the Braves are going to be busy this off season. they have a little over 40 million that they can spend. The Peavy rumors have been going around for awhile now. It sounds like it might be Peavy + Greene for Escobar and some others. Maybe Schafer, I would rather trade Gorkys though since Schafer can play in the Majors next year. Anyway, if we get Peavy without giving up Hanson and Heyward I think I might be fine with that. Although I wouldn't want to give up Schafer, Escobar and Freeman either but it seems like some of those guys will have to go.
So if we get Peavy and Greene that is about 19 million. Leaves us with about 20 million to sign a pitcher or a pitcher and a left fielder. I would personally try to go after Burnett. He will probably want 18 million per year. The Yankees might try to get him though
So lets say we got Peavy without giving up Hanson, Heyward or Schafer. And we signed Burnett to a multi year deal. We could then hopefully re-sign hampton for cheap, maybe give him extra money if he stays healhy or something.
So our rotation could possibly look like this:
Peavy
Burnett
Jurrjens
Hampton
Hanson/Reyes/Morton/Campillo
Then maybe Hudson comes back in August. That might be a great rotation. (2009 would be even better with Hudson the whole year.)
I don't think we need to do much with our bullpen. We just need to get more innings out of the starters and keep the bullpen healthy.
Bullpen with everyone healthy looks great:
Gonzo
Soriano
Moylan
Acosta
Blowyer
etc..
I personally would turn Chuck James into a reliever. The man can't pitch more than 5 innings in a game so I say stick him in the bullpen. I think he might do well there.
Glavine and Smoltz both say they want to pitch in 2009. If they do come back I would hope they would be willing to sign for cheap. Smoltz in the bullpen setting up Gonzo and Soriano would be great. And Glavine I guess pitch in the 5th spot until he sucks it up. But I really doubt that they come back. Glavine probably has a better chance than Smoltz, but I really think he is done. And not very many people come back from the injury that Smoltz has. But you can't count those two out though.
Now for the Offense....
at 1B would be Kotchman. I know he can play better than what he showed so far with the Braves. I think he was bothered by his Family issues. You could tell in September that he finally started playing like he can. He is no Tex though.
at 2B is KJ. Even though he played great at the end of the season, I would rather trade him than Escobar. We have Prado waiting to get his shot (he deserves it). But I doubt SD would go for that since they want to unload Greene with Peavy.
SS would be Greene if we get Peavy. Oh god, I don't want to even think about this ugly mother fucking. next!
3B is the 2008 MLB Batting Champ. Chipper is still great...when healthy. I guess its good that we have decent backups in Omar Infante and Prado..but they are no chipper.
At C is McCann, who should have another great season behind the plate. I do wish he would work on his throwing game more though.
RF would be Francouer. He can't play as bad as last season, right? The kid is too talented to do that again. I expect more homers out of him, the BA though will probably be around .260 though.
CF is a question mark. If we get Peavy with out giving up Schafer then I say give him the starting job. If we have to give him up then I guess we could use Anderson in CF...
LF.. I have no idea. We are going to get a new one this offseason. The FA market is kinda meh right now. Wren did almost get Bay at the deadline though, that would have made this offseason a whole lot easier. I guess it all depends on what will happen with the 2 pitchers that we are going to get. If we trade for Peavy I doubt we make another trade for a LF. And if we sign Burnett then we won't have much money to get a LF.
Anyway. The braves are not going to go to the Playoffs next year. 2010 though we should be back. I just hope that Wren doesn't trade all of our great young talent to try and compete this year.
And all that stuff that I said that might happen, probably won't..
It will probably be a terrible off season.