A comment by Atlanta Braves beat writer David O'Brien on his blog indicates that lefty reliever Will Ohman prefers to come back to Atlanta:

Just talked to Will Ohman [and he said the] Braves haven’t backed off him, still right there, one of six to eight teams interested. And he reiterated [Atlanta] is where he wants to be, if offers are equal, etc. He really liked everything about the place, team, fans.

I would like to see Ohman return for the next year or two, and I'd like to see the team pay to make that happen. He was far better than any situational lefty we've thrown out of the bullpen, save for two months of Ron Mahay, since Mike Remlinger and Chris Hammond in 2002.

I know we've got this O'Flaherty character and something called a Boone Logan as possible lefty setup guys, but they are not established major leage LOOGYs. Ohman held lefties to a .200 batting and a .571 OPS average last year -- that's like a team of Brent Lillibridges.

Atlanta Braves beat writer David O'Brien has some "insider" updates on the Braves' various searches to augment their rotation. Regarding recent reports that are linking us with Derek Lowe, John Garland, and Andy Pettite, D-Fab has this to say:

Any proven, healthy pitcher who’s available, particularly free agents who wouldn’t require a long-term contract or players available for trade at a reasonable salary, are drawing interest from the Braves. And that includes Pettitte and Garland, along with the more expensive (and better) Lowe.

The thing to really pull out of this is his mention of players that "wouldn't require a long-term contract." This is something that I believe will keep us away from Derek Lowe.

We may not get anything more than guesses from beat writers about what our plans are for the rest of the off-season. D-Fab also passes along this note about information coming out of the Braves' front office:

Braves have decided that it’s in their best interest to keep this stuff close to the vest, unlike earlier this offseason.

Not an unsurprising reaction to the turbulent events of this off-season. Here's our first Tom Glavine update in quite awhile:

Glavine’s making steady progress, might try to throw off mound next week, but not certain. He’s throwing at 120 feet now without any difficulty.

I still believe that we'll sign him to a contract, but he won't make it out of spring training. That's fine. We can have a nice retirement ceremony before some game in April and call it Tom Glavine day.

The Cardinals have signed former Atlanta Braves left-handed reliever Royce Ring.

We had designated him for assignment on August 2nd of last year. That essentially ends the whole Will Ledezma/Will Startup -- Macay McBride trade haul. Poor Royce was used weirdly by Cox last year. I thought he had more than Cox let him show. We used Ohman all the time, but didn't want to use Ring at all. Maybe it's just me, but I thought he had more to offer than we got out of him.

[UPDATE - 1/6/09, 8:13am]

Waddayaknow, it seems as though the Washington Nationals have signed Wil Ledezma. All of our former lefties are signing this week, could Will Ohman be far behind?

It just makes me sick that one team can gobble up all the good players.

Free-agent first baseman Mark Teixeira has reached agreement with the New York Yankees on an eight-year contract worth $180 million, two sources involved in the negotiations tell ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney.

The Yankees now have the four largest contracts in all of baseball.

Here's the story that's been circulating today via the AP:

Rafael Furcal denies he reneged on a deal with the Atlanta Braves before agreeing to a contract last week with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“We never gave the nod to the Braves,” he said Sunday after arriving to play winter ball for the Aguilas of Cibaenas.

“That is not true,” Furcal said. “We never, not my agents nor me, agreed to anything with the Braves.”

“They offered $32 million for four years and later raised it to $35 million and told us to take it or leave it,” Furcal said.

I can see this being a total fubar by Furcal's agent, Paul Kinzer, with Furcal being kept in the dark. Or, he could have had a change of heart and asked his agent to get him out of it. Who knows what really happened, but it certainly seems like the Braves have the proof to genuinely have a grievance.

The Atlanta Braves announced they have re-signed outfielder / first baseman / pinch hitter Greg Norton to a one year contract for the 2009 season. Financial terms of the deal were not announced.

... and the crowd goes wild...

There's a post on this site about every other day calling for the Braves to go after Ben Sheets, so I thought, if you can't ban them all then why not join them. I've been a fan of Sheets in the past, but this off-season everyone can't stop talking about his injuries, especially the ones he supposedly suffered at the end of last season. Those injuries have scared a lot of people; it certainly seems to have scared the Braves front office.

I get it, the Braves are shell-shocked from three-plus years of Mr. Glass, plus injuries last year to Smoltz, Glavine, and Hudson; and if we indeed give Smoltz and Glavine one last hurah next year, what will it mean if we add even more injury risk to the rotation in Ben Sheets. But I say we should add Sheets, and even give Smoltz and Glav a crack at the rotataion.

We've got a lot of young starters, from Charlie Morton to Jo-Jo Reyes to James Parr to Todd Redmond to some guy named Hanson. These are all guys who could arguably use more time in the minors to refine their craft, but could also be serviceable to decent in the major leagues right now. So let's let them stay in the minors, refine their craft, and be the backups to the old rebuilt bones and ligaments in the majors, and let's roll the dice on Sheets and Smoltz and even Glavine... again.

It's not the best option, but after everything that's fallen through so far this off-season, it may be all that is left without giving up more than we want in future talent. Tim Dierkes, a blogger who keeps up with the goings-on of the free agent market better than anyone else, says that the Rangers are really the only team with tepid at best interest in Ben Sheets. It's got to be worth trying to get Ben Sheets at a discounted price, or sign him to a contract with performance clauses that doesn't financially penalize the Braves if Sheets is unable to be healthy all season. Even with the risk of injury, a healthy Sheets is as good as anything else on the market, and worth taking a chance on.

