Posts tagged BrianMcCann at FanHouse

After a disappointing end to the 2008 season, it's been a quiet winter for the Arizona Diamondbacks. With a stockpile of young talent and rumors that the team it looking to cut payroll, they've largely stood pat, content to bank on that young core to keep them in contention next year and into the next decade.

They took a key step toward keeping that core intact Tuesday, agreeing to a three-year, $14.25 million contract extension with starting catcher Chris Snyder, according to ESPN's Jerry Crasnick. The deal also includes a club option for a fourth year that could raise the total value of the pact to more than $20 million.

Snyder is often overlooked, both alongside the other top young catchers in the game, like Joe Mauer and Brian McCann, and alongside the impressive young talent on Arizona's roster, but he's turned into one of the better backstops around. Even in a year in which he hit .237, Snyder still managed to post a .348 on-base percentage and career highs in home runs, extra-base hits and RBI in 2008, and, at 27, he's just entering his prime.

From the Windup is FanHouse's extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I get pretty aggravated when America doesn't win things we should. For example, I don't even watch the NBA, yet I was one of the biggest Team USA fans for the Olympic men's basketball team in August. America should win the gold in basketball. We invented the game and house the best players. I also believe America should win the World Baseball Classic for the same reasons. (Plus, I'm an ugly American and think we should win everything anyway.)

With this in mind, I'm putting together the perfect team for manager Davey Johnson, in hopes that he takes note.

In my view, there are some things that doomed USA's last WBC team, specifically in the Dontrelle Willis disasters. If you are playing what essentially amount to a bunch of one-game series, you cannot possibly survive with shoddy defense, pitching that gives out free passes, or constantly falling behind in the count. Also, too much reliance on power can hurt you in these games. You need guys who can get on base and "keep the line moving."

July 31 is rapidly approaching. Buy or Sell lets each team know where they stand.

The Braves are stuck in one of the most interesting trade deadline conundrums I think I have seen in awhile. They have the talent to win this year, yet have gotten not just unlucky but also injured. The ability to win now is enhanced by a division that does not appear as strong as it did at the beginning of the season, what with the Braves only seven games back despite a 44-50 record.

We also don't know how new GM Frank Wren thinks, although if his trade deadline maneuvering is as aggressive as his early and midseason moves, I don't expect to see a whole lot. Wren has, for the most part, seemed content to let the roster play out as it stands, rather than attempt to make an early play to help out the pitching rotation.

What remains is a team that could be stacked on offense with Brian McCann, Mark Teixeira and Chipper Jones. But the reality is that a rotation of Tim Hudson, Jair Jurrjens, Jo-Jo Reyes and Jorge Campillo is not going to be effective enough to make a really deep run.

For that reason, I think the Braves are/should/need to become sellers. I hate giving up on a season at the All-Star break, but as noted by the link to SOSG above, the Braves had the potential to be an elite team this year and just haven't caught any breaks.

Jeff Bennett and Brian McCann swear they didn't mean to hit Alfonso Soriano in the face/hand during the second game of the Braves - Cubs series. Although, after getting the full-on broom treatment in Chicago and McCann getting beaned as well, it would not be surprising to hear them change their tone a little bit.

'Obviously we weren't trying to hit Soriano,' McCann said. 'But if they felt like they needed to get back, then we're even now and it's over.'

Bennett was shockingly confident too (basically saying he had Soriano K-balled).

'That's the last thing I wanted to do with a guy on second and with two strikes,' Bennett said. 'I mean, you've got him struck out. He always stands over the plate and dives over it a little bit. If you look over his [scouting report], he'll swing at that high fastball. That's what I wanted to do. It didn't work out that way.'

What he fails to mention is that he was all over the place all evening; as long as you can classify "all evening" as "hanging around long enough to cough up seven runs in two innings". In other words, it's hard to even remotely classify this as intentional.

The interesting thing is that it feels like the Braves and Cubs are developing a little bit of bad blood (I don't want to use rivalry, lest the in-House Blue Bleeders point out the one-sidedness of it) between the two teams. Or perhaps a tough fought sweep combined with 100 years of frustration are just blending together.

Rather than hand you some cumbersome weekly lineup planner, we're just gonna bring you weekly rankings and schedules for each position. Besides, you're smart. And if you're not, we're here to help. Email the Fantasy FanHouse crew and we'll holler back with help.

Some notes on the Catcher Rankings:
- J.R. Towles is a younger guy you might not be onto yet, but you should; same with Geovany Soto. Both are great (and cheap!) options with a ton of upside.

- John Buck is a guy I'm a little higher on than our rankings (crazy mathematical formula, natch) indicate. Buck's got some power in his bat and got white hot at the beginning of 2007; could end up with high teens in homers but probably not a great batting average.

- Brian McCann, with a four game stand in Colorado this week, could easily be the number one guy on this list; it's Russell Martin's ability to swipe bags that puts him over the top (although I'd take McCann for the power and because I'm a homer).

