Consecutive Mondays Off Post
September 15, 2009 at 1:19 pm by Capitol Avenue Club under Atlanta Braves, Front Office, Pitching, Transactions
I guess Monday is the most common day to have off. And I guess it enables me to watch Monday Night Football. But the Braves had consecutive Mondays off. And guess what! The Marlins lost! I didn’t know the Marlins did the whole losing thing based on what I saw from them earlier this year. Anyway.
Standings
| Team: | W | L | GB | Diff |
| Philadelphia | 82 | 60 | – | +95 |
| Florida | 76 | 68 | 7.0 | +9 |
| Atlanta | 75 | 68 | 7.5 | +68 |
| NY Mutts | 63 | 81 | 20.0 | -77 |
| Washington | 50 | 93 | 32.5 | -136 |
The Nationals are 7 losses away from a 100-loss season, the Mets have to go 7-11 to match the Braves’ 2008 record, and the Braves are 8 out in the loss column. That’s all you need to know.
2010 Bullpen Preview
I promised I’d preview the 2010 Braves bullpen. Here goes:
Candidates: Under Team Control
Kenshin Kawakami ($6,333,333), Peter Moylan (arbitration eligible, 1st time), Manny Acosta (pre-arb), Boone Logan (pre-arb), Eric O’Flaherty (pre-arb), Luis Valdez (pre-arb), Jo Jo Reyes (pre-arb), Craig Kimbrel (prospect), Todd Redmond (prospect), Jonny Venters (prospect), Mariano Gomez (prospect).
Candidates: Outside the Organization
It’s impossible to list all of the possibilities, but Rafael Soriano (type A), Mike Gonzalez (type A), and Vladimir Nunez (minor league deal) are impending Free Agents. The Braves have been linked to Billy Wagner–an impending Type A Free Agent–by John Heyman, as well. I’ve stated that Kerry Wood might be a nice buy-low proposition, suggesting the Braves ship a fringe prospect to Cleveland for Kerry Wood provided they eat some of his salary. For a list of impending Free Agents, click here.
How I’d do it:
I would pick up Hudson’s option, move Kawakami to the bullpen, and let Soriano and Gonzalez walk and collect the draft picks. Between Kawakami, Moylan, Medlen, and (eventually) Kimbrel, I don’t think you have any trouble closing games. Fill out the pen with Logan, O’Flaherty, and Acosta, holding onto the depth of Gomez, Valdez, etc.. My philosophy is that spending money, prospects, and draft picks on the bullpen is usually a mis-allocation of resources. Relievers simply don’t pitch enough innings to be worth a ton of money or talent. On the flip side, a good bullpen helps a team overachieve, so it’s a nice thing to have. Still, I think the Braves have enough quality arms–especially with the emergence of Kimbrel, provided his AFL, Spring Training, and 2 months at AAA go well–to have a good bullpen without allocating any resources towards it in the off-season.
Go with, for most of the season, a bullpen of:
CL – Kenshin Kawakami
CL – Peter Moylan
SU – Kris Medlen
SU – Craig Kimbrel
LH – Eric O’Flaherty
LH – Boone Logan
MR – Manny Acosta
Prediction as to what will actually happen:
The Braves let Soriano and Gonzalez walk and sign Billy Wagner. They use their 1st round pick to do so, but they got 2 back from Soriano and Gonzalez (plus two sandwich round picks), which softens the blow. Go with, basically, this bullpen:
CL – Billy Wagner
SU – Peter Moylan
SU – Craig Kimbrel
SU – Eric O’Flaherty
LH – Boone Logan
LR – Kris Medlen
MR – Manny Acosta
The Mets Come To Town
As I pointed out earlier, the Braves have nothing but NL East opponents left for the rest of the season. They open this 19 game stretch against the New York Mutts. Today it’ll be Hanson vs. Misch. Wednesday it’ll be Lowe vs. Parnell. And Thursday it’ll be Jurrjens vs. Figueroa (maybe the most complicated pitching match-up to spell in the history of this space). Sweep is necessary for two reasons. One, the Braves can’t afford to lose any ground. Two, it’s the fucking Mets, and you have to sweep them, because they’re the Mets.
Braves Discussing Extension With Hudson?
According to Buster Olney, the Braves may discuss extending Tim Hudson. He’s looked good in 3 starts and if there’s a way to keep him in Atlanta for longer at a lower salary, I’d probably be all for it. Mark Bowman reports that Tim Hudson likes the idea as well. I’d like to see Vazquez and Hudson sign extensions this off-season.
That’s all I got for now. Go Braves.
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No mention of Carlyle or Campillo, both of whom will be under team control–think they’ll be non-tendered, or did you just forget about ‘em?
I just forgot them. Good call, Stu. Carlyle’s out of options next year so he’ll probably be cut or used–I think the former is more likely, but I imagine Campillo will start at AAA and eventually get some big-league innings.
Wny arent my post showing??
There’s nothing in the spam filter and I haven’t deleted or seen any posts.
[...] did the bullpen thing yesterday, but Stu pointed out that I left out two candidates. Jorge Campillo, who had season ending shoulder surgery in late [...]