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[Colonel Black Bear]

I feel like we have no pure contact hitters on the team now.  We might lead the league in strikeouts this year.

[Herschel Talker]

Someone put MCD on suicide watch.

I think this trade makes sense and I'm excited about the Uptons, but !  I hate losing Prado.  I will be happy about this once my season of mourning is over.

[CrimsoNation713]

Im calling dibs on Francisco

[Chainsaw Massaquoi]

I get it that a lot of y'all are upset about losing Prado but let's be real here.  

Prado is what he is.  He's a nice 2-hole super utility player. Upton is a young power/speed outfielder that provides the Braves with a legit killer 3/4 combo with Heyward for the foreseeable future. Who wouldn't want that?

Think about it this way. How many MVPs will Prado compete for? None. How many will Upton compete for? Possibly a few.  He's already recently removed from an MVP race.  

Plus, Upton is 25 and just now heading into his prime.  C'mon now.

Edited by Chainsaw Massaquoi, 24 January 2013 - 03:22 PM.

[UAdan]

Okay, like the rest of you, emotionally I was very invested in this trade. It is very tough to see Prado go after what he's done for us the last few years. I feel like he deserves better than what the Braves have given him and I hope he gets that in Arizona. Guy is the true definition of what a ballplayer is...selfless, determined, blue-collar...and by all accounts a great teammate.

Now having said all that...even though I plan on following Marteen through his career (and I expect him to have a fantastic year with Arizona), I have to say that I agree with @GoldenRebel and @HFS.... we absolutely "won" this trade for a number of reasons.

Firstly, let's begin with Justin Upton. While Prado is the kind of hard worker we all want on the team...Justin Upton has what it takes to be a superstar, and we have him locked up (at a reasonable contract) for the next 3 years. You just do not get that kind of control over a great young player without giving up SOMETHING of significant value. Wren had a decision to make, and he made the decision that was A. Unpopular to fans (for good reason, we all love Prado)....but B. Good for us in the long run.

Prado was going to test the free agent waters after the season anyways, so as badly as we all wanted him back there was no guarantee. We exchanged one guaranteed season of a pretty good player for three guaranteed seasons of a great player. That's a victory no matter how you slice it.

Secondly, we were able to snag Chris Johnson as an insurance piece to cover our third base depth. Johnson isn't a star by any stretch, and while he is a downgrade from Prado, I sorta view him as a Prado-lite type of player. I don't know enough about him to break down his intangibles/hustle/clubhouse presence, etc...so I'm sure he falls short of Prado in that regard (as 99% of players probably would)...but look at his scouting report and skill set. What does he give us? Well, acutally a lot of the same things Prado did.

Johnson will hit for a solid average (he hit .281 last year and over .300 in nearly 400 AB's in 2010), moderate power (12-15 HRs, like Prado) and can hold his own on defense. Also, he can play first as well as third, so while Prado was about as super of a utility player as you could get...Johnson isn't some defensive cog or a one-trick pony. We can move him around to spell Freeman once in a while.

So we basically traded one major-league position player (Prado) for two (Upton and Johnson). As a result, our depth is much improved. We have a more experienced bench to work with, and in the event of an injury we'll be better prepared to handle it. Prado was projected to be worth 4.7 wins this year. Upton was 5.2 and Johnson was 1.5...so 6.7 WAR >> 4.7 WAR. This year's team is significantly deeper after this trade, in terms of position players.

Lastly, we managed to swing this deal without giving up a ton of high-quality prospects. Our two "best" arms on the farm are Teheran and Graham, we kept both. The "6th man" of the rotation in the event of an injury would be Gilmartin, and we kept him. We traded Delgado instead of Teheran...we traded Spruill who probably would've never been a regular contributor to our rotation... we traded Ahmed who is blocked by Simmons for the next several years at least... and Drury was basically a throw-away player who might not ever make it to the big leagues with Arizona.

We are STILL top-heavy on starting pitching in our system (all the current guys, plus Gilmartin, Graham, Sims, Wood, etc) and the only position prospect we traded wasn't going to do anything for us in the near future anyways. Prado is the biggest loss, and his loss leaves more of an emotional impact than a valuability impact. I'm not saying he wasn't valuable...he clearly was the MVP last season and probably in 2010 as welll... but I'm saying what we're getting in return for him should make up for that valuability, PLUS give us overall more production.

