The Braves are next in our Offseason In Review series.
Major League/International Signings
- Alex Gonzalez, SS: one year, $2.5MM. Club option exercised.
- Eric Hinske, 1B/LF: one year, $1.45MM.
- George Sherrill, RP: one year, $1.2MM.
- $500K buyouts for Kyle Farnsworth and Rick Ankiel
- Total spend: $6.15MM.
Notable Minor League Signings
Extensions
- Dan Uggla, 2B: five years, $62MM.
Trades and Claims
- Claimed OF Joe Mather off waivers from Cardinals
- Acquired 2B Dan Uggla from Marlins for IF Omar Infante and RP Mike Dunn
- Acquired RP Scott Linebrink and $3.5MM from White Sox for P Kyle Cofield
- Claimed RP Anthony Varvaro off waivers from Mariners
Notable Losses
- Billy Wagner, Takashi Saito, Kyle Farnsworth, Omar Infante, Mike Dunn, Kyle Cofield, Scott Diamond, Melky Cabrera, Troy Glaus, Matt Diaz, Derrek Lee, Rick Ankiel
Summary
The Braves' winter kicked off with the October hiring of Fredi Gonzalez as manager. GM Frank Wren's ensuing offseason was one of the game's best, as he was able to avoid a soaring free agent market and trade for a star player at a discount.
Uggla's acquisition price and the Marlins' willingness to trade him within the division surprised me. The Braves came out smelling like roses, giving up one year of a good utility player and a hard-throwing but wild reliever. Uggla (pictured) seems to boost the Braves' offense more than most available left fielders would have. However, adding four years and $52MM for Uggla doesn't seem like much of a discount compared to his expected free agent contract. Had he not been extended, Uggla might have been looking at an additional $5-9MM over the 2011-15 seasons.
The Braves lost Rafael Soriano and Mike Gonzalez from their pen in the previous offseason and signed Wagner and Saito as replacements. Those two have since departed as well. The Braves continued the veteran reliever cycle for just $3.2MM for Sherrill and Linebrink, also retaining arbitration eligible Scott Proctor for $750K. All three represent cases of buying low, but even if they don't bounce back the Braves will have a full season of Craig Kimbrel and other holdovers like Jonny Venters, Peter Moylan, and Eric O'Flaherty. The organization's power arms in the minors accentuate the fact that only secondary bullpen additions were needed.
I liked several of Wren's smaller moves this offseason. He retained Hinske without adding a second year. Lopez, who pitched 200 innings last year, adds rotation depth on a minor league deal. Mather is a good athlete who figures to make the team as an extra outfielder.
Because of the depth they've accumulated, the Braves were able to avoid the high end of the free agent market for first basemen, starting pitchers, and relievers. The club's rotation depth should take them far, and with many good young pitchers pushing toward the Majors they may even have a surplus soon. The Braves may be exposed in left and center field if Prado has to fill in for Chipper Jones at third base for an extended period of time. I expect Wren to be active on the trade market if the outfield does become a concern.
Ben Nicholson-Smith contributed to this post. Photo courtesy of Icon SMI.
The Braves are looking good. McClouth should at least be average and Chipper should play in at least 100 games. I’ll say 90 wins, WC.
ageed braves do look good providing no sophomore slump for heyward , freeman plays well, chipper doesnt have a major injury and somebody steps up in the back of the pen, however the way mcclouth has looked the last couple of years average would be like a breakout season but i think 90 wins and the wild card is very attainable
Im thinking 95 wins and a great year from Heyward. If Cliff Lee gets injured, or Oswald is ineffective i see the braves winning the NLEast
injuries are definitely part of the game , i think it would take two injuries for the phillies to falter , like cliff lee and oswalt
IF IF IF
and what IF the braves have injuries to their front line starters?
Braves have more depth to overcome injuries than the Phillies do, assuming those injuries aren’t to the outfield.
so Hudson and Hanson can go down with injury and the braves will still make the playoffs? C’mon get real
Never said that, you did. Merely said they have more depth, which they do.
