Mets Ownership Search Hits Craigslist

This is awesome. The original listing has since been flagged for removal, but not before a savvy commenter at Amazin’ Avenue managed to grab a screen shot.

Crazy Thought of the Day: Jose Reyes in a Braves uni?

I could get used to this.

This is pure conjecture on the part of myself, with a little help from the fine folks at Fangraphs, but work with me here. The following things are truths:

• The Mets are short on cash.
• Jose Reyes will be a free agent at the end of this season.
• The Braves have a need a shortstop next this year.

The first option for the Braves acquiring the 27-year old Reyes would be a midseason trade, but with his impending free agency it’d be necessary to sign a long term extension. While the Braves should have some extra cash laying around next season, it’s likely that most of that surplus will go towards the Tommy Hanson/Jason Heyward contract extension piggy bank.

The second option would be to wait for Reyes to hit the open market this offseason and sign him then. The same monetary obstacles would be there, but without the loss of prospects that acquiring him via trade would present.

I’m not saying I think this will happen in a million years, but you have to admit that it would be cool to see the Most Exciting Baseball Player on the Planet with a tomahawk on his chest. If you’ve ever seen Reyes play in person, you know what I’m talking about. A few seasons back, I had seats behind home plate for the home opener vs. the Mets. Reyes smacked a Tim Hudson fastball in the right-center gap and zoomed to third base before the ball even got back to the cut off man. That play was more exhilarating to take in as a spectator than anything you could ever see on a basketball court or a football field. The Braves have had a lot of great players, but not since Rafael Furcal departed have they had a true speedster on the base paths.

Sure, he can’t stay healthy and will probably cost too much — he’s owed $11 million for this season — but I would be in favor of Reyes in Atlanta, if only to stick it to the Mets). How great would it be to have an Uggla/Reyes double play combo? We could just call ourselves the NL East All-Stars at that point.

Braves Notes

A few Braves-related notes came across the wire this week:

• For starters, Jair Jurrjens had successful knee surgery today. (See what I did there?) Dr. James Andrews operated on the 24-year old Jurrjens, who had a slight tear in his meniscus. JJ’s injury troubled 2010 season started in spring training, when he needed an MRI for his shoulder, and continued with an early hamstring injury which cost him most of May and June. All told, JJ was only able to make 20 starts on the year. With this successful surgery, hopefully the Braves’ ace-in-waiting can move forward from what was, essentially, a lost season.

• Speaking of moving on, the Braves said farewell to the worthless Melky Cabrera, releasing him outright today. After hitting .255/.317./.354 and turning in some of the worst outfield defense anyone has ever seen, Melky will not be missed. The fact that Cabrera’s contract was up for arbitration made it a no-brainer, Frank Wren told Mark Bowman. “With the arbitration situation, we knew that he would likely only be around for one year.” One year too many, Frank.

• Also getting released today was 40-year-old setup guy Takashi Saito. Saito’s one-year contract was due to run out anyway. This move simply allows him to hit free agency earlier.

Melky .gif source

Game 3: Given Back

This team is not equipped for the postseason, it’s just not. Which makes it all the more heartbreaking how close it came to taking the series lead. After Eric Hinske’s pinch-hit home run gave them the lead in the 8th, it looked liked the Braves would steal another late victory in this series.

Craig Kimbrel was one strike away from closing out the ninth, until a Freddy Sanchez single up the middle forced Bobby Cox into action. In what could only be deemed (with hindsight of course) as a panic move, Bobby went with the lefty-lefty match up, even Huff is hitting .296 against LHP this year, and even though Kimbrel has superior stuff.

Huff tied the game with a single, and then Brooks Conrad’s third error of the game (eighth in last seven games) secured the 3-2 final for the Giants.

Heartbreaking, but the series goes on. Game 4 is tonight, and Derek Lowe will pitch on short rest, which he’s sort of made his reputation on in the playoffs. The Giants will throw rookie Madison Bumgarner. A loss for the Braves and the season’s over, a win and we head back to San Francisco for a fifth game.

I’m not ready to say goodbye just yet.

Game 2: Braves Find New Life

 

With his 11th inning shot into McCovey Cove, Rick Ankiel was the hero for the Braves in Game 2. (Justin Sullivan/Getty)

 

The clutch plays came from unlikely sources tonight, but nobody in Atlanta will complain. First, Alex Gonzalez’s two-run double sent the game into extra innings. From there, the Braves relied on a gutsy pitching performance from Kyle Farnsworth, some tricky defense by Troy Glaus (at the hot corner for the second time all season), and a very long, very loud, game-winning homer from Rick Ankiel to tie the National League Division Series at 1-1.

