>>>"i have no problem signing bourn. Look I admit im more positive than most BUT i am also a realist. Our OF stinks so adding bourn who provides speed and defense is needed. i think Sandy is handling this perfectly. He obviously wants bourn BUT he has waited until our pick is protected and other teams have finished their offseason. Bourn will be a met IMO"<<<

Well, I don't know if Bourn will be a Met or not, but I agree with your post. Bourn would fit several needs we have - speed at the top of the order, and defense in CF. Also agree that Sandy is playing this out perfectly. If he doesn't land him, it won't be from a lack of good strategy. He's waiting to protect his pick, and for the price to drop, and not coming off as desperate. My only problem with getting Bourn is that we not pay too much in $$$ and years for him if we do sign him. Other than that he should be a use piece.

My thought is that those 156 Ks won't look good in that lead off spot. Nothing makes me feel as low as seeing the first man up strike out it takes the air out of the Balloon. I know that he won't lead off every inning but still even if he is not those Ks don't move many players around the bases.

I'm still in the if they sign him they sign him boat. Never like dealing with Boras. I always wonder if they could get 2 or 3 players for the money they'll pay Bourn.

His strikeout rate is definitely high, especially for a non-power hitter. One thing to keep in mind about the 155 K's though, is that he had 624 AB's last year. So he K'd about 25% of the time in 2012, not good by any means, but his other two recent seasons he struck out in 21% and 20% of his AB's, which is still high but a little better.

By comparison, BJ Upton has K'd between 27% and 30% of his AB's over the last 4 years. I know he hits for a lot more power, but that's a lot of swings and misses.

We'll see, it may be a moot point anyway if he signs elsewhere.

The Braves have so many swings and misses on their team it will feel like they installed air conditioning to the people in the stands. Both Uptons, Heyward, Freeman, Uggla and Johnson all first line starters. That leaves only 2 players McCann and Simmons plus the pitcher to make contact.

And they'll still score a lot of runs... Proving that Ks isn't as important as some would have you believe.

They don't move runners around the bases and make your team more dependent on the Home Run. So when those home runs don't happen you make it hard for your team to score.

Yet, teams with very little speed and a lot of power always end up scoring more runs.

SA said it himself- Power matters in the game today.

Strikeouts are overrated. The actual percentage of situations that occur where a strikeout is worse than any other type of out is very small.

I agree.
he should hold his value for 3 years. (hopefully not more)
Just because the Braves and Nats look so good doesn't mean that we should say its pointless to try and improve right now.
Bottom line is Bourn makes us a better team and the ultimate goal is to improve right?

welcome aboard. bora has been too qute tho. probably busy eating some dumb owners lunch.

IMO this conversation is moot because we are not getting Bourne because Fred ain't spending.

<<"My thought is that those 156 Ks won't look good in that lead off spot. Nothing makes me feel as low as seeing the first man up strike out it takes the air out of the Balloon. I know that he won't lead off every inning but still even if he is not those Ks don't move many players around the bases. "

I hear you, but what's the difference between Bourn striking out or Reyes popping out to leadoff a game. Bourn's approx a .349 OBP leadoff hitter with 40+ SBs and a gold glove caliber CFer. He'd be a huge upgrade and really help Wright, Davis, etc

Bourns price will go down the longer he waits

The more this plays out, the more I'm thinking he could possibly be the piece that puts us in WC contention. No, I'm not choking on my koolade. He gives us a true lead-off hitter and CF. He may strike out a lot, but that seems to be a trend nowadays. As long as he get near 200 hits, 40 SB's and plays solid D, he improves us greatly and gives us some flexibility with future trades. It also means no major holes in the line-up, last year we had lots (Thole, Bay, Torres). With our starting pitching looking better and better, our BP now having several L & R options for all roles, improved offense and a very good infield and a potentially decent OF (Bourn, Duda, Kirk, DD, Cowgill, Brown, Baxter, Byrd).....just maybe.....WC #2??

I have no problem admitting when I am wrong. Fred is not paying for Bourne. With Boras as his agent I doubt he will stoop to a Fred/Jeffy discount. Actually I don't think they will offer anything near what he will take. If they give in and realize that in NY, it makes sense to have at least one mlb outfielder on the roster, I will happily eat crow while laughing at the fact that signing an outfielder when we have none will wow so many fans.

Whats funny is how may people are changing their mind about Bourn as it seems more and more possible to get him..... God forbid someone disagrees with the FO. Personally I want him and could care less about the draft pick. We have horrible drafters in place and havent exactly gone after the top notch picks anyway. We get Wright so there is no rebuild. Why not imporve the team a litte. Boost some morale, get a veteran presence in the OF to help our clueless wonders and you know, give fans a reason to watch a game

It is a no-brainer move that we SHOULD get Bourne - they have NO outfielders. Little league coaches can look at the roster and understand that. But none of the discussions about him matter because they are in cost-cutting mode and are not paying for him. If they get a bargain because he waited so long and Boras was asking too much, I would be surprised. But then the 'Aiders will rail about what big spenders the owners are for getting ONE outfielder when we are missing three. If anyone wants to argue that they are psuedo-rebuilding and going with kids, that's one thing, but having a poor product on the field will only keep fans away and not provide needed revenue. They need to sign an outfielder but IMO they won't spend the $ and we will hear the requisite stuff about how they kicked the tires, he wanted too much, the market's too high, he didn't want to come here, yadda yadda.