Doper Bravesfans, Who Stays and Who Goes?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I feel like Charlie Brown after going after Lucy’s football again. Another October swoon and once again I am beating myself on the head with my '95 World Series Champions Souvenir Tomahawk.

I’ll skip the usual wailing and gnashing of teeth and just get down to the usual post-season Braves fan’s favorite game-- Who Stays And Who Goes! Here’s my picks, after a few beers.

STAY

Maddux
Glavine
Smoltz
The Jones Brothers
Jordan
All their newbies (Furcal, Giles, DeRosa, Bako, Maquis, etc)

These newbies may be the Braves salvation, 'cause it ain’t their fantastic “stop-gap” trades of the past few seasons.

Speaking of going…

GO

Rettenmund (We hired you as a hitting coach :rolleyes: , great job Merv)

Brogna
Surhoff
Franco
Caminiti
Sanchez
Karsay
Reed
.
.
.
Cox (maybe it’s time to take your old GM position back)

Any other suggestions. The Braves under AOL will not be throwing around money like the Ted Turner Braves. I don’t think Jason Giambi will bolt the A’s now that they are contenders. I think the Braves’ future rides with their young players. We’re not going to get too much more out of Glavine, Maddux, etc. I can put up with one less Division Title to see some of these kids get more playing time and opportunity to develop. They sucked in the late 80s, but there was the nucleus of a good team in those losing records. I’m hoping this will be the same path again.
There, that’s off my chest. Oh well, until next season…

:: Putting tomahawk away and opening up the Jose Cuervo ::

2

My take–

Keepers:
[ul]
[li]Greg Maddux[/li][li]Tom Glavine[/li][li]John Smoltz[/li][li]Jason Marquis[/li][li]Steve Reed[/li][li]Mike Remlinger[/li][li]Brian Jordan[/li][li]**Andruw Jones **(please, PLEASE pay him what he is worth…I want him to stay but I am very afraid we won’t see him a Brave next year)[/li][li]**Chipper Jones ** (move full time to left field),[/li][li]**Mark Derosa **(give him a shot at third),[/li][li]**Rafael Furcal **[/li][li]Marcus Giles[/li][li]and yes, bring back the old man Julio Franco[/li][li]Paul Bako (as a backup).[/li][li]Dave Martinez[/li][li]Keith Lockhart[/li][li]Wes Helms[/li][li]Bernard Gilkey[/li][li]Wilson Betemit (we didn’t see much of him this year, but mark my words, he’s going to be a STUD very soon.)[/li][/ul]
Buh-Bye:
[ul]
[li]**Javy Lopez **(Tired of your non-producing, no defense-having overpaid ass)[/li][li]BJ Surhoff (was clutch once in a while but overall a disapointment IMO),[/li][li]Ken Caminitti (Time to retire, you run down old man)[/li][li]**Rudy Seanez **[/li][li]**Odalis Perez **[/li][li]**Kevin Millwood ** (decent, but we can get more in trade than he is worth to us)[/li][li]Steve Karsay (I like you, but you’re not needed if we keep Smoltz)[/li][li]John Burkett (ditto, not needed with Marquis)[/li][li]Eddie “injury” Perez[/li][li]Rey Sanchez[/li][/ul]
Need: A catcher! A good catcher! Is Charles Johnson available?
BTW, Bluepony, Rico Brogna is already gone. He retired mid season.