Player		Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat	Sun
R. Martin	LAD	@ AR	@ ARI	@ARI		SD	SD	SD
McCann	ATL	@ COL	@ COL	@ COL	@ COL	@ WAS	@WAS	@WAS
Mauer	MIN	@ CHW		@ CHW	@CHW	@KC	@KC	@KC
Johjima	SEA	@BAL	@ TB	@ TB	@ TB	ANA	ANA	ANA
Soto	CHC	@ PIT		@ PIT	@ PIT	@ PHI	@ PHI	@ PHI

The Braves assigned Javy Lopez to Richmond on Saturday, and obviously with a player that has been around as long as Lopez, there's a question as to whether or not he'll actually accept that assignment, because, you know, that means going to the minor leagues. And no one really likes to admit they can't cut it in the bigs anymore. So Javy did what any filthy rich, not-desperate-to-cling-on ball player would do -- he retired.

'Javy had a great career with the Braves," [Braves GM Frank] Wren said. 'He put up some numbers that are going to be hard to ever beat, from the standpoint of offensive performance from the [catcher] position.

'He told me he really wants to retire as a Brave, said he thinks of himself as a Brave after spending the bulk of his career here. And that's how we think of him, too.'

Javy and the Braves organization might think of him as a lifetime Atlanta guy -- but he did have a monster career / potentially outlier year when he set the record for home runs by a catcher, and then roll to Baltimore for big cash. Not that anyone can really blame him, though. Brian McCann is clearly the future, so it's not shocking that the organization isn't willing to cut a check to Javy as a backup, especially if it's just for sentimental purposes.

All free agent jokes aside, Javy will always be remembered by Braves fans as a crucial piece to the group that won 14 straight division titles; as Chipper Jones said, "it's a sad day". And Chipper was dead on in pointing out that -- all this contrary to the big offensive numbers he put up -- it was Javy that caught those league leading pitchers for all those years.

Who says you can't go home? Javy Lopez, who spent the first 12 years of his career with the Braves, officially re-signed with the team this weekend when he inked a minor league deal in hopes of being their backup catcher. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Lopez hasn't played since being released by Colorado during 2007 spring training, but the Braves think the three-time former All-Star might have enough left to give them a power bat off the bench and to catch once a week or so.
[...]
Wren said Lopez has had private workouts since October with Braves bench coach Chino Cadahia. After Braves officials returned from the Dec. 3-6 Winter Meetings in Nashville, Cadahia told Wren that Lopez had made significant progress and could be worth inviting to training camp.

Of course, there's still the little matter of making the team -- he's been invited to spring training but will compete with no less than three other players (Corky Miller, Brayan Pena and Clint Sammons) for the right to be Brian McCann's backup. Lopez is already 37 years old, and the fact that he took a year off makes me wonder how much rust has settled in. Then again, it's also possible that the time off was good for Lopez, allowing him time for all of the nagging injuries every veteran has to heal. It worked for Troy Percival, didn't it? At worst, it's a good story, allowing a team icon to retire wearing the same jersey he started with.

Earlier today, Matt Watson told you about Moises Alou's gripe with the home plate ump and Braves catcher Brian McCann chatting it up behind the dish yesterday. A few pitches later, Alou was ejected from the game for arguing a check swing third strike.

The above video, shot from the stands, shows Alou getting the boot. Besides the bat throw, things seem pretty tame here. But again, if you are going to show up an ump at the start of your at-bat, he probably has more reason to send you to the clubhouse for the rest of the game.

The real star of this clip? That Mets batboy. After Paul Lo Duca's ejection earlier this year, I applauded his effort. Not sure if it's the same kid here, but if it is -- time to double his salary. He's doing the Lord's work over there.

Previously at FanHouse:
Moises Alou Commands You to Be Quiet!

One of the cardinal unwritten rules of baseball is to never show up an umpire. Moises Alou has been in the game long enough (he once played Class A with Abner Doubleday himself, true story*) to know this, but he tested that rule last night and ended up getting ejected. From the New York Daily News:

Moises Alou, ejected by Andy Fletcher once he began disputing the first base ump's call that he had swung at an eighth-inning pitch for strike three, was fed up with the crew even before that at-bat began.

"The whole thing started with the home plate umpire (Eric Cooper)," Alou said. "He kept talking to (Braves catcher) Brian McCann the whole game. I said, 'You guys need to be quiet over there.' First pitch he calls it a strike, which I thought it was a ball. So I asked him, 'Did you call it because I told you guys to be quiet?'"

I didn't actually see the pitch but if it was at all borderline, of course that was the reason why. Is it fair? Not really, but common sense dictates that you shouldn't begin an at-bat by chirping at the ump. Continuing the complaints between pitches and then after striking out simply sealed his fate.

* No, not true at all.

Major League Mongering will look at players rumored to be on the move between now and the July 31st pseudo-trade-deadline.

The Braves are in second place and bearing down on the Mets despite a rotation that's giving lots of starts to Buddy Carlyle, Kyle Davies, Chuck James, Andrew Lerew, and Jo-Jo Reyes. It's all very un-Braves-like if you ask me. While most of those guys haven't been awful, it's pretty safe to assume that the Braves would like to add a veteran arm to solidify that rotation before the July 31st deadline.

Buster Olney wrote in his blog yesterday that a rumor was passed his way that the Braves were inquiring about Cincinnati starter Bronson Arroyo (Olney link is Insider only, sorry). Arroyo would be a guy that would make a lot of sense for the Braves. He eats up innings like crazy and he's got plenty of experience in pressure packed post-season pitching, having been with the Red Sox from 2003-2005. Add in the fact that he's had a pretty poor first half and the Braves may be able to prod Cincy to sell low on him, and you've got yourself the making of a deadline deal.