We Traded Vazquez for what?!?!

So I’m back digging being a frequent blogger again.  Good news for me, and even better news for you true believer.  Let’s start with how I woke up this morning, which is news out of the ATL that staff ace Javier Vazquez has been traded to the Yankees for Melkey Cabrera and what I believe to be Garbage Pail Kids Adam Bomb and Drew Blood (unconfirmed).  Good for Wren for getting a couple of tough to find old school Garbage Pail Kids for his collection, bad if you’re a fan of the team that plays its games off Ralph David Abernathy Blvd.  Let’s take a look at how this bad boy went down.

October-ish – the Braves re-sign one time Wunderkind Tim Hudson (picked up his team option for ‘10), thus giving us 6 starting pitchers.  In case you didn’t know, most teams go with 5 starters during the regular season.  The most attractive trade option (and the guy most trade rumors swirled around) was Javier Vazquez, because he was a power pitcher who had a fantastic ERA at 2.87.  He probably wins the Cy Young with an ounce of run support, but we’ll never know.  Know what, I just realized something, I forgot a key element to this Vazquez for Cabrera deal.

Sometime in the summer of 1957 – Frank Wren’s dad forgets wrap up whilst engaging in relations with Ms. Wren.  Flash forward fifty some years, and Javier Vazquez gets traded to the Yankees for a very average outfielder.  Back to the timeline.

November ‘09 – With 6 starting pitchers, Wren begins to shop the services of Derek Lowe (Carolyn Hughes not included.  Don’t get that reference?  Google her).  Derek Lowe is the pitcher we signed to a roughly $60 million deal last off-season to help shore up the staff.  Lowe wasn’t our first choice of starting pitchers brought in, as we were able to land Javier Vazquez in a trade with Chicago (I still think Shuerholz had more to do with this trade, but that’s another discussion for another time).  So we over-pay for Lowe, thus making him the ace of the staff.  Then the season started, and it became clear that Vazquez had the nasty stuff to be a legit staff ace, he just lacked run support.

*Back story – Lowe wasn’t our first choice, we tried to land A.J. Burnett from the Blue Jays (he ended up signing with the Yankees).  Back in the day (I miss the Ted Turner owned Braves; an ass with a billion dollars, finally got it together when he let John Shuerholz run the team and brought back Bobby Cox).  The reason I bring up A.J. Burnett is because he took the offer from the Yankees because it was a shorter drive for his wife, who hates to fly (they live in Baltimore).  A fairly legit reason, but the thing is Wren and the Braves were rebuffed by almost every free agent they pursued.  How did the Braves go from the hot girl every guy wanted to get with to the worn out has-been with the herpes sore over her lip (apologies for the graphic image, but the analogy is so apt in this instance).  Furcal re-signed with the Dodgers, Griffey told Chipper he was coming to the Braves, only to re-sign with the Mariners.  So in the ‘08 off season, Wren proved that he couldn’t close, which also makes me think that he’s less than stellar as a wingman (a topic we can discuss later).

December ‘09 – Wren’s having a bitch of a time moving Lowe (Really?  Teams don’t want to pay $15 million a year for a guy with a 4.67 ERA?).  See, the Braves payroll is around $95 million (give or take), and they stick to that number.  It’s not like we’re the Marlins or the Pirates by any means, but if the Braves are going to move that guy off their payroll, they want whomever takes him to pick up a large (i.e. all) portion of his salary, and that’s just not happening.  Enter our ace, Javier Vazquez.  He’s in the final year of an $11.5 million per year contract, and he’s probably due a nice raise.  Wren should’ve nutted up and not re-signed Hudson, thus leaving the staff the way it was (Vazquez as your ace, followed by Jair Jurrgens, Tommy Hanson, and Derek Lowe).  That’s a very good staff right there, with the Braves needing a bat (or 2) to go from potential wild card contender back to where we belong amongst the league’s elite.  So what does Wren do?  Deals our ace and a reliever (Boone Logan, I guess he just comes with Vazquez now, since he was dealt to the Braves initially with him from the White Sox) to the Yankees and gets their BACK-UP CF and a couple of prospects.  Let me point that out again.  I live in New York, literally about 5 minutes from the Yankee Stadium, so I’ve seen my share of Yankee games.  They have a plethora of OF’s, and we got the guy that Brett Gardner beat out.  I guess it’s better than a dozen baseballs and a NY Lotto ticket.  Oh, and we still need a bat.  I’m not a psychic, nor am I a prophet (I can play one on TV), but here’s how Wren will sell Braves fans:

1)  Well, I couldn’t move Lowe, so I had to move a starter.  We just re-signed Hudson, so that wasn’t going to happen, and since Jurrgens and Hanson are the future of the organization (at least until Scott Boras takes them to free agency), they’re untouchable, which leaves us with the Kenshin Kawakami (how do you say “middle relief” in Japanese?), Derek Lowe, and Javier Vazquez.  Lowe’s too expensive to move, so Vazquez makes for a nice one season rental with low risk for a team.

2)  The money we save on paying Vazquez represents about $9 million a year we now have to spend on a bat, while we still have a good starting rotation (it’s OK at best now, sort of where the Phillies are…maybe not as good, since they now have Roy Halladay as their ace).  So we’ll use that money to lure in the (mark my words, he’ll say it) “best power hitter we can possibly get.” (We’ll end up with Mark DeRosa).  If you’re thinking Jason Bay or Matt Holliday are coming to Atlanta, you probably also liked the movie “Good Luck Chuck.”  It’s not going to happen (those guys will get in the neighborhood of $18 to $20 million a year).  Difference makers like the aforementioned players make considerably more than $9 million a year.  Essentially, Wren did not make the Braves better (I’m confidant in that fact even if we do bring in an alleged “bat,” you subtracted your biggest arm, the trade-off being the rotation isn’t as good as it was and you’re not going to get the difference making bat the Braves desperately need.  Nice job Wren.