Uggla not on nlds roster?

[msstate7]

When the Braves announce their National League Division Series roster on Wednesday, there is a distinct possibility Dan Uggla will not be included.

Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez met with some players regarding roster decisions after the team held a workout that was closed to media members on Tuesday at Turner Field. An industry source said Uggla was informed that he will not be part of the 25-man roster the Braves will use during their best-of-five NLDS matchup against the Dodgers.

Before making anything official on Wednesday, the Braves will first evaluate the health of some of the players, including right-handed reliever Jordan Walden, who has been ineffective in three of the four appearances he has made since missing three weeks with a strained groin.

If Uggla is indeed left off the roster, the Braves could go with a 12-man pitching staff, which could provide some insurance in the event that Walden?s struggles continue.

Uggla has batted .179 with 22 home runs and a .671 OPS in 136 games this season. The veteran second baseman has hit .133 with one home run and a .508 OPS in the 77 plate appearances he has compiled while playing 24 games since undergoing LASIK surgery to repair his vision in August.

As the regular season?s final weeks unfolded, it became apparent that Elliot Johnson would serve as Atlanta?s starting second baseman when the postseason began. But there was some thought there might still be a bench spot for Uggla, who drew the club?s highest salary ($13 million) this year.


http://markbowman.mlblogs.com/2013/10/01/uggla-could-be-left-off-the-braves-nlds-roster/


Thoughts?

[Dawg61]

Uggla is terrible but I'd still find a spot for him

[Will James]

Good for them Uggla has been a second pitcher in the lineup for Atlanta since the break.

[bully99]

Not surprising. Looks like Maholm will be on postseason roster; not sure how much he will pitch.

[starkvegasdawg]

How do they plan on replacing his three k's and one pop up a game production?

[msstate7]

How do they plan on replacing his three k's and one pop up a game production?

Bj

[War Machine Dawg]

I know I've gone well past beating the dead horse, but I f'n hated the Uggla trade at the time and it's even worse now. He's had exactly one good half of baseball since coming over. He's never been a guy who hit's for average, but 25+ HRs and 90ish RBI is playable when you hit .250. Not so much when you hit .210 or less. Now we're stuck with an awful long term deal and can't move or cut him.

Mark it down, BJ's signing is on the way to being just as bad or worse. If he has a good couple of months to start next season, we should move him for whatever we can get. It'll get El Oso Blanco into the lineup full time and/or get Schafer more PT. I call that a win-win.

[Maroons]

It's pretty apparent that he's off the juice. Thought he looked markedly smaller when the season started.

[War Machine Dawg]

It's pretty apparent that he's off the juice. Thought he looked markedly smaller when the season started.

He was smaller, but that was intentional. He did an interview during spring training saying he felt way too bulked up last season, so he focused on slimming down this year. And he still hit 22 bombs, even though he missed time from the Lasik surgery. The power is still there, he's just gotten markedly worse at making contact. When he does, the ball still goes far. I just wish we could start Pastornicky at 2B. Salary shouldn't matter, but it unfortunately does in pro baseball. We're stuck with Uggla for at least 2-3 more years. Maybe he'll do us a favor and retire.

[msstate7]

He was smaller, but that was intentional. He did an interview during spring training saying he felt way too bulked up last season, so he focused on slimming down this year. And he still hit 22 bombs, even though he missed time from the Lasik surgery. The power is still there, he's just gotten markedly worse at making contact. When he does, the ball still goes far. I just wish we could start Pastornicky at 2B. Salary shouldn't matter, but it unfortunately does in pro baseball. We're stuck with Uggla for at least 2-3 more years. Maybe he'll do us a favor and retire.

Or Ramiro Pena

[Maroons]

I'm convinced he stated that publicly to avert any discussion of how much slimmer he got after getting clean.

He has to swing harder now to still hit those bombs, hence the horrendous average.

[msstate7]

I'm convinced he stated that publicly to avert any discussion of how much slimmer he got after getting clean.

He has to swing harder now to still hit those bombs, hence the horrendous average.

