Top-5 Off-Season Questions For The Atlanta Braves:  #4

You’re kidding right, drop players like Infante, Hinkse, and Conrad to carry an extra glove on the bench?

We had that glove on the bench in the play-offs and at the end of the year: Diory Hernandez. We didn’t use him. He replaces Conrad and we might not be having this discussion yet.

Our bench was one of the strong points of the season, perhaps the only reason we made the playoffs. A great glove only guy cannot come in and get the clutch hits late in the game that Hinkse, Infante, or Conrad can. They also won’t come in and fill a hole in your lineup like Infante did when Prado and Chipper were injured.

Infante, while not great, brought an average to above average glove to any position he played.

I really don’t understand why every major-league team does not take infield practice every day. It doesn’t matter how skilled you are at something, you need to keep practicing it to stay sharp. That is just a fact of life.

But at what risk to offensive production does Atlanta sacrifice to improve their defense?

By the end of the season we had guys out there that couldn’t hit and they were liabilities in the field.

And just think—if the Braves hadn’t emptied out the farm system to rent Mark Teixeira a couple of years ago, Elvis Andrus would be playing short….

Resign Hinske guy was just too clutch of the bench; Infante has a $2.5 millon dollar opt that is gonna be almost certainly picked up b/c that is cheap for a quality above average backup that Infante is. Third give B. Conrad a break the guy won alot of games for us and just needs to work on his fielding this offseason.

So you see all of this talk is for nothing Braves bench will be good again this coming season should Hinske/ Infante/Conrad return. Oh yeah no way Diaz or Melky return both were huge disappointments this year and are not worth the two – three million plus each will received via arb this offseason. No DIAZ / MELKY LET THEM WALK.

GIVE MATT YOUNG A change as the 4th OF this spring training and go out an get a true leadoff hitter such as Upton from Tampa and a power hitting LF via trade.

Go Braves.

We need better defense up the middle — SS, 2B, CF — and a backup for Chipper in the late innnings and during injuries. By the way, I consider range much more important than fielding percentage, but guys with great range who throw the ball away would have no place on a team of mine.

Gonzalez and Prado just had the most productive seasons of their careers, and both carry extremely low salaries. There must be a trade market of some kind for Gonzalez. Trade his homers for a SS with better range and a better sense of the strike zone. Almost fell of my recliner when he hit a ball to RF against the Giants. We wouldn’t have this problem if it weren’t for the short term thinking of the Teixeira deal, but Elvis isn’t the only great young glove in the building. Remember we went to the World Series twice with Rafael Belliard as our starting shortstop.

Test the trade market for Prado, too. Rasmus? A LF slugger? Some poor team might need to unload a salary and with Martin in return they could hold their head high. I think Infante is good enough to start at 2B. In any event, he’s a superb backup who we need to keep since he costs very little. Middle infielders always seem to get injured.

Fredi apparently has a good relationship with Wes Helms, and he’d come cheap. Maybe he’s the interim 3B backup until we learn if Chipper will be able to finish his contract. Neither is Clete Boyer, though. I’d love a slick glove off the bench at third, but it’s even more important to get excellent fielding from our starters at SS and 2B, because we have some extreme ground ball pitchers.

CF is tricky. We owe Nate McLouth $6m for 2011 so the CF job is his to lose. No more Melky in CF: weak arm, insufficient range. In fact, I say lose rest of the left field cast from 2010, and go with (1) a $10m+ free agent or (2) a trade which does not involve Heyward, Freeman, or any of our top 7-8 starting pitching prospects.

Guys like Diamond, Redmond, or that Valdez/Ascencio character can be dealt, but certainly not Teheran, Arodys, Delgado, etc. I shouldn’t have to even mention that our young aces are off the table, but given the whole Adam Wainwright, Neftali Feliz history, if must be said.

Hinske would be great to keep around as a bat off the bench, but his spectacular final week makes it likely he’ll get more money — and playing time — from an AL team.

I think everyone feels that the defense really let us down in the postseason…and it did. However, you have to keep in mind that in a normal situation Conrad should not be seeing signifigant time in the field. I would not be so concerned about having a better “Glove” on the bench…as much as having some depth. With that in mind a couple things we need to consider:

Chipper: IF he comes back you have to assume he will miss time…he always does. That means that Infante (he has to be kept) is playing 3B for a stretch at some point and spelling Chipper every few days even when Chipper isn’t hurt. So our utility guy will be playing on a semi-regular basis. To make matters a little worse…he has become a decent bat so he is one of our most valuable guys off the bench. So when he is playing long stretches you lose your depth on the bench for replacements of other injuries as well as one of your better pinch hitting options.

Freeman: I think we are all assuming that Freddie gets the 1B job. Which is fine (assuming we get another big bat somewhere)..but we will therefore need to have someone who can at the least …offer a RH platoon option at 1B and if needed more (ie Freeman isn’t ready and can’t cut it) can provide us SOME output at 1B. Again, you can move Prado to 1B and put Infante at 2b…but then we are back to the same problem.

