Catcher’s Blog

So today is a much-needed off day for our struggling Braves. I’m not sure that having an off day will do much of anything, but what could it hurt? Like the Braves play lately, I’ve been lazy and unenthusiastic about posting, mainly because I didn’t really want to focus on how bad things have become. So I won’t. I’ll make this a “good” post.

TalkingChop has been covering the September call-ups and with September just a few days away, I thought I’d link to those good posts. It’s a three-part series with hitters, pitchers, and roster fitting, but it’s a good read. Something to take your mind off the sting of the terrible games lately. Part one, part two, part three.

Also, I wanted to mention that I’ll be venturing to Atlanta to Thursday’s game against the Marlins. Hopefully it won’t be as bad as I’m thinking. The Marlins are off their game a bit lately and Charlie Morton is pitching against Anibal Sanchez. Hopefully this will be one of his good days. *crosses fingers* Anyway, I’ll be making a post this weekend on the game with pictures. Be on the lookout for that.

Kotsay cleared waivers, but a good bit of teams are supposedly interested in taking on his services, according to MLBTR and Ken Rosenthal.

Somewhat surprising new addition to our cleared waivers list - Braves center fielder Mark Kotsay.  Apparently a number of teams are interested in the resurgent Kotsay, though not enough to take on his remaining salary.

Mark Kotsay - Ken Rosenthal says he cleared and a number of teams are interested. Kotsay clearing is a bit of a surprise since the A’s are paying most of his salary. Kotsay can block trades to eight teams. The center fielder is having a nice comeback season with a .782 OPS in 324 plate appearances.

I’m pretty sure teams don’t want to have to pay his salary, but the A’s are footing over half of it. I really like Kotsay, though, but I think that while we are planning to acquire a power-hitting outfielder, someone needs to go at some point. It would be better to trade Kotsay before the season ends so that we can at least get a decent return, as he will be a free agent and we will probably get a supplemental draft pick from someone signing him, if at all, like we did last year for Ron Mahay. But that is if someone takes a chance on him, like we did this year, and signs him in the off season. I think a team will be in desperate need of a center fielder that is still in contention and we will trade him for the right offer.

Also, as we’ve already heard from many places, the Braves are looking to add a top-of-the-line starter next year.

The Braves nearly acquired Jason Bay in July, and will be in the market for a slugging outfielder this winter.  They’ll also be looking for a quality starter, likely in the Ryan Dempster/A.J. Burnett/Jon Garland range.  Click here to browse the free agent market.

I’m sure that we will go for at least one top starter, but I’m not so sure about Ryan Dempster, though. Maybe it’s just me, but he’s been a closer/reliever for a few years and he has been good this year as a starter. But to me, he’s been on a team that has no trouble scoring runs or winning ballgames. He may not be as good on another team, but I’m no expert. I could see us getting Ben Sheets or John Lackey maybe, and even Jon Garland, but I’m not sure about Dempster being so top-of-the-line like the other pitchers we have interest in.

And another note: Jo-Jo is making the start tomorrow in Glavine’s spot. This could be good or bad, but we’ll see.

There are few things I thought that were worth mentioning, so see below for different articles, pictures, etc.

• As most of you have heard, Corky was desginated for assignment with the promotion of Chuck James last night. Corky was hitting .093 for the season, and with Mac being cleared last night to catch in an emergency and pinch hit, clearly Clint Sammons was here to stay. I think the Braves only kept Corky around until they knew Clint was ready or they found another option. He’s not expected to get claimed by anyone off waivers because of his batting average, and thus will go to the minor leagues. Clint will continue to catch for the remainder of this weekend against the Milwaukee Brewers and Mac should return on Monday to his starting duties.
• The Braves and their wives, in their Christmas in July promotion, went to visit and deliver toys to patients in three children’s hospitals. Visiting patients is a really great thing that they do every year and it’s apparent that the kids at the hospitals really enjoy it. I think the players enjoy it just as much as the kids do. There are three different galleries of pictures: one, two, and three.

  I’m not sure of everyone that went, but the pictures include players, wives, and broadcasters such as Mac, Frenchy and wife, Catie, KJ and wife, Lauren, Boyer and wife, Ginsey, Gonzo, Blanco, Ring and wife, Tricia, Brian Snitker, Chip Carey, Joe Simpson, and Fernando Palacios, who is one of the Spanish broadcasters.  And a quote from tough-guy closer, Gonzo, about his experience:

  “This was an unbelievable experience, man,” Gonzalez said after the two-hour visit. “It’s pretty much why we do this, why we’re proud to be big leaguers and see the smile on these kids’ faces.”

