Atlanta Braves: stalking Craig Kimbrel

Have you ever stalked someone?  I hope not, for the feeling for how we’re treating Craig Kimbrel is kind of creepy, even though it’s for all of the right reasons… hopefully.

It’s getting a bit comical, but you’ve gotta feel for the guy:  about 95% of Atlanta Braves‘ fans want Craig Kimbrel, their player want to share that ‘love’, yet the Boston Front Office barely acknowledges his existence.

So while it seems that we’ve done everything but put a tracking beacon on his rental car in the hopes of linking him up with the Braves in any way possible.

But since that’s what we do around here, let’s go ahead and run with what we still know about.

1. He’s in Orlando

This is the tweet that get everybody’s attention… and unlike some other outlets, we aren’t above given credit to the source:

Now there’s another angle here – albeit a minor one – that (to my knowledge) hasn’t been mentioned by anyone else.  It’s about timing.

This presumes us having some sort of glimpse into Kimbrel’s mind, but hey – we’re stalking now, so let’s run with it.

• He’s married with a very young toddler, yet traveling on Valentine’s Day.  Okay, that’s kinda par for the course (pun intended) for baseball players, but we’ll just note that and move on.
• He shows up in Orlando… not West Palm, not Miami, not Ft. Myers, not Tampa, not even anywhere in Arizona… but Orlando, home of the only club still spending their Spring in the middle of the state.
  • Okay, there’s Detroit (Lakeland), but he ain’t signing there
  • You could argue that this location keeps his options open for all of the possible options said to be available:  Boston (Ft. Myers), Philly (Clearwater), Washington or Houston (both in W. Palm), or Atlanta.  Okay.
• The team with the latest reporting date of all for pitchers and catchers?  Atlanta… yesterday.  All of the rest had already been in camp for 1-5 days.

It’s circumstantial, but taking all of this together, it screams out a message:  ‘Alex Anthopoulos,  please notice me!”.

2. The Reactions

Of course, we’ve already made our own sales pitch here in these virtual pages… at least twice in fact.  But maybe the better pitch could come from the players themselves… and they’ve been asked about that.

Did these guys get the same talking points memo?  That’s almost bizarre, but this bit was actually hilarious:

Riiiight… come on guys:  let’s admit it.  Craig Kimbrel wants to be playing baseball.  He’s smack in the middle of Florida in the middle of February because he wants a team.

Golf is merely a distraction for him while he waits for his cell phone to ring.  When it does, he’ll be off that course faster than one of my own tee shots (no, I’m not very good).

Yep… he’s gonna stick around… waiting.  And waiting.

3. The Pitch

This says it about as succintly as I could imagine:

(PS = Post-Season).  Yeah, the Braves don’t need a ‘good’ or even ‘solid’ bullpen:  they need a lock-down bullpen.  I continue to be convinced that Kimbrel – even for 3 or 4 years – could be That Guy to make it happen.

So here’s a guy who is practically begging to join the team and yet we’re hearing that there’s nothing going on between the parties at this time.

Can we get this done?  Can we trump the Phillies, the Nationals, the Mets, the Cubs, the Brewers/Cardinals and even Dodgers in 1 shot?  Yeah, I think that’s plausible.  I’ve heard something about ‘financial flexibility’, so I guess that means something.

4.  Time to Strike

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Alex Anthopoulos and Terry McGuirk spoke of the psychological value of adding players at the July trade deadline to boost a club.  That could happen today, if the front office would allow themselves to be swayed by fan opinion for just a moment.

For sure, he won’t be available in July.  Somebody else might be, but not Kimbrel – and all of the really good relief pitchers were already snapped up by contenders earlier in this off-season.

In fact, it’s been the most active position sought this Winter.  There’s got to be a reason for that.

But boy, I would very much like the Braves’ chances of being in the right position for a July acquisition a lot better with this guy anchoring the bullpen.

We love you too, Craig.