It seems like the Baseball season has barely finished, but this week could have a big, big impact on the Braves season next year…
Shortstop and lead off batter Rafael Furcal is a free agent, he and Marcus Giles were a potent force in batting as well as defence last year so losing him would be a big, big, big deal. Chipper Jones has already restructured his contract so the Braves front office could offer as much as possible to Furcal, but still it comes down to 3 teams…
Atlanta, Chicago Cubs and LA Dodgers.
The Braves need to make a move soon, as the NL East is only getting stronger with the Mets signing Carlos Delgado and Billy Wagner and the Phillies trading Jim Thome to the White Sox for Aaron Rowand. Of course resigning Furcal is the number 1 priority, but the Braves also need to look at the bullpen that failed so spectacularly in the closing month or so of the season and get rid of the likes of Dan Kolb and Chris Rietsma, not to mention overcoming the loss of Leo Mazzone to the Orioles. At least we’ll see a mature Jeff Francoeur, Ryan Langerhans, Kelly Johnson et al that surprised us this year.
It could be a tough time at Turner Field next year, but then they said that about the last two years…