In Frank Wren We Trust: Part 1

Frank Wren replaced the legendary John Schuerholz as GM of the Braves on October 11th, 2007. Because there has been so much talk lately about making a move to upgrade our offense, especially in the outfield, I decided to take a look back at Wren's moves since becoming GM (also, I have nothing better to do). I will be using the Rick James Titty Scale, with "4 Thumbs Up" being an exceptional move and "4 Thumbs Down" being atrocious. We'll go in chronological order, looking at trades, players claimed off waivers, and free agents signed (not players resigned).

10/25/07 - Chris Resop claimed off waivers from Angels

In 16 relief appearances in 2008, Resop went 0-1 with a 5.89 ERA. Not a great pickup, but no major damage.

1 Thumb Down

10/27/07 - Edgar Renteria and Cash to Detroit for Jair Jurrjens and Gorkys Hernandez

Since leaving the Braves, Renteria's numbers have declined dramatically. In 2008 with the Tigers, he hit .270/.317.699, while thus far in 2009 with the Giants, he has hit .250/.333/.671.

On the other hand, Jurrjens has been superb in his 1 and 1/3 years with the Braves. Last year he went 13-10 with a 3.68 ERA over 188 IP. This year he has performed like an allstar, sporting a 2.59 ERA and a 5-2 record (which would be better if not for weak run support). Hernandez is also excelling in the minors. In 2007, he hit .293 and stole 54 bases in A ball. After a slight decline in 2008, he seems to have turned things around in AA Mississippi this year, hitting .316 with 9 steals. He is ranked as the 62nd best prospect in baseball by Baseball America. A simply brilliant move by Wren, getting a possible ace-to-be and an excellent prospect while making room for The Cuban Missile at short.

4 Thumbs Up

11/19/2007 - Signed Tom Glavine for 1 year, $8 million

Hard to argue with bringing back one of the faces of the franchise, but this move proved to be more sentimental than anything else. Glavine went 2-4 with a 5.54 ERA in 2008 before going down with an injury. On top of that, signing him gave the Mets a first round compensation pick.

2 Thumbs Down

12/4/2007 - Jose Ascanio to Cubs for Will Ohman and Omar Infante

Ascanio played awful for the Cubs in 2008 (7.94 ERA, 2.118 WHIP), but may have righted the ship this year, bringing his WHIP down to a respectable 1.286 with 10.3 K/9 and a 3.86 ERA.

Ohman did a great job in a Braves uniform, appearing in 83 games in 2008, going 4-1 with a 3.68 ERA. Super-utility man Omar Infante has proved to be a valuable pickup, playing any number of positions while wielding a solid bat. His 2008: .293/.338/.416. He was off to an even better start this year: .349/.389/.430. A solid deal by Wren.

2 Thumbs Up

1/14/08 - Joey Devine, Jamie Richmond and Cash to the A's for Mark Kotsay

A move made out of the need for a stopgap centerfielder before Schafer was (seemingly...) ready for the big leagues. After his memorable, grandslam-filled performance as a rookie, Devine proved to be an excellent reliever in 2008. He appeared in 42 games for the A's with great numbers: 6-1, 0.59 ERA, .832 WHIP (!), 9.7 K/9. Had a shot at the closer role this year before being forced to undergo Tommy John surgery. Richmond has a respectable ERA right around 3.80 in the minors.

Kotsay, in a typically injury-plagued year, played pretty average (.289/.340/.418). Hindsight being what it is, the Braves should have let Josh Anderson man centerfield and kept the two young arms, especially Devine.

The Milk's Gone Bad!

1/17/08 - Willy Aybar and Chase Fontaine to the Rays for Jeff Ridgway

Aybar worked out his issues enough to appear in 95 games for the Rays in 2008, hitting .253/.327/.410. SO far in '09, he's improved to .283/.376/.446. Fontaine has done nothing special in the minors, hitting .248 last year.

As for Ridgway, he had an ERA of 5.47 in 44 games last year for Richmond. The Braves released him on March 30th this year. Aybar clearly had some issues, and the Braves just needed to rid themselves of him, although it would have been nice to get something back in return.

