Re: **Atlanta Braves offseason thread
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You forgot about Andruw Jones.
Or pretty much anyone else in the MLB. Hell, move Francoeur to CF, get any scrub in the corner OF or platoon. Anderson is below replacement level.
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No, Anderson is not below replacement level. You forget about two little things called speed and defense. Even Nook Logan had a 2.0 WARP last year in ~350 PA. I'd put the over/under on Andersonas a regular CF at about 1.5. That makes Andruw Jones and his 7.5 projection worht about $15MM-$17MM to the Braves, exactly what he'll get via arb.
If Jones will accept a one year deal, arb or otherwise, that's a good move. The Braves are not a team that ink long term deals for overpriced veterans to block their top prospects. Moving Francouer to CF might not be terrible for one year, but I doubt they can do any better buying a RF when you factor in the loss of defense at two positioins. Anderson will be a bad regular CF, but if he plays average defense, his offense won't kill him to the point of being below replacement level. He will also cost a measly $300k. Whether or not buying a CF/RF is worth it depends on what they can get vs what else they can get for the money. To tell you the truth, this market is so barren, the Braves might just be best off throwing that money into their draft pool and trying to make do with Brandon Jones, Lillibridge, Blanco, and Anderson and see if they can't deal prospects at the deadline. The only other FA I can see that makes any sense is Luis Gonzalez. That would put Brandon Jones/Matt Diaz in RF and Frenchy to CF and be a terrible defensive OF. The other FA option would be to take the OF money and throw it at an injury risk pitcher.
BTW, the more I think about it, the more I think Lofton is the perfect fit for Atlanta (although I think he's a perfect fit for many teams). He'll project about 4.5 wins, so that's a 3 win improvement over Anderson and he'll only cost about $6MM-$7MM on a one year deal. The Braves have enough cheap depth in the OF to cover the time his old legs need to spend on the bench.
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