Jason Heyward --> Cards, Shelby Miller --> Braves

[seawolf17]

WHOA.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/11892064/atlanta-braves-trade-jason-heyward-jordan-walden-st-louis-cardinals-shelby-miller-tyrell-jenkins

[A Boy Named Seo]

Exciting, young player challenge trade! My first reaction is the Braves got over on 'em, but maybe the Cards already lost faith in Miller and his disappearing K/9 numbers. Awesome trade either way. Braves rotation (Teheran, Miller, Minor, Brandon Beachy) could be pretty formidable.

[TransMonk]

Miller had a down year in 2014, but he's still an asset and makes the Braves rotation compete with what the Nats and Mets throw out there.

[Frayed Knot]

Ooooh, nice headline grabber!!

Miller's also only 24 and is under club control for another four seasons.
Hayward's just barely a year older but can be a FA at the end of 2015.

Word was out that the Braves were looking to restock their pitching and were willing to deal an OFer to do so but I figured it would be an Upton before Heyward. His defense alone was worth a lot (he's the only guy in the same neighborhood as Lagares acc to the numbers guys) particularly if his replacement is effectively Gattis who it sounds like they want to move out from behind the plate more often.
The pitching is looking nice but one of their strengths over the last few years is that they've been able to run the same lineup out there almost every day and now they suddenly find themselves with two holes to fill: 2B plus some combo of OF/C and that's before you throw in the 150-point drop in OPS that Chris Johnson gave them at 3B this past year.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Interesting deal which I'd like to see blow up in both of their faces but if you ask me I wanna be the club getting offense and defense, not the young pitcher.

[Frayed Knot]

Cards also get that mound-hopping reliever freak Jordan Walden in the deal (under control for 2 more seasons)
Braves get a lower-level minor lg RHP -- Tyrell Jenkins; 2010 1st round (50th overall) draft pick

Edited November 17, 2014 by Guest

[Edgy MD]

There's a lot of starting pitching in this division.

[seawolf17]

Edgy MD wrote: There's a lot of starting pitching in this division.

Seriously. Nobody's going to score any runs this year.

[A Boy Named Seo]

This trade prob doesn't go down if Oscar Tavares didn't die.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Nice haul for the Cards; you don't need to put a gun to my head to get me to choose their side of this.

[Edgy MD]

Braves looking like they're joining the Mets as a team with six starters.

[ashie62]

Miller regressed last season.

[Frayed Knot]

Ashie62 wrote: Miller regressed last season.

He also just turned 24 so don't write him off quite yet.




FWIW, a quick peak through a Cardinals forum has them almost universally loving this deal despite being guaranteed of only one year of Heyward. Part of that is based on their confidence (arrogance?) that one season in StL in front of the BFiB will have the Georgia native sprinting to re-up for many more at below market rates.
I don't know any Braves sites to check on their view on today's developments.

[Edgy MD]

Braves Nation, which is shutting down operations this offseason, seems mostly tomahawk down on this dealio.

Julio & Miller looked like a great tandem to have 2 years ago, but with the way Miller's strikeout numbers fell off the map last year I can't imagine that his ceiling is any higher than a 2 or a 3. You can tell Frank Wren isn't running this team anymore.

Wings of Steel wrote: Who wants to commit mass suicide with me? We'll go to that big ass bridge in Savannah on Saturday and jump.

vnodnarb wrote: Our rotation should be good again. We should probably just watch the pitching half of Braves games this coming season.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

No doubt key to the deal was Braves lack of CAHNfidence that they'd be able to sign Heyward, and the Cardinals' assuredness of same. Really sucks that the Cardinals are willing to improve to improve the Braves' pitching to prove that. Douches.

[Edgy MD]

It will be interesting to see if there's anything to Miller's declining strikeout rates.

I would guess the Cardinal brass was thinking there might be.

[Frayed Knot]

One thing about the Braves over the years is that they've been quite willing to let their players walk rather than enter into long-term and expensive contracts that run
into the players' 30s: Andruw, Furcal, McCann, etc. were all still producing reasonably well when they were allowed to walk with little or no resistance from the club.
Even Chipper and all those pitchers worked with contracts that weren't all that long considering their status (Freddie Freeman has the longest deal in club history).
Sometimes the team's had to take a short-term hit while they looked elsewhere to fill those spots, but rarely do they get stuck with an older player wearing an albatross
of a contract around his neck.
Of course that doesn't stop them from getting burned on contracts to players in their 20s -- BJ Upton & Uggla -- but it at least cuts down on the odds.

Hard to know whether Heyward only getting 'only' a two year deal last winter was the result of him planning all along to take himself to FA-gency, or whether that was more
a stopgap when they just couldn't agree on a price, or whether the Braves simply didn't believe in him as much as they did in Freeman, Simmons, Kimbrel, et al
Heyward's kind of an odd player right now; he's got leadoff skills in a power hitter's body and a CF's range playing in a corner spot (although maybe the Cards move him to CF).

[MFS62]

Frayed Knot wrote: I don't know any Braves sites to check on their view on today's developments.

Try this one.
I didn't read it yet, just found it.
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=248&f=2070


From the number of replies, it doesn't seem too active.
Later

[seawolf17]

I read some analysis that talks about the likelihood of signing Heyward that made this make a lot more sense for Atlanta. I hadn't realized he only had one year left before free agency; with a few more years of control over Miller, and a lot of money tied up in Freeman/Simmons/Upton, it's not as lopsided as I originally thought.