1 Thumb Down

That's enough for today. Back with more tomorrow...

Death, Taxes, and the Braves Wasting Dominant Pitching

Another excellent pitching performance by Vazquez last night (6.1 IP, 1 ER, 8 K) squandered by the Braves inept offense. Granted, this was a lineup featuring Garret Anderson hitting third and Martin Prado cleanup, but they were facing Doug Davis, he of the career 4.31 ERA. Francoeur went 1/5 with 3 K's. The bullpen pitched well overall, with Jeff Bennett finally yielding the winning run in the 11th. Schafer did steal a base, tying the Braves with Milwaukee for last in the NL with 11 (though the Brewers are second in HRs).

The good guys try to split the series this afternoon at 4:00 with Kris Medlen facing Max Scherzer, a young guy with seemingly nasty stuff (10.4 K/9 in 16 career games started). Hopefully Medlen can avoid the disastrous inning and pitch like he did for most of his last game. Throwing more strikes (only 56% thus far) would be nice.

Links: Scouring Them Internets So You Don't Have To

• Gammons says don't read anything into the Red Sox alleged interest in Francouer. Here's Frenchy imitating Sox fans after hearing the news.

• Tom Verducci says Tommy Hanson could be called up as early as Sunday. Can he hit?

• If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Adam Dunn is currently on pace to hit more homeruns this year (16 and counting) than the number of games that his team wins (13). (via Jayson Stark)

• White Men Can't Jump (via TBL)

• Charles Barkley is a Round Mound of Bitterness

• Madden 10 Ratings: Position and Rookies

• Shaq, dressed as Bill Cosby, and Ben Stein outtakes (via Awful Announcing)

• Everyone's favorite Woody is back (soon)

Babe Ruth Pitches/Hits Braves to Win

OK, so Jair Jurrjens may not be Babe Ruth, but the Braves' best pitcher of the year looked pretty good with the bat last night, hitting a 2 RBI double in the 2nd and drawing a walk (!) in the 3rd (the chick in that video looks like a younger, uglier version of Mindy Sterling, she of Austin Powers fame ). Ironic that in his worst pitching performance of the year, Jurrjens finally gets some run support to improve to 5-2. Over his first 10 games of the year, Jurrjens had an ERA of 2.07 and a .228 BAA, yet only had a record of 4-2, while last night, he had an ERA of 9.00, yet recorded his 5th victory of the season. Go figure. Escobar returned to the lineup and crushed a three run homer. The Braves send Vazquez to the mound this afternoon to face the Diamondbacks' Doug Davis (2-6, 3.77 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 1.5 HR/9, 6.5 K/9).

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.

McCann Allstar?

Let me start off by saying that I'm just as guilty as the next guy: I just now submitted my first all-star ballot, though not my last. While the fans don't vote for the one true bright spot of this Braves season, starting pitching, they do get to vote in the starters at each position. I was motivated to vote last night while watching Tim Lincecum dominate a Gwinnett Braves lineup that featured Francouer hitting 5th, a scary thought. Anyways, Joe and Boo got to talking about the other bright spot in Atlanta this year: Brian McCann. Amazingly, he ranks only fifth in all-star balloting as of May 26th.

Apart from the Twin's Joe Mauer, McCann is the best hitting catcher in the game. His combination of power and contact is rarely seen at his position. So how is it that he is fifth in vote getting at catcher? Let's compare his season to the players in front of him (in order): Yadier Molina, Jason Kendall, Pudge Rodriguez, and Russell Martin. Maybe these guys are blowing him out of the water. And being who I am, I of course wanted to do this comparison in chart form:

Mac is the only one of the five hitting over .270 (.313), the only one with an OBP over .380 (.402), he is out slugging his four competitors, and is blowing away the others in OPS. Homers? Mac is tied with Rodrizguez for the lead at 5, despite playing in only 29 games compared to 41 for the others. RBIs? He trails Rodrizuez's 21 by only 3. By nearly any measure, McCann stands out above the other NL catchers. So, in the words of P. Diddy: Vote or Die!