Therefore I think the Braves need to get a party time starter…..heavy bat off the bench. In theory this could be Glaus again…but he can’t play 3B….so that wouldn’t be my first choice. So guys I could see…

Peralta-Could he be at to fill in at 3B for Chipper as well as being gapstop when he leaves? He has had decent flashes offensively and does Ok at 3B…could play SS if he had to…and could play 2B and 1B just fine. He could fill in for Chipper at 3B and provide SOME offense. He could also be the RH platoon partner for Freeman.

Cantu- Can be a fill in at 3B for Chipper….can be the RH platton partner for Freeman..and couldn’t be any worse then Conrad at 2B.

Figgins-If Figgins can be flipped…straight up for KK …done! He could end up playing LF or CF for us…as well as being able to fill in well at 3B and 2B. Could be a decent lead off hitter…this year not withstanding.

Mike Aviles: Has started for the Royals and has played SS, 2B, and 3B…non very well. But I would argue that he could be decent at 2B and could fill in elsewhere. He bats RH..so as for a platton with Freddie he could play 2B and have Prado go to 1B if needed.

LF:
Ross would be nice…but I don’t want his glove in CF…and his bat really doesn’t play for us in LF. Unfortunately, though the reality is that there aren’t a lot of FA options available or LF. I think we are going to have to look at a trade or create some kind of offense in LF. We are not going to sign Wyrth…nor do I think he is worth the money is he going to ask for.

Hawpe: I know his defense is really bad in LF…but if you platon him with Diaz to offset his platton tendencies..I believe he will be a free agent and he does hit righties fairly well and his home/away splits aren’t bad.

Swisher: If he could be traded for….I would be interesed in him. He can play LF/RF/1B.

Cuddyer: If Morneau is able to come back they may not have room if they want Thome back. He plays a good RF/LF and pretty good 1B.

CF: We are stuck with Nate. I would love to have an additional…but cheap option if he can’t do something. But I am not sure who that would be…it would be nice if we had an organizational guy who was cheap…worked the count…gave you good ABs…and wasn’t terrible in the field….oh wait. We had that in Gregor Blanco and just threw him in to get Ankiel?

Melky is gone…..
Conrad stays with the organization to provide depth..but not sure if he starts the season with the MLB team.

C: McCann
1B: Freeman
2B: Prado
SS: Gonzalez (I would be happy treading him….or getting away from his contract. I don’t think he is anything with the bat and strikes me as overrated defensively.)
3B: Chipper
LF: TBD
CF: McClouth
RF: Heyward

UTIL: Infante
OF: Diaz
UTIL: Aviles/Peralta/Cantu/Figgins
C: Ross
OF: Young

*I would love to keep Hinske…but I am not sure if we can afford him if we get a big bat for LF.

First, the most glaring flaw: it is all about defense and the only defensive measures you talk about are errors and fielding percentage. Those are pretty weak defensive indicators. For example, does the ball that Infante should have gotten at third that let in the run in Game 1 hurt us any more than the Conrad error that let in a run? Nope. Yet one results in an error and the other doesn’t. This leads to misleading thoughts from you about defense—-for example, with advanced fielding metrics, Prado is shown to be slightly below average at second and slightly above average at third. That does not make him above average as you suggest. At least not where we usually play him. Chipper is just about average at 3B and has a long enough track record that we pretty much can expect that. Gonzalez is a good shortstop and has been for years. Everything we have heard about Freddie says that he is very good at first. McCann, in total, is probably slightly below average, but catcher defense is hard to measure in a meaningful way. Besides, he is such a good hitter for a catcher, he is going nowhere. That’s the infield, not bad overall, really.

The outfield for 2011 right now starts with Heyward who is by all indications and by what fielding metrics we have (except for relatively meaningless ones like errors and fielding percentage, the advanced metrics usually take more than a year of data to be useful) a very good defensive right fielder. And McLouth is poor in center and averag-ish most likely in left (again, not enough data to know). We don’t have any other OF’s right now, as the rest will likely be non-tendered.

As for the bench, Infante is a little below average at many positions, which makes for a pretty solid utility guy. Beyond that, it doesn’t matter that much. Yeah, we could get a Wilson Valdez type as a late inning defensive replacement, but let’s face it, if those guys see enough time in the field for it to really matter much, they are seeing way to many at-bats at the plate. Still, hey, if we want one to fill Diory’s roster spot, we can knock ourselves out, it won’t make much difference.

As for possible roster candidates, it is tough to say. The free agent OF crop is either unaffordable or weak, we likely will go for trades to fill those positions. Hard to just rate everyone who might or might not be available. Furthermore, it is all a spectrum—-defense, of course, should be considered along with hitting when deciding who to try to acquire.

Finally, I don’t think it would be fair to say that we used to be pitching and defense but just got away from the defense—with a couple exceptions and one of them a huge exception (Andruw) who could mask some deficiencies at the corner OF spots we have not been a particularly great fielding club. Chipper has never been a great fielder, our 1B has been a revolving door of some good, some bad, second has not been filled with particularly good fielders, and SS has ranged from good field, no-hit (Belliard) to good hit, average defense (Furcal). The relatively randum fluctuations of our team fielding percentage are fairly irrelevant in this question.

I’d like to see Atlanta go for Crawford, Werth and Lee. Load the shot-gun !!! LOL