Scott Spiezo

[lavell12]

I think he could be a good pickup for the Braves if we could sign him as a free agent. I'm not talking about as a starter but he can play some left, third if chipper gets hurt and spot LaRoche at first some. Mainly used as a pinch hitter though.

[FalconPride]

Last thing we need is a player whose last name nobody can spell. We still have problems with Andruw/Andrew and Francoeur/Francouer. Scott Spiezio would be an okay pickup. An alright pickup. Maybe just an okay pickup. But he won't come for anything less than a million and the Braves don't need to be pumping much money into the bench.

[McCarroll21]

If I go out to sign any Cardinals FA, I'm going after Jeff Suppan first. That's correcting a weakness. If we could get Spiezio for cheap it would be a great addition. He's a winner and, by all accounts, a good teammate. He can play everything but C, SS and CF so players like that are always valuable. He'll most likely stay in St. Louis, though.

[Gary]

Suppan would definitely help our pitching.

[lavell12]

don't get me wrong pitching should be our first priority and I do really think that JS will add a real quality arm to the rotation, I get this feeling from a few quotes of his. I think it will be glavine. Smoltz, Glavine, James, Hudson, Hampton might be the best rotation in the NL.

[FalconPride]

God, if it's Glavine, we have already put the white flag up.

[oyhstah crachah]

Smoltz, Glavine, James, Hudson, Hampton might be the best rotation in the NL.
Thats exactly what people where saying before this season, and frankly, we SUCKED.

[Jsh1284]

Before this season, it was Smoltz, Hudson, Thompson, Hampton, and Davies. Quite frankly, we didn't have any of those last three for any real period of time.

Glavine could be a real jumpstart for our rotation. He's still got talent and he's nearly at 300 wins. I feel that he could come in and win 15 games with a mid 3.00 ERA without much of a problem.

Contrary to popular belief in this thread, we need an upgraded bench with the departure of Betemit. Spezio would be a great addition but unfortunately, he'll get some lucrative offers from other playoff calibur teams because of his career numbers in October. Craig C, the big eared elf from Arizona, would be my main target for solidifying the bench this offseason.

[FalconPride]

Post All-Star Break...
79 ING, 81 hits, 43 R, 38 ER, 26 BB, 49 SO.

Thing was...those stats are in line with his first-half stats except strikeouts. His ERA was almost a run higher, though. Braves really can't afford to put serious money (and that's what it would cost) into 40 year-old lefthander when we already have two soft-tossing lefties in the staff.

Get Glavine...pitching staff will be terrible.

[Jsh1284]

I disagree that it would cost serious money. He's not gonna be as expensive for example .. as Tim Hudson. Those numbers are after he tweaked his elbow. I don't have to look deeper into those stats to realize in the last month of the season he was MUCH better than those numbers would lead one to believe.

You do bring up an excellent point though .. the fact that we' would have three similar lefties in the rotation in a right handed dominated league. The pro to this is that the big power threats in our own divisions ARE left handed hitters .. but it is going against the the book.

While I disagree that he would make our rotation bad, I do agree that the move isn't likely. So I will digress and restate my opinion that was stated in another thread ... our TOP priority this offseason should be bringing in Jeff Suppan. He just wins. I think Jeff would add some real stability to the back end of our rotation. If we can make some moves and find the financial means to bring him in, I think we should do it.

[FalconPride]

Suppan just wins when you put him on a winning team. Right now, we need pitchers who can get it past the hitters because our defense isn't that great. It's very average. The Mets and Cardinals are blessed with solid defenses. That helps pitchers like Glavine and Suppan look better than they are. Tigers defense ain't much...therefore, they need those fireballers. We are in the same book.

[Jsh1284]

I think you're way off base. When we get Kelley Johnson back out there in left, we'll have faily solid defense all the way around. Excellent all the way up the middle, and somewhat above average on both corners.

Guys like Suppan and Glavine are so good because they let the hitters get themselves out. I see no real defensive hole on our team when all of our starters are on the field.