Trust me, I’m not the overly optimistic type and I’m certainly not Free_AGC or whatever her name is.
I know you didn’t say that
but I was commenting to the guy who said well if Lee and Oswalt are hurt the braves will win the division..
its a ludicrous comment because it doesn’t take in to account that the braves could suffer injuries as well
The Braves will no doubt suffer through injuries, every club does. The Phillies have to be the favorites right now even if they deem Utley unfit to play even a single game. Can’t believe the overreactions to his injury. They went from WS favorites to ‘OMG we’re screwed!’ pretty quickly, it’s silly.
The comments about the Phillies pen bothers me the most. I keep hearing about how it’ll be this huge weakness. Madsen is one of the best setup men in the game and Lidge proved last year that he can still pitch at a high level. I don’t expect Contreras to ever be that good again, but he’s a solid 7th inning option. And with that rotation, middle relief isn’t going to be all that important. They have a strong backend assuming Lidge doesn’t inexplicably return to 2009, and if he does I feel Madsen can step in. I’m more worried about the Braves pen than the Phillies, if I’m honest.
You’d still have a semi-respectable rotation even with those two down
Jurrjens, Lowe, Minor, Beachy, possibly Teheran or Delgado in that case, or Medlen when he comes back in August.
Very young rotation, but very good.
The Braves have guys that can fill in better then if one of the phillies starters get hurt. And im saying Cliff Lee because i think hes a guy more likely to get injured bc of his back then Hudson Lowe Jurrjians or Hanson
nobodies gonna be able to fill in for your number 1 and number 2 starter sorry man i dont care how many young guns you have coming they arent their because they arent ready yet. but i like your optimism
I know they wont fill in for a number one or two im not comparing them to a number one or two im comparing the guys the braves could use vs the guys the phillies could call up.
Worley pitched in the majors , pretty well i might add but a very small amount and kyle kendrick proved he can pitch even if its only as a fifth starter how many teams have four number one type guys anyway, so even if phills lost one their is still three and Worley or Kendrick who are semi proven , so the minor league guys are unproven and just because you dominate the minors doesnt mean it will transition so seamlessly against the professional hitters you know
Sure, but the Phillies replacing a starter with a guy like Worley isn’t in the same park as the Braves replacing one of their guys with the #1 pitching prospect in baseball, by most peoples estimates anyway.
when did you guys get hellickson( just kidding ) , and phillies have two pitchers in top 100 prospects , neither are close but, just because your the top prospect doesnt mean you will dominate see homer bailey and worley has experience thats what i meant , your prospects are still unproven and the minors isnt the majors
The Braves have five pitchers in the top 100 prospects.
#5 Julio Teheran
#35 Randall Delgado
#37 Mike Minor
#87 Craig Kimbrel
#93 Arodys Vizcaino
Teheran and Delgado could be ready by midseason, and Mike Minor will probably win the Braves fifth starter job. Kimbrel should get most of the save opportunities this year as the Braves closer.
teheran is 19 not many of them coming in and doing that well , king felix come to mind but still he didnt start to dominate for a few years , baumgartner last year pitched well but was still 21 , im not saying its impossible but unlikely. the guy only started 7 games in double A and had a 3.65 era 3 wins and 2 loses , he appears he will be good but mid season might be overly optimistic
One more Delgado is also very young and had a high 4 74 era in double A so im not so sure he is ready this year either , i could be wrong , i have been in the past
The Braves could surprise some people. They have a TON of young power arms. The Phillies will lose a lot of games in the bullpen, and let’s see how healthy they are in August/September. I wouldn’t be shocked at all if the Braves won 94 games and the division.