• Huddy might have to have Tommy John surgery. His MRI results showed that he had a tear in his ulnar collateral ligament. Both Dr. James Andrews and a Braves physician recommended that he have the surgery done. Huddy would like to avoid having the surgery at all and is going to try to “tough it out”, as stated in a text message. He’s going to try to take the Peter Moylan route to try to avoid the surgery, but no one is sure that it will work. We’ll have to hope it does, but it might just be better for him to go ahead and have the surgery since it might become worse down the line if he pitches with it.
• The Braves may choose the option of trading some players still in the month of August to get other players that can be used in the future and will be younger. Kotsay may be on a different team by the time September rolls around, and even some of the other regulars we see on the field everyday. Terrence Moore says fans should not to be surprised to see the Braves put some of their players on waivers to see what kind of return they can get for them. Putting someone on waivers isn’t risky in that that team can pull him off if they decide not to trade that player after all. Apparently, some still think Frenchy won’t be a Brave by the time the season concludes, but we’ll have to see how things go.

Tomorrow is the Trade Deadline and I’ve been hearing and reading a lot of different rumors. I won’t even think about posting them all. Now that Mark Teixeira has been dealt to the Angels, everyone keeps asking “who will be next?” to themselves and everyone else. We shall see within the next 24 hours or so.

When reading this blog by Braves writer Mark Bowman, it is safe to say that Frank Wren isn’t done by any means and will be pretty active tomorrow before 4:00 pm. Tomorrow I will make a post with the trades that do occur with the Braves and any other significant ones that I think should be posted that peak interest. It will be like a chat/live blog sort of thing. Readers will be able to leave their comments if they wish to do so. The post will probably be put up tonight but the chat won’t be started until sometime tomorrow, probably around 12 pm since I usually sleep in. I will try to post any trade rumors that seem credible as well, but I’m not sure yet. Be on the look out for it, though.

As it has been announced, Chipper will indeed be the starting third baseman in this year’s All-Star game, and deservedly so. Mac will be one of the backups to Geovanny Soto, along with Russell Martin. Here’s one of the stories from SI.com on the whole NL catcher’s deal:

And how do the National League players snub Atlanta catcher Brian McCann, instead putting L.A’s Russell Martin in as rookie Geovany Soto’s backup? I love Martin and his game, and I’ll admit that this is a tough call. But you have to take McCann’s power over a few more walks, don’t you? Merit-wise, I mean?

Now they’re saying Mac got snubbed as a backup? Geez. He should be starting, end of story. At least he’s going period, I guess, but this makes three straight All-Star games for Mac in a row and it’s just his third full year in the majors. How awesome is that? I won’t get to watch either way because I’ll be camping at Hunting Island, SC all next week and won’t have access to a TV more than likely. Hopefully someone, somewhere will get some footage of Mac playing, if he even plays at all. Congrats Chipper and Mac, though, on receiving this chance to be in the Mid-Summer Classic at Yankee Stadium; it is very well deserved.

In other news, Frenchy has been recalled after spending three days in AA ball, after being sent down Friday to work on his swing. In this promotion of Frenchy, though, we’ve had to put more players on the DL. Bennett, Acosta, and Infante will be replaced on the roster by Frenchy, Vladimir Nunez, and Brent Lillibridge. The Braves will only play with eleven pitchers, but opted to promote another infielder because the All-Star break is only a week away. I’m sure they promoted Lillibridge because of Escobar’s recent injuries as well and uncertainty that he’ll play tonight, or in the event that he’s out a few more games than expected. Why is that when we finally get some players healthy and off the DL, we have a few more that have to be put on there from more injuries? It’s just unreal.

Trade rumors are starting to fly around about the Braves trading Teixshy. Here’s a take on this situation from John Donovan of SI.com:

With C.C. Sabathia now off the trade table after his weekend shipping to Milwaukee, we should probably turn our attention to the big slugger on the block, Mark Teixeira. Will someone be able to pry the switch-hitting first baseman away from the Braves for a pennant run? My guess: No. The Braves face the Dodgers and Padres before the All-Star Game, which means they’ll probably hit the break closer to the NL East lead than they are now (six games at the start of the week). With Teixeira, they have a chance at stealing the lackluster East. Without him, they have none.

My take is that we won’t trade him while only being six games back the week before the All-Star break. My hope is that we play well against these two West Coast teams and dwindle our way back toward the top of standings. But realistically, if we can take both series (4 of 6), that would be great. Hopefully we can feed off last night’s huge win and play some good baseball.