[FalconPride]

Renty is a downgrade from Furcal. Yeah, he doesn't committ the same amount of errors, but he really fails to even come close to the sheer amount of hits Furcal prevented with his arm and range. We need to deal Giles out and if Aybar replaces me, I am not convinced he'll be that good. We're average on the corners (Chipper is horrible, btw), Francoeur takes some horrid angles in right, and KJ is still learning the outfield. I'm not that off base.

Suppan had a 1.45 WHIP this year. He's nothing to spend money on. And for a winner, he's all of 106-101. Glavine is old and if he becomes a free agent, he would have passed on a player's option worth $7.5M.

Forget about these guys and focus on rebuilding the staff through young pitching. Trade Andruw to Anaheim for Ervin Santana. Do something. Getting a guy like Suppan gives us another guy who can't strike out batters and we have too many of them already.

[Vuchato]

Glavine probably doesn't really care about the money much anymore, and he;s etting a $3M buyout, so like a $5M contract would be good.

[FalconPride]

Let's not forget JS's bitchfest about Glavine in his book that Glavine called inappropriate storytelling.

[Vuchato]

when did that happen? in his book it seemed more like he felt like he had a strong connection with Glavine and would love to have him come back.

[FalconPride]

That's one way of looking at it. The other way, and the way Glavine looked at it, JS, in his cocky way, decided to tell a story that Glavine didn't want out in the open, especially JS's side. That stupid book really was a bad idea.

[Jsh1284]

Your defensive analasys is based on... well... only your opinion.

I think you'd be hard pressed to prove that Renteria is a downgrade. I don't remember more than two or three devastating errors made by Rent. Compared to several dozen made by Furcal over the few years he was here. You'd also be hard pressed to come up with something other than word of mouth that shows Chipper is "horrible." It sounds like you just read rotoworld and quoted their opinions.

[FalconPride]

Hard pressed? No, not really. I saw the stats and saw with my own eyes carelessness by Renty and inability to make a play on balls Furcal got to with ease. Renty has never been a league average shortstop because he simply does not have the range. His defensive stats show that to be pretty clear. Meanwhile, Furcal's range and arm ranks him amonst the greatest in the game. Does he make errors? Yes. Because to make a lot of errors, you have to get to a lot of balls. Furcal does that. Defensive rate of 7% above league average while Renty is 5% under the league average. It's not that much of a challenge to show that.

As for Chipper...ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I love Chipper because he is by far the best hitter the Braves have developed since coming to Atlanta, but my God, he is one of the worst defensive third baseman of all time. He's worse at his position than Renty is at his because at least Renty doesn't compound his absolute lack of range with errors a plenty. His only season when he was merely average at third was in 1998 where his defensive rate was 99 and he committed just 12 errors.

No, didn't read rotoworld. But did you read Mark Bowman's stuff for your comments?

[Jsh1284]

I dont have to read bs stats which really shows nothing about a defender and morons to know that Renteria and Chipper are not terrible defensive players. The fact is, the only realistic stat for measuring a player's fielding is feilding percent. The rest are totally inaccurate and depend on far to many factors to be even somewhat credible.

I do know that Renty makes nearly every play when he can get his glove on the ball .. and there are no better than Chipper when it comes to little dribblers down the line.

I will admit left field is a liability, and Chipper isnt exactly Scott Rolen out there. But he's by no means better or less than a league average defender. NOT one of the "worst all time"

[FalconPride]

Fielding percentage. You mean the only thing that matters the total chances a player has as opposed to his range? Talk about BS...fielding percentage looks great for people without any sort of range. Makes them look like they have solid defensive ability. Why are the rest inaccurate? What factors do they depend on that makes them not credible? Why does fielding percentage, a completely useless stat, mean more than defensive rate, which takes into account the entire defensive ability of a player in conjunction with his league and position?

