Winter Meetings Hangover

by gondeee on Dec 7, 2007 8:53 AM EST

Frank Wren had his super-PR-always-positive-spin-machine cranking out article filling quotes like this as he left the winter meetings:

"If you had told me Sunday when we arrived that we'd leave with a left-hander and a super-utility guy like Infante, I'd say these were successful meetings," Wren said. "We're happy we were able to fill two key spots. We're by no means done with calling and trying to make the team better."

I agree Frank, well done. Actually, the Braves did a fine job of filling both of those stated needs while at the same time cutting some of the unimpressive filler on the roster (Willie Harris, Lance Cormier, Pete Orr). Omar Infante is by far an improvement over both Orr and Chris Woodward from last year (and the last two months of Willie Harris for that matter), and Will Ohman looks to at least have some potential to get left-handers out.

I don't really care who we get at backup catcher. Odds are they won't play much and when they do the rest of the batting order should make up for any offensive deficiencies they may bring to the lineup.

I kind of hope we don't get another center fielder. I want to see the guys we have fight it out in spring training, and I really wouldn't mind a platoon of Josh Anderson and Gregor Blanco (even though they're both left-handed batters). By the way, Blanco continues to be en fuego in Venezuela this winter. He's now hitting .340/.444/.484 and has a .417 average in his last ten games... save some for the regular season Greg!

We only lost two players in the Rule Five draft yesterday. Surprisingly, a pitcher named Sergio Valenzuela was taken by the Reds with the sixth pick in the Major League phase. This was apparently a big shock to the Braves as they thought someone like Diory Hernandez or Dan Smith would be selected in the draft, and never even considered Valenzuela a candidate to be taken. We also lost backup infielder Jaime Trejo in the Triple-A phase to the Rangers - no big loss at all. Here is a picture of Sergio Valenzuela courtesy of Chip Jett: