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ATLANTA--Denizens, take a good look at the man above. At first glance, he appears to be a genial, kindly old chap, slightly resembling what I expect Anthony Hopkins to look like when he turns 95. Do not be fooled, as this man, Furman Bisher, a member of the AJC's staff of "sports columnists", is something much, much more cynical (not to mention senile).
In his latest attempt at journalism, Bisher attempts to state a case that the Braves farm system is barren, and Frank Wren is to blame. I'll spare you the gory, ignorant details, but if you find yourself short of alcohol and want to kill a few brain cells, read the piece.
I, R. Fukuoka Henderson, am sort of a masochist myself, and thus submit myself to such journalistic folly as often as possible. I would tell you I feel bad for my following assault on this 90 year-old (unconfirmed) man's thought process, integrity, and general view on whatever pops into his head at the moment, but unlike Mr. Bisher, I do not like to provide false information to my audience.
The following are the highlight's of Bisher's senility and/or stupidity, and my corresponding response, which I hope forces him into retirement out of realization that his life as a journalist is a sham.
There comes a time in the life of any guy . . . that he is seized by this urge to take over the management of somebody’s baseball team. In this case: The Braves. While most everybody else is looking in the direction of some football conflict, perhaps I can reply to the seizure without hurting somebody’s feelings. In this case: Frank Wren’s
Blaming Wren for not keeping the system stocked is extremely weak considering he’s been through one amateur draft. Add to that that there is still exceptional to quality talent in the system in Tommy Hanson, Jason Heyward, Jordan Schafer, Freddie Freeman, Cole Rohrbough, Julio Teheran, Jeffrey Locke, Kris Medlen and Cody Johnson.
The prospect of facing the next season with Jair Jurrjens as ace of the staff seems to have present management so perturbed that they went out and signed another pitcher with a losing record and an inflated ERA, Javier Vazquez.
You can knock on Vazquez’s inflated ERA, but it’s somewhat mistelling in that he consistently has great control numbers, is relatively difficult to hit, and has some of the best FIP numbers out there. The guy consistently throws up 200 innings and 200 K’s. And if you’re ignorant enough to knock his being a sub-.500 pitcher, the guy once went 10-13 while throwing up a 3.91, followed by a mere 13-12 after throwing 3.24 ball all year for terrible Montreal teams. Next to saves, wins are the most worthless “statistic” out there.
In the past season the Braves have traded away a busload of prospects for, in one case, a mere flirtation with Mark Teixiera, who was merely passing through town. They did happen to pick up an inexpensive Casey Kotchman in the deal, but back to Vazquez again, they traded a hot number with power, Tyler Flowers, for him.
As much as I hate to see Flowers go, he had nowhere to play as he was blocked by McCann, Freeman is a comparable to better 1B prospect, and Flowers was 22—23 next year—and still in A ball.
Even though in retrospect the Tex trade looks bad, consider that Andrus was and still is blocked by Yunel Escobar, Salty was blocked by McCann and he was probably an average bat at 1B at best, and Feliz was an 18 year old fresh off his first season of Rookie ball, and as most anyone can tell you projecting young pitchers from A-ball up is a crapshoot given the attrition that an organization can take. Doesn’t make the trade any better now, but the move was and to some extent still is justified.
As if they didn’t learn a costly lesson from [Hampton], they are now leaving their calling card with A.J. Burnett’s agent, 31 years old and twice under the knife. Oh, but for the likes of the young and handsome Adam Wainwright.
If you want to compare Burnett’s injury history to somebody, choose someone better than Adam Wainwright, who lost 12 to 13 starts to the DL last year, missed most of 2004 in the minors with an injury, and has misses time here and there throughout his minor league career. Sure it’s not Tommy John, but I would say he compares better to the infamous Mike Hampton and his strained quads/pecks/shoulders more than Burnett’s reconstructive elbow surgery. That, and without J.D. Drew in 2004, who had an All-Star and perhaps even MVP type year, the Braves likely miss the playoffs.
Not to malign Senor Vazquez, but such signings as these have not worked out to the glory of the cause, and I cite here Russ Ortiz, Albie Lopez and the most costly of all, Mike Hampton.
In addition, of Bisher’s examples, only Lopez was a signing. Vazquez (TR CWS-Flowers), Ortiz (TR SF-Damian Moss), and Hampton (TR FLA-Spooneybarger) were all acquired with pre-existing contracts using pieces of this so-called weak farm system. It’s incredibly difficult to have any journalistic credibility if you 1: don’t know the extent of the talent currently in the system that you are openly criticizing and 2: can’t even provide solid facts in your argument.
Honestly, AJC, as the most prominent newspaper in the South, you owe it to yourself to do a hell of a lot better than Furman Bisher, Terrance Moore, and Mark Bradley. At least you have your one saving grace in Dave O'Brian, the one source of anything pertinent or logical in your publication.
