He’ll take up valuable room on the DL saved for Glavine and Chipper…
I’d say the Mariners have a better chance of signing Griffey. He is going to need to DH quite a lot. Plus, if the Mariners suck this year, they can move him at the trading deadline to a team who needs a rental bat. The Braves will probably try to stay in competition in the NL East this year although I think they’ll be finish around 3rd behind the Marlins and Phillies.
The M’s have to do SOMETHING to get people in the seats this year.
Isn’t that why they have other teams coming in to play?
Accordin to SI today, Griffey’s telling friends he’s going to Atlanta, not Seattle. We’ll see. I found that surprising, but I don’t have a problem with it.
The local sprotscasters here are foaming at the mouth over this possible story.
Atlanta.
He could go to the Pirates, and play near his father’s boyhood home.
Oh wait. The Pirates don’t sign anyone over 27 with a pulse. They trade the youngsters, and sign stiffs like Matt Morris.
Frustrated Pirates fan… looking at a 15 game deficit by the all-star break.
I heard on the radio this morning that Griffey was going to sign with the Braves. My OP was kind of a joke. I’m actually looking forward to seeing Griffey in a Braves uniform, we almost got him when he left the Ms all those years ago. Griffey seems like a class act and I always enjoy watching those kinds of guys play.
Senior graduated from my high school, and Junior was born in Donora. My high school counts as alums Stan Musial and Joe Montana, so we’re pretty proud of our sports track record.
Problem is that Griffey has no real roots to the area apart from this - he grew up in Cincinnati because his dad played there.
The Marlins? Seriously?
The Marlins have as much good young talent as any team in baseball. They’re loaded. A breakout season is quite possible.
I think the Mets will win the NL East now that they have a bullpen.
Latest on ESPN-dot-com is that Junior is going to return to Seattle.
What RickJay said. They’re not going to be the Tampa Bay Rays, but they are extremely young and talented. Don’t count them out.
It sucks to be Atlanta this off-season, but Griffey going to the Ms just makes more sense for him. It just “feels” right, y’know?
Eh. They have one star young player in Ramrez, but every one else has significant question marks. They have a fair bit of young talented players, but less than Tampa, Baltimore, Texas, Cincy and some other teams. I don’t see them competing with the Mets/Braves/Phillies.
I don’t have a cite but I heard on the radio on my way in this morning that it’s official: Seattle.
Braves
C: McCann
1B: Kotchman
2B: K. Johnson
3B: Chipper Jones (Martin Prado the 45 games Chipper’ll miss)
SS: Y. Escobar
LF: Infante
CF: Josh Anderson
RF: Frenchy
SP1: Vazquez
SP2: Hudson
SP3: Lowe
SP4: Jurrjens
SP5: Campillo
setup: Soriano
Closer: Gonzalez
Marlins
C: Rabelo/Baker
1B: McPherson?
2B: Uggla
3B: Cantu
SS: Hanley
LF: Maybin
CF: Ross
RF: Hermida
SP1: Johnson
SP2: Miller
SP3: Nolasco
SP4: Sanchez
SP5: Volstad
setup: Proctor
Closer: Tankersley
Okay, it’s pretty close. The Marlins clearly have the better offense, but their pitching is going to rely on way too many question marks. And while the Braves’ staff is superior, it’s old. And they also had a worse record than the Royals last year, which has to hurt.
I wouldn’t say the Marlins have the better offense and the pitching isn’t close. Marlins have one star player in Ramirez, one pretty good one in Uggla, and not a whole lot else. Hermida has talent, but never stay healthy. Maybin won’t be successful until he stops swinging at everything. Ross is a bit below average but better than the likely replacement level performance at catcher, first and third.
The Braves on the other hand have a star at third albeit it a brittle one, a very good catcher, and should be about average in the rest of the infield. The outfield looks brutal, but they have have internal resources to improve it. If nothing else finding outfielder who can hit a bit isn’t that difficult. The offenses look pretty equal to me.
