Note: this blog was supposed to be on the all new Scoreatl.com blog section but it was from June 23 and a lot has happened since then. Though you'd STILL like to read it.
I am just about the biggest Braves fan I know (size of my heart, not my body), and even I think it is time to maybe start thinking not about the end of the 2008 season, or even the 2009, but the stretch from 2010-2013. Yep. It is rebuilding time. Let’s get started!
Taking a look at this team, I think you could go about fixing it fairly easy with just a few steps and the near 50M in empty payroll you should have next season after all of this year’s free agents leave. First off, John Smoltz, it has been great, but it might be time to say good night. I would LOVE to have you back in a Braves uniform, and I have said so MANY times on Extra Innings as heard on Sports Radio 790 The Zone following Braves home games. But at this point, the Braves are NOT near the World Series and I don’t want you to hurt yourself with an extensive rehab or God Forbid, another surgery. As for Tommy Glavine, it was fun and I hope you can come back after the All-Star break and go out a Brave on a fantastic note. But both of those guys, plus Mike Hampton should NOT be wearing a Braves uni next season, unless it is as a coach. You have Tim Hudson already to be your staff ace and Jo-Jo Reyes and Jair Jurrjens look to be pretty good at the two and three spots, respectively. Charlie Morton will only get better, so count him in at four and watch him grow. As for your future fifth starter, well, Chuck James and Jorge Campillo can hold that warm for now.
In the field, unfortunately you gave up a King’s ransom to get Mark Teixeira from the Rangers and suffice to say, that experiment failed. I would have begged you to trade him a few weeks ago, but his value is diminishing with every runner he leaves on base as he watches a third strike split the center of the plate. At this point, I say HOLD ON to him, and let him walk at the end of the year and take two first round picks as compensation as I am sure he will be a Type A free agent.
The rest of the infield is set with KJ at second, Yunel at short and Chipper at third. In the outfield, let Brandon Jones play left with a resigned Mark Kotsay in center for one more year (as I think Jordan Schaffer is still a year out because of the suspension) and a question mark in rightfield.
Yes I said a question mark. I would trade Jeff Francoeur tomorrow for whatever I could get. He turned down the same contract Brian McCann took a few years back, and while he thought at the time he deserved Grady Sizemore money then, he certainly DOES NOT NOW. There has been a book written on how to shut Frenchy down, and it has been passed all around the national league. Send Jeff to the American league (Toronto? Texas perhaps or Seattle?) and try and recoup some of what you lost in the Big Tex deal.
The Braves should go young for the rest of this year and next and hope that it pays off in the long run. It will waste Chipper’s and Huddy’s last few years of “prime,” but the Braves organization will be better off in the long haul.
No comments:
Post a Comment