Farnsworth entered the game in the bottom of the 10th, after Billy Wagner pulled his oblique muscle on an Edgar Renteria bunt single. Wagner pitched to one more batter, but doubled over in obvious pain after fielding a sacrifice bunt. The word on Wagner’s injury is a pulled oblique, so it’s doubtful he pitches again this series. This is obviously terrible news. Barring a minor medical miracle, Craig Kimbrel and Johnny Venters will probably shoulder the bulk of the late-inning work from here.

As for the ejection, think it’s a coincidence that Cox was ejected by the same ump who made the erroneous call on Buster Posey’s steal attempt in Game 1?

“Well, I brought that up,” said Bobby, when asked about it in the post game presser.

After two innings, it looked to be a long night for Atlanta.  Tommy Hanson never  struggled with his control early, and left a mistake fastball up to Pat Burrell with two runners on. The 3-run homer was bad enough, then in the next inning, Hanson gave up another run, this time a single up the middle from pitcher Matt Cain. Not gonna lie, with the Braves mired in a 15-inning scoreless streak, I thought that the 4-run lead was insurmountable.

The players believed though, and more importantly, Chino Cadahia believed. He believed in every player who the fans were no longer able to trust. Chino put his faith in the scapegoats, the easy targets, the guys who get ripped endlessly in the press, the guys who nobody believed in. Much has been made about what is missing from the Braves’ lineup, and what the Atlanta hitters can’t do. Credit to them for not listening.

Now, the Braves head home with an even series, and nominal ace Tim Hudson ready to pitch for Game 3.

After 15 innings of sorrow, things are suddenly looking up.

Playoffs?!?!?!

Welcome to Tomahawktober. (Getty Images)

It took 162 games (and only 162, luckily) to find out for sure, but the Braves are in. In what was a fitting send off for Bobby, the Braves jumped out to a quick 8-2 lead, then held on for an 8-7 victory (Crazy symmetry alert: The 8-7 final is identical to the score of Bobby’s first game as Braves manager.). Three hours later, the team (and 1,000 or so fans who stuck around the Ted) watched the Giants eliminate the Padres for good over on the west coast.

Let’s Face It…

Jayson Werth's decisive run ensured a 10-game winning streak for the Phillies and a sweep over the Braves. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

There are 1,000 reasons to hate the Phillies.The biggest reason? They’re fucking good. Like, way better than the Braves right now.

There are no other excuses to be made for this sweep. It’s September. Every team is fatigued, though the Braves seem especially so (that can and will happen when a team plays over its collective head for 5 straight months). Every team is relying on rookies and stopgap measures. (Wilson Valdez, anyone?) The Phillies swept the Braves because they have better players. That’s it, that’s the reason.

Free Falling

The Braves lost a series at home for just the second time all year. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Seriously? I’m not disappointed in the team for dropping the series to the Nationals (while falling three back of the Phillies) as much as I am in the crowd, which was as small as I’ve seen it all year during Wednesday afternoon’s series finale.

I get that it was a day game, and that school is back in session, and that the Nationals aren’t exactly a huge draw. But come on people, there’s a damn pennant race going on. Have you given up already?

Greetings from Second Place

Not even Huddy could keep the sinking Braves afloat in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

Hello everyone, it’s good to be back to the interwebs. I spent the last week visiting with friends and family in Atlanta and kind of forgot about my blogging responsibilities. (There are responsibilities, right?)

I haven’t had a Braves update in nearly two weeks, and for that I apologize. I take my foot off the gas for one second and all of a sudden we’re no longer on top of the mountain. After dropping three straight, the Braves now trail the Phils by a half-game. So what went wrong? The hitting would be an obvious red flag, with just one run scored in the last two games.

Friday Linkage

Daaaaaamn

Because it’s Friday, and you ain’t got nuthin’ else to do, go ahead and check out these here links.

-In a cruel twist of fate for all involved, Derrek Lee will make his Braves debut Friday afternoon, in Chicago of all places. Carroll Rogers reports that D-Lee will be in uniform when the Braves open a three-game set with the Northsiders at Wrigley. After a seven-year relationship, Cubs fans get to watch Lee play for one more weekend before parting ways for good. This is gonna be awkward.