On the pitching side. Hudson had Tommy John surgery and won’t pitch more most of the season. Kawakami will take his spot. This is the Braves youngest staff in years ;). Lowe is 35, but as durable as they come, Vasquez is 32 and should bounce back in the easier league, and Jurrjens is a mere 22 coming off a promising rookie season. The Marlins have a collection of young guys with injury or performance issues. Sure Nolasco, Johnson, Volstad were all quality pitchers last year, but only Nolasco pitched a full season. I wouldn’t bet money on any of them holding up for 200 innings. The other two guys there had ERA over 5.50 in pitchers park. Not exactly what championship teams are made of. Marlins will go through a lot of starters to get 162 game, and a lot of them won’t be ready or good.
Add in defense in which the Braves should be average or a little above, while the Marlins will be brutal and I don’t see it as close. The Braves will battle the Phils for 2nd, while the Marlins will be trying to hold off the Nats.
The Marlins were a Cantu HR away from the entire infield hitting 30 HRs last year. Jacobs is gone, but that’s addition by subtraction in my mind. They clearly have the better offense.
The outfield is extremely brutal. I haven’t checked Baseball America lately, do they have someone coming up that can help?
Forgot about him - and his name doesn’t register yet when I scan a list.
Yeah, but they do have three starters over 6’5"! That counts for something, right? I mean, Randy Johnson was one of the most dominating pitchers in the game, and that was just because he was 7’6", right?
Eh - I don’t see the Marlins being any worse than they were last year, and the Braves would have to be significantly better than last year to match them. Vazquez is one of the more underrated signings this off-season, and should account for a significant amount of wins, Jurrjens should tack on a few more than last year - but that outfield offense is going to lose a few more.
I just don’t see how they have “Not a whole lot else.” You’re reading too much into their raw numbers and who was a superstar in 2008 and not enough into the ages and potential improvements.
I’d be concerned about catching, but geez, there’s a lot of talent there. Hermida looks good, and you say he can’t stay healthy but he played 142 games last year. Ramirez is a ridiculously great player. Uggla can hit a little. Jai Miller looks good and Maybin is ridonkulously talented. There’s loads of pitching.
I’m not guaranteeing this team will do a Rays, but since you can’t predict this sort of thing all that accurately a fun thing to do is to look at a roster and ask twoquestions:
- How many of these guys have a chance to bust out?
- How many of these guys have a chance to go straight into the toilet?
The Marlins have a lot of #1s, and VERY few #2s. It doesn’t take that many breakout years to turn an 84-win team into a 92-win team.
Or to put it another way, you say the Marlins don’t have Atlanta’s offense “and the pitching isn’t even close.” Well, how much has changed since 2008? Atlanta finished 12 games behind Florida. Where have they found 12 more wins? They have some breakout possibilities to be sure, but no more than Florida, and they have some collapse possibilities.
That doesn’t make them good players. Cantu has power, but that is pretty much his only skill. He is a brutal defensive player, doesn’t walk, and has little speed. He ranges from awful in 2006 and 2007 to mediocre in 2005 and 2008. Uggla had a career season. If he does it again that has a lot of value. If he reverts to 2006/2007 performance he will have some value, but it will be migated by poor defense and a low avg. Jacobs wasn’t great, but the Marlins don’t really seem to have a replacement. Ramirez is um good.
So I think the Marlins will be worse at 1b, 2b, 3b, and LF (Maybin won’t be immediately as good as Willingham), about equal at c, ss, and cf, and a bit better in right.
Jason Heyward is one of the top prospect’s in the game, but at 19 unlikely to reach the majors anytime soon. Jordan Schafar will probably be the first to reach the majors. His status was tarnished a bit when he failed a steriod test, but he could be their center fielder some point during the season. Gorkys Hernandez is another quality center fielder prospect that they got in the Rentaria deal, who is a bit further behind than Schafer.
Cower in terror as Mark Hendrickson takes the mound.
The Marlins overachieved last year, and the Braves underacheived. The Marlins weren’t, talentwise, 12 wins better than the Braves. Rather the Marlins were slightly lucky in one run games, and the Braves were really unlucky (11-30!) Using pythagregon records, a better predictor of future records, the Marlins were only between 2 and 3 wins better than the Braves. I expect some regression on the Marlins hitters and some attrition on the Marlins pitchers to cost them, and I expect the Braves offense to be similar, but their pitching to be much better. So I’ll say the Marlins are 5 games worse, and the Braves 7 games better. That would them at 85 wins for Braves and 76 for the Marlins, which sounds about right to me.