i think phills bullpen is going to surprise a few people , bastardo and matheison regularly top out at 96 plus mph and are still relatively young , and the old cuban pitched well last year not to mention one of the better 8th inning guys in the league in madson , lidge is looking like a weak link and that is worrying , but ventners has looked horrible this spring but its only spring , i have no faith in sherril to pitch to anybody but lefties and even then he might walk them ask dodger fans about that. and i think the braves look good and it wouldnt be surprising to anybody who actually follows nl east if braves took this right down to wire or even possible won division if phillies have and injury or just dont play up to expectations
von… The lefty Venters has been lights out this year in ST. 6 innings, 0 runs, 1 hit, 1 BBs, 4Ks. Now if you mean the righty Kimbrell, then he has looked shaky so far. but today he had 3Ks and a HBP in his inning.
yes sorry got those two confused
What makes you think the Phils will lose games in the bullpen? I’m not saying it’s amazing, but it’s hardly junk.
The bullpen really worries me. Venters and Kimbrell are young and have the rep to be wild. Venters was outstanding last year, but can he repeat his results? Can Kimbrell be a lock down closer? I would fell so much better if Wagner were the closer and let these two young guns get one more year at set-up. Moylan looks real good in ST, but Linebrink and Sherrill need to be solid for our bullpen to be effective.
Remember that is was both their first years in the league. I believe Venters is the real-deal and Kimbrel, who might be wild, will learn on-the-job. If not, we’ve got enough options including has-been former closers that might have something left in the tank (Sherrill) or a better option in young arms on the farm like Oberholtzer, Marek, and even one of our 3 young guns, preferably Vizcaino who some have said would be a good closer with his lightning fastball and decent off-speed stuff. Moylan looks terrible, I don’t know what you’re watching. We can’t rely on him, in my opinion. We don’t need to have great seasons from Sherrill and Linebrink, just not terrible seasons. Eric O’Flaherty has looked good as usual and he will be relied upon more this year than last.
And if all that doesn’t work out…there are a lot of closers that will be free agents next year (10+ from my count). Some team out of contention at the deadline would want to maximize what they can get for him by trading him away, if we need a sure-fire closer. It might take a key prospect, depending on the name, but we’re in a position to do that with the kind of depth we have. Just as long as it’s not K-Rod.
Dude, I have only seen Moylan pitch one inning this ST, but he does not look terrible. Moylan has pitched 4 times this ST. He gave up 4 hits and 2 runs to TOR on 4 March. In his other three outings he has given up almost nothing. And in his last 2 outings/innings Moylan struck out 5. Not sure if he is only being used against RHers, but his results seem to indicate Moylan had one bad outing out of four and dominated the other three, especially the last two.
I do like your thoughts on making a trade near the trade deadline for a really dominate reliever. See what we have in Kimbrell and Venters, then fill in where needed, closer or middle innings relief.
I feel that they had the best offseason. There are two reasons for it.
1) They didn’t overpay for any relievers according to the trend this offseason.
2) They didn’t sign a massive contract with any FA. Uggla at 62M is a fair deal.
talent wise boston probably had the best offseason , did they overpay , maybe , but they sell out every night( unlike Atl ) and the people there dont mind paying a few extra dollars to watch a winner. so i think the thing with overpaying is played out are you getting some money because they saved some , no the owners just stuck more in pockets why would you cheer for that ? just a thought
The Red Sox gave a lot up both financially and prospects wise for AGon and Crawford. I may be the odd one out but I don’t believe paying 143M to a guy who’s primary weapon is speed and defense which is due to regress as he ages. He has a below average OBP considering the fact that the Sox are thinking of playing him 2nd in the lineup. Additions to the bullpen were good.
