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From The Department Of I Hope This Braves Trade Rumor Is Not True

I've been operating on the assumption that the Braves were holding out for good value this off-season, not looking to trade tons of value for ... Jeff Francoeur part deux. A Baltimore-Sun beat writer for the Orioles passes along this trade proposal that was apparently turned down by Baltimore:

Adam Jones is the team’s best trade chip. But unless the Orioles get a front-line pitcher in return, I don’t see them dealing Jones. The Atlanta Braves made a run this month, offering second baseman-outfielder Martin Prado, starter Jair Jurrjens and, eventually, a pitching prospect, and the Orioles didn’t bite. So that tells you just how much they value their center fielder.

Thank goodness they value Adam Jones that much! What the heck were the Braves thinking offering that much (if indeed this report is accurate)?

Jeff Francoeur career OPS = .746
Adam Jones career OPS = .756

This is not the droid you are looking for ... not even close. I'm just beside myself that the Braves would consider trading both Prado and Jurrjens AND a pitching prospect for Jones. He's decent, but he's not that good.

And oh by the way, Martin Prado career OPS = .775 (and he can play third base where the Braves have a fragile 40-year ol... oh I give up). I really hope the Braves weren't actually offering this package. And if they were, Baltimore was stupid to turn it down.

UPDATE 3:15pm

Coming in off the ledge, we get this rumor shoot-down from Mark Bowman:

The Braves expressed interest in Adam Jones. But they did not offer Martin Prado and Jair Jurrjens to the Orioles in exchange for the outfielder. [...]

The source said the Braves were told Jones was unavailable when they asked about him a couple weeks ago. The Orioles later called the Braves to see if they would trade Prado, Jurrjens and two other “premium guys” in exchange for Jones.

The Braves said they were not interested and the two clubs have not had any recent discussions about these players.

That sounds more logical. MUCH more logical. I figured this was the case, but in the fog of this morning and the senselessness of the reported offer my exasperation overcame me. The Orioles are proving why they're a last place club. They should have traded Jones at this year's trade deadline when teams were lining up to give up good prospects for outfielders.

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Comments

Gondeee

For all that is holy and right in this world. Please… PLEASE contact anyone you know in the Braves organization… Let them know this is the most ridiculous thing we have ever read and tell them if they do something like this, you, your blog and all it’s members are going to become Philly fans and the Braves internet fandom will come crashing down in flames of hatred and distrust.

I honestly believe this is misinformation being sent out by the Orioles… I know Frank came from that organization but there is just no way he would do this to us… He loves us… we trust him… If he were to do something like this, all the years of trust and great moves would boil down to one thing. His loyalty is not with us. There is no other way to see it. If he even considered a trade like that, Frank’s loyalty should be questioned by the owners. He should be fired and immediately replaced by Bobby Cox.

That doesn't at all sound like Frank Wren.

If he actually made that offer I would assume he’s drunk, high, or both.

Dude... I bet Bowman and company come out of the wood work to blast this rumor...

If it is at all confirmed, I will be shocked, upset, disappointed and feel somehow like our GM doesn’t care about our franchise at all…

Tell me, gondeee

Where can I find OPS on the scoreboard? If it were important, it would be up there.

Adam Jones shares a name with a guy nicknamed Pacman. That’s good enough for me.

In all seriousness, if the Braves are willing to package Prado, Jurrjens, and a prospect for one player, there are MUCH better players we could get, right? How dumb are the Orioles for not parting with Jones if this rumor is actually true?

Gah.

Wren has made some outstanding trades so I just can’t believe that there is any truth to this rumor. The only thing Jones brings is a little power, and a lot of that power would disappear in the move to Turner Field.

He's made some really crappy trades, too
Not on this level though Bronn...
I'm sure the rumor above is inaccurate

But I also suspect there’s some degree of truth in it, and he really is more interested in Adam Jones than is healthy for a man his age.

