Carlos Rivas throws a bullpen session for Myrtle Beach. (CB Wilkins)

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According to Baseball America, the Braves have released left handed pitchers Carlos Rivas and Tyler Wilson, as well as right hander Manuel Vega and outfielder Quentin Davis.

I feel like I've seen Rivas for about 15 years in Spring Training, but he was actually signed by the Braves out of Venezuela in 2001. He made his American debut in 04 with the GCL team and followed up a solid performance there with another good year for Danville in 05. After 5 games with Rome in 06, he needed Tommy John surgery and missed all of the 07 season. He came back in 08, pitching masterfully in 9 relief appearances for Rome, but less than masterfully in 25 games (7 starts) for Myrtle Beach. His struggles continued this season, as he racked up a 7.52 ERA in 8 games (5 starts) in a return to Myrtle Beach. These are the kind of transactions I hate to see, cause I know what a great guy Carlos is and how hard he's worked to return from his injury. But, you have to produce.

On the other hand, I've never heard of Vega. In fact, I couldn't even find any kind of stats or information on him. There was a Manuel Vega who played for the Cuban National Team, so this could be him.  Either way, he ever made it into a game for a Braves affiliate, so it's hard to say that this is any great loss for the organization.

Tyler Wilson, who the article erroneously has listed as Travis, was also playing for Myrtle Beach. He was signed in 2005 as a draft and follow after being drafted in the 21st round in 04. He was pretty effective at every level for the Braves, playing for the GCL team, Danville, Rome, and parts of 3 years for Myrtle Beach, compiling a 3.34 ERA in 105 relief appearances. But, his ERa was higher this year, checking in at 4.58 in 15 games, and he was always looked at as an organizational filler.

The speedy Davis was never quite able to put his potential into production. Signed in 05 as a 13th round draft pick, Davis' best season was in 2007 for Myrtle Beach, as he hit .261 with 37 stolen bases and 11 triples. but, he struggled mightily for Mississippi in 08, hitting just .191 and missing half the season with various injuries. He didn't rebound this season in a return to the Beach, drawing his release after just 70 plate appearances.

This was mentioned in the Open Thread the other night, but it's worth noting on the front page; the Braves have recalled right handed reliever Manny Acosta from Gwinnett and optioned fellow right handed pitcher James Parr to Gwinnett.

Parr had been lest than stellar in his first crack at full time releif pitching, posting a 5.79 ERA in 8 appearances, covering 14 innings. He allowed 17 hits, 5 walks, and a .293 average against, and in his final appearance Tuesday night, the wheels really fell off, as he allowed 4 earned runs in a Colorado drubbing of Atlanta.

Acosta has had his own rough times for the Braves, earning the nickname "Manny I'll-Cost-Ya", but the struggles of the 2009 Braves bullpen have had Talking Choppers calling for his promotion. Acosta was putting up very good numbers as Gwinnett's primary setup man, posting a 2.86 ERA in 15 appearances, though he did have losses in 3 of his 4 decisions.

It's clear that a move needed to be made in the bullpen, but whether or not this was the right one remains to be seen. The more logical choice for relief help would have been Luis Valdez, who has been outstanding as Gwinnett's closer, posting a 1.77 ERA in 16 games while collecting 8 saves. But, Acosta is on the 40-man roster and Valdez is not, and sometimes these decisions are based those reasons rather than purely performance ones. Hopefully Acosta has turned the corner in his time at Gwinnett and can be a productive part of the Atlanta bullpen.

I try to be fairly laid back on the rules of engagment here and I know things get heated between posters and it can a little frustrating for new people a lot of times with the "in crowd" we have developed over the past few seasons. BUT, there is a level of things I will not tolerate from posters.

1. The standing rule of no politics/religion applies here as in almost every non-politics religion blog on the internet. This is just a reinforcement, no one has really broken this rule.

2. No Racism - This means nothing that can even be construed as racism. I may not be personally offended by something you say, Royhobbs may not be offended by something you say or even Gondeee, but we aren't here to defend our sensibilities. We are here to defend everyones. And whether you guys realise it or not we are a fostering point of potential new Braves fans nearly every day and these could include fans from other countries who are drawn to the Braves because their favorite player just made the jump from overseas. So in the interests of the Braves lets not look like ignorant fools when we are making our fanposts.

3. Don't call people names. Again, it gets heated here just like everywhere on the intarwebs. But the moment you break into middle school name calling tirades you are done for the day. Sarcasm is always welcome and is a wonderful tool for making points. Use it, abuse it. Stats happen to work well also. The stat/sarcasm combo awards extra DP to the victor as well.

Anyways, some of you may know what all this pertains to. Others are probably oblivious. But I thought it needed to reinforced. Thanks and have a great day

Matt

Look, I know that Furman Bisher is supposed to be this legend, and someone who has probably earned the right to write about anything he pleases without being edited, but maybe it's time to put an end to that. Bisher's latest column on AJC.com is riddled with innacurate statements and failed assumptions. (I wasn't aware Bisher went to Yale.)

Reading the title of the article, "Braves failing to keep farm stocked," will tell you the first inaccurate statement. This is an article that comes on the heels of MLB.com naming three Braves among the top-50 prospects in baseball. Bisher begins the defense of his title by saying, "Once upon a time the Braves usually dealt from within when talent was in need." The assumption here is that they don't do that anymore... that's just wrong. The Braves just dealt four prospects for an established starting pitcher in his early 30's. They traded five prospects two years ago for one of the top sluggers in the game, not to mention other trades that acquired minor pieces like Mark Kotsay, Dannys Baez, Omar Infante and Will Oman, and on and on.