Keep in mind also that moving Prado's salary gives us anywhere from 8-10 mil left to work with, which would put us in prime position to acquire a third baseman at the trade deadline or in the offseason. Also, as far as the long-term...we were going to have to sacrifice someone as we can't sign all these guys to big multi-year deals. Letting Prado go, as much as it hurts us fans, gives us a figher's chance to lock up Heyward AND Freeman instead of just one of the two.

This is not a popular trade with the fans, and for good reason...I really didn't want to trade Prado and I can't think of anyone who did...but for the package of players involved on both sides, I think it's a really good trade for our organization.

[UAdan]

Chainsaw Massaquoi, on 24 January 2013 - 03:21 PM, said:

I get it that a lot of y'all are upset about losing Prado but let's be real here.  

Prado is what he is.  He's a nice 2-hole super utility player. Upton is a young power/speed outfielder that provides the Braves with a legit killer 3/4 combo with Heyward for the foreseeable future. Who wouldn't want that?

Think about it this way. How many MVPs will Prado compete for? None. How many will Upton compete for? Possibly a few.  He's already recently removed from an MVP race.  

Plus, Upton is 25 and just now heading into his prime.  C'mon now.

You and G-Reb and others have made good points and you'll see that in my most recent post I agree with you. I think my earlier comments were emotion-based and immediately after the fact that we had traded away Prado. None of us wanted to see him go. It's definitely for the good of the team and I think we all get that, but it still will be tough for people to accept that he's no longer a Brave.

I was angry at first, but after having several hours to digest it and break this trade down, I feel like we came out on top. It'll take a while to get over losing Prado but I'm a Braves fan first and foremost and this does help our team.

[GoldenRebel]

I think the factor going missed is this allows us to lock up some key guys. Its a winning trade on paper. As keith law said "we got a dollar for .50"

[UAdan]

CrimsoNation713, on 24 January 2013 - 02:44 PM, said:

Im calling dibs on Francisco

You can't always get what you juant.

[CrimsoNation713]

UAdan, on 24 January 2013 - 03:56 PM, said:

Okay, like the rest of you, emotionally I was very invested in this trade. It is very tough to see Prado go after what he's done for us the last few years. I feel like he deserves better than what the Braves have given him and I hope he gets that in Arizona. Guy is the true definition of what a ballplayer is...selfless, determined, blue-collar...and by all accounts a great teammate.

Now having said all that...even though I plan on following Marteen through his career (and I expect him to have a fantastic year with Arizona), I have to say that I agree with @GoldenRebel and @HFS.... we absolutely "won" this trade for a number of reasons.

Firstly, let's begin with Justin Upton. While Prado is the kind of hard worker we all want on the team...Justin Upton has what it takes to be a superstar, and we have him locked up (at a reasonable contract) for the next 3 years. You just do not get that kind of control over a great young player without giving up SOMETHING of significant value. Wren had a decision to make, and he made the decision that was A. Unpopular to fans (for good reason, we all love Prado)....but B. Good for us in the long run.

Prado was going to test the free agent waters after the season anyways, so as badly as we all wanted him back there was no guarantee. We exchanged one guaranteed season of a pretty good player for three guaranteed seasons of a great player. That's a victory no matter how you slice it.

Secondly, we were able to snag Chris Johnson as an insurance piece to cover our third base depth. Johnson isn't a star by any stretch, and while he is a downgrade from Prado, I sorta view him as a Prado-lite type of player. I don't know enough about him to break down his intangibles/hustle/clubhouse presence, etc...so I'm sure he falls short of Prado in that regard (as 99% of players probably would)...but look at his scouting report and skill set. What does he give us? Well, acutally a lot of the same things Prado did.

Johnson will hit for a solid average (he hit .281 last year and over .300 in nearly 400 AB's in 2010), moderate power (12-15 HRs, like Prado) and can hold his own on defense. Also, he can play first as well as third, so while Prado was about as super of a utility player as you could get...Johnson isn't some defensive cog or a one-trick pony. We can move him around to spell Freeman once in a while.

So we basically traded one major-league position player (Prado) for two (Upton and Johnson). As a result, our depth is much improved. We have a more experienced bench to work with, and in the event of an injury we'll be better prepared to handle it. Prado was projected to be worth 4.7 wins this year. Upton was 5.2 and Johnson was 1.5...so 6.7 WAR >> 4.7 WAR. This year's team is significantly deeper after this trade, in terms of position players.