On this level depends on the full deal

We’ll go incomplete on Esco until Pasty has time to pan out or not. But Tex for Kotchman and Marek? Not just losing Tex, but for a big boat of nada in return? Or Ankiel and Farnsworth for cheaper, equal players in Jesse Chavez, Greg White, and Tim Collins?

Definitely made some stinkers.

billy wagner / soriano snafu. lost a first round pick.

glavine, lost a first round pick.

But if Soriano accepted before offering Wagner a deal

would we have kept Raffy and let Wagner walk elsewhere? I’m not so sure. That was more Soriano and his agent than anything with Wren.

why wouldn’t we? resigning soriano is preferable to signing a type A reliever

I think personality wise

we wanted Wagner in the clubhouse over Soriano. Plus, we’d ridden him quite hard that season, and his elbow wasn’t the most trustworthy so a chance for injury was strong.

you rather have Chavez than Farnsworth?

Neither personally

Farnsworth did nothing down the stretch we couldn’t have gotten from others, with less money spent and keeping Tim Collins in the system. So while Farnsworth had the better k/bb, and therefore FIP and fWAR, neither was very productive, both had flaws, and he wasn’t worth adding to the roster at the cost paid. Neither he nor Ankiel did anything in Atlanta to warrant giving up anything of value (i.e. Collins, not necessarily Blanco or Chavez) for them.

I agree

but without Ankiel……

honestly

do any of those trades even come close to the reported original offer of JJ, Prado, and a pitching prospect?

Sure, the Tex trade was bad in hindsight, and obviously hindsight is the way in which we judge trades, but Krotchman filled 1b for us until we reacquired Roachy and Marek could still turn out to be a solid MLB reliever, he just needs to get healthy. He was tearing it up last year in AAA. Obviously the best move was to just let him walk and collect the picks (and Trout), but nobody could have foreseen all of what happened happening. It’s not like Krotchman was viewed the same way at the time of the trade as he is now either…

Yes, because picks = Trout. Except it doesn’t.

God, will people just shut up about that already. No one knows who the Braves would have chosen with that pick, but 23 or so teams already skipped out on Trout, including the Braves. The D-Backs did twice.

/rant

-C

The best move

was probably still trading him, but not demanding a 1B in return in Kotchman, who was shot, and just taking a prospect package as good as you could get. We didn’t need Kotchman, we had Prado able to fill the spot.

Good Grief

Over pay X 2.5

Wren must really want some salary relief. I hope this rumor is BS.

That or there is someone in the Baltimore FO

under his desk doing very special favors for him…

Prepare for a letdown...

if the Braves trade Jurrjens or Prado. They’re worth way more to us than to anyone else.

this begs the question..

..why trade them?

At this point.

We shouldn’t.

this.

Especially if teams see this as the collective value.

I agree with this statement...

But it doesnt’ mean we make a bloody trade like this… If I was upset about what it cost to get Lowrie… I may actually shut down my computer and walk away from the internet for this season if we did something like that…

I honestly would lose faith in our GM if he did something like this.

It truly is unbelievable...

Which means it’s probably not true.

We may have offered a package which included JJ, Prado, and a prospect, but I’m willing to bet we were getting back more than just Jones.

In that case

We’d better get Reynolds, Hardy and Jones.

I’ve actually thought about this one. But then we flip Reynolds and a prospect to Colorado for arenado and wheeler

Love how rosterbaters are always "flipping" someone.
no way it's true

but if it is, Bud Selig needs to step in and go all Stern-like on their asses

This is my thinking...

Teams around the league are not terribly interested in Prado or JJ. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and teams like the Orioles and/or the Rockies are “undervaluing” our trade chips.

Prado is a solid player, but, to us, he’s infinitely more valuable than he would be on another squad.

I’m a little shocked JJ hasn’t moved yet, but given Hanson’s shoulder issues, I kinda want him to stick around.

While debating a post on Prado’s worth yesterday, I made a list of teams that could use an upgrade at second base… and I found at least 10 of them (yeah, the Orioles are on the list).