Bisher also erroneously suggests that John Smoltz was a product of our farm system, that's just plain wrong, he did pass through our farm system, but he was a product of the Tigers' farm system.

Bisher tries to suggest, again trying to support his failed hypothesis, that the Braves have been missing the playoffs because they no longer have home grown stars:  "Three seasons have passed now and the Braves haven’t had a whiff of playoff aroma. Most of those homebred stars have moved on." Again, this is just plain wrong. Last year our starting position players consisted of over half homegrown talent:  Brian McCann, Chipper Jones, Yunel Escobar, Kelly Johnson, and Jeff Francoeur, most of them recent additions to the major league roster.

Amazingly, Bisher says and then repeats that we "signed" Javier Vazquez. Is this a senior moment? He goes on to say that we also signed Russ Ortiz, Albie Lopez, and Mike Hampton, when we only signed Lopez, and traded for Ortiz and Hampton. In both trades we used young homegrown talent in the trade. Not to mention, lumping Lopez in with the other two is a bit silly since Lopez was signed to be a fourth or fifth starter and Ortiz and Hampton were acquired to be top of the rotation guys.

He ends with this amateurish and lackluster finish which does more to discredit his hypothesis than support it:

In the past season the Braves have traded away a busload of prospects for, in one case, a mere flirtation with Mark Teixiera, who was merely passing through town. They did happen to pick up an inexpensive Casey Kotchman in the deal, but back to Vazquez again, they traded a hot number with power, Tyler Flowers, for him. And Tyler can play first base, and has power.

What should bother Frank Wren is what’s going on with all those 47 scouts and those special assistants who are supposed to be covering the world and feeding that fallow farm system. That’s all.

If we traded away a "busoad" of prospects then we must have had a well stocked farm system to begin with. He also now admits that we traded for Vazquez (whereas two paragraphs earlier he says we signed him), and then mentions the prospect we traded for him... again, we couldn't have done this if we didn't have a stocked farm system.

Bisher has absolutely no clue what's gong on with our farm system, a system still considered to be one of the top ten systems in all of baseball even after all the prospects we've traded the last two years. That's a result of those 47 scouts and special assistants doing thier job.

This article reminded me of something the former Tigers' broadcaster Ernie Harwell said when he decided to end his career several years ago. Harwell said he was retiring now because he didn't want someone to come up to him years later and say, "I heard your last game, and it should've been." Well Mr. Bisher, I read your last article, and it should've been.

For a more in-depth destruction of Bisher's article, see beeniez Fan Post.

Answer, nothing. At Yale, apparently all they teach is analogies and inaccurate statements. I know it's only a school newspaper, so perhaps some will not hold them to the high standards of regular newspapers, but when I see an article titled "Just call them the Atlanta Cowards," I'm obliged to read it. Here are some of the author's many analogies:

The Braves in the 1990s were like the Backstreet Boys: They just kept coming up with big hits. But now, again like the Backstreet Boys, they only make headlines when they screw up.

Schuerholz consistently fleeced the league like Yale dining halls rob Yale’s visitors.

Trading Teixeira for Kotchman is like trading your Babe Ruth rookie card for three Pogs and a Meowth Pokémon card.

And my fave:

Wren is like a bachelor who went to Vegas looking for a wife. He sold his house and bought a two million dollar ring to land that chick he met the night before. Sure, he found a wife. But he could have found a better one, or at least paid less for the one he got. And now he has no house and a wife with a gambling problem.

It's amazing that a story like this went to print in any form. I would expect it from some rival blog, but from an Ivy League newspaper. The astounding degree of inaccuracy this article is laced with leads me to believe that the author really doesn't know much sports or the Atlanta Braves, he just had some good ideas for what he thought were quirky analogies and he tried to force some story to support those analogies (and promptly failed at both).

I won't go into detail regarding all of the problems, if Collin Gutman were to actually do some research he would find out rather quickly where his errors are. After reading this rubbish I can only assume he's a legacy and there's a wing of some building on the Yale campus named after his grandfather.

Well it looks like it isn't a rumor at this point as the most recent update on MLB Trade Rumors that Vasquez is on his way to Atlanta for a physical. The talks right now say we will send Lillibridge and JoJo Reyes (I still liked him) and maybe one more player in the deal.

There are several aspects to this whole deal that interest me personally. One is the Braves get their man. This is yet another perpetually rumored player the Braves have interest in that we finally end up with, though a while after we are supposedly interested in. Second, Frank Wren seems to have inherited John Schuerholtz's ability to pull of the big trade that no one knew was even being talked about. Bravo.

So anyways, here is a main page offering for you guys to weigh in at.

It seems there are really only three "ace" pitching options left for the Braves this off-season:

Who do you want?

I thought Albert Pujols would win it by a greater margin than he did, with Ryan Howard finishing a strong second after coming on late in the season. The only Braves player receiving votes was Chipper Jones, who finished 12th, but did receive one second-place vote. I thought Chipper would have finished higher, but I suppose the combination of a 90-loss team and Chipper's power outage in the second half contributed to the poor showing.

Heck, after the shameful rookie of the year voting, I'm just glad that no NL writer voted for a player who was retired last season.