| Doug Benton. 12th November, 2005 - 1:21 pm
 With another first round exit this past October, the Braves can?t hang their collective heads for too long as they have a busy off-season ahead of them. While they have areas that need to be addressed, possibly with either call-ups from the farm system or via free agents and trades, they can?t forget to take care of their own guys first.
The Braves number one priority has to be shortstop Rafael Furcal and what they want to do with him. They should decide very soon whether they are going to get into the bidding war or choose to use their money in other areas. What they do with Furcal will set up the rest of the off-season and what they do with free agents Kyle Farnsworth and Julio Franco, two players they should re-sign.
Now, going out into the open market, the Braves need to make a run at a premier bullpen arm to either set-up Farnsworth or take over the closer position. Possible candidates that the Braves could pursue that would be of some help and won?t break the bank are San Diego?s Trevor Hoffman, Florida?s Todd Jones, and Pittsburgh?s Jose Mesa. Other bargain basement finds are Boston?s Matt Mantei and Oakland?s Octavio Dotel, who is coming off elbow surgery.
Besides adding one of these pitchers, I believe the Braves should just let their young positional players grow into the starting roles. They were hurt last season when they forced acquisitions of Brian Jordan and Raul Mondesi instead of letting their farm system do the work for them.
So once again in 2006, the Braves chances will rely on the starting rotation and timely hitting from the Jones boys and their Baby Braves. |