Yeah, Chipper is one of the worst all-time. To play at that poisition as much as he has...yep, he certainly is. And you said he was somewhat above average before.

[Jsh1284]

I totally disagree .. and I also do not believe in those obscure stathead formulas for judging defense. The ways in which they're calculated are endless and totally ridiculous. The best way to judge a fielder's ability is to watch with your own eyes.

Anyway, that's enough. Lets get this back on topic please.

[McCarroll21]

Falcon, did you wake up Thursday morning with defense on your mind? First all the LaRoche stuff, now this thread. :) Chipper isn't that great in terms of range, but he's still one of the best in the game at charging a ball and making the barehand pickup and throwing to 1st. Yeah, he's got weaknesses, but he's still servicible over there. The problem is, like Falcon said, we don't have Furcal's range to cover up some of Chipper's lack of range anymore. Renteria, while he's more smooth, is a downgrade from Furcal. Furcal committed more errors, but that's because he got to more balls and rushed throws across the diamond that Renteria couldn't have even fielded. I still like Renteria, and would like to keep him, but we missed Furcal more than some want to believe this year. Furcal/Giles or Giles/Renteria, which one would you want? Oh well, give me A-Rod and trade Renteria.

To steer this back on topic of Spiezio, I don't think he's the guy we need. I think a team will overpay for him with his postseason in mind (happens every year) or he'll stay in St. Louis. Jsh mentioned Craig Counsell, that's a guy I've stated I'd like to have numerous times. He'd provide a bat off the bench, a proven winner, and a guy who can play all over the infield.

Another guy I'd like to have is Eric Hinske. We'd have to trade for him, but he'd be a valuable man to have. He's set to make $5.625M in 2007 (split between Boston and Toronto - $2,812,500 each). We could afford to take him and the money Boston got from Toronto, we may even be able to get Boston throw in a little bit more. He wont be starting for Boston so we could probably get him for not *that* much. He can play 1B/3B/LF/RF. He could provide a good bat off the bench from the left side, and while I'm against platoons, he could even start in LF against RH pitchers and just move to 3B when Chipper goes down. Plus, he's a former Hog so that gets bonus points from me. :)

Needless to say, we've got a couple holes to fill. We can fill them a few different ways, but we need a leadoff hitter to play either 2B or LF. We need to fill whichever one of the previous positions isn't filled with someone who will provide good defense and can afford to bat him 8th. We also need to add to our pitching depth (above A level) with some young guys and acquire some more insurance for Chipper. As much as I like Willy, I'm not sold on starting him at 3B for an extended period of time. Although, I think he can do the job, I'd rather have him coming off the bench and have a more powerful bat take Chipper's spot in the lineup. I don't know how we'll go about doing all of that, but that's what I feel needs to be done ... now it's just up to JS to do it. We have a valuable trading chip in Saltalamacchia that could be used to fill a few of these needs or open up avenues to trading other players.

I also want to add that I think our rotation will be fine, if healthy -- which is why we need to add to some organizational pitching depth. I'm going to keep saying this because I want to believe it, Hudson can't be that bad again. Hampton is coming off TJ and supposedly in great shape, so I expect good things from him. Smoltz is Smoltz. James is James, although he'll probably regress a little. I still think we'll add another pitcher so we're not left starting either Ramirez or Davies early on. I think Ramirez will be traded or non-tendered right along with Giles. Even with our rotation shaky at best last year -- it was mostly due to injury -- the bullpen was the problem. We have a closer now, so that won't be as much of a problem. I'm still not sold on our relievers in front of Wickman, but if they give us what they did late in the year we'll be more than good in the pitching department. Just my opinion, but that's what this place is for.

Straying a little bit, but we also need to get Aybar some work at 2B before the season starts so we'll know if he can handle it. We can probably only keep 2 of Aybar, Prado, Orr and Johnson (if he's playing 2B), so we need to know what options we have with all of those players. And if we add Counsell, or a similar player, cross another one of those players off the list.

I know that was long, but I wanted to get my say in.