Lastly, we managed to swing this deal without giving up a ton of high-quality prospects. Our two "best" arms on the farm are Teheran and Graham, we kept both. The "6th man" of the rotation in the event of an injury would be Gilmartin, and we kept him. We traded Delgado instead of Teheran...we traded Spruill who probably would've never been a regular contributor to our rotation... we traded Ahmed who is blocked by Simmons for the next several years at least... and Drury was basically a throw-away player who might not ever make it to the big leagues with Arizona.

We are STILL top-heavy on starting pitching in our system (all the current guys, plus Gilmartin, Graham, Sims, Wood, etc) and the only position prospect we traded wasn't going to do anything for us in the near future anyways. Prado is the biggest loss, and his loss leaves more of an emotional impact than a valuability impact. I'm not saying he wasn't valuable...he clearly was the MVP last season and probably in 2010 as welll... but I'm saying what we're getting in return for him should make up for that valuability, PLUS give us overall more production.

Keep in mind also that moving Prado's salary gives us anywhere from 8-10 mil left to work with, which would put us in prime position to acquire a third baseman at the trade deadline or in the offseason. Also, as far as the long-term...we were going to have to sacrifice someone as we can't sign all these guys to big multi-year deals. Letting Prado go, as much as it hurts us fans, gives us a figher's chance to lock up Heyward AND Freeman instead of just one of the two.

This is not a popular trade with the fans, and for good reason...I really didn't want to trade Prado and I can't think of anyone who did...but for the package of players involved on both sides, I think it's a really good trade for our organization.

said wonderfully and I do agree but I still feel like this...

[UAdan]

CrimsoNation713, on 24 January 2013 - 04:10 PM, said:

said wonderfully and I do agree but I still feel like this...

And I will too for a while, but we'll be a better team when it's all said and done. Prado is still one of my favorite big-leaguers and I wish him a lot of success in Arizona.

[Dawgy_Style]

Prado was one of my favorite players. But in Justin Upton's down year, their OBP was still similar and he had more home runs. I'd like to think we're getting a guy that will hit .270, 20HRs and an OBP of .340 but could easily go .290 30 .370. Still bittersweet, wish we could have found a way to keep Prado for 3rd, I'm not sold on Francisco.

[CrimsoNation713]

UAdan, on 24 January 2013 - 04:07 PM, said:

You can't always get what you juant.

juwanna bet mane,,,I smash joo like a cockaroach

[UAdan]

CrimsoNation713, on 24 January 2013 - 04:24 PM, said:

juwanna bet mane,,,I smash joo like a cockaroach

You aren't good at this game!

[MCD]

I hope Frank Wren gets hit by a bus.

Marteen's jersey is going to go on sale and I'm going to buy them all.

[Neil Caudle is Superman]

The crazy part is that for the 2013 season we pretty much have as much money as we were going to have had we not done this trade. Prado probably would have gotten his $7 million for 2013 so we're not really spending much more to trade up to Upton.
Obviously this could be a huge trade for us, but my questions are:

1. Who will be the Braves' clubhouse leader now? Huddy is a pitcher and he may be gone after this season. McCann will almost certainly be gone after this season. Who is going to step up and tell people to play hard?

2. Will our team work ethic suffer? Both B.J. and Justin Upton have been said to have poor work ethic during the course of their careers. Will this rub off on Heyward, who seemed complacent in 2011, and Freeman?

3. Will Justin Upton the guy who hit .300 with 26 HR's and 20 SB's in 2009 and .289 with 31 HR's and 21 SB's in 2011 or will he be the guy who hit .273 with 17 HR's and 18 SB's in 2010 and .280 with 17 HR's and 18 SB's in 2012? If he is the former then we have ourselves an amazing outfield. If he's the latter then he's not much better than Prado.

4. Will having brothers on the same team bring out the best in each of them or will it bring out the worst in them? I could see that going either way. I played on the same high school baseball team as my cousin all four years and we enjoyed it a lot, but I know some people who get nasty when playing sports with family members.

Everybody in this trade was expendable except for Prado. I think that at worst Justin Upton will be equal to Prado at his best offensively. That's safe to say at this point in their careers. The only way we could possibly be hurt in this trade is with team leadership and the fan base as Prado was a fan favorite. It's a solid move at worst and potentially a huge move.