Look, we traded the farm for one of the top 5 bats in the game two years ago and it helped zilch.

The reality is that the Braves don’t need another bat. They have bats. Those bats need to start hitting. Rosenthal is dead on target. There’s no comparable value out there unless the Braves feel they are out of it, and trade Vazquez to recoup some of the recent minor league departures.

I can’t believe you can say any of that with a straight face. We were getting essentially replacement level performance at first base in 2007. Mark Teixeira then came in and played out of this world for two months. We didn’t make the playoffs, but it was despite Teixeira’s contributions and because we had replacement level starters throwing 40% of our games down the stretch. We identified the wrong area of need choosing to bolster an offense that was well on its way to scoring 780 runs instead of a pitching staff that would allow 733. All of this ignores that we were in fact a pretty damn good team in 2007 that based on our RS/RA totals should’ve won 89 games. We were a playoff quality team with Teixeira so I’d say that trade helped more than zilch; it was focused on the wrong problem though.

As for us having bats, pre-season projections weren’t high on our offense and they’ve been proven correct. Pre-season projections were high on our pitching and they’ve been proven correct. Bats can’t just “start hitting” when some of them just aren’t very good to begin with. We’re seeing Garret Anderson’s best month right now; Francoeur is one the major’s worst regulars; Kotchman is not only a below average hitter for first baseman, but for all hitters. Those are three corner players at the most important offensive positions on the field. We don’t have “bats”; not enough of them at least.

We potentially have the chance to add a bat to our lineup to replace Francoeur. It would, potentially, cost us our best pitcher this season, but probably not our best pitcher next season and a guy who really doesn’t have a future on our team. We don’t have the money to dole out another big free agent contract to him after 2010 with a rotation that will already contain Lowe and Kawakami. If we can get a bat that we could control for 3 years and a prospect with a future on our team, we’d come out ahead in the long run.

Melvin is upset with Braun for making those comments about acquiring a SP. They are having a meeting today about it. Maybe the meeting will go horribly and Braun will go all “Cutler” on his team. Then we swoop in with Vazquez, Medlen, and another prospect or two. You just wait.

Everyone needs to recognize just what Vazquez is before we get overly optimistic about what the return on him will be.

First, just how good is he. He’s been essentially a 4 WAR pitcher for the past seven years who has a knack of under-performing his peripherals. This year, he’s been worth that much through half a season by improving his peripherals. I think GMs might value him as a 4-5 WAR pitcher right now. That’s worth ~$20 million next season and ~$10 million this season. However, we have to understand he’s earning ~$16 million over that period which we have to deduct from his performance. That gives us his value as an asset – $14 million give or take a few million.

Now, a guy like Braun has established himself as a ridiculous talent – a 4-5 WAR talent on his own with potential to get better. That’s about the same as Vazquez, but we have to take into account Braun is signed very cheaply and long-term. He’s making ~$40 million over the next six seasons. If he averages being a 4 WAR player over that period he’ll generate over $100 million worth of revenue for the Brewers. Subtract his salary out and you get ~$60 million in surplus value. Braun is worth at the very least four times what Vazquez is worth right now.

That’s why we can’t expect such a player back in exchange for Vazquez. It’s also why Escobar is such a valuable player to us; we control him cheaply for four more years and he’s a pretty solid ballplayer to boot.

I agree with K-Ros, Javy has been brilliant this season and if it wasn’t for our inept offense he would be a legit Cy Young contender. Unless a team offered someone along the lines of a Carlos Quentin (who I know is on the DL), I see no reason to get rid of Javy even with Huddy returning. If there’s one starting pitcher Wren should be pushing to trade, it’s Lowe. It would definitely be selling low on Lowe (haha) especially with his ridiculous contract, but I think his last 5 starts are indicative of where he’s at in his career.

btw if you didn’t know, over his last 5 starts he’s allowed 22 earned runs over 23 innings which leads to a staggering 8.61 era.

Bottomline, Lowe has not pitched like the ace Wren paid him to be (more like a #4). Instead, our two young studs who’s combined salary is less than 1 million has pitched A LOT better.

Clearly the Braves would prefer to hold onto Vasquez. The problem is they don’t have the payroll to add another bat without subtracting something expensive first. With Hudson coming back and Medlen needing more playing time, one obvious solution would be to trade Vasquez for a big bat and hope Hudson or Medlen can at least partly fill the void. That would be a very risky gamble though. Personally I wouldn’t make it. I’d rather do another McLouth style trade of second tier prospects for a moderately above average bat (Huff?) and hope that over time as Diaz + new guy and Prado continue to replace the terrible at bats previously used by Francoeur, Anderson, and Johnson that the scoring increases enough to win the division.

The only guys who will be traded if Wren deems the Braves “out of it” by the trade deadline are Gonzo and Soriano who will both bring in a hefty haul all by themselves. Garret Anderson could be another but I doubt there would be too much interest.

Vazquez has been the ace, is signed cheaply through next year, and from all I’ve read loves being a Brave and playing for Bobby. Unless some team throws something irresistible our way in a trade package (like Ryan Braun), he’s gonna stay a Brave.