I’m not going to suggest that we can’t upgrade the LF position… sure we can. And others could certainly use him a lot, too. But they do need to pay for the privilege.

The problem with Prado and the O's...

…is that he wouldn’t be a fulltime second baseman. He would probably play OF for the 30 games or so a year that Brian Roberts is healthy.

Agree on Odarp, but not JJ

with the way teams around the league need pitching, and the way we’ve got ready replacements in Delgado and Teheran.

except

we don’t know how they will perform in the rookie season. Not to mention the injury concerns of Hanson and Hudson, and maybe even Beachy

their rookie season
Only one way to find out
yea

toss them in the fire and see what happens. It’s not like we are trying to win a World Series or anything

Because that plan worked out horribly for...

Kimbrel, Beachy, Venters, etc, etc, etc.

a little different when Beachy was the fifth starter. when Venters joined an already stacked bp.

by that logic, the red sox, yankees, phillies, etc should never play any rookies

THEY’RE TRYIN TO WIN THE SUPER BALL

If this is accurate...

…The Orioles (also) would have been stupid to refuse the deal.

Prado > Jones alone

add a front of the rotation starter and a prospect? Yikes. Does he want to make up to Angelos?

the problem is

that they didn’t cite the whole rumor…it was, IIRC from another site

Prado, JJ and Delgado/Vizcaino for Jones and Machado.

OK, now that would be a little more understandable

I think it’s severely overvaluing Machado (especially if the pitching prospect is Delgado or Vizcaino and not a much lesser prospect), but at least more understandable.

Around the trading deadline I felt constantly ill about 99% of the trade rumors that were associated with the Braves, then it turned out that Wren was in control and made the perfect trade that we needed all along. I’m gonna try my best not to get bent out of shape over rumors and to only worry about how I feel on trades once they actually happen.

And that is what makes you so Stealthy, Sir Stealth… Always in control. :-)

And staying stealth.

Reading the excerpt, it’s conceivable that the Braves offered three separate deals: first Prado, then Jurrjens, then a pitching prospect, each straight up. The inclusion of “eventually” implies the passage of time, after all. None of those deals sound appealing to me, but they don’t cause me to freak out the same as if the Braves offered all three together in one deal.

read the actually link...

It reads as though they were offered together.

Yep, that’s what it says… and I can’t fathom them not accepting that trio if it truly came down that way. I would certainly hope that the Braves’ FO isn’t that reckless, so the ‘piecemeal’ scenario makes more sense.

Honestly...

I wouldn’t mind a straight-up deal of JJ for Adam Jones. The Orioles obviously want Prado, a prospect, AND Heyward.

JJ for Adam Jones

Makes sense to me… I’d even throw a prospect swap in there too… Maybe one of their B prospects for one of our lower pitching specs (Dis. Delgado)

I agree. Jurrjens for Jones straight up makes sense.

Sheesh

Waiting, waiting, waiting for that deal. I see these “rumors” headlines and jump into the headline looking for something new and they come back to the same thing. Maybe doing nothing at this point will be the best because these rumors are all bad for the Bravos so far. Wren is just waiting when we all have a frown on our faces then he going to do the deal that we all say “YEEEEEEHAAAAA”.

At least I hope!!!!!

If this were true

and a Star Wars analogy then, Frank Wren = Uncle Owen & Adams Jones = R5-D4

Hey I like this...

It makes me smile… but only at the comment.. cause if it’s true, I’ve got the pitchforks ready.

I want my 3PO and r2d2…. Throw in a Chewy and I’ll be ecstatic.

“This one has a bad motivator:”

Just sign Beltran and call it a winter. Damn.
this

Earlier in the off-season, there was something about increasing the payroll… I sure hope we’re the 4th team in on him.

BTW – Reed Johnson off the board – 1 yr. re-up w/Cubs.

Yeah, whatever happened to increasing the payroll?

