Whew! Live look at today’s Hot Stove action:
So much happening, but let’s see what might have fallen through the cracks, shall we?
A Semblance of a Team: Today, we had some excellent news in the world of Atlanta baseball. Personally, I am not upset over the loss of Shelby Miller because I felt his performance this year was unsustainable. However, one thing that comes out of this trade is that there are still only three long time Braves left on the roster and only one of them is a true franchise name – Freddie Freeman.
Freddie is under team control until 2021 and is universally beloved by the fanbase. After trading away other favorite players such as Craig Kimbrel, Jason Heyward, and Andrelton Simmons, it’s a sure bet that if John Coppolella traded the only true star left on the team, the entire Atlanta metroplex area would see wild Southerners marching en masse towards the Ted in an attempt to dismantle the stadium with their own bare hands.
In an attempt to calm Braves fans’ fears, Coppy made a statement to DOB, Braves beat writer extraordinaire, which didn’t actually do anything to relieve said fears:
“Semblance of offense”? I love Freddie, truly, like I love a small child or a delicious ice cream sundae, but the guy’s wrist has been plaguing him all season and still might not be 100%. With these diminished returns, expecting Freddie to be the Braves’ power bat is ludicrous.
Coppy is basically telling all of Braves Country to expect games where not a damn run gets on the board. Not unlike many games I witnessed for the last two years anyway, but now it’s almost a guarantee.
Hot Fish: In less than a week, we’ve gone from “Rest easy, Marlins fans! Your team isn’t shopping Jose Fernandez” to “Teams looking to get Jose Fernandez needs to sign their souls away to Satan as well as mineral rights to the moon along with five of your best hitters.”
And it’s not even being shot down as being impossible!
The Marlins’ beat writer, Joe Frisaro, writes:
and everyone’s favorite bow-tie wearing MLB reporter, Ken Rosenthal, reports the following:
Is there another blockbuster, league shaking move to come? It’s Hot Stove season, where anything is possible.
Fan Interference 
Shortly after the Zobrist/Castro FA-Trade combo was announced…
My prediction for Theo’s next league-shaking move?
Montero gets traded in order to free up his $14M salary in ’16 and ’17, and Heyward is signed to some insane 9 year deal.
Schwarber catches 120 games, with Bryant in LF and Baez at 3B on the those days. The unofficial 2016 Cubs slogan will be “Maximum Positional Flexibility”.
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Wait…you hated the Castro/Zobrist play…but WANT to see Schwarber catch 120 games? Why do you hate Cubs pitchers?
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Hate is a strong word. I think I said I was unimpressed.
But I’ve come around…at least part of the way around…to a place of understanding and acceptance of the Zobrist/Castro “trade”. I’m actually in the middle of writing up a long-winded reply in that topic, but I wanted to take a break…
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Yeah, perspective is always nice….it is like emotional regression…how you should feel is probably about 1/2 between neutral and your knee jerk reaction to something.
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It would have been very interesting to have been eavesdropping on all of Theo’s negotiations and conversations that led up to this combo move.
And thinking about what it might have cost to get a FA pitcher to do what Warren will now be doing, I might even be a bit past neutral on that scale now. It definitely makes the team better in 2016, and almost definitely better in 2017. 2018-2019 can worry about themselves when they get here.
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I may be incorrect on this, but hasn’t Schwarber been a bit of a dumpster fire at catcher so far? This has a bit of a feel of a joke going over my head.
But at least, with Zobrist in the fold, maximum positional flexibility should be a truism.
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And with more experience catching, he will cease being a dumpster fire and just be a trash-can fire…and with his bat, that’s acceptable. Supposedly the Warbird and Montero are going to be working together starting in January to elevate his game behind the plate. There’s no question in anyone’s mind that Schwarber wants to catch.
But yeah, that wasn’t a serious prediction. I don’t see them trading Montero. Of course, I didn’t see them signing Zobrist either.
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The Barves probably have to move an outfielder and the Cubs need a better CF than Coghlan. At this point they are just hiding Schwarber out there but he looks like he’s going to force his way into the lineup most days.
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I’m not sure why Dexter Fowler doesn’t get more love in all of these conversations. He is no star, but he gets the job done in CF and at the plate.
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Lefty would love to sell you Fowler…along with this bridge he inherited in NY.
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As opposed to Coghlan? I would take Fowler and the bridge.
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Glad you brought that up, Badhair. I was in Europe last July, and I finally got to see the bridge at Nijmegen (the Bridge Too Far). As an amateur history buff, it was quite a moving moment for me.
The world would have been a lot different if the Allies had just been able to hold that bridge for a few more days.
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Could I interest you in a cheaper deal for Anthony Gose and a litle sumpin’ sumpin’ that goes over the Red River?
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Brett Wallace? No thanks. Gose and Wallace already passed through Houston.
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Stex, as an interesting side note, both Ralph Houk and Warren Spahn were Combat Engineers at that bridge. That’s where Spahn earned his battlefield promotion to 2nd LT, and Houk earned one of his Bronze Stars.
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Thanks, Badhair. I knew nothing about that for either one.
Much appreciated.
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