I have been reading all fanposts about a new outfielder/slugger that has to come to the braves by trade or free agent signing. Of course there is always a lot of excitement involved with new players coming to our beloved Braves, but what is wrong with Adam Laroche?

In 2009 he hit avg 325 obp 401 slg 557 for the Braves in 212 at bats
For Boston he only got 29 at bats hit avg 263 same OBP and slugged 526 but that is only 29 at bats.
For the Pirates he hit avg247 obp 329 slg. 441

The guy just loves to play for the Braves. Last years performance and his latest full season with the Braves 2006, (avg. 285, obp 354 slg 561) show it.
The guy can smash and combines it with Big D. He is the best available first baseman by anymeans, defense, age, slugging, health.

Of course in a couple of years we have Freddie Freeman maybe as early as 2011, but it not a sure thing. I mean he has not played that many games in the higher minors and has not yet proven he is the next thing for years to come. Understand me well he might very well be. But also a 32 year old Laroche is very tradeable.

I say sign Laroche. he is a real power source and Gold Glove defender. If Freddie Freeman proves to be the man to hold the position for years to come you trade Laroche or him, there is no harm in that.

Would like to hear your reactions. I would really like the Braves chances with a full season of Laroche maybe as a number 4 depending on the leftfielder the Braves sign.

This Offseason the braves have lost two very good relievers Gonzalez and Soriano which leaves a void in the bull pen that needs to be filled.  These are some of the names of up and comming relievers that would be cheap enough to get.  A few are free agents but most of them are still under contract with their respective teams.  A good trade would be enough for an aquistion.

1. Ramon Troncoso LA Dodgers

2. Sergio Romo SF Giants

3. Clay Zavada ARI

4. Franklin Morales COL

5. Jose Mijares MIN

6. Mike Wuertz OAK

7. Neftali Feliz TEX

8. Ryan Perry DET

9. Mark Lowe SEA

10. Angel Guzman Cubs

After reading the fanpost, "Andruw Jones wants his job back," I realized that I had almost forgotten about my favorite former Braves player. AJ was my childhood favorite due to his incredible defensive talent, his ability to slug 35 home runs a year, and he was always smiling about something (most likely food) every single at-bat.

An idea that was brought up (and quickly shot down) in the comments section was "wait a second, could we really get Andruw back? Is he worth anything anymore?" I began entertaining the idea of having AJ back in the lineup if he were his old self, and to be honest, I liked the idea of seeing him back. I decided to do a little research to see if Jones's career really is completely done, or if maybe he could bounce back - in an Atlanta Braves uniform.

Last year with the Rangers, in 281 AB's, Andruw's line looked like this: .214/.323/.459 giving him a .782 OPS, with 17 homers and 43 RBI's. Now, that seems pretty bad.

Except for that home run total. In fact, for his number of AB's, that home run total is very good. His HR/AB ratio was 1/16.5 - that is very good. How many home runs does that translate to over the course of a whole season? From 1998-2007, he averaged 590.3 AB's a season. If you put Andruw's 2009 HR/AB ratio over the course of an entire season (590.3 AB's), he would hit a rounded total of 36 home runs. Hmmm...that looks just like his old home run totals.

Another thing stood out to me was that Andruw's OBP was over .100 points higher than his BA. The number of walks AJ took last season was surprising to me - 45! This is a huge improvement for Andruw, showing that he has more plate discipline. Over the course of an entire season, AJ would have racked up approx. 95 walks in '09 - which is, believe it or not, better than Chipper's season average of about 90 BB per season.

When I took a look at Andruw's 2009 monthly splits, I saw that he had a fantastic April, an okay May, a very bad June, a great July (.964 OPS, 8 homers in 67 AB's), and a bad August. However, in August, he only played in 14 games, and only had 48 AB's. AJ didn't see much playing time after mid-August, only seeing 38 AB's after August 17.

