Thursday, May 23, 2013
The night Ted Turner managed the Braves
(espn.go.com)
Maybe Magic Johnson would like to try his hand in the Dodgers dugout?
Read More...Ted Turner was the “Mouth of the South,” “Terrible Ted” and “Captain Outrageous,” a brash, outspoken business mogul who had a golden touch.
He launched the first successful cable news network with CNN, sailed to victory in the America’s Cup and used his cable empire to turn his Atlanta Braves into “America’s Team.”
But 36 years ago this month, Turner discovered there was one thing he couldn’t do: manage his own baseball ...
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1 2 3 >I have no idea what Towers is doing in Arizona these days, but I guess we'll see if he makes me look foolish.
It'll be interesting to see what effect playing together has on the Upton bros.
I think for him, it is and has always been "we strike out too much."
I don't know the Braves guys in this deal other than Prado, so I can't say it's a bad deal for AZ. But I certainly don't think much of the general notion that trading Justin Upton is the answer. The question is whether a flawed thought process ended up working out anyway due to circumstances (which does often happen).
And the Upton brothers will be playing together! That's pretty cool.
Prado is a FA at the end of the year.
Okay: WTF are you doing out there, Kevin Towers?
From a stat geek perspective, the prospect haul is really underwhelming but I'm guessing the scouts like those guys a lot better than their stats have been. Ahmed looks like a decent prospect from a statistical level I suppose, and the shortstop fetish continues apace.
For the Braves, that's quite an outfield they've assemble, I'm assuming Justin is the left fielder now? If they're counting on Chris Johnson as their everyday 3B, that seems like a rather stiff downgrade from Chipper and probably from Prado. Against a right handed pitcher, is he a better option than Francisco? Doesn't immediately look like it once the difference in gloves is factored in.
The brothers (and the whole family really) have to be very excited in any event.
Uggla at 3B has disaster written all over it. Or maybe catastrophe since he's already a disaster at 2B.
Sounds a lot like Trevor Bauer in a year or so.
Of course he does. But now we're doomed.
Are you serious?
EDIT: You are.
D'oh!
As a Braves' fan I'm not miffed with this package. Delgado is useful, the others aren't guys I see as compelling. Still, replacing Prado at 3B with Francisco/Johnson is likely an offensive downgrade and certainly a defensive downgrade. So, I'm not sure this improves them for 2013, but probably for 2014/15, if they figured they'd lose Prado.
J.Upton has a skill set that tends to be overrated, Prado is the reverse and I'm with Danny on Delgado. OTOH, there's the team aforementioned team control issues and Upton is the most valuable commodity in the deal.
i know it happens. don't like it
Combining the three high profile deals this winter the D-Backs have done the following;
Lost: Trevor Bauer, Justin Upton, Chris Young, Chris Johnson, Matt Albers, Bryan Shaw
Gained: Randall Delgado, Nick Ahmed, Didi Gregorious, Lars Anderson, Tony Sipp, Zeke Spruill, Martin Prado, Brandon Drury, Heath Bell and Cliff Pennington
If I'm a D-Backs fan I'm not thrilled with this collection.
J-up has a pretty good OBP. Go with something like: Justin, Heyward, Freeman, Uggla, Melvin, Francisco, Laird, Simmons.
Just wait until the rules change requiring a team to play with 3 shortstops.
It's possible the Braves will use some of their leftover money to pick up a starter.
EDIT: Coke to CFBF.
EDIT: why can I never keep my Braves pitchers straight? I'm thinking of Beachy obviously.
Justin: 9.75m this year, then 14.25, 14.5
Prado: somewhere around 6.85m
Johnson: 2.29m this year
ZiPS has Upton as a 3.4 WAR player - CAIRO has Upton at 2.9 oWAR, with a small positive bump for defense. ZiPS hasn't evaluated Prado yet - CAIRO has Prado at 1.0 WAR, but that's as a left fielder with a quarter less time than JU. Make their time equivalent, shift Prado to third (where he's good) or slot him as a utility guy (there's value in being good and versatile) - and Upton projects around a win over Prado.
Though there's certainty with Upton's contract, I'm not sure that there's much in the way in value over contract (which an org that is slowly sliding into lower middle-classdom like Atlanta is maybe a little more sensitive to).
I've never liked Johnson and can't claim to be impartial about him. He could be part of a ok hit / no field platoon, I suppose.
Yea, but who is out there? Kyle Lohse and Joe Saunders are really the only dependable guys left, and they have some warts too. After that its Carlos Zambrano, Dice-K, Oswalt, or bringin Jurrjens back.
I think the rotation is probably good enough to start the season with, and if one of the younger guys isn't up to snuff, they can make a trade then.
Guess that means it'll turn out badly for both, though I'm not sure how that could be true for the Braves. Maybe Upton'll get hurt?
Prado is a 3B, not a 2B. He can play 2B, but his value position is third.
/checks mail for Diamandbacks' contract offer...
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