Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: of rants and rumors; a ready market

So Christmas is now over and we’re supposedly in this ‘quiet’ period between the holidays.  Still feeling like there’s another blockbuster in the air.

The big question that we want answered, of course, is “will the Atlanta Braves be involved in a blockbuster trade deal?” With everything going on, it still feels like the answer will – eventually – be ‘yes’.

But before I get to that, I really have something I want to get off my chest.

Every year, it seems that there is something – or someone involved in the Hall of Fame voting process who gets my dander up.  That has happened again.

You’ve probably already heard about this – Bill Ballou, a long-time writer for the Worcester Telegram (Massachusetts) who has covered the Red Sox for 32 years.

As such, he has one of the coveted Hall of Fame voting privileges.  The only slightly good news here is that he opted not to exercise that privilege this year:  he declined to turn in his ballot.

That at least means that no player’s candidacy will be bolstered, but neither will one be harmed either:  induction to Cooperstown requires a 75% majority ‘yes’ vote amongst all returned ballots.

So what was it about his post this last week that has riled up people?  It’s a couple of things.

Not grandstanding… just a bizarre argument

I was going to accuse Ballou of attention-grabbing… except that it would be a false accusation.  Here’s why:

• He is a writer.  Writers write.  He’s been dedicating a column to his HOF choices for multiple years now.  This is nothing new, and he’s not trying to ‘cash in’ for more readers here.
• At first blush, you’d note that he only slammed Mariano Rivera… and if he were being consistent, he should tell us why all of the other candidates were likewise dissed.  Except that he chose to stop a step short of the precipice and toss his ballot into the trash.  The attention-grabbers would mail it in.
• He’s done this kind of thing before.  We’ll see that in a bit.

The problem I have with Ballou’s explanation, though, is that his logic is specious at best… the equivalent of using one bad example to represent the whole.

I will explain…

Stuffing that Strawman

In short, Ballou thinks closers don’t represent real pitchers and as such, are trumped up far too much in the sport.

In particular, he hates the ‘Save’ stat… he believes they are far too easy to get.  His exhibit A argument is this:

[Craig] Kimbrel, of course, was the Red Sox’ closer last year, and his performance in the postseason was an abomination. When he pitched, Boston’s victories felt like defeats. In 10-2/3 innings he had an ERA of 5.90, and permitted 19 baserunners. He was also 6 for 6 converting saves — a perfect record.

First off, that’s one isolated incident – explained away by the fact that Kimbrel was tipping his pitches… which Ballou clearly was aware of.

Second off, this strawman argument has nothing whatsoever to do with Mariano Rivera, who compiled this post-season record:

• 32 series
• 16 years
• 0.70 ERA (0.99 in the World Series)
• 42 saves in 96 games… gee, I thought Saves were EASY to get, Bill.
• Maybe he prefers Wins:  8-1 in the post-season
• 527 batters faced
• 0.759 WHIP

Oh, and with 141 innings in 96 games, Rivera was clearly being used often in situations where more than 3 outs were required… another one of Ballou’s arguments.

There it gets weird

Since he could find any more baseball reasons for excluding Rivera, Ballou turned to singular bad examples from football (a kicker) and a goalie from the old American Hockey League (the lesser sister of the NHL).

If you’re gonna try to convince us, Bill, then please at least don’t try to insult our intelligence… stick with the same sport.

Bill, you know baseball players.  You know who to ask about end-of-game scenarios.  You know that increasingly, starting pitchers have been excluded from going the distance (heck, they’re now pulled at the first hint of trouble in the playoffs).

You know that teams give up tens of millions of dollars to get the best closer they can find.  You know that the best teams standing at the end of the year almost always have a shutdown closer.

Overrated?  Either all of baseball is wrong, Bill… or you are.

Not Inconsistent

In case you’re interested (I was), Ballou’s 2018 ballot was turned in and it contained these names:

• Barry Bonds
• Roger Clemens
• Vladimir Guerrero
• Chipper Jones
• Manny Ramirez

His 2017 ballot included:  Bonds, Clemens, Guerrero, Ramirez, and Jeff Bagwell.

No Trevor Hoffman, no Billy Wagner.  His logic is terrible, but at least he’s consistent:  here’s what he wrote in 2016 (announcing the results just noted) on that subject:

I think closers are terribly overrated and judging from how he used his bullpen during the playoffs, so does Terry Francona.

At least Ballou is retiring.  Too late for Fred McGriff, but he needed a lot more help anyway.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of Ballou’s out there… and those writers do hurt guys like McGriff… and Wagner… and Murphy in days’ past… and Andrew Jones right now.

Rant over.  Let’s talk about trades and rumors of trades.  That’s more fun anyway.

The Padres?  Really?

Corey Kluber is still being sought by some teams, it seems… lending more and more credence to the thought that he might actually be dealt elsewhere by the Indians.  At this point, you’d think that the Cleveland brass would try and stifle the chatter if they were intending to keep him.

At the same time, the Indians don’t need to trade him, though that team is still in dire need of outfield help.

Right now, here’s the most available free agent OF’s still out there (a conundrum for Cleveland since they just finished saving some money; they’d certainly prefer not to go spend that savings):

• Jose Bautista
• Melky Cabrera
• Derek Dietrich
• Avisail Garcia
• Craig Gentry
• Carlos Gomez
• Marwin Gonzalez
• Carlos Gonzalez
• Curtis Granderson
• Robbie Grossman
• Brandon Guyer
• Bryce Harper
• Matt Holliday
• Austin Jackson
• Jon Jay
• Adam Jones
• Matt Joyce
• Nick Markakis
• Cameron Maybin
• Rafael Ortega
• Gerardo Parra
• Hunter Pence
• A.J. Pollock
• Sean Rodriguez
• J.B. Shuck
• Denard Span
• Danny Valencia
• Neil Walker
• Eric Young
• Chris Young

Of course, this list is especially relevant to Braves’ fans as well.  Cleveland could choose to buy a couple of these guys – some of them even fairly cheaply – but they’d rather try and grab a couple in trade, and it seems that Kluber is the bait.

The Padres, are said to be interested in sending at least one of their… well, just let Jon Morosi tell us about the problem between them and the Dodgers:

Frankly, I don’t get the Padres’ interest… dismantling a key part of their lineup to get Kluber?  That’s filling a hole by digging another one, and it makes no sense.

Maybe I’m not the only one who doesn’t get it, though (via MLBTR.com):

7:03pm: The San Diego organization has held some talks regarding Kluber as well as Blue Jays righty Marcus Stroman, per Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune (via Twitter). But while “the Padres could still add a starting pitcher for 2019,” he says, “it won’t be one of those two.”

Yeah, that makes better sense. We keep hearing about these lesser teams trying to become ‘more interesting’ my engaging heavily in deals… like Cincy’s last week.  But to what end?  They aren’t ready, and neither are the Padres.

Morosi mentions that Dodgers, Phillies, Brewers, Padres, and Reds (another ‘doesn’t make sense’ add-on) are all “in” on Kluber to some degree or another… and an NL club deal would probably Cleveland a little happier.

Nope, there is a decided absence of the Braves from that list (as usual), but I have to believe that Anthopoulos is at least keeping tabs on the discussion… despite having no outfielder (except Inciarte?) to consider dealing.

Grant was killing it on twitter today… also noting this:

There’s still some issues that the Braves are facing in the market… which also explains in part why this off-season is still dragging an anchor.