Who should Braves get this off season?

Question

Please see this website for the free agent list:

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2007/12/2009-mlb-free-a.html

With 35 million to spare, I certainly hope Frank Wren make some sensible signing for 2009.

As I mentioned before, pushing it to get both Ben Sheet and CC and sacrifice offense is my opinion of the best option. The young core players of the Braves are not that bad and I think Chipper will stay with Atlanta. This year is a disappointing year but they still have potential to be a good hitting club if their record is better than it is now. The rotation will look like this Ben, CC, JJ, Jorge and Smoltz or Glavine or Charlie, I think it will be Glavine at 5th spot and John in the pen and Charlie in Minors.

Second option, sign CC or Ben plus a power hitting outfielder. Trade for Matt Holiday and have a lot of spare money or sign Vladimir Guerrero. 4th and 5th spot of rotation will look weak until Hudson comes back. Very doubtful if one big bat can help Braves a lot because Vlad=Matt=Tex. If Tex cannot help us, other won’t.

Third option, sign two big bat. Might work, still I don’t think it will make Braves better hitting club than Phillies. JJ < Cole, nuff said about the rotation.

If Frank resigned Hampton and sign Andy Pettitte and have exactly the same line up as this year, I am going to kill myself and before that I will take down a lot of people with me.

Answer 1

Braves need some players who can produce RIB&#039;S and Runs to help win games. Also, they need pitchers who at least make 6 innings and get a closer who can get over 20 saves. Braves are a team who has money then buys a great player then that players just gives up and so they trade him like Andruw Jones and Mark Texiaria.  

Answer 2

As he showed, Hampton can be a pretty reliable option when he&#039;s healthy. They should try to get Jamie Carroll, Tadahito Iguchi, Casey Black, Joe Crede, Ben Sheets, John Lackey, and try to pick up a closer and some bullpen help

Answer 3

I&#039;m a diehard Braves fan. He is, without a doubt, going for either CC or Sheets (or Lackey is he&#039;s available). That&#039;s his #1 priority, especially with Tim Hudson out for a good portion of next year. 2 of those guys would be amazing! I have seen how incredible Ben Sheets is. If we could get ahold of him (I&#039;m sure he&#039;d be the cheapest because of his injuries), I would be soooo happy. As for re-signing Hampton, I really wouldn&#039;t mind if we did if Hampton took a really low salary. We&#039;ve been paying him $15 million a year to do nothing, so if he stays, he owes it to us to take like, a $1 - $2 million contract. I&#039;d be fine with that...

After the Sheets/CC/Lackey pitcher (if he can&#039;t get two of them because of the prices), he will go after someone in the realm of Jon Garland, Brad Penny, or Andy Pettitte (although, he is old, and we are trying to rebuild...so I doubt he would be the choice). Obviously 2 of the top tier pitchers would be the best scenario, but we&#039;ll see how that unfolds (with their asking prices and what not).

If things pan out to the optimum solution, our rotation would look like:

Sheets, Sabathia, Jurrjens, Campillo, Glavine (if he decides to pitch...my assumption is Smoltz is going to the bullpen if he comes back). If Glavine doesn&#039;t come back, we will have to mix and match but probably Morton would be the logical choice until Hudson gets back. Then Hudson can remain our ace.

The next priority is a power hitting OF for LF. Holliday would be nice, but let&#039;s be honest here...CC, Sheets, AND Holliday? That&#039;s a whoooole lot of money that we don&#039;t have. I&#039;d think more in the second tier of power hitting OF. Maybe look at Ibanez. Somebody like him. We only need someone to keep the place warm until Jason Heyward is ready...so someone we can sign for just a couple years. That would be ideal since Ibanez and many of the other free agent LFs would only last a couple more years probably. It&#039;s kinda a small pool to choose from.

I have faith in Wren. I think he will make the right choice...but the #1 thing he needs to do is get one of those top tier pitchers...then he can go from there...

Answer 4

They need some hitting. Matt Holliday is a good option. Or if they want a pitcher, maybe Pettitte