AJ received pretty consistent playing time before the All-Star break, and it resulted in 14 homers and an .870 OPS. But once he struggled in August, he was basically taken out of the lineup except for spot starts. I think that if AJ had consistent playing time, being the streaky hitter that he is, he could work through his streaks of hot and cold.

A lot of people may try to say AJ has lost it because of his strikeout total. Yes, his strikeout total was high in '09 - 72 K's, making an estimated season total 151 K's for AJ. However, strikeouts aren't necessarily a bad thing for sluggers. It's just an out. Two of the game's greatest sluggers, Ryan Howard and Adam Dunn, strike out even more than that every season - heck, Howard struck out 186 times last year, and 199 times in '07 and '08.

Another knock that AJ has on him is that he played in Texas last year, a hitter's park. While his home stats were better than his away stats, I'm not sure how much the park contributed to his numbers. He had 9 HR's at home and 8 on the road. Although the difference in OPS seems substantial - .858 OPS at home and a .705 mark on the road - that difference mainly comes from a difference of 6 more doubles and 7 more walks at home than on the road.

Another problem with AJ is that people think he has become too fat and too slow. I agree he should try Nutrisystem, but he still swiped 5 bags while only being caught once last year. Perhaps TP and the Braves could really work with him if we were to bring him back to keep him in shape.

If we did bring him back, I could picture Andruw Jones having a season that is good but not great, perhaps like the numbers he put up in 2001: .251/.312/.461 with 34 homers and 104 RBI's. If he played full time in 2010, I can see him putting up numbers like this: .235/.335/.465 with 35 homers and 100 RBI's, which is nothing to sneeze at! Just because his average may be low doesn't mean he couldn't be productive and valuable.

Does anyone else think it may be a good idea to bring back Andruw Jones in 2010? He would come cheap, probably around $500,000. Opening Day, I think we should start AJ in CF (only if his defense can be relied on), put McLouth in left and Diaz in right. IMO, Heyward will be up in June, giving AJ 2 months to prove himself. If AJ sucks terribly, we can get him out of there, put Heyward in right, and move McLouth back to center. However, if AJ bounces back, we could keep AJ in center, have McLouth in left, Heyward in right, and Diaz to make spot starts whenever needed. Is AJ worth the risk of having a hole in our lineup for 2 months?

Plus, if we sign AJ rather than an outfielder like Cameron, we save some money that we could spend on extending Laroche's stay, which IMO is the most important thing we need to do this offseason.

Now, I don't know about Andruw's defense. I saw that he was mainly a DH all year - he only played in the outfield 17 games last year. He didn't make any errors in OF, but has anyone seen him play? I have heard he is not very good anymore, but I'd like some confirmation. I still believe in AJ when it comes to taking good routes and getting great jumps on balls, but I don't know...

What does everyone think about reuniting the Jones brothers?

So I know that there is a witchhunt to prevent rosterbation posts right now, so hopefully this will make the cut, but I just wanted to comment on our in-house first base option of the future.

I usually am one to go around in circles to try and explain my beliefs on things, but on this I will just be straight out blunt. I am very skeptical of Freddie Freeman's Future.  I really think a big part of why he has such a high prospect status is due to the lack of position player potential we have in our system, moer than his actual talent.  With that being said, I am not questioning that Freeman will turn out to be a valuable major leaguer. However, I am saying that I think he does not have as high as ceiling as other might.  I can see him being a .275-.290 hitter, no doubt, but I question his power, as I am on the side of the fence to where he will be a .275-.290/.340-.360/.430 to .450 type player. 

With this being said, I really think that we should be less concerned about planning around Freeman's ETA, and go after a 1b as a FA or in a Trade who has shown what they can do at the major league level.  I think our approach should be lets solidify that positon with a player for the next few years (as we thought we were doing with Kotchman), and then allow for Freeman to develop without any pressure, and when he is ready, handle the situation then, as it will be one of those "good problems to have" situations (the 1b we already have at the ML, or Freeman, could be used in a trade to fill another need.)

