Notes from Jason Stark
Sam Hutcheson
Ramirez you get to his notes on baseball. On the Braves, two notes:
"• Frenchy toast: Here's how one front-office man describes the
Braves' efforts to export Jeff Francoeur: "They're trying to peddle
him everywhere. They're calling people all over baseball. But nobody's
biting. Right now, he's about as ugly as he can get offensively. He's
the kind of guy we'd think about taking a gamble on over the winter --
if he gets non-tendered and you could take him for a very low base.
But right now, I think they're stuck with him."
• It's got to be Yunel: On another front, how willing are the Braves
to deal Yunel Escobar now that he's journeyed deep into Bobby Cox's
doghouse? Depends on whom you ask. An executive of one team reports:
"They're not moving him. He still figures in their plans for next
year, and they've got him for low dollars." But an official of another
team that inquired says the response was "a very, very wobbly maybe."
Realistically, though, the Braves have no other feasible options at
shortstop. So an Escobar trade seems highly unlikely, no matter how
unhappy the manager might be with him."
s/
Colin William
> If you trudge through his acreage of sanctimonious twitter about Manny
> Ramirez you get to his notes on baseball. On the Braves, two notes:
> Braves' efforts to export Jeff Francoeur: "They're trying to peddle
> him everywhere. They're calling people all over baseball. But nobody's
> biting. Right now, he's about as ugly as he can get offensively. He's
> the kind of guy we'd think about taking a gamble on over the winter --
> if he gets non-tendered and you could take him for a very low base.
> But right now, I think they're stuck with him."
Seems about right. Plenty of teams might be interested in picking him up
cheap and nontendered, but nobody wants to drop $1.7m for a half season
now, and be handcuffed in how much they could reduce that in arbitration
this winter.
Colin