Links: Scouring Them Internets So You Don't Have To

• Mets fan goes looking for Carlos Delgado's career.

• Conversation between SI's Joe Posnanski and stat guru Bill James about Randy Johnson, who will be going for his 300th win soon. They compare him to the three other beyond-dominate pitchers of the Steroids Era: Pedro, Clemens*, and Maddux. 

• Ted Keith of SI puts together his dream team of young players and chooses Joe Mauer at catcher. An argument for McCann can definitely be made: he's one year younger, doesn't have the injury history of Mauer, and hits for more power (career SLG .503 vs. .474). However, Mauer is (much) better definisively and if he can get close to keeping his HR pace this year (11 in 100 PA), he becomes the clear choice. 

• Tommy Hanson makes Baseball America's Hot Sheet this week. Why? How's 13 IP, 3 H, O R, 16 K, and 2 BB sound?

• ESPN360 is coming to Comcast at an unspecified date (in time for college football). On a related note, Comcast executives still eat puppies. 

Rockies Horror Picture Show

The Braves teed off for 9 runs in the fourth inning last night on the way to a big win. Vazquez looked dominant again, striking out six of the first nine batters he faced, despite ringing up a pitch count of 120 in only 5 innings. How he managed to do that while giving up only three hits and one walk, I can't say.

The big news, of course, came on the injury front. The Braves lost super-utility man Omar Infante when he was struck by a Manuel Corpas pitch, breaking the same finger he broke a couple of years ago in winter ball. This loss hurts in a few big ways. Besides the fact that Infante was hitting .349 this year and gave the Braves their best leadoff option, he can play nearly every position on the field. In his 2 years with the team, Infante has played LF (33 games), 3B (38), SS (25), 2B (23), and CF (5). DOB makes a good point in that the loss of Infante leaves the Braves without a backup CF, although Frenchy did play some in the minors. Losing Infante also means that Cox will be forced to play KJ most games, abondoning the platoon, although KJ's splits are the opposite of what one would expect for a left-handed hitter: for his career .261 BA vs. RHP, .295 vs. LHP.

Oh, and some washed up, lovable veteran with a cute name got hurt too. What's that? Jo-Jo isn't a veteran who has earned the right to work out the kinks in the majors? Hm. No one hopes his injury is serious, but maybe it will give Cox a chance to rethink his love affair with the kid. Could his injury free up a roster spot for Tommy Hanson, who starts tonight in Gwinett? Having waited this long, I doubt the Braves will call him up before the arbitration deadline. Plus, with Kawakami seeming to have found himself (fingers crossed) and Medline having been given the chance to take over Reyes's starting role, there may not be a spot for Hanson in the rotation.

The Braves enter tonight with a chance to take the series 3-1, a big momentum booster before facing off against the AL East-leading Blue Jays, who come to town Friday night. Finally, in other news, Smoltzy takes the mound tonight in Augusta in a rehab start on his way back to the majors for the Sox.

P.S. Sorry about the picture...

Yunel "The Cuban Missile" Escobar

Nicknames should flow easily. They should have some personal significance and tie to the individual. They should be fun. If possible, they should even embody some aspect of the the person they describe. Lebron "King" James, "Joltin" Joe Frazier, Ron "Rhinoceros" Jeremy, you get the picture. With these rules in mind, I propose "The Cuban Missile" as Yunel Escobar's.
Let's start with the obvious: he's from Cuba. His game is explosive, from his rocket (see where we're going?) arm and ability to cover the left side of the infield, to his line-drive, free-swinging approach at the plate.
It's more than his game, though. This nickname also references Escobar's personality and emotion: the Cuban Missile Crisis featured everyone's favorite dictator, Fidel Castro, a man who, with help from the Soviet Union and the US, nearly started World War III. Passionate and unpredictable, he was the center of this Cold War event. What does he have to do with Escobar? I present an illustrative example. Let's say Yunel gets hit by a seemingly innocent pitch. What does he do? Walk it off on his way to first? No! He glares towards the mound, menacingly pointing his bat and screaming at the pitcher.

