Huh!?

by gondeee on Dec 20, 2006 4:56 PM EST

Are we just collecting these guys? Ryan Langerhans, Matt Diaz, T.J. Bohn, and now Chris Woodward. I am just so thrilled and excited I cannot contain myself. Dude, we are so solidifing the backup off the bench roles, we're going to be so set next year at utility guy. Duuuddde. Hey, and guess what, he can play second. Now I have to put up a new poll and ask the question again about "who do you think will be our second baseman next year?"

Tweet Comment 9 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

If we cannot find a 2nd baseman.....

then we have plenty of internal options to consider. These could be the most frightening words to come out of JS's mouth. He said that last year, but replace 2nd baseman with closer, hence the Reitsma experiment. Hopefully this is just to fill the hole from losing Ward, but like Gondee said, we already have plenty of options for our bench. Sucks to see the little money that we have to work with shrink from purchases like Woodward, hopefully we signed him for next to nothing.

by surge on Dec 20, 2006 5:51 PM EST reply actions

What?

I think this signing just made the team WORSE.

I think there are about 40 people in the minors that we can find to do better than this guy will.

Maybe it's a sign of a coming trade? Maybe some team is itching for the likes of Pete Orr and we need somebody to replace him? Who knows.

by subwindow on Dec 20, 2006 6:52 PM EST reply actions

typical JS

it seems that JS is back to his old antics again: sign a seemingly mediocre player and hopes he has an all-star year in a braves uni.

i just hope the curse that befell our bullpen last year doesn't come back to haunt our second basemen. in other words, i hope that the apparent failure of JS to sign a legit 2nd baseman doesn't come back to haunt us. (i admit, you can probably go a lot longer without a good second baseman than you can without a good bullpen.)

by wuky on Dec 20, 2006 8:16 PM EST reply actions

I think we signed him to give

us secrets on the Mets!

Looking at his numbers he's not THAT bad. He'll push some of the young guys that thought they would walk in to the job at 2nd.

by themurph on Dec 20, 2006 9:40 PM EST reply actions

I still don't understand....

Well, it turns out this is a 1 year deal at $850,000. We gave him almost a million, it feels like JS said "I wanted to give this amount to Ward, but now he's gone. Instead, I think I'm going to give it to Woodward. It's not like we are on a budget or anything." ARG!

by surge on Dec 21, 2006 7:55 PM EST reply actions

Perspective

Just to show out out of whack baseball salaries are, I saw the "mere" $850,000 figure for Woodward and actually felt bad for the guy for a couple of seconds.

by Piff Bocoroba on Dec 22, 2006 9:55 AM EST up reply actions

That should be "Just to show HOW..."

"out out" was the eggnog typing.

by Piff Bocoroba on Dec 22, 2006 10:00 AM EST up reply actions

This is getting ridiculous...

Do you guys realize that we've given the likes of Tanyon Sturtze and Chris Woodward close to $2M so far this offseason, but that we had to let go of Marcus Giles while getting nothing in return because of his $6M price tag... sometimes I just don't get Schuerholz.

What the Braves need to do is trade LaRoche for a promising starter that we could then flip to Tampa Bay as part of a package for Baldelli. The fact that he's been successful in the leadoff role, that his power is coming along very nicely, that he can play CF if needed and that he has 5 years at only $26M left on his current contract make him the perfect fit for the Braves.

In an ideal world, I'd like to see Atlanta send LaRoche, Salty and Langerhans to New York for Cano and Melky Cabrera. Adam and Robinson are roughly equivalent (LaRoche's .910 OPS was 8th among MLB first basemen, while Cano's .895 ranked 3rd at 2B last year) as are Salty and Melky (it's just that their current organizations could use the other more at this time) Langerhans would take over Cabrera's role as a defensive replacement in New York and the Yankees would then sign either Loretta or Belliard to fill the void at 2B. Hell, I'd even throw in someone like Lerew if it made this deal work. Cabrera and Cano would hit 1-2 in Atlanta while turning LF and 2B into strengths rather than weaknesses in both the short and long term.

by ejruiz on Dec 22, 2006 1:14 PM EST reply actions

Woodward

The only reason that I can imagine why the Braves should have signed Woodward was that they intend to trade Aybar. Possibly one of the LaRoche deals which could not be completed can now be finalized with the Braves adding Aybar.

We had Giles and Betemit and now have Woodward and Aybar (who the Braves no longer seem to value).

I am guessing that the Braves have finally discovered something about Aybar that the Dodgers already knew. The latter were probably trying to get rid of him when JS called last summer.

We lose Betemit pick up Aybar (and Baez)and might now trade Aybar.

Would Betemit really have been that bad as a utility player?

by Stephen @ Talking Chop on Dec 22, 2006 1:16 PM EST reply actions