Should the Braves let Furcal go?

[Niffoc4]

I have been thinking about this a lot as a Braves fan, and as much as Furcal brings to the table, he will also be extremely expensive (I would say 8 or 9 million a year) and I don't know if he is worth that much. I say let Betemit and a veteran (Aurilia or Valentin?) compete for the spot, with Betemit hopefully taking charge. This should give the Braves the money to re-sign Farnsworth and keep Reitsma. Even though Reitsma may not have been a great closer he is a decent set-up man, and better than most of the Braves options in the bullpen last year.

[George_Foreman]

i'd prefer betimit and some sort of bullpin help to furcal. hopefully they can keep farnsworth, but i'm not too interested in reitsma. maybe a change of scenery will help him. if the braves can sign one of the FA closers (or at least some quality MR) and hold on to farnsworth, they'll manage without furcal. perhaps they can even trade away estratda for something; he's too good to be a backup.

[SaintsOfTheDiamond]

Given the contracts that Renteria and Cabrera got last winter I'd be absolutely shocked if Furcal gets a deal less than $10 million per. As for him returning to ATL, it all depends on what kind of moves they make in the pen, which I think everyone agrees needs lots of work. I would think that with the interest out there for leadoff type hitters who play good defense, most notably the Cubbies, that ATL would have a tough time bringing him back, but you never know with the Braves. He may walk and they bring up another super-rookie that steps in and makes everyone forget about Furcal.

[HOOTIE]

Furcal is 28, basically in peak years. Braves would be nuts to let him go. He ranks about with Rollins, and only Young/Jeter/Tejada are clearly better. Furcal was 15th in NL in Win Shares, and you could easily argue he was just as valuable to Braves as AJones was.

[wrveres]

It may not be this year, but I think the year after (2007) that they start getting the entire tab on one Mike Hampton, that has to way heavily into their overall thinking.

[George_Foreman]

the hampton contract won't be a problem: they worked it out during the trade where they would pay a constant amount of the contract from the team's annual salary, putting in to an account what they didn't owe him in the first few years and drawing from that account when they owed a larger portion of it later.

i think it worked out to like $7 million per year over the course of the contract.

[wrveres]

the hampton contract won't be a problem: they worked it out during the trade where they would pay a constant amount of the contract from the team's annual salary, putting in to an account what they didn't owe him in the first few years and drawing from that account when they owed a larger portion of it later.

i think it worked out to like $7 million per year over the course of the contract.

I did not know that, How smart of them. Thanks

[George_Foreman]

heh. it's all heresay. i read it on a post here at the cafe. but i think the person was reputable, so i figured i'd parrot it as well as i could.

still, you've got to wonder if $7 mil per is really worth it for hampton... maybe he'll put together a healthy season next year....

[wrveres]

worth it is another discussion all together, I just knew that Tab was coming soon.

[daullaz]

He may walk and they bring up another super-rookie that steps in and makes everyone forget about Furcal.

His name is Luis Hernandez, and while he struggled this year, I still think he's the long-term answer at SS for them.