Long Term Gain

Way back at the beginning of the 2008/09 off season the Braves were looking to reload a pitching rotation that had featured Jorge Campillo and Jo Jo Reyes heavily in the 2008 season and the organisation had also let Mike Hampton walk as a free agent after Hampton’s mediocre-at-best four seasons in Atlanta. With the San Diego Padres consistently struggling and the teams wish to cut payroll trading former Cy Young winner Jake Peavy became more and more likely given the four year $52 million contract Peavy had signed. Despite his no trade clause the Alabama-native provided the Friars with a Friends like list of teams he would be willing to join in a trade, this list included the Braves as well as several others who were less interested in a trade. After working together for what felt like an eternity the Braves and Padres worked out a deal that was reported to include, amongst other pieces, shortstop Yunel Escobar and Gorkys Hernanadez, one of Charlie Morton or Jo Jo Reyes and relief pitcher Blaine Boyer. A good package for both teams you would have thought, Kevin Towers the Padres GM didn’t think it was good enough for his team asking the Braves to include Tommy Hanson and, if other reports are to be believed, Jordan Schafer who were the Braves top two prospects at the time. The request for Hanson seemed to be the straw that broke the Wren-camel’s back with the demands having too much of an impact on the Braves long term future. I thought it would be interesting to look at what has happened since this blockbuster trade fell through.

In 2009 Peavy injured his ankle in the middle of May and ending up on the DL, he did however go 6-6 for the Padres with an unremarkable 3.97 ERA in 13 starts. On trade deadline day Peavy finally agreed to leave San Diego and went to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for Clayton Richard and three other Sox minor leaguers. In 3 starts for the White Sox Peavy went 3-0 with a brilliant 1.35 ERA allowing only 3 runs in 20 innings. 2010 didn’t see him reaching those same levels of success for the White Sox with Peavy making only 17 starts with a 7-6 record compiling a disappointing 4.63 ERA before sustaining a horrific injury that saw his latissimus dorsi muscle come completely detached costing Peavy the rest of his 2010 season.

The failure to acquire Peavy increased the Braves need to go into the free agent market with a weak bid for CC Sabathia meeting a predictable climax and a somewhat more serious attempt to entice AJ Burnett to be a Brave proving fruitless. With a hint of desperation surrounding the Braves recruitment drive Frank Wren threw four years and $60 million at Derek Lowe and three years $23 million at Japanese import Kenshin Kawakami. Neither has been the superstar acquisition that Wren would have hoped for at the time of the two pitchers signing with Kawakami yet to throw a pitch in a Spring Training game and having to set his GPS for directions to AA Mississippi. While Kenshin’s first season was more than respectable with the 33-year-old rookie going posting a 3.86 record in 25 starts and 32 games that was markedly better than Lowe’s first season. Where Kawakami really fell down was in his sophomore season when Kawakami put up a terrible 5.15 ERA in 16 starts and 2 appearances out of the bullpen, a stretch that saw KK give up 98 hits in 87.1 innings. Lowe has been considerably luckier when on the mound that Kawakami with his teammates scoring plenty of runs for him that has led to a record of 31-22 in his two seasons with a combined 4.34 ERA. While Lowe hasn’t been spectacular for the Braves, in fact many fans clamouring for D-Lowe to be traded instead of Javier Vazquez last year. However Derek forever endeared himself to Braves fans with the way he pitched in the stretch to the postseason going 5-0 in September with a 1.17 ERA and then posting a 2.31 ERA in the postseason that saw Lowe finally lose out on the run support. However the effort Lowe put into the finally six weeks of the season, putting his heart and soul on the line for Bobby Cox, finally gave Lowe the acceptance he hasn’t had in Braves country since his arrival.

Of course the biggest repercussion of not trading for Jake Peavy was the arrival of Tommy Hanson in Atlanta. In the 55 starts Hanson has made in the Major Leagues since his call up in 2009 he has posted an incredible 3.16 ERA with 289 strikeouts in 330.1 innings and an impressive 1.18 WHIP. In keeping Hanson in the organisation the Braves ensured that they have a bona fide ace for the next ten years at least.

The pieces that would have got Peavy-Hernandez, Morton, Escobar, Reyes and Boyer- have all translated into multiplications for the Braves. Hernandez and Morton were traded along with Jeff Locke (another player mentioned in Peavy talks) to the Pittsburgh Pirates for center fielder Nate McLouth. Morton has made 35 starts for the Pirates posting a combined 6.06 ERA over the last two seasons, Hernandez has appeared in sixteen games for the Bucs over the past two years with a combined average of .171 and Locke is yet to make his big league debut. Despite McLouth’s struggles last season he seems to be ready to bounce back to at least career average. Escobar and Reyes were used in a deal with the Toronto Blue Jays for shortstop Alex Gonzalez and prospects Tyler Pastornicky and Tim Collins, with Collins later being flipped to Kansas City with Gregor Blanco and Jesse Chavez for Rick Ankiel and Kyle Farnsworth. While Escobar has been successful for the Jays the removal of his poor attitude from the clubhouse seemed to help the Braves push for the postseason while Reyes has yet to make a Major League start for Toronto but has a 6.40 ERA for his career. Gonzalez was solid if not spectacular during his time with the Braves hitting .240 with 6 home runs, while it may be Pastornicky that was the really prize of the trade being ranked as one of the Braves top prospects and the immediate successor to Gonzalez.

While the Braves missed out on Peavy they turned to pieces that the trade would have required into two position players who will be on the field come Opening Day and by consequence an ace pitcher who could be on the mound Opening Night.