkys Hernandez and Charlie Morton for Nate McLouth
Kasey Kotchman for Adam LaRoche
Boone Logan and Javier Vazquez for Melky Cabrera, Arodys Vizcaino, Michael Dunn, and cash
Yunel Escobar and Jo-Jo Reyes for Alex Gonzalez and Tyler Pastornicky
My mistake. Still, out of 13 players, only Jurrjens, Infante and Gonzalez really paid off. That’s not a good percentage. Throw in the trade for Lee and the signing of Glaus, it’s even worse.
Javier Vazquez put up Cy Young numbers with us before being traded for Dunn, who turned out to be an important part of our pen last year and pitched great and Vizcaino is a top prospect… Will Ohman pitched great for us… The second half by LaRoche did not disappoint.. The Glaus signing was low risk/high reward which paid off for the first part of the seasonWhat have the players who we traded away done? Nothing.. Fact is he has gotten a pretty good return for what we traded away.. I don’t buy how Jurrjens, Infante, and Gonzalez only paid off. So far the only bad player has been Melky Cabrera and maybe a case for McLouth if he does not rebound..
Glaus was cheap and didnt cost any prospects. His May and June helped get the Braves to the playoffs. Lee was a risk worth taking also. He hit .280/.384/.465 in Atl.
name the prospects that Wren has traded that have turned out to be good ballplayers? Tyler Flowers is going to be good, but we have a 5 time allstar at catcher. Name any other prospects that we would want to have back right now
Yunel Escobar, although he wasn’t a prospect. I understand the attitude issues and I didn’t have a problem with the trade at the time. Escobar didn’t set the world on fire in his time so far in Toronto, but I think he’s going to be an annual All-Star candidate in the AL, and he’s already one of the top defensive SS’s in baseball.
But attitude issues do matter and the front office knows more than I do about his talent, so I trust their decision for the most part.
wren has done a great job with trades thus far, theres no need to beat this guy up tho. but, freeman is a pudgy dude taht wouldnt fair well in LF imo. and schafer is done, the only reason he had “potential” is because he was on hgh and now that hes off, he goes back to being a 160 lbs of scrawny. that being said, theres no need to be mean haha
Don’t feel bad about making the Teixeira trade reference to Wren. I would say majority of the people here think Wren did that trade, but Wren did do the second Teixeira trade. I’ve already typed it numerous times, the only pitcher most likely to be traded will be Kawakami. Wren has made it clear that Freeman will be the starting first baseman on Opening Day, unless he pulls a Schafer. Gonzalez wasn’t a one year wonder for the Braves, and yes, he had surgery, but he still was a big part of the almost 2009 playoff run. You also gotta understand, Braves can trade away pieces because they have that kind of minor-league system. If it was Astros in this predicament, then they couldn’t do it, since their system is not very good. And, you gotta do things you normally won’t do, even if they don’t pane out in the end, because that’s life.
you think the Braves are missing Andrus’ .640OPS? Andrus wouldnt upgrade the Braves offense right now. seriously, the only guy from that deal that the Braves are somewhat missing is Feliz. BTW, that was JS not Wren who made that trade. Wren did however trade Renteria for Jurrjens and Ascaino for Ohman/Infante.
One more mistake you made but I’ll be a little nicer and more mature about it. Don’t listen to idiots like Doubledime on this website. It’s easy to be threatening and abusive in writing. Anyway, I’m almost 100% positive that you got it reversed with Kelly Johnson. To the best of my knowledge, he started in left field then moved to 2nd base after Tommy John surgery. I may very well be wrong though.
Oh those sneaky mets fans trying to make us as crappy as their team.
I feel like Juan Rivera should just move to Atlanta now so he can start having his mail forwarded to his [inevitable] new address…
I personally would rather see Mark Reynolds in a Braves uni rather than Dan Uggla. Reynolds has more power, more speed, and when Chipper’s gone he’ll play much better defense than Uggla. Plus, he won’t cost as much.
ludwickfrom the Padres
ludwickfrom the Padres