Dictator or SS?

Remind anyone of another fiery, maybe not-quite-all-there Cuban?
What's that? Not good enough? OK, what does Escobar do after hitting a tailor-made double play ball to the shortstop? Trudge down to first with his head down in dissappointment? No! He flips the bat into the stands!

Watch Out in the Booth!

This nickname is perfect. I'll make it stick if it's the last thing I do. And don't even tell me that Alexei Ramirez has already claimed it. When his average gets above Jordan Schafer's and his OBP above Francoeur's, then we can talk.

Thoughts on the New Lineup

Cox finally shifted the batting order around last night, moving KJ out of the leadoff spot into the 6 hole, Escobar up one spot to number 1, and Kotchman taking his spot at 2. The early results sure looked good, as the Braves exploded for 8 runs and 13 hits against the Rockies Tuesday night. Let's not get ahead of ourselves though, as the team hit .262 Tuesday, one point below the team's average for the month of May. That being said, it was definitely time for a change, and there are a few to like about this new lineup and few things that worry me. 

I'm as a big a fan of KJ as the next guy, but he has hit .191 at leadoff this year and .267 there for his career. This is the third year that Cox has tried him at leadoff, and the third time that it's failed. When he hits in 6 - 8 spots in the lineup, KJ has a career BA of .325. He seems to be a little more comfortable hitting lower in the order, going 3 for 4 last night ( and raising his average 18 points). Hopefully Cox will get the picture. 

Escobar certainly has had more success leading off, with a career BA .316 in 75 games there. One thing I don't like about the Cuban Missile (it will stick!) hitting first was evident on the first pitch of the game, when he went up there hacking and grounded out to second. I know that Yunel is a first pitch hitter, and he certainly has success that way, hitting .360 when he swings at the first pitch. However, I like a leadoff guy to see work the count and see some pitches. It gives the other guys a chance to see what that pitcher has on a given night as well as boosting his pitch count. The Missile is about as far from this as you can get, seeing only 3.2 pitches per plate appearance, good for third to lowest in the NL (just ahead of Cristian Guzman and Bengie Molina). Indeed, the Braves are dead last in the league in pitches/PA and only have one regular who sees more than the league average of 3.84: Jordan Schafer. So we'll have to see how it goes with Escobar hitting there, but at least the bar has been set low.

Not sure what to make of Kotchman in the 2 hole. Over his career, he has hit about .300 regardless of his position in the order, but I feel like he is a walking, talking double play waiting to happen. However, in an order with no speed and very little power, he may be the lesser of many evils...

It was about time that Cox did some shuffling, and the immediate results sure look promising. Not sure what the lineup will look like tonight: with the Braves going against a lefty, we may see Infante at second. But, if the Missile is going to leadoff against righties, I hope he's given the chance to do it on a full-time basis. 

15,364??

Last night's attendance in the Rockies series opener: 15,364. A Turner Field record. How is it possible the the 7th largest market in America can only fill its baseball stadium 31% full? 

Maybe it's the economy, people avoiding the (outrageously) high-priced concessions, expensive parking, the extra trip downtown. Maybe not. The Braves currently rank 20th in average attendance with just over 24,500 paying nightly. How about the city hit hardest by the economy: Detroit. Their Tigers rank 15th in attendance, drawing nearly 2,500 more a night. Granted the Tigers are in first place in the weak AL Central, but their record is the same as the Phillies, a team only 2.5 games in front of the Braves. 

Maybe it's the product on the field. With last night's loss, the Braves did fall to 18-19, but they are still a mere 2.5 back in the division. Every team in this division has its problems, and, at this point, no team is running away with it. Besides remaining competitive, this Braves team, despite its shortcomings, has plenty of interesting stories. There are the established stars: Chipper, McCann, and Lowe. There are the budding stars: Escobar, Jurrjens, maybe Schafer. The bullpen has power arms in Soriano and Gonzalez. So the team that Liberty Mutual trots out every night should draw enough interest. 