Sign Beltran, keep Prado to back up Beltran and Chipper.

We've done nothing but cut budget so far.

….so that we can sign Beltran. Duh.

If we end up with Beltran...

I would be happy, assuming we don’t pay too much.

I feel Beltran has a lot left offer, especially with some time off here and there. This is why Prado would be such a great asset, for he could help keep Chipper and Carlos healthy.

Makes sense to me, but what do I know?

I can’t help but wonder if the salary reduction talk about Jurrjens and Prado being traded might be because we are the “mystery team” in on Beltran.

this
Read somewhere that Beltran was interested in being close to Puerto Rico.

Only two teams closer.

Marlins and Rays?

But which teams are close to an airport that has direct flights to Puerto Rico?!
More than I thought, turns out...

American Airlines offers nonstop daily flights to San Juan from Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Hartford, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, New York (JFK), Orlando, Philadelphia, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, and Washington (Dulles)

Delta has three daily nonstop flights from Atlanta Monday to Friday, six nonstop on Saturday, and six nonstop on Sunday.

Read more: http://www.frommers.com/destinations/puertorico/0094020009.html#ixzz1hDHogYOl

Beltran costs money, so we won’t be signing him.

Is it possible to sign him with an extremely back loaded contract since we have a good amount of money coming off the payroll next year?

and Beltran will be hurt before February 1.
As proven by...

the over 140 games he played last year and 598 plate appearances?

What about signing Andruw Jones to a one-year deal?

The man hit .274/.379/.547 against left-handed pitching over the past two years in 248 plate appearances. If we’re just looking for insurance against lefties, i wouldn’t mind seeing him spell heyward against a tough lefty, or spell prado in left on those days and let him give another position the day off. he’d be relatively cheap too

He would be expensive.

Not personally, but you can add the $2 million for Diaz to whatever we pay Andruw, because keeping Diaz would be pointless with Andruw on board and I doubt anyone will help us out with his money.

That being said, I’d love to see Andruw come home.

I think keeping Diaz is pointless with or without Andruw

poor fielding corner OF who always had a babip fuelded obp and no longer has any power. Yeah, you want those on the roster.

He does have a nice line drive swing though

that creates the babip. Kind of bitch-slaps the ball.

Did, not does, did...

as in past tense.

Pretty Sad

….when all we have to talk about is lawsuits with Disney, what-if trades, and watching other teams acquire players. Hohum…..

I think it's a testament to how good a team we have.

It’s not sad at all… but it is boring… and I am deliriously bored… I am glad we haven’t made a move just for moves sake…

Speak for yourself dude....

I want trades… Vernon Wells for JT and Hanson… Straight up…

Pretty sad..

considering our core players are still the same team we fielded last year and how did that work out for us?

How long have we talked about Jair Jurrjens to the Reds?

aannnd the just made a deal for Mat Latos…..Ugh, yyeeaah.

Still 2 months until ST starts

We were never going to be players for the names that go early – I’d be surprised if we hit Feb 1 without dealing Prado and/or Jurrjens, though.

When I first read this over at mlbtraderumors, I was thinking no freaking way this is true. I just need to see DOB or Bowman, or Wren or someone in the Braves front office to deny this, because this is about as lopsided of a possible trade that I have seen. If people think the Reds overpaid for Latos, they haven’t seen anything. I have said it, 90% of the other people in this site have said that Adam Jones just isn’t that good. More of a corner OF, has power to a degree, but just isn’t anything special. Hell, I would honestly rather have Prado as our LF than Adam Jones, I am dead serious about that. Only thing over Prado that Jones has is more power and better glove in LF. Otherwise, Prado is the better hitter.

I have confidence that Wren didn’t do this, but if it comes out that he really did, he loses some credibility in my book, and that’s saying alot, because I think of Wren as easily a top 10 GM in the game.

Drat... we don't get Cesaer Izturis now... Brewers snagged him...

ho hum.

