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Monday Morning Link Factory

A Minor Trade: As reported over at Hotlanta Dugout, the Braves traded minor league relief pitcher Brad Baker to the Red Sox to complete an earlier trade from spring training that brought us Franklin Nunez.

LaRoche Lamentation: Sabernomics thinks Adam is not that good, but says he's better than Jeff Francoeur:

Compare this with Jeff Francoeur, whom everyone is cheering for and says, "but if you take out his slow start he's hitting nearly hitting a lot better." Blah, blah, blah. Really? If you take out the bad stuff, of course you're going to look pretty good. Jeff has been stinking up the joint in a way that was totally expected from his minor league stats, and he's not as good a hitter as LaRoche. Adam has produced 81 outs for the Braves this year compared to 105 by Francoeur--to lead the team. That's 24 more more outs, nearly an entire game's worth. My point isn't to disparage Francoeur, but to point out that Adam is facing a different standard. He's been a lot more valuable than Francoeur this year, but getting much harsher criticism.

Wow! "A lot more valuable." I'm not sure about that. Recent events aside, Francoeur is at least as good as LaRoche, if not better. He has more RBIs (31 vs. 19) and that's with Francoeur hitting generally in a lower position in the lineup than LaRoche. Adam has also struck out more than Francoeur (35 vs. 28). I calculated their runs created this year, and Francoeur stands at 17 and LaRoche at 16.7, so they're pretty close in that regard, but to say "a lot more valuable" is to not consider all factors (like just looking at outs).

So Long Sosa: We get the first inclination that Jorge Sosa may finally be banished from the starting rotation once Horacio Ramirez completes one more rehab start. And even though Ramirez' pitching line from his start Saturday in Rome was not that impressive, he was apparently working on some pitches.

Se?or Erratica: That terrific nickname for Jorge Sosa comes from Jeff Schultz over at the AJC, as he reminds us that Sosa was acquired for utility infielder Nick Green, and was never supposed to be more that a bullpen body.

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