From Ken Rosenthal, we learn that the Atlanta Braves have had what seems like several conversations with teams about trading starting pitcher Derek Lowe, but they have had little luck finding a taker:

The Braves' most extensive discussions concerning Lowe have been with the Brewers about a trade for outfielder Corey Hart, according to one source.

But the Brewers are not sure they would want Lowe even if the Braves included significant money in the deal, another source says.

Another team showing interest is the Angels:

The Angels, who showed interest in Lowe about a month ago, according to sources, could use him to replace Lackey in their rotation. The Braves, seeking a right-handed hitter, like Angels outfielder Juan Rivera.

Rosenthal also speculates that the White Sox could be a match for the Braves, in a possible swap for right-handed first baseman Paul Konerko, but no sources are cited for that rumor.

The rumor about the Brewers seems quite credible since Rosenthal mentions two different sources, and the Braves have long had eyes for Corey Hart (though I don't know why). Once John Lackey signs, the market for Lowe may open up, with those teams who lost out on Lackey willing to up their offer to get Lowe. The Braves could still reverse course and choose to deal Javier Vazquez, but for the moment it seems clear that they are focused on moving Lowe and his contract (even if they have to eat part of it).

[UPDATE 8:15pm]

Mr. Rumor Clarification (aka Mark Bowman) was quicker than he normally is in clarifying the above rumor. Here's Bowman:

The Braves see the Brewers as a potential suitor for Derek Lowe.  But contrary to a report on FOXSports.com, they have never been interested in trading the veteran sinkerballer in exchange for Brewers outfielder Corey Hart.

Good. I feel the same way about Corey Hart. No thank you. Bowman reiterates an statement he made earlier in the off-season that the Brewers are primarily interested in Javier Vazquez. He also mentions that the Braves have strong interest in trying to match up Lowe with the Angels in a trade.

Mark Bowman has been doing a yeoman's job of shooting down rumors that pop up so far this off-season. Last night ex-Nats GM Jim Bowden reported that the Dodgers and Braves were discussing a possible Javier Vazquez deal. As johnny-on-the-spot as Bowman was in getting information from the Braves front office that shot down the Aroldis Chapman rumor, he was equally as proactive in getting info from inside the Braves front office that has now shot down this Vazquez-Dodgers rumor:

[...] early Friday afternoon a team source said that the Braves and Dodgers aren't currently in the midst of any trade discussions.

Earlier today I immediately said that this rumor was likely a long-shot and not worth too much. I think it was Jim Bowden's first shot at spreading a rumor as a journalist -- maybe this was just a test rumor.

Bowman does give us some replacement rumors, hinting that the main suitors for Derek Lowe might be the Angels and Brewers, though the Brewers would likely prefer Javier Vazquez.

With the speed that Twitter gives one to disseminate information, I think we'll be seeing a lot of false rumors pop up this off-season.

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Keith Law makes some good points about the Indians closer, Kerry Wood:

"Wood had a better year than he's getting credit for having - once you consider ballpark, defense, and league, he probably had the best year of the three major free agent closers from last winter. With just one year left on his deal and a team motivated to cut payroll, he could be a nice pickup on the cheap for a team unwilling to go multiple years for Rafael Soriano or Mike Gonzalez."

He's not cheap at $10 million for 2010, and he may not have the durability to be used like Bobby Cox likes to use his relievers and closers, but in the right trade he could be a bargain, as Law says.

I think we'll settle on our closer late in the off-season after we let some of the other players find homes. I get the feeling that the Braves see the closer position as an off-season need, and perhaps even a priority, but not their top priority.

With the signing of Tim Hudson, the baseball rumorverse can officially begin spewing forth any and all whispered third-hand nuggets about who might match up with the Braves as trading partners for one of their extra starting pitchers. The first one comes from ex-Nats GM Jim Bowden on his Twitter feed:

Hudson 3-yr deal done with Braves, Dodgers talking with Braves re: Vazquez and Mets re: Castillo according to sources

There are a lot of things wrong with that rumor. First of all, they're just talking and that kind of stuff happens all the time. Second, Javier Vazquez has a no trade clause to any Western Division team in either league, meaning he would have to approve any trade to the Dodgers. That makes this rumor less credible.

I think we'll hear more Vazquez rumors simply because he's the more attractive pitcher between him and Derek Lowe, but I don't think we'll see too much movement on the trade front until John Lackey has signed somewhere. He's the marquee name on the free agent starting pitching market, and whichever teams lose out on him may have more incentive to settle for Lowe -- and those teams would presumably be teams that could afford Lowe.

It's a wait and see approach... but rumors are fun, aren't they.

MLBTR takes this David O'Brien blog post, where he talks to Braves GM Frank Wren, and lists the "hot stove highlights." While there were five bullet points to consider, there was nothing in the way of new information. This got me re-thinking about something that I had meant to post earlier in our off-season.

As great as last winter was for Braves rumors, mainly because of the more open style of Frank Wren, I submit that this winter will be the exact opposite. Wren was a much more media-friendly General Manager than his predecessor John Schuerholz. Wren was candid about many topics, including trades and free agent signings; all of which actually helped make the off-season the tumultuous roller coaster that it became.

Many of the leaks about the Jake Peavy deal came from the other coast, but Wren was certainly not shy about discussing the Braves' interest in the then-San Diego ace. The John Smoltz situation played out as an ugly public spectacle. Losing A.J. Burnett was tougher than it should have been because we publicly pronounced that he was our top pitching target. Losing Rafael Furcal was a also tougher than it should have been because the Atlanta front office was media-friendly enough to leak the news of the signing before anything had actually been signed. And then the Ken Griffey Jr. decision was hashed out in public.