If he was juiced, then he's a hypocrite. He's always blasting players that get busted for PEDs.

[BoomBoom]

I know I've gone well past beating the dead horse, but I f'n hated the Uggla trade at the time and it's even worse now. He's had exactly one good half of baseball since coming over. He's never been a guy who hit's for average, but 25+ HRs and 90ish RBI is playable when you hit .250. Not so much when you hit .210 or less. Now we're stuck with an awful long term deal and can't move or cut him.

Mark it down, BJ's signing is on the way to being just as bad or worse. If he has a good couple of months to start next season, we should move him for whatever we can get. It'll get El Oso Blanco into the lineup full time and/or get Schafer more PT. I call that a win-win.

don't conflate the trade with the contract extension. the trade was great, the 5 year extension for an aging low-contact slugger was dumb, and that they repeated it with BJ was moronic. Getting to the playoffs has saved Wren's job, IMO, but those mistakes probably have him on the hot seat.

[FISHDAWG]

FishDawg approves this move .... ok, they can take him along as their bat boy if they want ... the best stretch of wins was when Uggla & BJ Upton were on the DL

[smootness]

I'm convinced he stated that publicly to avert any discussion of how much slimmer he got after getting clean.

He has to swing harder now to still hit those bombs, hence the horrendous average.

It's not as though his first two years in Atlanta were good. This isn't a new problem this year. He has had an awful average his entire tenure here.

[smootness]

Getting to the playoffs has saved Wren's job, IMO, but those mistakes probably have him on the hot seat.

Woah, woah, woah now. Wren is by no means on the hot seat. He is a phenomenal GM overall.

[msstate7]

Woah, woah, woah now. Wren is by no means on the hot seat. He is a phenomenal GM overall.

Wren is outstanding getting players with no apparent value and getting some good production out of them. He just seems to struggle when it comes to signing big extensions. Wren pulled the trigger on the jup and Chris Johnson trade. I love prado, but we won that trade and it helped us win the east

[smootness]

Wren pulled the trigger on the jup and Chris Johnson trade. I love prado, but we won that trade and it helped us win the east

Agreed.

And I'm not sure he struggles with signing players to extensions, he's just had some bad luck. It's always a risk when you sign a guy to a big, long-term deal, but you have to do it with some guys. For example, we needed a CF after last year. We essentially had two good options, Bourn and BJ. Bourn was asking for the money that BJ got, and we thought BJ was the better player, so we took him. It turns out Bourn didn't command as much, but we couldn't risk being left without either one. We had no way of knowing BJ would be this bad. He was never a great hitter, aside from one year early in his career, but I was still ok with what we thought we were getting...a guy who would hit .240-.250 with some pop, steal a good many bases, and play good defense.

Instead, we got a guy who couldn't hit at all, could field ok, and didn't steal anything. We had no way of knowing he would have a drop-off like that. Hopefully he rebounds next year, but it's going to be dicey.

I figured Uggla would struggle during the last year or two of his 5-year deal, but instead, he struggled immediately. Again, we thought we were getting a guy who would hit about .250 (and even up to .280, as he had done in the recent past) with 30+ HRs and good on-base ability, and instead we got a guy who couldn't hit at all, though his on-base skills and power were still there.

Of course, Uggla was still arguably worth the money his first couple of years considering he was playing 2B; he was a valuable piece at that position. This year, obviously, he wasn't.

I just think there are times when you have to shell out some money in free agency if you want to compete, and in the current baseball setting, it's a risk to sign anybody who is nearing 30 or over. You've got to do it at times and just cross your fingers that you get what you think you're getting.

[War Machine Dawg]

don't conflate the trade with the contract extension. the trade was great, the 5 year extension for an aging low-contact slugger was dumb, and that they repeated it with BJ was moronic. Getting to the playoffs has saved Wren's job, IMO, but those mistakes probably have him on the hot seat.

