G-Snarls

I can understand why AA doesn't plan to trade for a starter right now. For once, we could for real have too many as of September.

My God that team has no friggin' offense though: @DunedinBlueJays: Peter Mooney hits a two-out double in the sixth inning, and the Blue Jays are in the hit column. Still trail, 1-0 in the 7th.

Could be Ricky...

Great start!

Perfect time to give the farm system a boost

I know How often do you go in to the trade deadline with too much of exactly what other teams are looking for??? Make 2 trades FFS

Now filing for bankruptcy no less!!!

We must take advantage of this

@DunedinBlueJays: We'll have live coverage of J.A. Happ's outing on http://t.co/iyqaOrVyNH and on AM 1340 WTAN: http://t.co/vXU8ueatBD. Tune in at 6:40!

Happ pitching tonight for Dunedin BTW

I'm hurting my own chances on winning this thing by sharing. But for those who haven't seen he contest yet: http://atmlb.com/195Mgdp

Well, we could take Wainwright off their hands if they need to, you know, make room

MLBTR: The Cubs are asking teams for their "last and best offers" for Garza, tweets ESPN's Buster Olney, and other clubs think he's thrown his last pitch as a Cub. In a separate pair of tweets, Olney adds that while the Rangers don't want to move Perez, they have other pitching prospects such as C.J. Edwards and Luke Jackson that could be of interest to the Cubs. Jackson ranked as the team's No. 6 prospect prior to the season according to Baseball America, while Edwards ranked 14th. Both have had strong minor league seasons. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets that the Rangers have the most motivation to acquire Garza and have had extensive talks with the Cubs. If the Rangers don't acquire Garza, rival executives see the Cardinals, Red Sox, Diamondbacks and Dodgers as the likeliest destinations, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).

Sal Fasano was on FAN 590 today: http://pmd.fan590.com/audio_on_demand-3/Sal-Fasano-with-Sam-Cosentino-and-Eric-Smith-bc-20130718-Interview.mp3 A couple of interesting tidbits. When asked why he's a "roving" instructor and not dedicated to the MLB club to work with JP he said "I try to get up there when I can." and "it's up to Alex" Bottom line, it's clear the FO doesn't have this figured out. They have a catcher who's below average defensively, they may or may not realize it, and they definitely aren't getting him the catching instruction he clearly needs. Brutal. #ZaunWasRight

Presuming you fill whichever position Lawrie doesn't play with at least a league average player. If Lawrie stays at 3B and you played Boni at 2B all year next year (theoretical nightmare scenario for illustrative purposes only, please do not panic) it doesn't help.

Yep. Plus if we actually do move Lawrie to 2B and get a decent hitting 3B, that helps our bench by having Izturis there

More teams looking for relief help. AA, yelling like a Fenway hot dog vendor: "Lefties, lefties, we got lefties! Get yer hot throwing lefties heah!" - Braves Eyeing Left-Handed Relievers By Tim Dierkes [July 18 at 11:18am CST] The Braves' priority is to add a left-handed reliever, writes MLB.com's Mark Bowman, with James Russell of the Cubs, Mike Gonzalez of the Brewers, and Wesley Wright of the Astros on their wish list. The Braves are more interested in Russell and Gonzalez, he adds. The Braves' need for a southpaw reliever has increased with the plan to put Alex Wood in the starting rotation, possibly swapping roles with right-hander Kris Medlen. That would leave Luis Avilan as the only lefty in the Braves' pen, with Eric O'Flaherty and Jonny Venters both out for the season due to Tommy John surgery. Russell, 27, has a large platoon split. He'd held lefties to a .187/.218/.284 line, but righties have hit him hard (small sample size warning). Russell is earning $1.075MM this year, and he's under team control through 2015 as an arbitration eligible player. Gonzalez, 35, joined the Braves from the Pirates in the January 2007 Adam LaRoche trade. He racked up 125 innings and 26 saves for the Braves over three seasons, mostly after recovering from June '07 Tommy John surgery. The Braves allowed him to leave as a free agent for Baltimore, drafting Matt Lipka as a supplemental pick in 2010 as compensation. After spending time with the Rangers and Nationals, Gonzalez signed with the Brewers as a free agent in January this year. He's always been prone to the free pass, especially against righties this year, but he's been strong against lefties. Which other left-handed relievers might be available? We'll have a full post on the topic later today, but Mike Dunn, Charlie Furbush, Oliver Perez, Jose Mijares, Darren Oliver, Scott Downs, Joe Thatcher, Javier Lopez, and Jeremy Affeldt are names to consider. The Braves also seek a backup infielder to fill the void after the loss of Ramiro Pena to season-ending surgery; they'd prefer a left-handed hitter with more offense than Paul Janish, writes Bowman. The Cubs' Luis Valbuena could be a logical candidate there, in my opinion.

I think Drew Hutchison has a very good chance of putting up better WAR in 2014 than JJ will this year

For some reason that GIF just won't embed Link is this: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/war4.gif And yes, the point is made that "impact" (ie. higher WAR) players rarely get drafted beyond pick 50 or so

Agree on Buerhle. He is what he is, an inning-eating ox who puts up acceptable but unspectacular numbers year after year. That's fine if we make sure we have 2-3 guys better than him in the rotation.

Right. Catcher should be the EASIEST thing to fix this off season IF (huge if, literally and figuratively) the FO finally admit that JPA isn't good enough.

Right 2-3 of the guys on the DL/rehab will be back for the rotation next year. If we keep or replace JJ I think we have enough starting pitching in 2014 Decisions on Lawrie/Melky/Lind depend on how they perform second half, and who's available in the off season.

I'm making the (possibly over confident) assumption that Lawrie, Dickey and Cabrera will be significantly better in the second half and next year.

How much more than 1 starter and a new catcher do you think we need?