Uggla-How Long a Leash?

nsacpi

nsacpi

Expects Yuge Games
Looks like the Owl will head into spring training as our second baseman. I imagine he has a fairly limited amount of time to show that what happened in the second half of last year is not the real Dan Uggla.

The questions I wanted to discuss are how much time will (should) the Braves give him and what kind of results does he have to produce to hold on to the job?

My guess is he will be given until mid-May and he's going to have to put up an OPS of .700 or higher to keep the job. Defense could come into play if he shows deterioration from his already below-average defense.
 
Good question. I hope it's not very long. All he brings is power, but fundamentally, he's just terrible anymore.
 
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I am hoping it's not long, if Uggla is not hitting he needs to be a bench bat at most. We already know he's bad defensively and isn't likely to improve with age.

BTW, I thought it was interesting that Todd Cunningham spent this off-season working out at second base. Todd obviously realizes that we are the weakest there. Plus if he can play both second and the outfield, then he has a better shot at making our bench.
 
I just hope we dont have the same situation with Uggla that happened with Lowe where Lowe pitched well for a few months and he might have been tradeable but then all of a sudden people thought we couldnt afford to trade him because he was pitching well. Then he proceeds to turn back into a pumpkin and we had a hard time giving him away. If Uggla has a good first month they need to trade him to anyone who takes a decent amount of his salary.
 
cajunrevenge said:
I just hope we dont have the same situation with Uggla that happened with Lowe where Lowe pitched well for a few months and he might have been tradeable but then all of a sudden people thought we couldnt afford to trade him because he was pitching well. Then he proceeds to turn back into a pumpkin and we had a hard time giving him away. If Uggla has a good first month they need to trade him to anyone who takes a decent amount of his salary.
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Great point but I'm afraid we're likely to repeat that mistake if that happens. I still believe we should sign someone like Burnett to a one year deal, then package Uggla in a trade with a starter. If you package him with one of our starters someone should take him. Now you won't get anywhere near the return, but you would dump salary and remove Uggla. It's mostly trading that starter and Uggla for the free agent starter you sign as that's where the money you're dumping goes. That said, DOB says the Braves are not even interested in Burnett because we already have enough starters.
 
Braves1976 said:
I am hoping it's not long, if Uggla is not hitting he needs to be a bench bat at most. We already know he's bad defensively and isn't likely to improve with age.

BTW, I thought it was interesting that Todd Cunningham spent this off-season working out at second base. Todd obviously realizes that we are the weakest there. Plus if he can play both second and the outfield, then he has a better shot at making our bench.
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I believe Cunningham played third in college and we converted him to outfield. The past infield experience might help him with a conversion to second if that is in the cards.
 
If LaStella looks like he's ready to go then the leash on Uggla needs to be short. But it might be wise to give Uggla a chance up to the point in which you could maintain an extra year of control on LaStella. So I guess that's sometime in June.
 
cajunrevenge said:
I just hope we dont have the same situation with Uggla that happened with Lowe where Lowe pitched well for a few months and he might have been tradeable but then all of a sudden people thought we couldnt afford to trade him because he was pitching well. Then he proceeds to turn back into a pumpkin and we had a hard time giving him away. If Uggla has a good first month they need to trade him to anyone who takes a decent amount of his salary.
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I think even with a good first month, Uggla is pretty much untradeable. We would have to get lucky in the sense of another team having injuries to their second baseman and his backup to be able to dump any significant amount of his remaining salary.
 
nsacpi said:
I believe Cunningham played third in college and we converted him to outfield. The past infield experience might help him with a conversion to second if that is in the cards.
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Cunningham does have infield experience, quoting the article about his work at second this off-season: "Cunningham starred at shortstop for Jacksonville High then outfield during his first two seasons at JSU. He moved to shortstop his junior season at JSU then was drafted in the second round (53rd overall) as a third baseman."

Read more: Anniston Star - Ex JSU star Cunningham expanding versatility with offseason work at second base
 
Great news about Cunningham. I really want to see him on the team (if the roster stays as is).
 
With Pena on the bench able to produce decently against RHers, I imagine Uggla's leash is very short...as in a month max. If he struggles the first 2-3 weeks expect to see a platoon with Pena. If TLS looks good a couple months into the AAA season and the Uggla/Pena platoon is as bad as I'm sure it will be, expect to see TLS given a shot. If TLS struggles for 1-2 months at the MLB level, expect Wren to trade for another warm body to play 2B.

In short, expect 2B to be a trouble spot and revolving door allllllllll season. It was blatantly obvious the position needed to be fixed, yeat it was completely ignored, so we all know it's going to be brutal all year.
 
If the Braves are smart they give the position to TLS if Uggla struggles, platoons involving a guy who doesn't have a platoon split and a guy who has hit for one season of his career is dumb. Infact Uggla has a reverse split, he hits righties better than lefties.

Meanwhile odds are TLS at his worst is something like .280/.350/.410. Tommy is going to hit at the major league level, unless he somehow forgets his awesome discipline and plate recognition. His skill set will produce a lot of hits for this team and he'll get on base a lot as well.
 
You give him a month and go from there. I think he should have to have a 750 or so OPS. I'm not too concerned with his avg as long as he's walking a lot and hitting a lot of homers. As showed in 2011 he can still hit 233 and be somewhat productive offensively.
 
He'd be a $12 mil bench bat and I'd start La Stella if I were management BUT I think he'll have until July to get back on track
 
I like LaStella because I think we're too power-and-strikeout heavy. Uggla obviates the problem when he hits .240 with the walks, but at .180 we're just too hit-or-miss. Literally.

I've seen LaStella with the glove and think he's just fine. As I've said before, I think defensive metrics are overweighted for WAR purposes and dicey as a predictor.

Having said all that, the Braves will do what they do - give Uggla til Memorial Day to play himself out of a job. Or not. And really, they probably should - nobody should be ducking out of the way of breaking balls the way he was. There was clearly something wrong there, and I imagine LASIK takes some getting used to in his line of work. He's not pushing paper. And he was about as consistent a power hitter as you'll see, until the tomahawk.
 
Braves1976 said:
Cunningham does have infield experience, quoting the article about his work at second this off-season: "Cunningham starred at shortstop for Jacksonville High then outfield during his first two seasons at JSU. He moved to shortstop his junior season at JSU then was drafted in the second round (53rd overall) as a third baseman."

Read more: Anniston Star - Ex JSU star Cunningham expanding versatility with offseason work at second base
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Interesting. Thanks for that.
 
A lot of you guys didn't want to listen to me. You heard it here first that you might as well get used to having Uggla still around, but, no. Ever since October, there were trade proposals, rumors about swapping for 4 years of Brandon Phillips and brainfarts about paying 90% of Uggla's salary. Reality eventually set in, and the org understood that there was no market for his services. So, the only sensible thing to do was hope his eyesight adjusted to Lasik, place faith in the hitting instructors to succeed on their 2 biggest projects (Uggla & B Upton) and hope that Uggla is relaxed with new wife or porn star gf at the penthouse.
 
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