So what is it? It's us. The fans. We're too lazy. We don't care. It was a school night. It was unseasonably cool. Atlanta's population is too transient. Whatever it is, this Braves team deserves our support. Go see them, the stars, the struggling vets, the rookies. Go see Javy Vazquez pitch, he may strike out 12. Go see a hall of famer man third base. Go see Jordan Schafer glide gracefully around center field and maybe not look overmatched at the plate. Go see one of the league's most dynamic shortstops. Go drink an 8 dollar beer. Whatever the reason, get out there and see some baseball.

Happy Belated Rockies Preview

Despite another brilliant performance by Derek Lowe (8 IP, 3 H), the Braves were dominated Monday night by Jason Marquis, who now sports a 2.79 ERA and .226 BAA away from Coors Field. SHould the words "Jason Marquis" and "dominated" appear in the same sentence? Ladies and gentlemen, your 2009 Atlanta Braves. On with the preview!
A Rockies team that has struggled thus far comes to Turner Field as the Braves continue their homestand. If the Braves want to compete in the division, they need to win these kinds of series. Tuesday night's game features a matchup between the Jair Jurjenns, debatably the Braves's best starter (no small feat on this team), and Jason Hammel, whose WHIP and performance versus righties leaves something to be desired. Let's see if the some of the slumping Braves can turn it around. Will Bobby play the righty Infante over the 1-for-his-last-million Kelly?

	Day	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thrusday
	Start Time	7:00 PM	7:00 PM	7:00 PM
Braves Starters
		Jair Jurrjens (RHP)	Javy Vazquez (RHP)	Kris Medlen (RHP)
	W-L	3-2	3-3	W-L
	ERA	2.06	3.71	ERA
	K/9	4.5	11.3	K/9
	WHIP	1.167	1.125	WHIP
	Home ERA	4.05	5.20	Home ERA
	Home BAA	.300	.243	Home BAA
	BAA vs. RHB	.181	.250	BAA vs. RHB
	BAA vs. LHB	.270	.218	BAA vs. LHB
Rockies Starters
		Jason Hammel (RHP)	Jorge De La Rosa (LHP)	Aaron Cook (RHP)
	W-L	0-2	0-3	2-1
	ERA	4.62	3.16	5.71
	K/9	5.7	9.5	4.6
	WHIP	1.697	1.172	1.634
	Road ERA	0.00	2.25	9.00
	Road BAA	.229	.228	.369
	BAA vs. RHB	.368	.252	.269
	BAA vs. LHB	.280	.130	.329

Links: Scouring Them Internets So You Don't Have To

• Nice article from Kurkjian about the resurgence at third base. Obviously Chipper gets some love. The best part, though, is an amazing story about Evan Longoria (not her): "Longoria is so gifted at the plate, he takes batting practice against a machine that fires tennis balls -- some of them marked with a black spot, some with a red spot -- up to 150 mph. At 100 mph, he can identify the color of the ball that's coming, then will hit the black ball to the opposite field, and pull the red ball." Wow.

• Jason Heyward and Kris Medlen, who had his first MLB start pushed to Thursday, make Baseball America's Prospect Hot Sheet this week. Medlin's stats at Gwinett: 1.19 ERA, 10.5 K/9, 0.80 WHIP, 0.152 BAA. Tommy Who?

• Draft Buzz: Mark Bradley (among others) sees the Braves picking Zack Wheeler, a wiry local pitcher with a fastball clocked up to 95, a plus curve, and poise to spare. Here's MLB.com's Draft Report (with video!). No third pitch yet, but seems like a good pick with upside. Mac Thomason of Braves Journal has the Braves grabbing Donavan Tate with their first pick (number 7), an athlete signed to play football at UNC. No relation to former UNC super-athlete Brandon Tate (wonder if that play made ESPN's "Notre Dame Week" coverage).
• The ugly Mets... featuring Livan Hernandez as a fourth starter. 
• Harry Caray weighs in on Manny's suspension.
  

  Manny Being Manny