My question is, is there something I am missing?  I know this is more of a brainstorming post, sorry for the lack of statistics, but I have looked at them in the past, and they seem to be more the numbers of a solid regular than a periennal all-star. I do undestand that he was injured last year, but I am talking about his stats since he was drafted.

 And for those who have seem him play, is he one of those players whose minor league stats do not truly represent his skill set, and once he gets to the majors, he will produce at his max potential? I definately do hope that this will prove out to be true....I guess a good way to see that is by using one of those sites that shows a current list of players that Freddie Freeman projects to be like. 

Again, if this is an unncessary fan post, I do apologize, but I just wanted to get some opinions on if I am missing something, or if the thoughts above are some that others share.

There are several good minor league free agents on the market and this is a list of some that the organization should look at as possibilities to bring up to the majors next year. The Braves also have one or two of their own that they could resign.  Both are listed below.

1. 1B Andy Tracy (Phillies)

2. 1B Ole Sheldon (Cleveland)

3. 1B Brett Harper ( Dodgers)

4. OF Brad Snyder (Cubs)

5. CL Mariano Gomez (Braves)

6. 3B Kody Kirkland (Braves)
                                                                                  Just to name a few.

Here are some shots of the Gwinnett Braves infielders that I took in their Inaugural season in Gwinnett Stadium.  I had the weekend season ticket plan (25 games, of which I only attended about 18 unfortunately) and enjoyed going to the stadium.  I'll try to post some more shots here later on, and if you want a shot of someone in particular, let me know and I'll see if I have it for you.

via ten1photography.com

Clint Sammons - #5

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Brooks Conrad - #15

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Van Pope - #8

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Barbaro Canizares - #55

Diory Hernandez - #11

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http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/10374040/Trading-Cabrera-makes-financial-sense-for-Tigers

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There's a reason why I call Brian McCann "Baby Jesus."  Aside from the adorable chubby cheeks and the lovability towards our All-Star catcher, he's simply a phenomenal baseball player.  Without question the most talented catcher in the National League, and arguably one of the best in all of baseball.  But aside from his incredible skills and talents on the field, we should all know and respect that Brian McCann is a human being with a heart of gold and a person of great charity.

No, I'm not talking about the time McCann gave one of his spare 60" plasma televisions to Tommy Hanson and Kris Medlen, but much, much better.

Brian McCann, along with his wife Ashley are spokespersons for the Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research, which is a non-profit organization for, you guessed it, childhood cancer research.  And in order to raise money, Heap put together a good ol' fashioned "celebrity" softball exhibition game for his charity.

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This is my first Arizona fal League expirence, although I live in Arizona. I was disappointed of course, because Jason Heyward is out, and also because Freeman was not playing this game as well. But I did get some pictures of Freddi, as well as Lyman, Hyde and Hicks, the only Braves to appear in this particular game. Enjoy!!

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This is my first fanpost so be gentle.

I'm excited as the next guy about the off-season, but I really don't think we are gonna be major players for an outfielder.  In fact, I wouldn't be totally surprised if we don't sign one at all.  I'll be the first one to say that I wish we could get a bonafide cleanup hitter, but that isn't happening.  I don't know that I'd even classify Holliday or Bay as such and look at the kind of money they'll bring in.  I think we'll re-sign LaRoche and that's about it.

I just don't see how it makes sense to put much money into the outfield with Heyward right around the corner.  I think the opening day outfield will be McLouth, Schafer, and Diaz.  AAA would probably do Schafer some good, but his best chance to get playing time will be before Heyward comes up because it is gonna be hard to work two rookies into your outfield rotation at once.

I could see us taking picking up a 4th outfielder type that could hold down the fort for a few months, but even that seems like a waste of money when you could have a guy like Schafer or Brandon Jones (still better than GA) for a few months.

With this strategy, you will likely see our offense struggle out of the gates, but by July we would have Heyward and a true cleanup hitter (2nd half Laroche is a cleanup hitter you just don't get him for the whole season).  This would put us in a position to make a run like this year.