Those are the lessons that our new GM has learned over the past year -- enough lessons for an entire career. I would imagine that Wren will turn back to the ways of John Schuerholz and lock the Braves front office down tighter than Langley. We will not hear a peep out of them this winter, and every signing and trade will be a complete surprise without any advance warning.

I think part of my job this winter will be to point out media bloviating and speculation-run-amok more than talking about actual rumors and leaked nuggets of information. Feel free to bookmark this post and call me on it if I'm wrong.

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There has been a lot of talk in the past week about the Braves inability to keep both Javier Vazquez and Tim Hudson on the pitching staff next year. This is assuming that the Braves pick up Hudson's option (something they said they would do before the season), and that Hudson accepts that option (something he has the right to decline).

Picking up Hudson's option would present the team with a problem -- they would have six starting pitchers going into the 2010 season, and four of them would be very well paid. Hudson and Vazquez would presumably be on one year deals, with the rest of the staff locked up beyond 2010.

Ken Rosenthal pointed out this dilemma earlier this week, and Jeff Schultz of the AJC is the latest to point it out. In both cases they consider only trading either Hudson or Vazquez, reasoning that Derek Lowe and Kenshin Kawakami would be too hard to move, and Jair Jurrjens and Tommy Hanson are too young and too good to move. My thinking lately has shifted from this foregone conclusion of trading either Hudson or Vazquez. I say the Braves should "consider" trading one of those other pitchers, specifically Jair Jurrjens. Now before you blast me for saying this, hear me out (after the jump).

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Could the Atlanta Braves have interest in Billy Wagner?

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Jon Heyman of SI.com has a Twitter post up that says Mets reliever Billy Wagner has been claimed on waivers by some unknown team. After some head scratching, I just keep thinking that it might make sense for the Braves to have claimed him.

Wagner is owed about $2.5 million for the remainder of the season, and he has a $1 million buyout on an $8 million option for next year. There's a chance that we still have $2.5 mil in the kitty to spend for the remainder of this season.

If the Braves did claim him -- and they got a chance to see how good he was up close last night -- it makes sense from several angles. First, one of the teams rumored to need him is the Marlins, who may have been ahead of us in the standings at the time of the claim. Blocking Wagner from going to the Marlins would potentially help us in the division or wildcard race. Heck, several of the teams in the wild card race might want him, and blocking him from going to one of those teams is a wise move.

Another angle here, is if the Mets were willing to just let Wagner go and let us assume his contract, then we get another fresh bullpen arm for the rest of the season. We would also essentially be giving Wagner a two month audition to see if he can be our closer next year (with Rafael Soriano and Mike Gonzalez both free agents this winter).

We're also somewhat thin in quality bullpen depth. Take a look at our 40-man roster and there's only one or two relievers not currently on the 25-man roster who could help out in case of injury.

Anyway, I'm totally spit-ballin, but this kind of makes some sense.

[UPDATE 6:15pm]

So much for that theory. According to K-Ros, it looks like the Red Sox claimed Wagner.

I thought it would be a good day to take a look at the two one-for-one trades that the Atlanta Braves have made in the past month. The first being the trade of hometown star Jeff Francoeur to the rival New York Mets for Ryan Church, and the second being the re-aquisition of first baseman Adam LaRoche for the unpopular Casey Kotchman.

I guess the first question should be, "has anyone really missed Jeff Francoeur?" I don't think we've missed him on the diamond, maybe the clubhouse, but that was becoming questionable. Here is a comparison of Francoeur's stats with the Mets, and Ryan Church's stats with the Braves.

In true Francoeur form he has played more games -- that's what he does, he's always in the lineup for better or worse. At first glance you may be surprised to see Frenchy hitting .300, I was. Jeff hitting .300 for any month-long stretch is pretty amazing, and he's doing it while driving in runs, but that's where his value stops. When we look at OPS (not listed above), we see that Church has a higher OPS than Francoeur, .844 to .780. That's a pretty big disparity, and most all of it can be accounted for in the getting-on-base department. Church also doesn't lose many points in the slugging department.

Church is certainly more of a patient hitter, we all knew that. Francoeur has 1 unintentional walk with the Mets (that's one natural walk in a month), and aside from the 4 homeruns, he's been mainly a singles hitter. The added RBI's can be attributed to him spending most of his time in New York hitting 4th and 5th in a better position to drive in runs than he was in Atlanta. Even then, this trade still looks like a wash in terms of real offensive production. Church has been what we needed him to be -- a more rounded offensive option in right field -- and Francoeur has given the Mets what they perceive is more power.

Here is the second of our recent one-for-one trades, and a comparison of Kotchman's stats with the Red Sox and LaRoche's stats with the Braves.

Obviously this trade has worked out better than we could have ever imagined so far. Adam LaRoche has been hitting mainly in the bottom third of the batting order, but he's hitting like he should be in the middle of the order. Casey Kotchman has not gotten into many games, and it will likely be a shock and require a period of adjustment for him to go from a starting role to a pinch-hitting role. Thus this comparison is likely unfarily biased. Still, LaRoche has done better than Kotchman was likely capable of doing (even with the small sample size).

Taken as a whole, the two trades netted us upgrades in right and at first base. We acquired guys who are going to give us more total offense than the guys we gave up. We also got two guys who will give us more financial flexibility and positional flexibility this off-season.