Getting Izturis required

action.

We are clearly inactive.

Judging by the A. Jones rumor, we may be comatose.

I am hoping FW is like one of those spiders that just lets everything walk by..

and then it sees the food it wants and just gobbles the heck out of it… At least, that’s the image in my head… Let the rumors fly and just don’t say anything… Be a black hole of nothingness and then when we least expect it… BOOOM…. we’ll all cream our pants and realize he had a plan all along. :-D

Agree.

As has been pointed out, we heard appalling rumors last season at the trade deadline. Then, we got a really good deal from the Astros for Bourn.

This a rumor, and I don’t believe it’s being accurately reported.

For all we know, Wren’s working on something none of us are expecting.

Maybe we can buy low on Braun!

that trade would really suck for the Braves…

Wait until Spring Training...

and if none of the Braves SPs get seriously injured maybe you can trade JJ to a team that loses a SP (kind of like Wainright last year) for the year.

I thought AJ was a good player

I had him in fantasy last year and didn’t really look at the horrible obp and strikeouts

He's a great fantasy player to have... He's not a terrible player...

but for the cost, he’s not worth it as we have suitable options inhouse already… He’s not a clear upgrade over what we have, especially at the cost.

In fact...

going on past numbers, he’s a downgrade from what we have there now and would be giving up in the proposed deal.

Er'body calm down... BIG Announcment

Lee Elia shifts to special asst./player development, and ex-Mets strength coach Rick Slate is minor league strength coor.

OFFSEASON OVER

Cody Ross's career OPS is .779

Just can’t get excited about him.

Look at his splits vs LHP

which is basically what he would be used for, to give Bourn a day off etc.

1) Thank the Lord they declined this!!!

2) Why in the hell are we offering that much for Adam Jones????

I'm starting to think we are gonna end up getting a crappy return for these guys...

With the rumors being all about Seth Smith and us apparently trying to massively overpay for Adam Jones…I am just getting this feeling I’m going to be severely disappointed

The trade rumors just keep getting worse and worse as we go along. Please just go ahead and start the season tomorrow.

While it sounds like a silly trade

for Baltimore to reject, it does underscore how we as fans overvalue “our” guys and undervalue other teams players. As has been mentioned already, Prado and Jair are more valuable to the Braves than to other teams.
If Colorado is only really offering up Seth Smith and Cincy just got their guy and these wild rumors out of Baltimore continue to emerge, it’s time for FW to move on to the teams that were rumored to be in on Darvish. Toronto, Boston, Cubs?, etc.
I still have faith in Frank to get the right deal done.

Fact:

Jurrjens and Prado are not in the Braves’ long-term financial plans. Therefore, if they are moved for somebody you don’t think is worthy of their talent, remember that their salaries are going up and that the Braves are not going to want them around for the long haul.

the Braves Liberty Media are not going to want them around for the long haul.

fixed it for you.

The Yankees would be trying to deal JJ too...

if they had Huddy, Hanson, Beachy, Minor, Teheran, Delgado, Vizcaino, and Medlen sniffing the Bigs or there already. Keeping JJ isn’t a payroll issue, its a numbers issue.

Exactly, Prado is the money issue

JJ is a numbers crunch combined with cost effectiveness.

I would argue that Martin is an extremely great value at $5MM…unless he can fetch us some more cost-control for a younger stud 3B or CF type (premium defensive positions)

But he can't, and we're seeing that in the often failed rumors

Then a deal really doesn’t need to be made, and IMHO we’ve been doing a lot of Rosterbation and trade talk over the last 3 months…when in reality guys had shitty years, lots of players on the DL (especially Hanson and JJ in September), or several players were more injury-plagued than they let on.

I know its human nature to look for greener grass, but shit, let’s just sign a capable 4th OF (i.e., Cody Ross) and worry about trades when the opportunities present themsleves…instead of stoking the embers of shitty trade ideas that don’t make us a better organization…

/Rant over

Agree.

