Picked up Vazquez. Not sure yet if that's a good thing or not.

Depends on other moves. If Vazquez is the best pitcher they acquire this year after pretty much saying that they want to pick up a front line guy.....then this isn't good. He's definitely dependable to pitch a lot of innings..moving to the NL and out of a great HR hitters park will help him. He'll probably be pretty decent....200+ IP, lots of Ks and a 4.20ish ERA I'd imagine......not too bad.



Also, future Brave HOFer Greg Maddux will be announcing his retirement on Monday. Greatest pitcher of our era.

I think this is mostly unarguable, but Pedro in his prime years beats everyone.

That's true. Difference between greatest pitcher and greatest pitcher at his peak though. Pedro's peak is simply stunning.

Sounds about right for Vaz, though I wouldn't be surprised to see the ERA a little lower.

Also, it looks like an AJ Burnett is on the horizon. I would have much rather had Peavy obviously, but Wren can't control how big of a moron Kevin Towers is.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3781333

Wowsers.

Kobe Bryant's old agent. Kobe fired him for being a scumbag.

Arn Tellum (sp?) is the head of that agency right? He used to be respected I think, or at least he was Steve Young's agent and was always spoken highly of (at least in regards to an agent).

I guess I'm happy to get Raffy back if he stays healthy. Now they just need to resign Manny. Hearing that the Angels have withdrawn their offer to Texeria is a bit worrisome though...

Arn Tellem. Wasn't Leigh Steinberg Steve Young's agent? He at least played Steve Young's agent on an episode of 90210.

If they don't get Manny I'm going to cry. Overpay who cares, it's not the NBA, there's no cap. I wished I owned the team, "Manny, what do you want? 10 years $800M? Done."

You might be right and I'm confusing the two.

Yeah, I'm ok with overpaying Manny too, but I'm scared they are going to think 'well, we have Ethier and Kemp set in the OF, and then Pierre and Andruw can compete for the 3rd spot'.

Resign Manny and sign one of the Fa pitchers left, and I am somewhat happy. Plus I won't have to change my avatar on here or stars.

I would love to see them trade 4 Peavy.

Yeah but the Dodgers and the Padres can't seem to ever get a trade together without a big ordeal. Even the Maddux deal last year took forever to put together, and the Dodgers were the only team he wanted to play for. If we can get Peavy without giving up any of our ML level talent, I'd go for it, but not for Russell or Kemp, Kershaw, etc etc.

I agree. I really want him though.

I'm going to take this over to the Dodger thread...

what the hell's goin on......are we not making anymore moves this offseason or what?? Frank Wren is starting to annoy me. Oh yeah and Furcal's agent can go to hell imo

****.

seriously worst offseason ever.......

WTF BRAVES!

QFT

between this and XM/Sirius I'd say you have a huge problem. I'm trying not to rant here but this behaviour has to stop, my friend. you know what I won't even call it behaviour. It's nonsense. And I won't sit here and let you continue this.

Have fun with Derek Lowe...good thing he wasn't completely fos or anything when he discussed what was most important for him with his next team. Not that it wasn't obvious he would go wherever the most money was, but still....

Pretty sure he is bi polar (not kidding), so prepare for that kinda performance.

honestly i'm just glad that they actually did something and atleast made a move to get someone.......hopefully the Japanese player signed will be good too


I miss Smoltz
(even though he's hurt and old.......he's just........a Brave)

From Dodgers.com article, he can be your guys problem again maybe:

It's time for the Dodgers to trade or cut bait with Jones. Surprisingly, the Dodgers this week actually discussed a trade with two clubs interested enough in Jones to consider giving up something rather than compete with another club to get him as a free agent.

Dodgers management, however, isn't counting on any miracles. It still expects to be forced to release the 31-year-old outfielder as part of a recent contract renegotiation that assures Jones he'll play elsewhere in 2009 while providing the Dodgers payroll flexibility by deferring the remaining $21.1 million of his salary over the next six years.

For what it's worth, Jones attended the Duke-Georgia Tech basketball game Wednesday night wearing an Atlanta Braves cap.

Meh?

I am actually extremely happy with what Lowe and our pitching staff has been thus far. I understand that we def offered him the most money, but our coaches and staff have seemed to see him as a mentor to some or our young studs (ie Hansen, Medlen) thus far. He seems to have a good work ethic and very knowledgeable of the game so far. Is there something I should be aware of?

Anyways, we need to try and trade Josh Anderson, Schafer seems ready for the CF duties...has a sick arm and can hold his own on the batters box.

Looking forward to a good season and hopefully we can compete for a playoff spot IF we can stay healthy.

I have boycotted Turner Field this season in honor of Smoltzie...I honestly think it was smart for the franchise, but he did deserve to end his career here in Atlanta after everything that he has given to us...

Good luck to everyone this season and hopefully the Braves will see you in the playoffs...

Lowe looked nasty

obv way early but liked what i saw

yes, he did

and I'm not sure what Bobby Cox was thinking, but when your starter has a 2 hit shutout going into the 9th (whether or not he was batting in the bottom of the 8th) you let him finish the game

a sweep at Philly to start the season would be awesome.....

I stopped listening to the third game in Philadelphia when the Braves were up 10-3. I was shocked to later find out the final score. Basically, our bullpen continues to be suspect.

yeah if we could just get the pen straightened out this team could do some big things I think.....

excited to see how Kawakami(sp?) pitches tonight

I thought Kawakami looked good. I like 8 Ks over 6 IP.

In other news, Glavine's shoulder was bothering him halfway through his rehab start in AAA and he's being replaced with Jo-Jo Reyes this weekend against the Pirates.

Went to the game last night...sighballs. Vazquez was okay...all those strikeouts were impressive. Garrett Anderson sucked major balls (dropped three foul outs and didn't do crap at the plate). Moylan looked good. Francouer and Johnson were pretty stellar. Just would've been nice if we'd remembered to score some runs.

that 6 foot 8 Volstad guy had something to do with it. If Andrew Miller figures it out, we got our Steve Avery to do a nice Braves circa 1991 routine.

wow the Braves just went off the rails in the 9th.....

Anything else new?

So depressing.

That was an awful series. We better turn it around with a sweep in Pittsburgh.

There goes that plan. Jurrjenns pitched a great game and it's a tough loss to take thanks to that absolutely disgusting display of "offense".

gg season

Oh...so that's where we put the offense.

Whee?

Only two games back thanks to Florida's current slide. The hitting is going to be streaky all year, but this is a rotation that can keep us in most games.

Brian McCann is a fat ****, and his vision problems due to the onset of type 2 diabetes

Went to the game last night and stuck out the rain delay. Pretty decent game. Nice to see some offense.

I'm headed up to see them in June vs Boston.

6-2 on the road trip and a big win over the DBacks tonight. With the Mets on their way to losing, we could be 1 game out when the night is over.

Might've been a good thing to get another day off after Saturday's catastrophe.

Typical of the year so far. The starting pitching was good enough to keep us in the game, but no hitting and a rough outing from the pen cost us.

We've got Lowe/JJ/Vazquez/Kris Medlen going in this series vs. Colorado, so we should get back on the right track.

nice sweep of the Jays over the weekend.......now lets go out west and handle

For the love.

a bit belated from Giants nation, but none the less.

Wheeeee

awesome win last night



huuuuge day today off the field!

Glavine released.......we get McClouth.........and Tommy Hanson making his debut Saturday....