Last night the first place Philadelphia Phillies acquired Outfielder Hunter Pence from Houston for four prospects. Now we all wait for the Atlanta Braves to try and make a counter move in order to stay in contention with the Phillies. They're best player Brain McCann and Center fielder Nate McClouth just hit the DL, and Jason Heyward is not putting put the desired numbers. The Braves are 0-2 in acquiring a desired outfielder failing on Carlos Beltran and Pence. So if you're the Braves, what do you do?
There's still a couple outfield pieces out there for the taking for Atlanta. There's the other "Texas Hot" outfielder in Houston, Michael Bourne, Tampa's troublesome Bossman Junior (B.J) Upton, a couple Oakland Athletics Josh Willingham and Coco Crisp, a "dad" Ryan Ludwick, and a "highly likely to be unavailable" Carlos Quentin from the south side of Chicago.
To me this is a two horse race for the Braves and almost a no brainer. I think it's between Michael Bourne and B.J Upton. Michael Bounre is the league leader in stolen bases, batting .350 so far this week and his past couple weeks batting averages are (.357 and .448). By trading Pence Houston has basically given up on the next 5 seasons and I couldn't see them asking for that much for Bourne. They have nothing to play for and I think they should take advantage of that. Plus Atlanta is 26th in the league in stolen bases. Don't you think they could use a little speed on the bases considering they have Chipper and (when he comes back) Mccann chugging along around the dirt?
Now the only reason I have Upton as an option is because he's proven to be good late in seasons in years past. He caught fire when Tampa was in the playoffs in 2008 hitting 7 home runs. Atlanta basically has to just be ready for the playoffs and it seems BJ wouldn't be bad for that for that. However, he is also known for being a hot head with is teammates and is not exactly a "chemistry builder" along with putting up horrible numbers this.
As for those other people I mentioned earlier, I'll just get them done with quickly. Do you really want an offense player from Oakland? Ryan Ludwick is nowhere what he used to be in St. Louis, and again Chicago is still very much in the race in the A.L Central so Quentin (which actually would be the best offensive player left) is not really available.
So if you're the Braves G.M, Frank Wren, dont you think the remaining options are simply a "Bourne Supremecy"? What do you guys think?
*stats are according to http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/u/uptonbj01.shtml and mlb.com*
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