I doubt Bean gets much of chance to show anything in 4 games until he gets sent back down. As far as Wang, I look forward to his debut but I am concerned about the fact that he doesn't really have a solid breaking or offspeed pitch. He's primarily a fastball/splitter pitcher. Lefties have had good success against him in the minors. He's been quite good so far this year in AAA.

I'm trying as hard as I can to think of a player the Braves either traded or let walk that has truly made them regret their error.

I don't count Jason Schmidt because at the time he wasn't ready, Neagle pitched well for the Braves, and they needed production at that moment. Odalis Perez would be nice to have, but the Sheffield rental was more valuable.

Anyone have any other candidates?

Klesko/Boone for Sanders/Veras wasn't exactly a winner.

Klesko would still look pretty darn good on the Braves right now.

It's not a Bagwell-from-the-Sox, Schmidt-from-the-Pirates kinda disaster, but it's not so awesone either.

Bean! Nice to see one of my faves to get a shot (well, a chance at appearing in a game or two).

I'm surprised that more college submariners/sidearmers don't get a shot in pro ball. Bean was undrafted, despite a stud college career. Same for Ryan Speier - it took a dominant Cape Cod performance to get the Rox to pick him up. For every one of these guys, there's several Austin Tubb's - who posted stellar numbers at Southern Miss, was solid in his pro debut ... only to be released in spring training this year.

/soapbox

Anyone have any other candidates?

The Dye trade didn't work out so well for them.

He's been quite good so far this year in AAA.

4.15 ERA, 16 strikeouts in 26 innings. Five walks and two homers.

He's been solid, but I don't think I'd call that "quite good." I could see him getting knocked around a bit in the majors since he might struggle striking guys out and he won't get much help behind him.

Bean stinks. His fastball is flat, with no movement. He's going to get rocked.

Anyone have any other candidates?

Brett Butler and others for Len Barker.

Bean looked pretty good when I last saw him. The fastball was okay (with decent downward movement, thank you) but his slider was really working. I wouldn't project greatness on him, but his tools were good enough for him to have a chance as success in the bigs.

The scouting reports about "stuff" forget that the most important thiing for any pitch is location. I'm assumming, based on his minor league #'s, that Mr. Bean must have fantastic control.

Anyone have any other candidates?

Johnny Antonelli for Bobby Thomson didn't work out so good.

Anyone have any other candidates?

Jimmy Collins & Jim O'Rourke.

I'm trying as hard as I can to think of a player the Braves either traded or let walk that has truly made them regret their error.

Would it be rude to suggest that a team has to have talent in order to regret losing it, and that for most of their history the Braves, well, ...

I'm trying as hard as I can to think of a player the Braves either traded or let walk that has truly made them regret their error.

The other end of this is that the best player (not currently active) to play his entire career for the Braves may very well be Rick Camp.

Bean stinks. His fastball is flat, with no movement. He's going to get rocked.

A buddy of mine saw him pitch last year. I forget where. He told me one of those "I wanted to grab a bat and get in there against him" stories. He said he threw like a sissy. He said his fastball had zero...no movement, no velocity, nothing. Maybe he was hurt. I'm glad the Yankees caled him up.

I'm trying as hard as I can to think of a player the Braves either traded or let walk that has truly made them regret their error.
Joey Jay

Chris J - At first I was a little shocked by that statement, but then I looked it up. You may be right. Stupid Spahn playing that last season with San Fran.

If you think that Bean stinks you should come up with some explanatin of how he's dominated AAA hitters two years in a row.

2003: 69 IP, 70 K, 27 BB, 5 HR
2004: 82.2 IP, 109 K, 23 BB, 3 HR
2005: 8.1 IP, 14 K, 1 BB, 0 HR

Totals: 160 IP, 193 K, 51 BB, 8 HR

If he fastball is slow and flat you'd think he'd get taken deep more often.

Joey Jay

Hey, Juan Pizarro was better than Jay, and they were traded together -- in exchange for three mediocre years of Roy McMillan.