Call it plan-D, but that's where the Braves are at right now.

From an article in the San Francisco Chronicle (ahem, where is the AJC on this?):

The Braves are intrigued by the notion of turning Niekro into a big-league knuckleball pitcher and do not see this as a lark.

"I don't think you'd ever undertake anything unless you felt it could develop into something," said Kurt Kemp, the Braves' director of player development. "We all feel it's definitely one of those things like, what have we got to lose? We surely aren't looking at it as a novelty, but as something nontraditional. We're legitimately going to set a course of action to develop his knuckleball and give him a chance to pitch through spring training and see where we are."

Niekro lives close to the Braves' spring complex near Orlando. He will report to minor-league camp in mid-February and work with Uncle Phil, the Hall of Fame knuckleballer who pitched in Atlanta from 1966-83 and continues to be what Kemp called "a great ambassador" for the Braves.

Phil and Lance have been working seriously on the pitch for about five weeks. Phil is visiting Lance's home now for pitching lessons and some fishing.

There will be challenges. Lance had surgery on his right shoulder early in his pro career and confessed the shoulder has been barking at him since he started throwing this winter. He also has to develop some secondary pitches.

"I'm working on a few," he said. "I can't give away all my secrets."

He will get an invite to spring training, so we'll get to see him in some spring games if all goes well early in camp. You really couldn't have any better teacher for the knuckleball than Phil Niekro, so it's no wonder the Braves have high hopes for Lance. I would guess they're not thinking he can make the big league club out of spring training, but a few months to a year of minor league ball (perhaps in Gwinett) could be enough to get him ready to redebut in the majors as a pitcher.

Frank Wren is mad and out for vengeance, Steven Seagal style:

Braves general manager Frank Wren said today the Braves have notified the baseball agency that represents Rafael Furcal that they intend never to do business with them again.

The Braves thought they had a deal earlier this week to bring the star shortstop back to Atlanta, where he began his career, before Furcal decided to stay with the Dodgers for virtually the same terms. Wren said that Braves president John Schuerholz called Arn Tellem, who heads the baseball division of the Wasserman Media Group, to inform Tellem that the Braves will no longer enter into negotiations with them regarding baseball clients.

"We don't have any intention of doing business with them, and they've been notified of that,'' Wren told SI.com this afternoon.

Alright, maybe it's not Steven Seagal style, but it should leave quite an impression. We already know that the Braves are extrememly reluctant to do business with Scott Boras, so this is now two mega-agents (or agencies) that the Braves will essentially not talk to. In a market with limited options, this is going to limit them even further. I understand they are upset, but this is quite a drastic step.

I still think the Braves should file some sort of grievence with the Commissioner's office, even if they are not sure what rule was broken. It may sound like more whining, but I'm pretty sure that no one in baseball wants this to become the norm, so why not give the Commish a chance to squash it now.

[UPDATE:  12/18/08 @ 6pm]

John Schuerholz adds his voice to those upset in the Atlanta front office:

“Having been in this business for 40-some years, I’ve never seen anybody treated like that,” Schuerholz said. “The Atlanta Braves will no longer do business with that company — ever. I told [agent] Arn Tellem that we can’t trust them to be honest and forthright. I told him that in all my years, I’ve never seen any [agency] act in such a despicable manner.

“It was disgusting and unprofessional. We’re a proud organization and we won’t allow ourselves to be treated that way. I advised Arn Tellem that whatever players he represents, just scratch us off the list. Take the name of the Atlanta Braves off their speed dial. They can deal with the other 29 clubs and we’ll deal with the other hundred agents.” [...]

Schuerholz said he phoned Tellem Wednesday night.

“I expressed my great disappointment to him,” he said. “I watched as Frank shared with me the circumstances of his negotiations with Furcal — negotiations to the point where we increased our offer and he [Kinzer] then asked for a signed term sheet to be sent over. We never got that signed term sheet faxed back to us and we later found out why — because they took that offer and shopped it.”

When asked about Tellem’s reaction, Schuerholz said: “He was surprised. He tried to explain himself. He said he had nothing to do with it — it was the work of Paul Kinzer. I reminded him that [Kinzer] works for him and he has to stand behind the people who work for him. I told him I was making this official, and I was going to make it public.”

Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!

At least it's good to know that Johnny-S has Wren's back (though, I think we could have assumed that all along). Those Braves fans calling for Wren to be fired and Schuerholz to come back need to wake up and realize that this is not Wren's fault, and he's going nowhere.

From K-Ros:

Furcal, the top free-agent shortstop on the open market this year, has decided to sign with the Dodgers, major-league sources say. Furcal had been debating for the last two days between the Dodgers and the Braves.

The Dodgers and Furcal were still hammering out an agreement Wednesday afternoon, sources said, but the Braves had been informed that Furcal would not accept their deal.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that Rafael Furcal is now persona non grata to Atlanta Braves fans. Whether it was him or his agents who led the Braves down this wrong turn we may never know, but either way I'm not surprised. This is the way our off-season has been, why should it change? But hey, maybe this is a blessing in disguise, I don't see how right now, but that's what I'm telling myself. Remember, Furcal was really just the means to make another move, he wasn't the real hitter we needed this off-season.

More from the D-Fab blog:

Just talked to Frank Wren, and they are not happy with the agent. Said there was an agreement, to the point of the Braves sending over the term sheet on Tuesday for Kinzer/Furcal to sign after agreeing to all the points Monday night. They never returned the term sheet.

“I think you have to be upset with the turn of events and the way,” Wren said. “We usually don’t do business this way. You don’t expect people you have to deal with to do business that way.”

Upset... yeah.