Comments on: The Braves are the frontrunners for Justin Upton

By: unlost1

unlost1 — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 18:37:46 +0000

they are

By: brianabbe

brianabbe — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 04:41:01 +0000

Just think. If Atlanta pulls off this trade, they’ll go from finishing second in the division….to finishing second in the division. I suppose anything can happen once you reach October, but they’ll still have to win a play-in Wild Card game again as I don’t see Washington winning anything less than 95 games for at least the next few seasons.

By: dcfan4life

dcfan4life — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 02:44:00 +0000

I said usually, cant be right all the time when its rumors.

By: schmedley69

schmedley69 — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 01:02:54 +0000

Baseball America has a hard enough time ranking prospects (just go back and look at their top prospects list from years past and see how many guys they hit and missed on), so to think that any of you guys are qualified to rank team’s farm systems is ridiculous. Get over yourselves already.

By: schmedley69

schmedley69 — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 00:57:12 +0000

Yeah, Buster really nailed that Cole Hamels to L.A. prediction that he kept harping on for 5 months last season.

By: cackalackyank

cackalackyank — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:50:02 +0000

I think I have reached the point that I no longer care about the name Justin Upton until there is an actual trade. Then I probably still will not care.

By: ocho

ocho — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:47:01 +0000

@paperlions, the Nationals “depleted” pipeline has 3 top 100 prospects (and thats not even including Lucas Giolito who is injured)…the Braves, on the other hand, have 2 prospects in the top 100. Suggest you do a little more research next time.

By: natstowngreg

natstowngreg — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:46:33 +0000

Agreed. The Phillies depleted their system trying to win the World Series the past 2-3 seasons. The Nats have depleted theirs trying to win the World Series in the near future. Contenders do that sort of thing.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:40:39 +0000

No, it isn’t. That is the problem with the Phillies system right now. They traded the away the system Arbuckle built, since then they have drafted a lot of toolsy players that are not developing. The system isn’t getting better, its just as bad as it was last year.

By: ame123

ame123 — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:09:38 +0000

They may not have a better farm system. Those rankings are going to be released by the prospects people, but the Braves system is really thin and the Phils is getting better.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:06:54 +0000

The “problem” with that interpretation is that the Braves pipeline, as of right now, is no where near as depleted as that of the Phillies or Nationals, each of whom have jack squat in their systems as well because they’ve either traded it away or it has graduated to the bigs. Right now, the Braves have a better and younger MLB team and a better farm system than Philly does.

By: mordecofe

mordecofe — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:00:38 +0000

no point in trading simmons for didi, weakening yourself both at defense and offense. simmons has been rated and projected as the best defensive SS in the majors and while not a huge offensive force has huge offensive upside compared to gregorious (sp?).

By: qcubed3

qcubed3 — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:59:48 +0000

I had a great idea once. It was a mat, with different conclusions on it, that you could jump to . . .

By: chacochicken

chacochicken — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:38:07 +0000

He also knows something about Cliff P. and Didi that no one else seems to know. I suspect he’s going to try and play two shortstops. One sitting on the others shoulders. If they combine power they may muster up a .700 OPS.

By: thebadguyswon

thebadguyswon — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:32:39 +0000

Towers knows something about Upton that he doesn’t want others to know. That’s the only logical conclusion. Why would he want to deal a 25-year-old power hitter so badly?

By: thebadguyswon

thebadguyswon — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:28:10 +0000

The Atlanta farm isn’t that good. The really good young arms have been traded or graduated to the bigs. There is next to nothing when it comes to bats. They definitely are in “win now” mode.

By: flosox

flosox — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:27:00 +0000

As long as one of them is named Kate…

By: jamaicanjasta

jamaicanjasta — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:22:54 +0000

My issue with Didi is that while his D is good, his offense projects similarly to the last two SS (Gonzalez and Janish) Atlanta has used, especially from an overly aggressive batting standpoint.

By: ame123

ame123 — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:17:45 +0000

as if they were somehow related

By: djjackson81

djjackson81 — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:12:36 +0000

Lannay Kekua on line one Towers

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:12:25 +0000

If I learned anything from Kevin Goldstein, clubs value makeup and club house chemistry far more than those of us outside baseball do.

By: stlsportsfan84

stlsportsfan84 — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:12:15 +0000

If they were getting Didi back as listed above I could see a move like this being made. Hopefully not for a player like Pennington though, at least with Didi you get years of control on a good D up the middle guy.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:11:43 +0000

I don’t think they can. Those guys are old and expensive. The only way to get any kind of prospect for them is to eat most of their contract. Halladay may be a FA after this year. Most of those guys wouldn’t get the deals they have now if they were on the FA market, the Phillies would have to eat money just to give away some of them, and they would have to eat a LOT of money to get any kind of prospect back.

The number of teams that will trade B- prospects or better for an old, declining, expensive player is pretty small….and the Phillies are one of those.

By: dcfan4life

dcfan4life — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:11:40 +0000

Not when the rumor has been on again off again for months and its coming from Buster Olney who unlike Chris Mortensen, is usually right in his rumors.

By: unlost1

unlost1 — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:09:53 +0000

they just wanna have 2 people on their team named Upton

By: druticus

druticus — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:07:32 +0000

PS. It’s Liberty Media, not Liberty Mutual (the insurance company)…Speaking of babbling

By: ame123

ame123 — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:07:13 +0000

Spud, it won’t take long for the Phils to rebuild the farm if this season is another disappointment. They can get a bunch of talent for guys like Halladay, Utley, Ruiz, Rollins etc. Would be kinda different to be a seller. So being old is bad, it does allow for a quicker rebuild.

By: druticus

druticus — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:06:34 +0000

Ames, you stole my thunder. I created an account just to say the same thing you did.

By: spudchukar

spudchukar — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:01:53 +0000

Challenged only by the Pheelies, which is a much more egregious situation when one compares the comparative ages of the frontline Pheelies starters and the much younger Atlanta squad.

By: jamaicanjasta

jamaicanjasta — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:00:22 +0000

There’s no way Atlanta would create a huge hole at SS to fill one at left. Especially as the other two options (Resigning Bourn to a short term deal – something the Braves have said they’d be open to if the price drops- or putting Francisco at 3rd and leave Prado in left) would be more palatable.

The issue with trading Simmons is that there’s nothing on the current roster that can do anything offensively at that position.