NO NO NO NO NO. stop giving away good young pitchers for guys that used to be good. on top of that, the current third baseman in atlanta is about their best player.
if you trade anybody figure out how to get a second baseman or a center fielder in return. if you must trade away good young pitching, find a way to have uggla's or bj's contract included with it.
By that do you mean he has the best batting average? Because that's about it. He has been the 3rd best hitter on the team to this point (key phrase is to this point) and not even close to the top when you consider defense and base running.
Johnson is a decent player and a cost controlled player so I see no reason in upgrading him right now unless something falls in our lap. That's something the team can keep exploring through next season before 2016 when he won't be a cost controlled player. There really is nobody on the offense we should be thinking about replacing right now. Yes BJ is struggling really bad. But he's not going anywhere. Uggla isn't living up to his contract but they aren't going to replace him either in the middle of the year. And with 18 homers and a really good walk rate he has been decent this year.
The only thing I see this team doing is adding more depth to the bullpen. They will inquire about the best starters available to see what might happen there but there is really no need there since we have Beachy coming back to help the rotation.
To look at this from another angle.
The Braves have 16.1 WAR from their position players which is FIRST in the NL. This combines hitting, base running, and defense. And offensively they are 2nd in the NL behind the Cards with a 104 WRC+. You can argue about batting average, strikeouts, and consistency but our group is really really good.
The Braves rotation has a 3.61 ERA which is good for 6th in the NL. The group has been dominant at times and shaky at times. Hopefully Beachy returning will help out and share the load with Julio so we don't push him too high with his innings. Replacing Maholm with a better starter would be nice as well but more of a luxury than a necessity as he is a solid starter.
The Braves pen have a 2.61 era and is the best in the NL yet again. This is despite two injuries to key members of the pen which has been amazing. Still I would like to see some more depth added to the pen because you can never have enough. I want a shut down loogy the most and I suspect some depth of some kind is the trade we are most likely to see.
That being said. This team is in great shape going forward the rest of the year assuming we don't take any hits on the injury list.
Our position players are top notch, our pen is top notch, and our rotation is good.
