It looks as though our catcher, Brian McCann, has won his second Silver Slugger award as the best hitting catcher in the National League. Here is my article on him winning in 2006. Here are McCann's stats this year:

The complete list of 2008 Silver Slugger Award winners:

AMERICAN LEAGUE Catcher: Joe Mauer, Twins First base: Justin Morneau, Twins Second base: Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox Third base: Alex Rodriguez, Yankees Shortstop: Derek Jeter, Yankees Outfield: Josh Hamilton, Rangers Outfield: Carlos Quentin, White Sox Outfield: Grady Sizemore, Indians Designated hitter: Aubrey Huff, Orioles NATIONAL LEAGUE Catcher: Brian McCann, Braves First base: Albert Pujols, Cardinals Second base: Chase Utley, Phillies Third base: David Wright, Mets Shortstop: Hanley Ramirez, Marlins Outfield: Ryan Braun, Brewers Outfield: Matt Holliday, Rockies Outfield: Ryan Ludwick, Cardinals Pitcher: Carlos Zambrano, Cubs

If you're looking for something to do this weekend, check out the Braves Hall of Fame and Stadium Tours. From an official Braves PR release:

The Braves Museum and Hall of Fame will offer free admission and free tours of the stadium during normal museum hours from 10 AM – 2 PM.   More than 600 artifacts and photos are housed at the Braves Museum including: Hank Aaron's #715 bat and ball, Warren Spahn's Cy Young Award and Purple Heart, Dale Murphy's two MVP Awards, Sid Bream's knee brace from his historic slide home in 1992, and the Braves 1995 World Series trophy. 

In addition to seeing the many artifacts and photos at the Braves Museum, fans can take a free tour of Turner Field, where they will sit in the Braves dugout, visit the Braves press box and broadcast booths, and see their favorite players’ lockers in the Braves clubhouse.

The cost for HOF admission and a stadium tour is typlically $12 for adults and $7 for kids, so if you've ever wanted to do either of these things, now is your chance.

Atlanta Braves pitcher Jair Jurrjens finished third in the 2008 NL Rookie of the Year voting. Jair received 6 second-place votes and 16 third-place votes. The Cubs Geovany Soto won the award, with the Reds Joey Votto finishing second. A late season slump may have cost Jurrjens a better chance at the award.

Here are his ERA's per month for 2008:

Already with 10 wins by the end of July, JJ only won three more games the rest of the season, and voters usually put a lot of emphasis on how a player finishes. It's not unusual for a rookie pitcher to tire towards the end of the season, as they are usually throwing more pitches than they ever have in a single season. Jair had been pretty consistent in innings pitched having thrown right around 140 innings each of the last three years. Jurrjens problems at the end of the 2008 season started after he passed that 140 innings mark. That's not to say that he didn't have some good outings late in the season, but the outings he did have were shorter and generally less effective.

Rafael Furcal was the last Braves player to win the Rookie of the Year award, when he won it in 2000. You can see a complete list of winners here. I sort of got started on something and couldn't stop; here are all the Braves receiving ROY votes since 1990:

Yunel Escobar got one third-place vote last year.
Jeff Francoeur finished third in 2005.
Believe it or not, Damian Moss finished fifth in 2002.
Of course, Rafael Furcal won in 2000.
If you remember Kevin McGlinchy, he received one third-place vote in 1999.
Kerry Lightenberg finished fourth in 1998, even recieving one first place vote.
Andruw Jones finished fifth in 1997.
Back when he was a Brave, Jermaine Dye finished sixth in 1996.
Chipper Jones barely got beaten out by Hideo Nomo in 1995.
Ryan Klesko finished third and Javy Lopez finished tenth in 1994.
Greg McMichael finished second in 1993.
Mark Wohlers got one third-place vote and finished tied for seventh in 1992.
Brian Hunter finished fourth and Mike Stanton finished eighth in 1991.
David Justice won the 1990 Rookie of the Year.

Holy crap, I had totally forgotten that our season had sunk so low that we had signed Elmer f-ing Dessens back in late August. Well, he's headed back to free agency, after filing yesterday. I saw this story on braves.com and said to myself, "why are they putting other teams' news on our site," then I remembered that we had acutally allowed a roster spot to be occupied by this hapless arm for part of the year.

