[Posted by Keith Konior]
He looked like a villian, didn't he? Discarding Braves' legend Tom Glavine without a second thought. Telling another future Hall-of-Famer, that being John Smoltz, that he was not willing to pay what was being asked for his services.
HA!
Tommy Glavine hasn't had a nibble so far as employment goes...Not one. John Smoltz has, on the other hand, been designated for assignment by the Boston Red Sox. It seems that a record of 2 - 5 and an ERA of 8.32 was not what they had in mind when they signed him to an insane $5.5 million dollar deal for ONE FREAKING YEAR.
The Atlanta Braves are not a contender this year. On this date, that being August 8, 2009, it is official. They are not gonna make the playoffs. But, to Wren's credit, he did not choose to trade away the future of the franchise by giving away any of our very talented farm system players in a desperate attempt to sieze the day this year.
Wren did what he could. I liked the move for us gettin' that Garrett Anderson fellow. I loved the move that he made getting Nate McClouth. We have that young man for a couple of more seasons, at a very reasonable price. The man (Wren) did everything he could to try and win this year.
Our starting pitching is excellent. Superimpose our starting pitchers numbers over those of the LA Dodgers...They'd have won a billion games already. We need power, plain and simple. The Atlanta Braves do not have power. Nor do they have speed.
I feel badly for the Braves legends that are Smoltz and Glavine, I really do. But Frank Wren was right to cut them loose in order to make way for future masters like our own Tommy Hanson. Frank didn't do the popular things, he simply did the right things.
And for that, I salute him.
P.S. This is Hurd's guest-blogger, Keith Konior.
P.P.S. That is all.
I have to agree with all of this, except maybe Garrett Anderson aka The Glide. Still, he is a decent stopgap until Heyward comes up next year (hopefully, though maybe too soon still for him.)
I admit to being sad at seeing Smoltz DFA'd by the Sox after a dismal performance (though there is some slight schadenfreude thanks to Smoltz's hyperbole on the way out the Braves door over the winter.)
I am happy to welcome both back when their numbers are retired, but the object is to win games and I think Wren rightly decided that neither man was able to help us do that this year. Tough to say with Glavine as he never actually pitched in the majors this year, but the jury is definitely in with the results on Smoltz.
Wren has definitely done well with what he's been given:
- Liberty media as owners are not interested in spending a lot of money so payroll is somewhat restricted (I'd love to see what Arthur Blank could do with this team.)
- The pitching staff was in shambles after last year and the rebuilding effort there was superb (especially acquiring Vasquez who you know I've coveted for some time.)
- No really good fixes for the lack of power out there (the other options for Anderson's spot were Griffey, Dunn and Abreu, IIRC, and none of them are particularly excellent players, at least anymore.)
- A hitting coach that doesn't seem to do much teaching, or at least doesn't know how to "teach" patience (witness the glorious trade of Franky for this one, as I do blame TP somewhat)
- Finally trying to stick with young guys that just were not getting it done - Schaffer, Franky and even KJ. How long do you wait before you replace them? All three replacements have worked for us for the most part - McLouth is in every way superior to Schaffer, Prado's hot streak is definitely better than KJ's many cold ones and Church has the added benefit of NOT being Jeff Francouer.
I must agree that this is not a playoff team, though they do still have a shot. If anything, they have been fun to watch this year, which is not something I could have said of last year's team. Much of that credit must go to Frank Wren.
By the way - good catch on "that is all." ;)
Nice 1st post. :)
AL
Posted by: AL Hurd | Sunday, August 09, 2009 at 08:27 AM