Posts tagged ‘Frank Wren’

This week's Guest Rue Grant from Bravesblast with Braves GM Frank Wren

Do you think it is time to apologize to Frank Wren and his front office goons after the signing of Derek Lowe? If you are one of those fans that just wanted an ace at the top of the rotation then I say fo ahead. After all that we said about Wren he just spent $83mm to bring in two pitchers.
We picked up our first ever Japanese born player in Kenshin Kawakami and signed him for three years and around the $23mm range according to a few sources. He is in his mid thirties and for the last year he pitched on a six man rotation. He has pitched every five days before and in 2006 is when he won the equivalent of the Cy Young award. He has not stated any specific goals for the upcoming year but he did say that he wanted to stay in the rotation all year. Well given any for seen circumstances I think he will have no problem at all in achieving that.
Our biggest pick up is Derek Lowe the 33 year old veteran from L.A. This guy really is a workhorse, something that this rotation needs more than anything else. Remember the work load that our bullpen had last year. I seen a crazy stat earlier in the week and I hope I do not get it wrong. Since 2002 Lowe is third or tied with third in wins among all starters. That is amazing. I was happy we got Lowe. Other than the possibility of Peavy I was really hoping to get this guy. I just don’t understand why the Braves was not interested in him before the Smoltz thing went down. The Braves put in a huge offer of four years for $60mm and it has been passed around that the Braves did that just so Lowe can accept the offer quickly. A little paranoid there Wren?
Lowe is like Smoltz. A closer to start his career in Boston, well from 1999 to 2001 and now an accomplished starter.
I am sad to see number 29 go off to what might be greener land up in Boston but you know there is nothing that I can do about that. Just to break up a little contract numbers check this out. Smoltz left the Braves for $5.5mm and the Braves offered around the $2.5mm range. Difference of $2mm. Omar Infante signed for two years with a third year option for around $4.35mm. Smoltz only wanted a one year deal and instead of giving
Smoltz the chance of retiring at the end of the year as a Brave (if that is what Smoltz is going to do) they give the cash to a backup infielder. And the third year option is a club option and it is for $2.5mm. Just thought you might like to know where that $40mm went to.

John Smoltz departs from the Braves after over 20 seasons

Pat:

I think Jereme said it best last week in the show when he mentioned how much baseball has changed and how he missed the way things used to be. With the news that John Smoltz will be headed north to Boston, I couldn’t help but to think what it now takes for a player to play an entire career with the same team. Yes I realize he was part of the Tigers organization to start with, but Smoltz is and will always be a Brave in my eyes. I have read several reports stating that Atlanta’s offer was nowhere in the same ballpark as the Redsox. I have to believe that Smoltz was keeping the Braves informed of potential clubs interest and probably gave the Braves a chance to match or come close. This is just another big disappointment in what has been a very hard off-season for Braves fans. Frank Wren will now turn his attention to signing Derek Lowe. Although the move would still be positive for the Braves, it really doesn’t seem to matter as much now!!!

Jereme:

This Morning when I woke up it was hard to believe that the long time Braves Pitcher John Smoltz was no longer with us. Now I am not going to lie, I am a little bitter. I mean the way this off-season has gone its hard for even the most loyal Braves fan to not have some bitterness in them. I am torn on who to really blame. Is it fair to blame Smoltz, or the front office of the Braves? Who is to blame will come out later this week as the Braves say they offered him an incentive based deal and Smoltz says that there are large gaps in the offer. The one thing that I can say with a Definite is that Atlanta Braves fans have lost a true contender. One that was passionate about the game, and treated the fans to 200 wins, 3000 strikeouts, and several key wins (both in the regular season and post season). To say Smoltz will be missed is an understatement, but as a fan of the game and the player I wish Smoltz all the luck this season.

Bert:

It looks as though the Atlanta sports landscape will never again be the same. After twenty plus years with the Braves John Smoltz will be leaving. One of the staples in Atlanta will never wear the tomahawk across his chest. Not like when two other greats of the mound, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux John was more than an every five day player. If you ever had a chance to see this guy pitch whether it is from the first inning on or in the bottom of the ninth you saw a warrior on the rubber. His departure is a shocking but truth shaking moment for the Braves faithful as we all see the lack of enthusiasm of the front office. I guess you can say the Braves got beat out on two wonderful pitchers for a combined six million dollars. And this is a team that right before the season was over said that they was going to have sufficient funds to build a competing team in 09. From a huge fan base that Atlanta had in the postseason runs in the 1990s to the dwindling few that is still there now we will all miss the great starter and of course the ninth inning when we all stood up to the sound of thunderstruck.

Video Blog: CSS’S Chris Dimino on Smoltz Leaving Atlanta

Time is ticking on the Braves off-season!

Happy New Year to all Braves Fans! With the change of the calendar it now means we are a month closer to baseball returning. It may seem a while a way but pitchers and catchers are only six weeks away from reporting to camp with spring training only a couple weeks behind.  This means it is officially time to start worrying if the braves and Gm Frank Wren are going to make anymore off-season moves to bolster the 09 roster. So far fans are extremely disappointed in how the off-season has gone so far. Not only have the braves not significantly improved their club, the other teams in the division have! Both the Mets and (World Series Champion) Phillies have improved their biggest weaknesses over this winter. It appears the Braves are now down to plan C. That plan being; go with what you got and hope for the best! What the braves have are a couple of huge holes. Starting pitching and power is the obvious two. I am sure that Braves are closely monitoring the status of John Smoltz and Tom Glavine. Both pitchers have expressed interest in returning to the club in 09 if healthy. These two guys may now have to be relied on to be a big part of this upcoming season’s starting rotation. We all know how that worked out last year. I can’t remember such a disappointing off-season in quite a few years.

With the thought of relying on unstable pitching, it is just as uncomforting to know that this year’s Braves team will not be able to slug it out with any of the strong clubs in baseball. I don’t want to see a Brandon Jones, and Matt Diaz platoon in the outfield. I don’t want to see a Matt Diaz and Greg Norton platoon either! I want to see a trade or free agent acquisition that makes since. The Braves have been rumored to have interest in names like Dye, Ankiel, Cameron, and others. So far we are stuck watching the same outfield that produced one of Major League Baseball’s weakest outfields and one of the weakest Atlanta Braves outfield in quite some time. How about we get rid of some of the unproven talent on the team such as pitchers Reyes, or even Morton or position players like Blanco or Brandon Jones and include them as a trade for a quality player. These guys would be great for a team rebuilding and looking to cut payroll or take chances on young unproven talent.

With time ticking closer to the 09 season it is easy to see that the Braves Christmas Wishlist has not come true. I think Santa must have thought that Frank Wren was a bad boy or maybe just a bad GM so far? My question to anyone and everyone who reads this just this: with the minimal time remaining in the off-season what should Frank Wren focus on? He can still try to acquire a starting pitcher or a power hitter by trade, or maybe focus on the health of the current players such as Smoltz, Glavine, Moylan and Soriano. Whatever happens from here I will support my home town team and hope for the best, and I hope you will do the same.