To try and cope, I made a list (it didn't help). Here is the 2008 you'll-never-remember-they-were-Braves-nor-will-you-want-to-remember top-10 list:

1. Elmer Dessens, RHP - A 22.50 ERA that wasn't even the worst on the team.
2. Matt DeSalvo, RHP - His 31.50 ERA was the worst on the team.
3. Jason Perry, OF - And we thought it couldn't get any worse than Jeff Francoeur in right field.
4. Julian Tavarez, RHP - I just don't... I just think... He just doesn't... something in me just says I shouldn't like him.
5. Chris Resop, RHP - Remember when we all thought it was cool because he was a hard-thrower?
6. Ruben Gotay, IF - I still cannot believe we wasted a roster spot on this guy for the entire season.
7. Royce Ring, LHP - More like Royce Reek.
8. Chuck James, LHP - No, seriously, he gave up one homerun ever three innings pitched.
9. Vladimir Nunez, RHP - He wasn't really that bad, but I don't think anyone really cares.
10. Corky Miller, C - Weight = 220 lbs... batting average = .083... I'm assuming the 220 is generous, so that means he didn't hit his weight, he hit a third of his weight.

I was acutally amazed (then extrememly saddened) that I made it to ten. Then I got a crazy thought and did this list, the you'll-never-remember-that-we-thought-they-could-help-but-they-never-made-it-to-the-majors top-10 list:

1. Scott Spiezio, IF - He liked the bottle a bit too much.
2. Jason Phillips, C - The begoggled one.
3. Joe Borchard, OF - Remember when we wanted him to make the team out of spring training?
4. Sal Fasano, C - The mustached one.
5. Damian Moss, LHP - Aussi, Aussi, Aussi... Suck, Suck, Suck
6. Brian Lawrence, RHP - His ERA was almost twice what Chuck James' was.
7. Scott Williamson, RHP - It's kind-a sad how far he's fallen.
8. Andy Shiblio, RHP - Who the f.
9. Matt DeSalvo, RHP - Worth listing again.
10. Scott Thorman, 1B - Does anyone else miss Thor?

Again, I couldn't believe I made it to ten.

In reading over MLBTR's list of the top-50 free agents and where they might end up, it jumped out at me that Dierkes listed Ben Sheets and Raul Ibanez as guys who he thinks will end up signing with the Braves. Sheets I'm okay with, injuries and all, but Ibanez. Really?

To me he seems like trade-slash-free-agent option 4c. Then I read this from Peter Gammons today:

Raul Ibanez. His 338 RBIs the past three years are more than Ramirez (311), Teixeira (336) or Vladimir Guerrero; he is a leader, a tremendous person and a legitimate middle-of-the-order bat. It's nice that such a good person will get paid.

Legitimate middle-of-the-order bat? Really? I would have thought that a legitimate middle-of-the-order guy would have hit 30 homeruns more than once in his career. And don't think for a minute that Seattle's home park -- often considered a pitcher's park -- has anything to do with his lack of power. He has 90 career homeruns at home and 92 on the road; and an identical career batting average of .286 both at home and away.

It's pretty safe to say that Ibanez is a solid .280, 25 homerun, 105 RBI, 105 strikeout guy. In looking over the rest of his splits, they're so damn even across the board that Ibanez might be the most even keeled (read boring) hitter in baseball.

Still, he just doesn't seem like that "impact" bat we need. For some reason I'm fixated on the Braves acquiring Magglio Ordonez. And really he's probably not that much of a better hitter, but for me he's a guy who would make our lineup a bit more feared by opposing pitchers.

Ken Rosenthal says that the Mets tried to acquire Ibanez last July and maintin a strong interest in the outfielder. Raul Ibanez was born in New York City... that seems like a better fit.

And all of the above is just looking at his hitting... his fielding on the other hand... oof!

As we have done for the past two years in the SB Nation, most of us cast our votes for the major awards of the off-season. The results for Manager of the Year were announced yesterday with Lou Pinella and Joe Maddon winning -- Bobby Cox didn't receive any votes, not surprising considering the Braves dismal season.

