The Virtues and Necessity of Short-Term Thinking

I'll be the first to admit that I was murderously angry over the Marte-Renteria trade. Marte was one of the top prospects in the game, Renteria was in his 30s and coming off two crummy seasons in a row and Boston was desperate to get out of the odious contract they had signed just a year before. I understood the general idea of "acquire Edgar Renteria to replace Rafael Furcal," but I could not for the life of me understand why we were giving away Marte when we doing Boston a favor by taking on Renteria at all.

Obviously I was wrong about all of that.
 
MadduxFanII said:
I'll be the first to admit that I was murderously angry over the Marte-Renteria trade. Marte was one of the top prospects in the game, Renteria was in his 30s and coming off two crummy seasons in a row and Boston was desperate to get out of the odious contract they had signed just a year before. I understood the general idea of "acquire Edgar Renteria to replace Rafael Furcal," but I could not for the life of me understand why we were giving away Marte when we doing Boston a favor by taking on Renteria at all.

Obviously I was wrong about all of that.
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I still think that was a bad decision that just happened to have good results. IMO Renteria wasn't a horrible idea to replace Furcal. But I think his value was so low that it shouldn't have taken Marte to get him.
 
MadduxFanII said:
I'll be the first to admit that I was murderously angry over the Marte-Renteria trade. Marte was one of the top prospects in the game, Renteria was in his 30s and coming off two crummy seasons in a row and Boston was desperate to get out of the odious contract they had signed just a year before. I understood the general idea of "acquire Edgar Renteria to replace Rafael Furcal," but I could not for the life of me understand why we were giving away Marte when we doing Boston a favor by taking on Renteria at all.

Obviously I was wrong about all of that.
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Marte has had an abysmal career. It's such a shame.
 
zitothebrave said:
Actually neither of those moves (well maybe the Uggla trade, but not the extension) have stathead written on them. ANd Chris Johnson is what Francoeur wishes he was when he became a Punch and Judy hitter.
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Stathead (of whom I have nothing against) Three-Outcome Wet Dream.
 
I never bought Kelly Johnson as Utley-lite, but I wouldn't mind having him on the team in 2015. Good LH bat who can play multiple positions. That's something we are looking for.
 
50PoundHead said:
I never bought Kelly Johnson as Utley-lite, but I wouldn't mind having him on the team in 2015. Good LH bat who can play multiple positions. That's something we are looking for.
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Don't you kind of wonder what might have happened if the Braves had left Kelly Johnson at second base for the last decade and left well enough alone?
 
rico43 said:
Don't you kind of wonder what might have happened if the Braves had left Kelly Johnson at second base for the last decade and left well enough alone?
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I don't mull it over too often. Somehow Prado surpassed him in Cox's eyes (which were the only eyes that mattered and were sometimes near-sighted) and it was just a matter of time before Johnson was out of town. I always thought they should have had Johnson play some 1B and OF after Prado displaced him as the starting 2B, but there was something about Johnson that Cox obviously didn't like as a player. Prado has had the better career to this point, but I think Johnson can be a valuable cog for the right team.

Kelly Johnson reminds me a bit of Michael Tucker as a hitter. Looks the part to a T. Beautiful swing. Good strike zone recognition. Everything comes together periodically, but not consistently enough to elevate to a higher performance strata.
 
`Prado was better than KJ when Prado passed KJ. What made the non-tendering of KJ dumb (which I place squarely on Bobby's shoulders) was that we don't get Melky back. If we have KJ we don't get Melky as return for Vazquez, we get someone else, maybe someone more useful long term. Maybe then we don't make the Uggla trade either? Or we trade him in the Uggla trade instead Infante. There were a lot of things that the Braves should have done differently. And it started back in 2009 when Cox refused to put KJ or Prado in LF over Garret Suckass Anderson.
 
thewupk said:
I still think that was a bad decision that just happened to have good results. IMO Renteria wasn't a horrible idea to replace Furcal. But I think his value was so low that it shouldn't have taken Marte to get him.
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Honestly, I don't disagree. But I always think it sounds unseemly for me to say, "I was completely right, it's just that reality didn't play along."
 
50PoundHead said:
I don't mull it over too often. Somehow Prado surpassed him in Cox's eyes (which were the only eyes that mattered and were sometimes near-sighted) and it was just a matter of time before Johnson was out of town. I always thought they should have had Johnson play some 1B and OF after Prado displaced him as the starting 2B, but there was something about Johnson that Cox obviously didn't like as a player. Prado has had the better career to this point, but I think Johnson can be a valuable cog for the right team.

Kelly Johnson reminds me a bit of Michael Tucker as a hitter. Looks the part to a T. Beautiful swing. Good strike zone recognition. Everything comes together periodically, but not consistently enough to elevate to a higher performance strata.
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Well considering that KJ had a number of shortcomings and made some memorable bad plays at 2B, I understood the move. I wasn't a KJ lover, but I did like the guy's offensive game at the time, and why we didn't at least try to move him to the outfield at that point in time when it was a huge need was stupid and short-sided on the Braves part.

Ahhhh.......Michael Tucker, everytime I saw the guy swing a bat I swear I saw glimpes of Ken Griffey Jr, except that the end result was a can of corn to the rightfielder instead of a 440 ft. bomb.
 
50PoundHead said:
I never bought Kelly Johnson as Utley-lite, but I wouldn't mind having him on the team in 2015. Good LH bat who can play multiple positions. That's something we are looking for.
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I think he would be a pretty good fit as a LHed bench bat. He would be a good compliment to CJ, Pastor, Goss, and Peraza.
 
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