All of the awards and accolades of the 2011 season have been bestowed and now that Barry Larkin and Ron Santo(Veteran’s Commitee) have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, the focus can turn to Spring training. Ok, it is still a little over a month away before pitchers and catchers report for training so maybe I should still focus on the off-season trades and signings.
News is very, very slow right now but I still check the wires everyday for a little morsel of baseball yummy. It looks like the fate of free agent Prince Fielder is the only big question that has yet to be resolved.
Obviously the Angels acquisition of Albert Pujols and CJ Wilson was a big deal and made me happy because Albert is out of the National League(and that he didn’t go tot the Marlins). These moves and the Marlins getting Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, Health Bell, and most recently Carlos Zambrano might appear to be the two most significant but there were still some impactful additions made to many rosters.
The Phillies might be getting older and more injury prone but they did resign Jimmy Rollins and added a huge bullpen arm with Jonathan Papelbon. Speaking of the NL East, the Washington Nationals are trying to edge their way into competition. The Nats will have ace Stephen Strasberg returning from injury and added a solid front end starter in Gio Gonzalez. They covet Prince Fielder but I can’t imagine Fielder accepting a deal from Washington unless it was for a ridiculous amount of money and for an extended period of time(8 years +). My best guess is that Prince will sign with the Rangers or Mariners but the Mariners fall into the same category as the Nationals so the Texas Rangers make more sense.
My Braves have been very quite this off-season which suits me fine. People are shocked when I say this because they think signing or trading for a big outfield bat is the answer. Sure it would be nice to have a big bopper but at what cost? The Braves budget is in the mid $90 million range which is decent but not enough to go after the big names like a team with a $200 million to work with(Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Phillies). I think Atlanta has a strong nucleus of young and veteran players still in place from last year’s team. Granted the team underperformed during the last two weeks of the season but I still think with experience under the belts of the rookies and younger players, a new hitting coach, and a desire for redemption the 2012 Atlanta Braves are better off without a huge, splashy signing.
We’ll see.
My Boyfriend Likes Baseball 