Well, there are always a few of these guys around, and Bean's as good a candidate as any. Someone's gotta be Doug Jones.

Kevin, which spring training did he pitch for Boston? I can't find him amond their spring training stats in 02, 03 or 04.

This spring with the Yankees he gave up 3 runs in 4.2 with 6K, 3BB and 1 HR.

Last spring he gave up 6 runs in 3.2 with 5 K, 3 BB and 1 HR.

Those are bad numbers but it's not much of a sample. Foulke gave up 15 runs in 9 IP last spring and still had a pretty nice season as I recall.

It is pretty wierd that Bean has never gotten even an inning at the major league level.

The Yankees go through enough pitchers that you'd think they would call him up for a couple days.

Granted, a lot of us who have praise for Bean also liked this guy...

"Last spring he gave up 6 runs in 3.2 with 5 K, 3 BB and 1 HR."
Odds are these stats include his BoSox time. Supposedly, NYY was shocked that Boston selected him in Rule 5 - though they thought enough of him this winter to add him to the 40 man.
That reading of 85-86 sounds right to me - not at all a hard thrower.

Maybe Bean can't hack in in the majors and maybe he can. I'd like to see him get his shot. But I'm afraid what'll happen is that Bean will be unimpressive in how first two relief outings and Torre will decided to never use him again.

I think Craig was probably focused on the current Braves management group.

That said, Grissom and Justice for Lofton and Embree should probably join the aforementioned trades of Dye, Klesko, and Boone.

Lofton, while having a good season statistically, managed to become my least favorite ML player after '97. I didn't like him much when he was in Cleveland the first time around, but after he left the Braves...

Recently, he's spent most of his time popping up on playoff teams that often knock off the Braves. Man, he chaps my hide.

Also, I was thinking the other day of how amazingly poor Reggie Sanders was for Atlanta in 2000. Looking at bbref, I'm surprised to see he actually ended up batting over .200 with an OBP of over .300. I remember him spending much of the year below the Mendoza Line.

Al Martin put up 27.6 WARP3 after leaving the Braves as a six-year minor-league FA. 18.3 of those came in the first five years of his career (i.e. the cheapest ones), where he was averaging something like 400 AB a season as a semi-regular.

Is there reason to believe that a soft thrower who suceeds is the minors is less likely to have MLB sucess than a hard thrower who suceeds in the minors? I know that many/most of both types of pitches don't make it in the majors.

I think there IS reason to believe that Bean won't age nearly as well as a hard thrower. You could say he has old pitcher skills if you want. But, we're not really talking about how Bean's career will shake out just whether he's capable of having sucess now. I think he is.

The Dye trade didn't work out that badly for the Braves. He was thoroughly awful for two years with KC (OPS+ of 68 and 54 in partial seasons). Then had two really good seasons and has been mediocre since. Tucker was decent in 97 and poor in 98 (but nowhere near as bad as Dye). They could have used Dye in 99 and 00, but that's hard to foresee.

Lockhart was putrid throughout of course, but he would stand between 1B and 2B or go to the plate anytime he was asked to.

Not a good trade for them, but hardly disastrous.

The Sanders/Veras for Klesko/Boone trade definitely didn't work out, though it looked fine on paper. That was the only bad year of Sanders' career and, until he got hurt, Veras was the on-base machine they wanted at the top of the lineup. And no one expected Boone to have those Seattle years. Everybody was within ages 29-32 except the ancient Joyner and the "prospect" Shiell ... and we all know not to trade for Brave pitching prospects ... so it's not like the Braves appeared to be mortgaging their future.

The Cubs failed to heed the lesson about trading for Brave pitching prospects. They absolutely "ripped off" the Braves in sending Jose Hernandez and Terry Mulholland for Ruben Quevedo (age 20), Joey Nation (20), and Micah Bowie (24). Ahh well. But on paper, that might have been one of the worst trades Schuerholz has made with the Braves. :-)