Soriano accepts arbitration offer from Braves

Rafael Soriano was one of only three players to accept arbitration as the deadline to do so came and went at 12:00 AM Eastern Tuesday morning.

It's expected Soriano will be awarded somewhere between $6.5 million to $7 million. Under arbirtration rules, the contract is not guaranteed, but the Braves cannot trade Soriano until after June 1st unless they first obtain his persmission.

Suddenly, the Braves have a deep, expensive bullpen headed by Billy Wagner, Takashi Saito, and Rafael Soriano, who will command a total of about $17 million in 2010.

Frank Wren may try to move Soriano along with Derek Lowe and Kelly Johnson via trade, but Soriano's hefty price tag paired with his difficulty staying healthy over the past several seasons may make him a difficult pawn to maneuver during this Hot Stove Season.

Also returning in the Atlanta bullpen are Peter Moylan, Kris Medlen, Eric O'Flaherty, & Manny Acosta. Boone Logan, Jo-Jo Reyes and either Derek Lowe or Kenshin Kawakami may also figure into the mix.

Rumor Mill: Braves eager to become latest franchise to be fleeced by Billy Beane

With only 3 days before the MLB non-waiver trade deadline, the rumor mills are a-churning. And while we've been inundated with the details of the negotiations between the Blue Jays and Phillies over the fate of Roy Halladay, the Braves on the other hand haven't been a topic of trade deadline discussion since some bizarre rumors that Javier Vazquez was being shopped fizzled out a couple of weeks ago.

... until today.

A rumor surfaced Tuesday afternoon that Atlanta was in talks with the Oakland Atheltics regarding a potential Kelly Johnson-for-Michael Wuertz swap.

I bet I know where the front office is coming from: they think that, between Martin Prado, Yunel Escobar, and Kelly Johnson, they have a surplus of middle infielders.

But what they may be mistaking as a surplus is in actuality a misallocation of resources.

Kelly Johnson would be an offensive upgrade over Casey Kotchman at first base. Kelly Johnson would be an offensive and defensive upgrade over Garret Anderson in left field. And while Martin Prado has been stellar over the past year, he's hardly a known quantity at this point. I don't think I could say with any certainty that Kelly Johnson won't have a better career than Martin Prado (for what it's worth, Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA lists KJ's second closest comparable player as Chase Utley).

The preceding claims are only true, of course, if you believe the entirety of the 2007 and 2008 season to be more representative of Johnson's true skill level (as I do) versus the injury-riddled 2009 version of Johnson.

But this doesn't even begin to consider the fact that the Braves probably don't need the bullpen help in the first place. True, there's something of a drop-off after Rafael Soriano and Mike Gonzalez, but Peter Moylan has been fine, Eric O'Flaherty has been a solid LOOGY option, and Kris Medlen is stepping up nicely. And, oh yeah, some dude named Tim Hudson is currently rehabbing in Single A.

Hopefully, Frank Wren will realize what a talent he has in Kelly Johnson (relative to those who are stealing playing time from him) and this will all have been a bunch of griping over nothing on my part.

Braves rout Brewers 10-2

A game that had the makings of a pitchers' duel through the fifth inning turned into a slugfest by the end of the sixth. Already up 1-0 on a first inning Brian McCann double that drove in Nate McLouth, the Braves put a four-spot on the Brewers in the top of the sixth, fueled by a McCann walk, singles by Garrett Anderson and Matt Diaz, and a two-run homer by Casey Kotchman to cap the rally.

The Brewers answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning off of Derek Lowe, who had a solid but unspectacular outing, walking none while striking out three. Ten out of the 15 outs Lowe induced on balls in play came via the ground ball, so the groundball machine was in peak form today.

Kelly Johnson was impressive in his first start back from the disabled list, going 3-for-4 with a walk, a homerun, 2 doubles, and a stolen base.

Kris Medlen gave up one hit in a scoreless ninth inning. The Braves were already up 8 runs when he came into the game, but one can't help but wonder if Bobby Cox's decision to use him in the 9th was a test to see how well he might do in high-leverage relief situations. Last week, we suggested that such a role would be the ideal short-term use of Mr Medlen.



The win allowed the Braves to keep pace with the Rockies in the NL wild card race. Colorado topped San Francisco 4-2 on Sunday.

The Braves are off on Monday but pick things back up on Tuesday against the Marlins, who are currently tied with the Braves for second place in the NL East.