The Braves throw in the towel...

The Braves officially threw in the towell yesterday. As most of you have probably heard by now, the Braves traded Mark Teixeira for Casey Kotchman and Stephen Marek. My thoughts on the trade are a few paragraphs down. But as far as throwing in the towel goes, can't really say it broke my heart. I had personally given up a month ago, hoping the Braves would go on a losing streak so Wren wouldn't think we had a chance this season.

Pop Quiz, who is the best hitter in the current Braves lineup?

If you are a OPS+ guy it's - a tie between Omar Infante and Kelly Johnson (Martin Prado doesn't have enough at bats.

If you are a runs created guy it's - Kelly Johnson

If you are a WPA guy it's - Omar Infante??

So, yeah, if that was the case for my team, I'd give in too. Infante is (supposed to be?) a backup/super utility player and Kelly Johnson is a #6 type hitter in most lineups, maybe higher when he's riding one of his streaks.

All we can do now is look ahead to next year, which as I pointed out, I have been doing for close to a month now anyways.

This brings me to the trade. All-in-all, I give it a B-

I guess a lot of it depends on how high on Kotchman you are. Some are high, some aren't. For a firstbaseman, his career .274/.337/.426 isn't awesome. His declining walk-rate can be a little worrisome, but unlike fellow free swinging teammate Jeff Francoeur, Kotchman doesn't really strike out that often so I don't have as much of a problem with it.

Kotchman's numbers may not be outstanding, but he's cheap and is better than any internal option.

Stephen Marek, he's a pretty unimpressive throw-in to the deal. But I think Wren was smart to want to get a pitching arm of some type out of the deal. We'll see what he pans out to be. He's more valuable to us as a starter obviously, but the Braves do have a thing for minor league relievers.

We need to make some outfield adjustments and possibly add another arm or two, because as we have learned this season, you can't have too many. It's almost humorous how we began the season with "too many" starting pitching options and now we're bandaged up so badly that Mike Hampton is actually pitching.


My only eyebrow raising issue with the trade is this, why so soon? Braves fans last year remember Teixeira's price kept rising and rising the closer we got to the deadline. Why not wait until teams get more desperate and up the ante? I think we might could have gotten more had we waited.

If you would have told me that the Braves traded for a young, inconsistent veteran and a mid-level prospect, I probably would have assumed it was for Will Ohman.

It's going to be a busy offseason.

CP