I only want us to make moves to help the team, not desperation moves.

An Adam Jones-Prado/JJ/prospect trade would have been a desperation move.

Funny thing is that if you look at Jones’ record to date, except for his extreme walk resistance, let’s be honest folks – he’s not really all that different from Jason Heyward. And I’ve got a feeling that nobody here would question that kind of deal to acquire Heyward. I’m not convinced Wren offered it and I am a lot more negative about Wren than most Braves fans.

I agree with Thrashy Thrashy that the reality is that neither Jurrjens or Prado are in the team’s long-term financial plans so while this trade may not happen, both may be in Atlanta on borrowed time.

except Heyward is 4 years younger.
Extreme walk resistance is kind of a big problem.
Damn reply fail.

Meant for Zontar.

JJ is not in the long term plans... I'm ok with that..

but thinking Prado is not in the long term plans is either
a) Short sighted or
2) Poor plans

We need a 3B after Chipper. He’s the only legit one we have… Could we sign Wright next year? Well sure…. but we won’t be the only ones after him… and we don’t have the deepest purse.. So… who is our best option? Probably the internal one.

Prado is the perfect bridge at 3B for the 3-4 years until we can assess the development of Salcedo, Drury, Terdoslavich, or other…

bingo

I see no way we can comfortably trade prado, with all the insurance and depth he brings. no team goes through the year unscathed, and when someone goes down we’re going to love having him around, as opposed to our back up plan of….

jurrjens though, is superfluous. lets go get bourn’s replacement with him and be satisfied.

Offer him 4 years, $20M, no trade for 2 years, I bet he’d jump on it.

ehh

He would probably want a little bit more than that, but I would be all in favor for it.

"...he’s not really all that different from Jason Heyward."

I digress. I’d be sad if the Braves didn’t have Heyward in 2012.

this is so dumb it can't be true.

All the talk about saving money would be shot down since Jones is supposed to be making about 7-8 mil this year IIRC.

Bowman just shot down this rumor

Via Tweet

talk about late to the frickin' party...

I already jumped off a cliff and bought a pitch fork and torch.

Thank you Gondeee...

If you’d have posted that update this morning, I would have had a much better day today… Because of you, I’ve been riled up all day. Shenanigans.

The Orioles later called the Braves to see if they would trade Prado, Jurrjens and two other "premium guys" in exchange for Jones.

Duquette must be nuts. Frank probably couldn’t hang up the phone fast enough.

However, a source familiar with the negotiations tells Mark Bowman of MLB.com that the Braves merely expressed interest in Jones and did not offer any particular package. The O’s told the Braves that Jones was unavailable, Bowman adds, then got back to the Braves later and asked for Jurrjens, Prado and “two other premium guys,” which the Braves declined.

Duquette confirmed for insane
A little editing seemed appropriate
The Braves (after crapping their pants & laughing hysterically over the phone) said they were not interested and the two clubs have not had any recent discussions about these players.
Use of OPS seems odd..

Francouer’s career wRC+ is 92, Jones’ is 98.

Jones’ wRC+ over the last 3 years is 105. His career numbers, while valid, also need to be qualified as they include his age 20 – 22 year old seasons as well, when he was clearly over-matched.

Jones also plays center… another distinction that makes the Francouer comparison look strained. I would not trade Prado for Jones, but snarking at him with nose-in-air seems short sighted. I know we live in an OBP-infatuated world, but there are other baseball skills out there that can provide value.

Well he doesn’t provide value with his defense either so…his only value is hitting for ok power in CF.

He provides value by playing center well enough to not necessitate a move from the position.

UZR does not like his defense, DRS does. There’s not even an objective consensus.

If he’s providing enough value to be an above-average hitter in center (and he is, even if it isn’t in a way you personally find aesthetically pleasing), that’s a rare commodity.

Not really...15 qualifying CF were better than average with the bat in 2011

Not exactly a rare commodity at all

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