Saltalamacchia

[UWRyan428]

Please let me preface this speculation with the statement that I am a true Angel believer. I want to see the Grand Salome in Milwaukee ASAP. That said, it seems as if his defense is going to hinder him a bit and his rise may not be as meteoric as most would hope (ie, I'm thinking 3 years until we see him, at least). That said, there seems to be a catching prospect that can be had, who is ML-ready, and could probably be had for some of our excess.

 

ATL trades

The Salty One

 

MIL trades

Gross

Zach Jack

Rivera

 

I would think it would take more, but it would solidify their lineup, and give them another quality starting arm. Thoughts?

 

(edited subject for clarity -TC)

[Weirdos19]

Shouldn't take that much. Saltamaccia's offense hasn't been good the last two years.

 

The Braves just signed McCann through 2013. Every other GM knows Saltamaccia is available, no reason to overpay.

 

We have 4 MLB capable catchers right now. Why add another?

 

I wouldn't offer more than one decent prospect.

 

Manny Parra and Closser may get it done.

[UWRyan428]

Supply and demand would dictate that catching prospects would require a bit more than a failed D&F prospect and a waiver wire claim that was unused (Closser was unwanted).

[UWRyan428]

Hmm...no more Salty Dog talk. But if he becomes Brew Crew property, we need a good nickname.

[Big Reed]

i'd love for him to be a brewer. I was there on draft day screaming for the brewers to draft him only to see atlanta take him with one of their supplemental picks.

 

he doesn't seem to have a future in Atlanta. his offensive numbers haven't been great the past two years. but his defense is outstanding. and he is rated as being the best minor league catching prospect by many worthy publications.

 

the problem with any trade with Atlanta is they are a hard case to figure out. they have new ownership. their payroll has been dropping. they are said to be losing Andrew jones after this year, and chipper jones doesn't have many good years left. this is wickman's last year with Atlanta even if he is successful. Cox is rumored to be thinking of retiring after this year. Atlanta could go into a big rebuilding mode after this year. the y might just bite on trading Saltamachia for a couple of highly rated prospects.

 

he was rated in baseball America as the 36th best prospect. if you do the research, you can guess who Cox would be asking for in return. my guess is that it would be a pitching prospect rated better than jackson or parra. my guess is that Atlanta would be asking for Inman, Villenuava or Gallardo.

 

My question is would melvin be willing to give up one of those pitchers for a great defensive catcher? I think i would wait until I see what jeffress does this year and also to see if cox leaves before offering the braves one of our pitching prospects. Who knows, we may be able to get him cheaper

[brettac1]

Cox isn't in charge of making moves, though, Schuerholz is.

 

I have heard quite a bit about him (Salty) having some serious question marks about his character. Add that in with serious question marks about his bat, and you get no interest. He is still ranked that highly because he's a catcher, and those guys are always considered prospects. Some people think Palmisano is still a prospect.

[colbyjack]

Hmm...no more Salty Dog talk

 

Agreed. But the idea of obtaining Jarrod Saltalamacchia is realistic (not for Parra and Closser though).

 

I had flashbacks to "Mr. Cannon"...

[pogokat]

Quote:

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I have heard quite a bit about him (Salty) having some serious question marks about his character. Add that in with serious question marks about his bat, and you get no interest. He is still ranked that highly because he's a catcher, and those guys are always considered prospects. Some people think Palmisano is still a prospect.

---

 

amen.

[Platteville brewer fan]

He had one down year last year, mostly because of wrist injury. However, when he came back from that injury late last year he was dominant with the bat again, and carried that on to his short stint in the AFL.

 

As for his character, all last year, all i heard was raves about how he was determined to be a very good defensive catcher, and that he worked all offseason to do so. That may even be part of why he struggled with the bat early, as he was focused on his defense.

 

I would absolutely love to see salty in milwaukee.

[hawing]

Saltalamacchia

 

Would this be the longest name ever on the back of a Brewers uniform?

[DHonks]

I can clarify, since I'm likely the source of the Salty character questions.

 

Generally speaking, the Braves have very high character individuals playing for them. Salty is a bit of a train-wreck. From what I could tell, it's all about Salty, and his teammates can't stand him. He doesn't give anyone the impession that he cares about them. I don't know how things are in the Braves system, but in the AFL 2005, Salty had 5 other Braves refusing to speak with him and several Dodgers (not the most character-driven organization) calling him out for his antics. Throw in that the A's and Dbacks were all business in the AFL, and it meant that Salty and Daric Barton were easily the two least-liked fellas in the clubhouse, by teammates, coaches, and staff. Both were young for the league, but both also could grow up. Then again, both need to. I predicted Salty would struggle last year, because he's a dead pull hitter. Hitting lefty, a little league team could develop a scouting report on how to pitch to him and defend him. I'm sure that he's worked on that. The only other high quality hitter that I have critiqued similarly in the AFL was Ryan Howard. Howard showed up the first week pulling everything. Then when teams dared him to go the other way, he slumped. It led me to make a rather simple prediction that he would struggle in the big leagues at first. But given his character, I knew Howard would go back to AAA and come back knowing how to use the whole field, and he'd become a force like other big bodied lefties Mo Vaughn and David Ortiz.

 

With Salty, I can't say that he'll make the adjustments necessary to be a big leaguer. He's gotten this far on natural ability. But effort and desire haven't appeared on his radar yet.

[Brian the Automator]

[ Would this be the longest name ever on the back of a Brewers uniform? ]

 

Yes and no.

 

William Van Landingham, if you count the space, would have the same number of characters. He didn't play for the Brewers in the majors however, so Ben Hendrickson would be the next runner up, but he's tied with several other Brewers (De Los Santos, Clutterbuck, Etchebarren, Gandarillas, Householder, and Obermueller).

 

Interesting to note:

 

On May 29, 1996, Van Landingham started against Jason Isringhausen, then a starter for the New York Mets. They tied a record for the longest combined names of two starting pitchers.