Wrong. We gave up 2 good players - Infante and Dunn - to get Uggla. Plus, if we don't have Uggla's contract, we could have kept Prado at 2B. I'd go so far as to say we wouldn't have had to move him to get Justin Upton, because we'd have had plenty of other trade bait from the money we'd have saved on Uggla. Can you imagine how much better this team would be with either Prado or Infante as the every day 2B? That's what we gave up when we traded Uggla.

I agree the extension was just as bad or worse, but don't pretend like the trade itself was good. It was awful too.

[War Machine Dawg]

Agreed.

And I'm not sure he struggles with signing players to extensions, he's just had some bad luck. It's always a risk when you sign a guy to a big, long-term deal, but you have to do it with some guys. For example, we needed a CF after last year. We essentially had two good options, Bourn and BJ. Bourn was asking for the money that BJ got, and we thought BJ was the better player, so we took him. It turns out Bourn didn't command as much, but we couldn't risk being left without either one. We had no way of knowing BJ would be this bad. He was never a great hitter, aside from one year early in his career, but I was still ok with what we thought we were getting...a guy who would hit .240-.250 with some pop, steal a good many bases, and play good defense.

Instead, we got a guy who couldn't hit at all, could field ok, and didn't steal anything. We had no way of knowing he would have a drop-off like that. Hopefully he rebounds next year, but it's going to be dicey.

I figured Uggla would struggle during the last year or two of his 5-year deal, but instead, he struggled immediately. Again, we thought we were getting a guy who would hit about .250 (and even up to .280, as he had done in the recent past) with 30+ HRs and good on-base ability, and instead we got a guy who couldn't hit at all, though his on-base skills and power were still there.

Of course, Uggla was still arguably worth the money his first couple of years considering he was playing 2B; he was a valuable piece at that position. This year, obviously, he wasn't.

I just think there are times when you have to shell out some money in free agency if you want to compete, and in the current baseball setting, it's a risk to sign anybody who is nearing 30 or over. You've got to do it at times and just cross your fingers that you get what you think you're getting.

We had other CF options. We were also in the running for Denard Span. You want to tell me you wouldn't have rather had Span at the top of the lineup this season than a notoriously streaky "power hitter" in BJ? Give me Span all day, every day.

[msstate7]

We had other CF options. We were also in the running for Denard Span. You want to tell me you wouldn't have rather had Span at the top of the lineup this season than a notoriously streaky "power hitter" in BJ? Give me Span all day, every day.

The flying Hawaiian was a free agent too.

[War Machine Dawg]

The flying Hawaiian was a free agent too.

Forgot about him. He was another guy I thought we should take a run at getting. Bottom line, Wren screwed the pooch with BJ. I've never been a big Wren fan. The farm system has saved his ass, because his overall evaluation of actual MLB players has suuuuuuuucked.

[BrunswickDawg]

Uggla not on roster, Maholm not on roster per the tweeters from the AJC beat writer

[smootness]

We had other CF options. We were also in the running for Denard Span. You want to tell me you wouldn't have rather had Span at the top of the lineup this season than a notoriously streaky "power hitter" in BJ? Give me Span all day, every day.

I don't like Span and never wanted us to go after him. He doesn't ultimately give you much.

I never wanted BJ to lead-off. That isn't on Wren, that's on Fredi. Heyward was always our best option to leadoff, it just took his hands being tied for Fredi to actually try it.

But the BJ we thought we were signing was better than Span previously and was better than this year's version of Span, too. Again, if you want to crucify Wren for that, you're going to have to show me why it was reasonable to conclude the other FA possibilities would remain about what they had been (Bourn fell off, too, though he obviously remained better than what BJ became) while BJ would plummet off the face of the earth.

And you cannot just assume that if we don't get Uggla, we end up with Justin Upton while keeping Prado. Who are we going to give Arizona? They wanted a 3B and valued Prado extremely highly; you're telling me Infante gets us the same value? Or that we just throw more junk at them and they still do the deal? We would have had to include Teheran if we didn't throw Prado in, and that would have been a terrible move...we also wouldn't have gotten Chris Johnson in return.

And it's funny that you claim the farm system 'saved' Wren, when he is the guy most responsible for the farm system.