Why the Braves Should Trade Javy Vazquez

So he struck out 12 in 8 innings today with no walks. So what? Anyone could do that, right? Look, I know Vazquez has been great this year, leading the NL in strikeouts with 105, sporting a 3.31 ERA, a WHIP of 1.03, and a .225 BAA. Did I say great? I meant dominant. So why on Earth should the Braves try to deal him? His contract's not horrible ($11.5 mil this year and next), he is only 32 years old, and he's durable, averaging 215 IP a year since 2000. Everything you want in a starter.

Growing up a fan of the Braves in the 90's, I believe that starting pitching wins championships (even if they are only divisonal). Most of the rotation has looked great this year, with Lowe, Jurrjens, and Vazquez pitching phenomenal. After them, the Braves roll out Kawakami, who has begun to turn things around little, and Hanson, who showed plenty of promise in his first big league start. Braves starters rank 9th in the NL with an ERA of 4.45. While that may not be great, that stat is skewed somewhat by the 19 ER Jo-Jo Reyes gave up in 26 IP as a starter and Medlen's first two outings. With the recent callup of Tommy Hanson forcing Medlen into the long relief role, I think his talent is being wasted. Long relief is where pitchers go to die, not where you put a rookie who struck out 9 in 6 innings in his third start. He came on a few nights ago in extras and proved that it was no fluke.

Besides Medlen, the Braves also expect to get Tim Hudson back in August. He and the Braves have a mutual option for 2010 worth $12 mil, about the same as Vazquez's. Assuming he can return to his old form (more and more common with major arm surgery these days), the Braves will have enough quality pitchers for a mean 7 man rotation. Yet, despite all this pitching, the Braves are a game below .500 and 6 back in the East. How? Well, as we saw yesterday and today, the offense is often anemic, averaging 4.3 runs per game. The McLouth trade is bound to help, but no one after the fourth spot strikes fear into any pitcher's heart. The Braves need a bat, and dealing Vazquez could get them one.

Given this plethora of pitching, the Braves are in possession of an extremely valuable commodity in Vazquez. All those stats I listed in the beginning are precisely why Vazquez would make for good trade bait. If the team can get a bat for Vazquez, Medlen can move back into the rotation where he belongs, at least until Hudson is ready to go. If we don't deal a pitcher, someone is going to lose his place come August. Who will it be? Well, Lowe and Jurrjens have been lights out. Kawakami then? Not with that contract. Hanson? Not sending him down or to the bullpen. The Braves should shop him now and hope they can get another player like McLouth, a young guy, with a grea contract, who plays the game the right way. (Braw Hawpe? Please, Rockies. Pretty please?)

If you made it this far... your reward is Danny DeVito. Drunk. At 8 AM.

The Braves Get More Cowbell

I was going to start off this post by mostly bitching about the Braves's handling of Tom Glavine. However, a few writers much better than myself already did a fine job: DOB and Buster Olney (Glavine part is free). The Bearded Icon himself even weighed in, with appropriate disapproval. So I'll move on to the other moves the Braves made yesterday.

Within just a few minutes of announcing Glavine's release, Tommy Hanson was called up. Everyone is probably already familiar with his stats in Gwinnett thus far, but here they are in case you've missed them: 11 starts, 1.50 ERA, 66.1 IP, 17 BB, 90 K, 0.864 WHIP. Whew. And if you can't do the math, those strikeouts work out to a ridiculous 12.3 K/9. Though the kid has always been a big prospect for the Braves, he really skyrocketed after his performance in the Arizona Fall league last year, which draws some of baseball's best prospects. The stats that led to his becoming the first pitcher to win the MVP in the fall league: 0.63 ERA, .105 BAA, and 49 K's in 28.2 IP (15.4 K/9). Bringing Hanson up moves Medlen to the bullpen. I'd like to see him stay a starter, but there's no where for him to go. Personally, I think the Braves should send him back to Gwinnett where he can pitch regularly. The bullpen could get a little crowded, with Soriano, Gonzalez, O'Flaherty, and Moylan better options late in the game.

As for the McLouth deal, I love it. Charlie Morton didn't show much when called up last year, though he was dominating in Gwinnett (who wasn't?). Gorkys Hernandez is a highly ranked prospect, but he is years from seeing the majors, and he isn't stealing as many bases as he did early in his career (54 in 2007, 20 in 2008, and 10 so far this year). The guys at FanGraphs say that McLouth is one of the most projectable players around: "a quality left-handed bat who draws some walks and has some power." They're not a big fan of his glove, saying he is a serviceable centerfielder, despite his 2008 Gold Glove. What this says to me is that Braves will move him over to left next year (or maybe right this year) when Schafer is ready to come back up. He does have a great contract, owed $15 million through 2011, with a club option for 2012. According to FanGraphs, he should be commanding upwards of $12 million. A pretty good deal, even if he does look like a young, blond Christopher Walken. I've got a fever!

Down in the Minors

By: The Bearded Joo

The Braves outfield has been receiving a lot of attention lately, for all the wrong reasons. With Schafer and Francouer underwhelming everyone in the ballpark, the weak outfield stands out for a team struggling to score runs. The Braves’ outfielders rank dead last in homeruns and slugging percentage. This power outage also extends to the rest of the offense, which currently ranks 26^th out of 30 in homeruns hit and 24^th in RBI. Francouer is mired in a year-long "slump," Schafer is struggling to get the bat on the ball (though still drawing walks), and Garret Anderson, signed in the offseason to add some pop to the outfield that ranked last in most hitting statistics in 2008, is slugging only .319. Having been signed to a one year contract, Anderson will most likely serve as a stopgap for uber-prospect Jason Heyward, who could represent a solution to the problems in the outfield and the power drought.

Heyward was drafted 14^th overall by Atlanta in the 2007 Draft and signed a deal worth about $1.7 million, receiving the same amount of money as 2006 14^th pick Travis Snider (now in the majors with the Blue Jays). Standing 6’4’’ and weighing in over 220 pounds, Heyward has the prototypical body of a power hitter. In 2008, he hit .316 with 11 homeruns and 56 RBIs and stole 15 bases (in 18 attempts) for Rome. Though only 18 at the time, he also showed a keen eye, striking out only 78 times and walking 51. This year, Heyward is off to another good start at high A in Myrtle Beach, sporting .295/.373/.561 percentages with 9 homers in 139 ABs (1 in about 15.5).

Now I’m sure by now you’re asking yourself: how do we know Heyward will be successful in the majors? The truth is we don’t, but if Heyward’s first Major League camp showed us anything, it’s that Heyward can already hit professional pitchers, and good ones at that. During spring training, Heyward crushed 2 balls off Kawakami and also went deep off of Jair Jurrjens, the same pitcher that is currently fourth in all of baseball with a cool 1.96 ERA and who allows a homerun only every 15 innings pitched.

So it may not be this year or even next, but when it does happen, expect the Braves to get that little boost to perhaps take us back to a tradition that Braves fans had become accustomed to … the playoffs.