From Yahoo's Tim Brown on the proposed deal:

Javier Vazquez has pitched himself out of another uniform, and so at 32 years old it appears he’ll pick up in Atlanta where he left off in places such as New York and Chicago, as a stuff guy who might never live up to his stuff.

Last we saw Vazquez, Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen was daring him to show up in a big game, just one, and Vazquez was responding by getting bombed in his last four starts, finally in Game 1 of the American League Division Series against the Rays.

The Braves take him because they are thin in the rotation and because general manager Frank Wren was unable to wrangle Jake Peavy out of San Diego. They take him because they are down John Smoltz, Tim Hudson and Tom Glavine. And they take him because they admire his durability and hope he’ll be better away from hitter-friendly U.S. Cellular Field and, of course, Guillen.

This puts into more perspective why we may have gotten a good deal on Vazquez, and why the White Sox were eager to let him go for no major league return. There are a lot of players who have cycled through Ozzie Guillen's doghouse, so take that at face value -- a difficult manager clashing with his players. Vazquez will find just the opposite in Bobby Cox, a manager who should allow Vazquez to relax and just worry about pitching. And he'll find a city in Atlanta without an overbearing media presence.

There were reports earlier in the off-season that the White Sox wanted to jettison some high-salaried players so they could go after several free agent starters. So just as the Braves fill one void in their starting rotation, they may have also created more competition in their pursuit to fill another void by attempting to sign a free agent like A.J. Burnnett or Derek Lowe.

If the widely-rumored trade between the Chicago White Sox and the Atlanta Braves is as reported, then the Braves and General Manager Frank Wren have pulled off a coup! This is a solidly one-sided trade in the Braves favor. Reportedly going to Atlanta is the reliable Javier Vazquez, a guy who has made at least 32 starts and thrown 198 innings each of the last nine years (see my earlier post as to why this is a critical need for Atlanta). The Braves also receive lefty reliever Boone Logan. He's a young, mainly unheard of guy, who is a power LOOGY (90-92 mph) who was rushed to the majors in 2005 after not having pitched above A-ball.

The three to four players the Braves are rumored to have given up are all expendable in my book. All these are guys have terrific upside, but have either not shown it in the majors or are a couple of years away from making the majors. The highest rated guy we reportedly traded is catcher Tyler Flowers (T-Flow, as the tat reads on his bicep). He had the scouting world buzzing this fall after putting on a power display by leading the Arizona Fall League in homeruns and a ridiculous .973 slugging percentage. He certainly looks like he has a bright future, but he hasn't played a single game above class-A and he plays a position that is solidly occupied in the majors by All-Star Brian McCann. Verdict; Tyler Flowers (as I've said all off-season) is perfect trade bait and 100% expendable.

The other players rumored to be in the deal include, but are not limited to starting pitcher Jo-Jo Reyes (who may not actually be in the deal anymore, but is nonetheless completely expendable), starting pitcher Charlie Morton (talented, but expendable), shortstop Brent Lillibridge (completely expendable), rookie-ball third baseman Jon Gilmore (a bright young prospect, but years away from the majors and completely expendable), and Santos Rodriguez (a young lefty who isn't even out of rookie ball yet). Every one of these guys is 100% expendable.

We just traded three or four non-factors in our organization for a middle-to-top of the rotation work-horse starter who should find the National League a more friendly place to pitch that the New Comisky. Oh, and we got a great young LOOGY to boot. We filled one of our biggest off-season needs -- an experienced starting pitcher -- and we didn't give up shit. I know there will be many who are sad to see T-Flow go, and while I would love to still have him, remember that he would likely be a non-factor for the Braves this year (as would Lillibridge, Reyes, Gilmore, or Rodriguez), while Vazquez and Logan are huge additions.

This is a total WIN for the Braves. Add to that the fact that Vazquez is signed for the next two years at a very affordable $11.5 million per. and this deal looks even better. Vazquez is the kind of pitcher that fits perfectly with the way Bobby Cox manages his staff. He can go deep into games, but Cox will protect him enough to not let him get overused or overexposed.

I LOVE this trade... well done, Frank Wren.

It's hard to believe, but the Atlanta Braves traded for Mike Hampton before the 2003 season -- he's been a Brave for six years... well, technically it's been six years. We forget that for the first three years (what I like to refer to as "the healthy years") Hampton was one of the best bargains in baseball for the Braves, as they were only paying him $2 million or less from 2003 to 2005. In fact, when the Florida Marlins won the World Series in 2003, Mike Hampton was their second highest paid player (and he didn't even play for them).

The sad reality of Mike Hampton's tenure in Atlanta, is that the injuries happened right when he was finding his ace material in 2005, and didn't let up until... well, they may still be a factor, but no longer our concern.

