So Much for the Internal Options: Braves sign Garret Anderson

I think Wren has done a very good job this offseason. He totally revamped our rotation with good pitchers. At the beginning of the offseason we were lookin at Jurrjens, Morton, Campillo, Reyes, and ???? I dont know about you but i dont see that rotation doin jack crap. Lowe, Vazquez, and Kawakami are not great but there above average in my view, we will see how good Kawakami is. Wren resigned one of the best Pinch hitters in the game in Norton. Signed a solid backup Catcher in Ross(sure we could have just used Sammons but this move is fine), and then gets Anderson. Believe it or not he is an upgrade over what we had. I dont want him batting against lefties though because Diaz kills lefties. Anderson isn’t great but i think he will get the job done in LF.

“Hey I’m just frustrated at the mediocre moves by Wren and his horrible negotiation skills to land us a power bat.”

horrible negotiations? how do you come up with that conclusion? Teams might have been askin for the moon in trades for Outfielders this offseason. Would you have wanted to give up good future prospects for a stopgap in Nady or another stopgap? Would you want to give up good future prospects for a guy like Swisher? Sure he is a good player better than Anderson but he isn’t as good as most think. Plus he would block other young prospects. I would have been pissed if Wren would have done a stupid trade like that. Sure if he could have got somebody like that without given up nothin then yeah that would have been better but it was evident that they were gonna just give there outfielders away.

^Fixed.

Anderson is not a bad player man. He has and will continue to get the job done. He had a solid season last year. And if he does platoon with Diaz(i think he should) then that would be a solid platoon. Would i have like to have Dunn or somebody better on this team? hell yes i would but we didn’t get him, this is the team we have now. Diaz and Anderson could be a solid platoon in LF. Sure his BB/K is not great but its not the end of the world because of that either. I like OBP and think its a good stat that tells alot but dont read everything into the stat. Sure gettin on base means you dont commit an out i understand that but this guy gets hits and gets the job done. For a 1 year $2.5M deal you really cant beat that. He doesn’t block one of our prospects next year or nothin.

:)

I gotchya, you are lobbying that Josh Anderson won’t make and will get traded. Ballsy.

+1

So? Do you think that he’s better served being a LOOGY in the pen? If you think he should be in the majors then we should trade him, because I don’t want a 6 ERA starter on my team.

But he doesn’t exactly exude maturity at all times.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the Yunel stuff. The sarcasm went over my head.

Racism? Really?

Kotchman had a horrible August after the trade, he was dealing with a lot of stuff, missed a lot of games, and suffered from a horrendously low BABip.

In September he turned things around and hit over .300 with a .394 OBP. Really looked like something positive to build on for next year.

IMHOTEP!

It’s takes a while to establish residency. Once they do, I’m sure somebody will sign them and we’ll see, like most Cubans, they’re not that great individually. As a team, they’re awesome, but there are fewer Escobars, Hernandezes, and Ramirezes than there are Kendry Moraleses and…other Cuban failures whose names I can’t remember.

I did it in 54:06, and no puking. Ate all 12 donuts too.

4.4 cumulative miles.

Oh man. Awesome. Is this for charity? Do you have to pay for the doughnuts? About how many people participate?

like it’s your dog’s nutsack, but have you ever seen the guy play at all?

Seriously, you’ve completely written the guy off and you have no idea what kind of player is, you just know that quoting his OBP ad nauseam makes you sound like you might know something.

You could consider watching him play, seeing what he does, and then judging him appropriately. Does it bother you at all that you are simply re-gurgitating the opinions of others?

Go look at his inter-league stats and get back with me.

The guy’s OBP is a direct representation of what the Angels’ organization asked him to do. He’s an incredible situational hitter, though it’s a quite obvious you have no appreciation for that at all.

He didn’t gain the respect of every teammate and opponent over the years (not to mention accumulating nearly 500 doubles and 2500 hits because he sucks) because he sucks. Sorry, but he did something to keep himself in the lineup for 14 years. Watch the way pitchers pitch him and you’ll learn something interesting: Fans don’t think the guy can hit but pitchers absolutely fear him (still) and pitch him about as carefully as a guy can be pitched.

He is still among the best fastball hitters in the game. You’ll learn that if you if leave B-R and actually watch the games. Good luck with that, though.

Oh, and there’s also the small fact that the Braves absolutely sucked last year and Garret’s better than any other outfielder you currently have. You should be welcoming him.

Or is it more fun to pretend that you know more about the game than Frank Wren and Bobby Cox when, in fact, you couldn’t even play a simple game of catch with a Major Leaguer?

Don’t worry about giving the guy any kind of chance (let alone benefit of the doubt), just bury him from day one with sarcastic comments about OBP, and then keep dreaming that some no name AAA guy is as good or better than him.

GA has weaknesses in his game, no doubt, but he’s far, far better than you will ever be willing to give him credit for.

Here’s my guess – I’m assuming all are outfielders, and I haven’t peeked at anyone’s numbers, promise. You’ve given us H already – BJONES. The others:

A. Blanco
B. Diaz
C. G. Anderson
D. Francoeur
E. Abreu
F. Dunn
G. Swisher

Did you SERIOUSLY just mention Nady “the one year wonder” in there? Shakes head wow. Nady will never be as great of a player as Anderson was in his prime and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if Anderson outhits Nady this year if Anderson plays everyday.

And what about Swisher? The dude has been in the bigs for 4 full seasons, has had 2 atrocious seasons. And 2 above average years. I mean hell if your lookin at the OBP then Kotchman has put up one season with a .370 OBP in one season back in 2007 and you HATE the guy And Swisher has had only 2 seasons over .370 OBP. And Kotchman is about 2-3 years younger than Swisher.

he’s “the best outfielder the Braves have ever had.” ;-)

As for GA being “over the hill,” well, not quite, though he’s certainly not the player he was years back. Bobby Abreu is a much better option and the Angels’ decision to part with GA was brilliant the moment they signed Abreu.

Don’t worry, though, you can change your mind about GA should he have the Harold Baines like career resurgence that I’ve thought he might be capable of. Similarly, I can certainly change my mind should he shit in his hat. Either way, though, the Braves only signed him to a one-year deal.

As I wrote earlier, he’s going to hit 20 homeruns for the Braves (the right-center gap won’t affect him much since most of his homeruns are to rightfield ). If he has any kind of offensive season, he’ll also go for 40 or more doubles (he’s always been a doubles machine).

In regard to his playoff struggles, he struggled along with the entire Angels’ offense the last few years. Go back to 2005 and 2002, though, when he had huge hits (including game changing home runs) in Yankee Stadium. In 2005 he sent Randy Johnson reeling with an early three-run home run in the Bronx. In 2002, he hit an eighth inning home run in game 2 that brought the Angels back into the game (allowing them to win that pivotal game). Oh, and there’s the small hit he had in Game 7 of the 2002 World Series (3-run double that won the game).

Seems, though, that if he really struggles “when all of America is looking upon him,” he should fit right in with the Braves, huh?