Trade Lowe to the Yankees, Mets, or Angels for literally nothing except salary relief (well ok get back a token crappy prospect or two for appearance’s sake). Extend Vasquez with the money that would have gone to Lowe. Move on to adding a power bat and closer.

when they don’t suck. Good rumors that make sense are fun.

I suppose among Lowe, Kawakami and Vazquez any one of them could be moved, but I’d tend to think it will be Vazquez. Lowe’s contract will be very difficult to move. Kawakami is cheaper, but would also bring back less in a trade. I am guessing that the Braves management has already decided that they will not make an attempt to re-sign Vazquez due to budget constraints, so it makes the most sense to trade him since he’ll probably be the easiest to trade of the 3 pitchers I listed and bring the most back in return.

My Guess is that the Braves won’t get much as far as a hitter for Lowe or Vazquez, that in return they prob know they’d be better off asking for relievers, thats in order to receive a better value for your trade. I think both Lowe and Vazquez are good enought o receive at least one top to mid level Reliever.

Lowe being shopped after lackey signs is a good idea to raise that trade market up, afterwards the Braves can drive a hard bargain if enough teams are interested and it might be able to pull away a decent hitter instead of a mid to upper level reliever.

The Dodgers don’t have anyone we’d want except Kemp or Ethier, and they’d have to be nuts to trade away either of those guys right now. I think someone’s blowing smoke here.

in our lineup after chipper and before bmac…

For Vazquez to accept a trade to the West Coast there would have to be some incentives written into his deal. I would think that them paying for him to fly home some many times a year and when they went to the East Coast he would be allowed to see them during a series that he did not pitch in. Plus signing him to a very good contract.

The Dodgers trading Kemp would be ludicrous.

Why would any team want to trade a 25 year-old player who is coming into his prime, who already hits .300, a very likely 30-30 guy for years to come, who won a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger last year??

If the Braves had Matt Kemp right now, there’s no way in hell they’d get rid of him. And if they traded him for a one-year rental of Vazquez, each and every one of you would go ballistic. Even if Vazquez was deemed tradable or re-signable to the Dodgers, which seems rather unlikely considering his distaste for the West, the Dodgers would be fools to make that deal.

So, I’m calling it now: The potential of trading Vazquez for Kemp is no more. Done. Never speak of it again, or I will mock you accordingly. Whoever mentioned them throwing in Billingsly in that deal must be a village idiot.

-C