The Braves have said in the past that they spread out the money they owed Hampton over the six years they had him, but since we aren't privy to the team's exact accounting, and we didn't find out that they spread out the payments over six years until after Hampton got injured the second time, I take that admission with a grain of salt. So while Hampton was a bargain to begin with, his contract occupied valuable payroll space the last three years.

Beyond just being money on paper (even if much of it was covered by insurance), it was money the team was reluctant to spend on anyone else. So the bottom line is that the money owed Mike Hampton in the final three years of his tenure with the Braves ($13.5M, $14.5M, and $15M) was money we could have spent on someone else, but couldn't in case Hampton was healthy and we had to pay him.

Remember too that Colorado paid $49 million and Florida ponied up $23.5 million of Hampton's salary and signing bonus and buyout... in fact, Colorado is still paying Hampton, and will continue to pay Hampton his deferred signing bonus until 2018 -- at least the Braves no longer have that kind of obligation to him.

At the time of the Hampton trade it was considered a masterstroke. One of John Schuerholz's greatest trades. We acquire a former ace, one who most everyone considered only temporarily damaged by the high altitude of Coors Field, we get the other two teams in the trade to pick up more than half of his remaining salary, and all we have to give up is a reliever with an attitude problem (Tim Spooneybarger) and an undrafted organizational arm (Ryan Baker) -- both of whom never amounted to anything in professional baseball.

It may have gone down at the best trade Schuerholz ever made if Hampton never got injured, but injury is always a risk and one shouldn't fault Schuerholz or Hampton for the failings of a ligament in the pitcher's elbow. The ugly truth after the fact is that the Braves paid Hampton $571,000 per start, and $1,386,000 per win when he was in Atlanta. It was perhaps the second-worst unfortunate fleecing of the Braves payroll since Nick Esasky got dizzy.

The underlying reality for the Braves that Mike Hampton's injury brings to the surface, is that his disabilitude and that of several other's in recent years, is likely luck catching up with the Braves. For the majority of our 14-year run of division titles, at least three and mostly four of our starting pitchers were toeing the mound for around 30 starts each year (or the strike-shortened equivalent of 30 starts). It has only been in the last four years that the majority of our starting pitchers didn't make at least 30 starts, with last year being the worst as only one of our starting pitchers went to the mound 30 times.

This, I suppose, is what this off-season is, or should be, all about. Perhaps it's not just about getting guys who should be starting 30 games, but that seems like the place where we should begin. We've seen the trickle down effect of starters not making consitent starts and reaching that 200 inning mark. The bullpen gets overused. Minor leaguers, who may not be ready, are called up to fill in for long periods of time. Minor league four-A pitchers are given multiple starts; and the list goes on.

Somehow the Braves need to return to that place where their stable of starting pitchers is the cornerstone of their success. And because we need more than one, and maybe even more than two of these guys, I wonder how wise it is to spend so much on just one of them. If Mike Hampton taught us anything, it should probably be that big long-term contracts for pitchers are a bad idea, whether we do the signing or we trade for a pitcher with an already established long term contract.

From Baseball America's writeup of the top-20 prospects in the Hawaiian Winter League, our lefty starter Jonny Venters was ranked as the 14th-best in the league:

Venters ranked as the league's second-best lefthander (among U.S.-affiliated players) for several observers, trailing only [Jeremy] Bleich. A draft-and-follow signee, Venters has taken his time to develop but showed three average pitches in Hawaii. His fastball sits in the 87-90 mph range, at times touching 92. His slider remains too inconsistent for some scouts, but others saw it as an average pitch that flashed plus at times. His changeup is his best pitch, and he projects as a back-of-the-rotation starter.

"His fastball is deceptive and heavy," Cole said. "He hides it well, and his change gives him a putaway pitch."

Nice review of Venters, though I think the jury's still out on him, and even with a good year in Mississippi next season he will likely only turn into next year's James Parr. Gosh, it sure seems like so many of the young pitchers the Braves had high hopes for are turning into back of the rotation starters. Even guys like Chuck James, Horacio Ramirez, and Kyle Davies, who had strong starts to their careers fell into a back-end of the rotation starter mold at best. While I like the good news on Venters, I'm still not going to get too excited about these kinds of guys... I'm waiting on Tommy Hanson.

In 8 games, 7 starts and 31 innings pitched, Venters had a 2.90 ERA, 33 hits, 1 HR, 8 walks, and 26 strikeouts. He is elidgible for the Rule V draft this year, though it's unlikely anyone will take a chance on him.

I saw this several weeks ago over at Rain Delay and thought I'd pilfer it and re-post (click picture for larger version):

This is a perfect example of a pitcher who didn't show dominance early on. The most impressive and prescient note here is when the scout writes, "doesn't give in to the opposition, [...] he attacks the hitters on every pitch."