Here are the results for the NL ROY voting:

Our man Jair Jurrjens finished a disappointing third. Yep, that's me with that first place vote for JJ. I listed Soto and Votto second and third respectively.

I imagine this will be close to what the real voting will look like. Jurrjens might land ahead of Votto in second, but he could vary well end up third as well. My vote for him is part hometown team, part I saw what he did every fifth day, and saw how he became our stopper in the rotation. Unfortunately for him he faded greatly towards the end of the season, and that will hurt his standing in the ROY voting.

Evan Longoria won the SBN ROY in the AL.

Dave O'Brien at the Atlanta Journal Constitution did some digging on the Smoltz story that appeared yesterday in the NY Daily News, and came up with these quotes which he posted in his latest blog entry:

“I know nothing about [the Daily News story,” Smoltz said in a text message. “It’s news to me.” [...]

Smoltz has told Braves officials and others that his initial workouts this winter went very well, and his follow-up visits with surgeon James Andrews have produced nothing but positive reports.

But the pitcher stood by his previously stated plan of not offering any public pronouncements of his progress, and said he’s about to move into a period of relative isolation as he focuses on his comeback bid.

“Nothing has changed,” he said of his plans. “I am disappearing and doing my thing, whatever that is. There will be no no quotes from me on anything because there is nothing to report.”

Smoltz said repeatedly this year that he hopes to finish his career with the Braves, the only major league team he’s ever pitched for.

Wren said Saturday, “”John and I, the last time we talked, we agreed that when he got deeper in the winter we would talk [about a possible contract].”

Wren said last month that if Smoltz can pitch again and wants to pitch, the Braves want him back with the only major league team he’s ever played for.

Asked Saturday if that were still the case, Wren said, “That’s exactly right.”

Quite a more professional and to the point tone from O'Brien in this blog post. (...humm...)

On the Smoltz topic, it looks like this little flurry of recent excitement will be all that we get until much later this off-season. Count me in the camp that hopes John can come back and that he should be resigned by the Braves.

Meanwhile, Smoltz's buddy Tom Glavine gave an interview to the Sporting News; LT has the story here.

The last few times John Smoltz has neared free agency he's used a lot of tough talk in the media to try and help his case in contract negotiations. He gave us the great line several years ago, referring to John Schuerholz as "the homeboy upstairs." That was fantastic! I don't want it to get ugly this time around, but if it does, then hopefully we'll have some good one-liners.

Smoltz's agent seems to have been prompted to set the bar for how this year's negotiations will go:

The righthander's agent, Keith Grunewald, told the Daily News on Friday that "John's made it clear he'd love to finish his career in Atlanta, but that depends on what (Braves GM Frank Wren) and the guys want to do." [...]

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on its Web site Friday that the Braves are still pursuing the Padres ace with lower-tier prospects, but Peavy or not, Smoltz might not fit into their plans. In that case, he could then wait to find a team that needs him early next season.

"That's not a bad approcach to say who is winning and who can he help?" Grunewald said. "There will be injuries and poor performance around the league, so that will be part of it. … He won't be ready for the beginning of the season, but we're thinking May or June and he could make an impact like Roger Clemens a couple of years ago to help make a run at a playoff spot."

See, this is what I'm talking about; O'Brien's "blog" is being mistaken for actual reporting. So DOB's blog led Smoltz's agent to feel that John might not be in the team's plans this year, which prompted him to go public with the comments above.

Reporting new information in a casual blog setting like O'Brien does, where actual quotes are mixed with speculation by the reporter, is irresponsible. People are making the blog out to be a kind of extension of the official reporting that the newspaper produces and distributes.

Again, I don't mean to make this a post slamming DOB, but when something jumps off the page like the quotes above do, it's hard not to point out that this is proof of what I've been harping on for a while now. When there's only one paper in town, whatever that paper publishes (either in print or on the web) is going to be taken as a kind of reporting, and not the ridiculous bloviating that it really is.

This is probably being blown out of proportion by the NY Daily News, Smoltz's agent, and your's truly, but the facts are right there in print for all to read. If O'Brien wants to speculate and ruminate in his blog, then that should be all that it's for. It should not be an outlet for disseminating new information, that will only lead to more issues like the one revealed here.