Wagner, Saito, and Soriano

Well its been a while since i have had a post on her but directly after the world series nothing was really happening so i just got bored away… But now Frank Wren has gotten to work by making our bullpen much better.

First he went out and signed veteran closer Billy Wagner and a day later got another vet in Takashi Saito. Wagner will be the closer and Saito will be pitching in the eighth inning. I like the back of our bullpen this year even better than last year with Gonzalez and Soriano. I would much rather have an old guy with a lot of experience putting away a crucial game than a younger pitcher with less confidence and composure (most of the time).

Wagner was injured most of last year but when he came back he was excellent and he will most likely continue that in 2010. He also seems like a good guy and a positive locker room influence.

Saito brings another Japanese pitcher to the Braves organization and he has also been a great closer in the past.

Rafeal Soriano surprised everyone by accepting arbitration but as Frank Wren said, it didn’t cause much of a problem. Wren made a trade with the Rays almost immediately to get rid of his 7 million dollar salary and pick up Jesse Chavez who, from what I have read, seems to be just an average middle relief pitcher. He is only 25 (?) so he could turn out to be a decent relief pitcher but he is only involved because Wren wanted to get something in return.

I thought that Soriano might bring us something a little more but with a small market team with the Rays they wouldn’t want to give up a ‘good’ player and take on that much salary.

With the bullpen taken care of for now Wren will probably try to trade Derek Lowe (to again drop some money) and then use the money to pursue a free agent bat. He also might try to trade Kelly Johnson and there should be some teams interested in him so we might get a little something back.