The Braves added a right handed power bat without overpaying and they also added affordable RP’s which are effective none the less. I would give them the edge over the Sox this season. Sigining Uggla to an affordable extension was the key.
like i said the money doesnt matter to teams that have it and they gave up a pitching prospect who is a few years away and some young guys who may never produce and , by that time they will just buy another starter or there other draft picks will just produce again see pap, bard, lester if you need conformation and your right handed power bat might be better suited to be a dh , he definitely help win some with the bat but he will also lose some with the glove , and sherill is just another moylan, however thats not a bad thing , but you did lose wagner and sherill isnt replacing that
“I may be the odd one out but I don’t believe paying 143M to a guy who’s primary weapon is speed and defense which is due to regress as he ages.”
you might be the only one who doesn’t know that young player skillsets (speed/athleticism) age better than old player skillsets (power). not that he’s going to be very old by the time the deal is done anyway
“He has a below average OBP considering the fact that the Sox are thinking of playing him 2nd in the lineup.”
they’re probably hitting him third, his OBP over the past 1300 plate appearances is .360 (that’s 30 points above league average), and his wOBA is .372. that makes him a better hitter over that time than victor martinez (.370) for example. also, dan uggla (.368)
there are good reasons to dislike the crawford signing, but you haven’t named any
the only reason to dislike the crawford signing is if you are not a Sox fan .
I would hate to see the Braves throwing hundred million dollar contracts around. The Braves could spend like the Mets and Cubs and be handcuffed financially a few years down the road. If they added $40 million a year to their budget and then signed two players to 7 year $140 million deals they would probably be worse in four years than they are now.
agreed if you dont have the money to keep throwing at it then adding one guy that cripples your team isnt smart after all look where it got the giants when they signed barry zito
Nate McLouth has looked good ever since his late season callup last year. He doesn’t seem so timid, although it’s a very small sample size and I am in no way sold that he’ll turn back into his 2007-2008 self. But can he possibly be any worse? Again, he’s looked great and if he can revert back to his 09 self it would be a huge boost.
I think the offense will be better than last year. Last year they got very little production out of the LF and CF positions. Prado upgrades LF as long as Chipper stays healthy and as I pointed out above, it would be difficult for McLouth to be that awful again.
Defensively they’re not great, but I do think it’s overblown. Freeman is a very good defensive 1st baseman, an upgrade from Glaus/Hinske. Uggla isn’t good at all, but I do expect at least some improvement defensively because Gonzo and Freeman are both better defensively than Hanley and Sanchez(or whoever the Fish have had at 1B for the past few years).
While I don’t expect Hudson to keep that sub-3.00 ERA, it would be impossible for Mike Minor to give the Braves a 1-10 record out of the #5 spot like Kawakami did. Jurrjens missed a lot of time last year, so hopefully he can stay healthy. I expect Hanson to keep improving and Lowe to maintain that 4.00 ERA.
I’m a little worried about the pen, especially the backend. But as the article mentions, they have depth there. As long as Sherrill is used as strictly a LOOGY he’ll be fine. Same goes for Moylan, but with RH hitters.
I think this club can win 95 games. Like the Phillies, they dealt with a ton of injuries last year and still managed to make the playoffs. With rotation options that include Hanson, Hudson, Lowe, Jurrjens, Minor, Beachy, Lopez, Kawakami, Medlen*, and Teheran/Delgado……this team has the depth to survive losing one or two guys and can probably afford to ship one or two starters out for help in other areas if they need it.
I’m cautiously optimistic, but I do think 95 wins is within reach.
*Medlen is expected back around late August, felt odd not including him.
Agreed with 95 wins. Also, remember that Medlen started 14 games and won at least 10 of them (6 of those wins he was credited for). I do not think PHI should be considered the favorite unless Utley misses only a month and Brown makes a miraculous comeback from a hand-injury and their other stars are all clicking. I believe ATL should still be the favorite even if one of their 4 doesn’t go down.
I just can’t get behind picking the Braves, even though I’m a lifelong fan.
The Phillies just didn’t add Lee. They got 12 starts out of Oswalt last year, he’s likely gonna get 30-32 starts this year, as well as 30-32 from Lee. Is that enough to offset the loss of Werth and possibly Utley? Unlikely, but they have an insane rotation, a strong backend of a pen, and at worst a league average offense. They lack rotation depth, but all 5 of their guys aren’t really considered high injury risks.
