Rumor: Kelly Johnson for Ryan Ludwick

I’ll believe it when I see something more solid. But I’m with you gondeee; I’d be all over this trade.

Why would STL want to do this? I guess he’s blocking Colby Rasmus, but they don’t have much depth apart from Ankiel.

Gondee, I think Ludwick hit in front of Pujols, which may have inflated his numbers slightly. I’m assuming he’d hit 4th in Atlanta.

NOOOOOOOOOOO! NO! NO NO NO NO NO!

NOT. RYAN. LUDWICK.

I dont understand why you guys would be all over this trade. We can get a guy like Dunn or Ibanez or maybe trade for Ordonez. Why- WHY!- trade one fot he better second basemens in the league. I agree Ludwick would be the better hitter, but who would start at second? and Ludwick is 30 with some injury problems, so its not a guarenteed thign with Ludwick. We have to hold on to Kelly.

“but who would start at second?”

Prado I suppose, my preference would be to get Renteria and stick him there. I wouldn’t call KJ one of the better 2Bs in the league, though he has that potential.

I have to say, I like Ryan Ludwick. I love Kelly and worry about Prado taking over 2B full-time, but this trade rumor makes some sense. If we make this kind of deal, it frees up a ton of cash for free agent starters…

Ludwick has like 2 years of service time I think? So 4 years of him vs 3 of Kelly? This is a big right handed bat and he won’t cost 10-15 million a year. I’d say Ludwick vs Anderson/Blanco/Diaz/BJones in left is an upgrade over Kelly vs Odarp/Infante/Lilli and you get an extra year. If Ludwick is under control for less time though, that’ll obviously affect things.

Ludwick might be injury prone though. That’s how he’s been his career and why it’s taken so long for him to blossom so you have to consider that as well.

On mlbtr there saying Ankiel could also be avalible. If this trade were to go down, I wouldn’t know who I’d rather have. Something scares me about Ludwick, I’d probably take Ankiel.

i’d much, much rather have ankiel.only thing is, he’s only under control for next season before he hits FA…ludwick has a longer clock, but is a worse player

but I was surfing through the AJC blog and apparently someone with STL has shot down this trade. DOB mentions that the Braves ARE interested in Ludwick, but maybe not so much in Ankiel.

For what it’s worth, I would much rather have Ludwick than Ankiel. I’m not going to get into the “who’s the better player” argument … I just think Ludwick, and his right handed bat, fits better with what we need. Especially considering the NL East has so many strong lefty pitchers, another left handed bat doesn’t do us as much good.

This only scares me because I’m really afraid Ludwick is going to be a “one-hit-wonder.” Kind of like Francouer. Wouldn’t it be great having both corner outfielders looking like deer in headlights at the plate?