Atlanta Braves Morning Chop
Black Friday Bargains, Part 1
No, no, no: it’s CHOP ’til you drop!
With a hat tip to @BravesAmerica on twitter, we present “things that make you go ‘Hmmmmm…..‘”. The shop.mlb.com website actually does have a stout sale in progress right now for everything they sell:
UptonJersey – from shop.mlb.com
- 20% off all orders
- 25% off if you spend at least $50
- 30% off if you spend at least $99
- Free shipping if you spend at least $50
But this link into their website will probably both amuse and irritate you – it is a list of available closeout jerseys. Among those in the ‘amuse/irritate’ category include Jersey numbers 16, 22, and 26.
Yes, you can buy a Dan Uggla jersey… for something north of the Mendoza line.
But among those in the “Hmmmmm…..”category, though: both Uptons. Okay, so we know Justin is on the trading block, but do they know something that we don’t about brother Melvin?
Wonder if I should write a review about that product? Oh, and that Part 1 thing above? We’ll have a Part 2 in another post later today.
Reasons behind fiendish bat hoarding of Red Sox, Cubs
Free agency has been a hit so far. No, really, a hit.
Twelve free agents had signed major league contracts before Thanksgiving. One was a reliever in Zach Duke. One was a starter in A.J. Burnett, who essentially is a special case because he only wanted to play for the Pirates. The other 10 are hitters.
Maybe that is coincidence. Or maybe it is a sign what the mind-set of the sport is right now. So much offense has been drained out of the marketplace that teams are going all Black Friday, rushing into the free-agent store and buying up as many hitters as possible.
But that means what already was in short supply is only more so. Yes, there is still a Nelson Cruz or a Melky Cabrera, perhaps a few others that are attractive. However, the chance to land a hitter is going, going …
Well, at least in free agency it is. So you know who just is about to become real popular — the clubs that have bats to trade.
The Braves, for example, already have turned Jason Heyward into two young pitchers. And they are not stopping. They are asking even a higher price for Justin Upton than the Cardinals gave for Heyward — Shelby Miller and Tyrell Jenkins. Upton had the second-most homers by a righty hitter in the NL. The guy who had more, Giancarlo Stanton, just got $325 million. Did we mention that teams will do quite a bit to obtain and keep hitters these days?
And then there are the Cubs and Red Sox. Executives from other clubs say those organizations saw which way the game was shifting and decided to bulk up on position players — Chicago on prospects, the Red Sox on a combination of prospects and veterans.
“The Cubs used the fourth pick [in June’s draft] to pick a pure hitter [Kyle Schwarber] without a position at a time when they needed pitching badly, and they are in as deep on [19-year-old Cuban wunderkind] Yoan Moncada as any team,” one NL executive said. “That is not by accident. They want to have so many hitters when nobody else has them. That is a planned-out choice.”
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[Editor’s Note: So you scratch your head when you hear that John Hart wants more for Justin than for Heyward? The reason is simple – he’s a better hitter.]
Atlanta Braves Morning Chop – Friday, November 28, 2014