The final day of the baseball Winter Meetings. It's been a fun one, though just about all the action we got was a lefty reliever. Maybe the Braves will move Kawakami before they move on home.
The Rule 5 draft begins this morning at 9am, but the Braves rarely take anyone, and with a full bullpen and already decent Major League backup options in the minor league system, it's unlikely that the Braves will pick anyone once again. That doesn't mean, however, that the Braves won't have anyone taken from their system. Scott Diamond is the, well, the diamond (sorry) that could be plucked from Atlanta's system. If I was a GM of a team needing a fifth starter, I might also be inclined to take Todd Redmond (though a team could have taken him when he was placed on waivers off the 40-man roster a few months ago). Neither guy is flashy, but both have proven to be minor league work horses over the past couple of years. Of course, every team has guys like that in their system.
In the latest ex-Braves player news, the Royals signed not one, but two of our former outfielders. Jeff Francoeur AND Melky Cabrera agreed to contracts with the Royals yesterday. Francoeur got $2.5 mil, Melky got $1.25; not a lot by themselves, but that's almost $4 million combined, and surely the Royals could have gotten someone "good" for that kind of money. Hilarious.
I just saw that Carl Crawford deal with the Red Sox and my jaw dropped, once again. Of course, this might make Jacoby Ellsbury more available, and I love interjecting his name into every Braves trade rumor. If healthy he would be the leadoff guy and center fielder we've been looking for. I have no idea what the Red Sox needs are, but surely we have another Andy Marte in our system we can give them.
Happy hunting Frank.