And when you consider that they lost Utley, Howard, Ruiz, Rollins, Victorino, Polanco, Lidge, and Madsen last year to the DL…….it’ll be hard for them to be hit by injuries as much as they were last year. Not that the Braves didn’t deal with a ton of injuries, but the Phillies dealt with it and ended up with the best record in baseball.
This is very true. The Phillies are still the team to beat in the division. As it does every season, it will come down to who can stay relatively healthy and who has the best depth, with a little luck sprinkled in for good measure.
There is no denying that Phillies rotation is daunting.
“….it would be impossible for Mike Minor to give the Braves a 1-10 record out of the #5 spot like Kawakami did”
If the Braves score an average of less than 2 runs per game for him like they did for Kawakami, then he very easily could have a 1 – 10 record. A pitcher should be rated by his peripheral stats, not his W-L record.
Let me explain what I meant by that….
I understand win/loss records aren’t really relevant when judging a pitcher. I was just stressing that it’s extremely unlikely that the Braves get such little production out of the #5 spot like they did for most of last year. Kawakami is roughly a league-average starting pitcher, he’s been killed with low run support since he came over. With an improved offense, and the fact that I think Minor has flat out better stuff……I see it as an automatic upgrade, even when you put performance aside since it’s unlikely that any pitcher goes 1-10.
That’s what I meant. Didn’t mean to imply that I put any stock into wins and losses when it comes to starting or relief pitchers.
Nothing bothers me more than watching posters come in and butcher players names. It makes me believe that you don’t know what or who you are even talking about.
Braves fans know what I mean…
Maddux not Maddox
Heyward not Hayward
Schafer not Schaffer, Shaefer, etc.
McLouth not Mcclouth
Kimbrel not Kimbrell
Francoeur not Francouer
And the one that has always bothered me the most…
Andruw not Andrew
as long as its reasonably close, who cares
the whole world spells it andrew maybe Andruw botched it on his fake birth certificate :]
Right, cause Braves players are always the only ones misspelled…
I said this because naturally this is a Braves article. I’m very much aware there are other players out there…
In fact I posted it because of the multiple misspellings of Oswalt…
Just be happy you don’t have Jarrod Saltalamacchia.
Anymore you mean…
How about Braves minor leaguer, who’s name no one can spell right so he is usually just known as RSF: Riaan Spanjer-Furstenburg
gotta love the dutch
He wins.
Oh my god, I never knew that you could just reply to the email and it would automatically do it on here. Sweet.
or Marc Rzepcynski
how about Kila Ka’aihue?
Jurrjens, not Jergens (???)
Minor, not Miner
Medlen, not Medlin
Freddie Freeman, not Freddy Freemen
Cox, not Co…you get my point
Simply put the Braves were a team that won 91 games last season and the Wild Card. We provided arguably the most entertaining series in the playoffs and the Giants best matchup.
We did this with a hurt Heyward, lost Prado and Chipper at the end of the season, lost Glaus around July(for arguments sake), with a SS hitting .200 for the first half, and CF tandem hitting between .190-.240 for most of the time. Not to mention Jurrjens who season in a nutshell was a complete loss.
For those that don’t think the team has upgraded by adding a healthy Chipper, Prado, Heyward, Jurrjens. and based off spring training McLouth. In addition to that we added Uggla, and Minor, and Kimbrel for a full season.
How one could not think that this team can not only replicate last season but also improve is beyond me. This just isn’t a team built for this season or last…Look around we are full of stars or quality players under 25 with only more (Teheran, Vizcaino, Delgado) still coming…
This team is set for a nice run the next few years.
phils giants series much more exciting in my opinon after all they won two games braves won one (on a fluke hit ) , everybody likes to watch their own team is just a dumb argument of course you think the braves vs giants series was better but by the way it was much better than the WS was
Yeah the Phils outscored the Giants in the NLCS and lost tough 1-run games, but hey, that’s not competitive to Braves homers.
All 4 games of the NLDS were of the one-run variety. That was his point. That’s obviously a competitive series and he said arguably….
