What are some of the Braves other needs before the season opener against the Phillies on April 5? Adding an outfield bat seems to be Wren's top priority, but who could it be?
Hopefully not Andruw Jones, who just hit the free agent market yesterday. I just don't think he's worth taking a shot on. After all, the Dodgers did agree to pay him the rest of his contract as long as he stopped hurting their team by taking up a roster spot.
On top of that, the roster seems to be shaping up pretty well. McCann is the best catcher in baseball, while the first-to-third infield of Casey Kotchman, Kelly Johnson, Yunel Escobar and a hopefully-healthy Chipper Jones should prove to be one of the better foursomes in baseball. A solid outfield bat in either center or left — or both, but that's not happening — would obviously help, as a Brandon Jones/Matt Diaz, Gregor Blanco/Josh Anderson and Jeff Francoeur outfield isn't exactly going to scare anyone.
And, if the team can finally avoid the injury bug for a while, the bullpen should be great. Mike Gonzalez is capable of shutting the door late in the game, while Aussie Peter Moyland and hard-throwing Rafael Soriano could become one of the better setup duos in the game, if they can stay on the mound and off the DL.
The rotation was seen as a weakness just a couple weeks ago, but it's been greatly improved by the Derek Lowe signing. For more on that, check out http://www.atlantabravesnews.com/bonalum. Jair Jurrjens and Javier Vazquez should be solid as the two and three starters, while Kenshin Kawakami is still an unknown. Seems like the majority of experts are projecting him to win 12-13 games with an ERA in the 4.4/4.5 range. While those numbers aren't flashy, they aren't bad at all for a fourth starter. Jorge Campillo could prove to be an adequate fifth starter, as he had some success last year but struggled late. Charlie Morton is still promising, and I wouldn't mind seeing him win the rotation spot out of camp. Jo-jo Reyes seems like he's never going to put it together, so hopefully Atlanta can afford to let him spend some time on the farm figuring things out. The club has though pretty highly of the kid for some time now, but he's yet to prove much worth at the big-league level.
So, what do you think the team's needs are for 2009? And, where do you think Frank Wren and his crew will look to solve those problems?
Keywords: Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Florida Marlings, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, MLB, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Nationals