I said arguably, you’re entitled to your opinion. I prefer close pitching duels. I like when the at-bats at the end of the game are pressure filled.
You say the Braves won one on a fluke hit. I say we lost 2 thanks to a blown call (Posey was out) and a little bit of some Billy Buckner-itis. 🙂
posey was out that was a bad call
the part i found argument with was when you said the giants only quality opponent , the phills beat them badly in game 2 and giants won by the huge margin of 3 in game three but every other game was 1 or 2 runs so the last at bat probably mattered in 4 of the 6 games which is how long the braves vs giants series lasted (4 games) , so in my humble opinion both series were good but the phills were just as competitive as Atl was
Mike – I don’t disagree with your post that the Braves could be better then last year. Only one comment I am not sure I agree with, “For those that don’t think the team has upgraded by adding a healthy Chipper…”. Considering how many injuries he has battled the last several years I am not sure we will ever see a fully “healthy” Chipper Jones again. Hopefully I am wrong.
That is true. I suppose I would consider a healthy Chipper at this point to being able to play 130 games a season.
I would be very happy if we get 130 games out of him.
didnt you say you hated it when people spell names wrong? but you just spelled Kimbrel wrong
off with his head
Braves rule
Braves will win the World Series. They have the best team hands down.
There really does need to be a sarcasm button on this site for those of us who just really aren’t sure.
like , hate , reply , sarcasm . would be good for me
and im pretty sure that was sarcasm , checked out the song , and i gotta say im a fan thanks for the new music S. W .P
I’m always glad to convert the masses.
I listened to the song and hated it but it was so damn catchy I kept hitting replay.. How did you find them anyways. Are you from eastern Europe or something.
If you think that’s catchy, try the music video.
A friend of mine played me the song once. One of the few times I broke my rules about buying a CD based on hearing only one song. Turned out to be a good gamble, almost every song on that CD was awesome.
What song is this? I’m all for catchy European tunes….
I would enjoy a “vote to ban” button
where regular posters can just vote to have some people banned for stupidity
…chances are I’d end up voted off, but its a good way to go.
i kinda enjoy the stupidity , and the down right homerism spewed on this sight , maybe vote to ban for a week or something might get my vote
Chances are most of us would get banned. Imagine how many “vote to ban” hits there would be in any thread mentioning the Red Sox or yanks.
I voted like for that statement as a knee-jerk reaction to you saying yanks, only to realize that there wasn’t a hate button.
The Phils are just downright bad though. The Braves have the best team on paper. Who do the Phillies have, Tom Brady? Who else? They were able to replace Chace Utli with that Manuel guy, though. Charles, I think his name was.
can i like that twice , but what do you think sid crosby will hit 300 errors this year or something
Well, if he keeps getting on the court with those hockey skii’s on, he will definitely have a problem kicking field goals.
C’mon guys. Tom Brady is from that show, The Brady Bunch, and Sid Crosby is an old singer who used to beat his kids (Thanks Family Guy). Neither has ever played baseball. Oh and btw, you don’t kick field goals in baseball. Man you guys aren’t very smart.
Some facts…
The only member in the Phillies bullpen that is a sure thing most of the time is Ryan Madson…
They are getting older and most of their lineup and rotation is over thirty…
They have a dominant rotation…
They have a rookie right fielder with an upside higher than the Cit’s outfield walls (they’re pretty high)…
They have some legit injury-risk players…
Their farm system isn’t the deepest when it comes to majors ready players…
They are a good team that should be repsected and taken very seriously…
And most important…the fact right before this one also applies to the Braves
Phillies fans need to understand what the expert analysts their team hopefully understands: they are NOT going to run away with this division
If I have offended anyone by this then I apologize but you cannot argue with anything I just said
Because Liberty Media doesn’t care about the team and refuses to let them spend good money like Teddy did…did any of you know that he actually was skipper during a game? Let’s see the CEO of Liberty Media or whatever clown/monkey that makes the decisions involving the Braves do that.