Braves Deal Tommy Hanson To Angels For Jordan Walden

[DSpivack]

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/1...my-hanson.html

[blandman]

The Braves must feel Hanson's arm is a mess. As recently as two years ago the guy was an untouchable franchise building piece. Now he gets traded for a reliever with elbow problems and a bad delivery. Yeesh.

[BringBackBlkJack]

It might not be a talent issue, per se. The Braves are teeming with young (read: minimum salary) SP and they wanted to offload Hanson's salary to make room for a 3B to fill Chipper's void (or a LF if Prado moves to 3B). The trade nets them around $4M to play with. As a Braves fan, I'm hoping something else is in the works. They're really going to miss Hanson if their young arms don't work out.

[blandman]

Originally Posted by BringBackBlkJack

It might not be a talent issue, per se. The Braves are teeming with young (read: minimum salary) SP and they wanted to offload Hanson's salary to make room for a 3B to fill Chipper's void (or a LF if Prado moves to 3B). The trade nets them around $4M to play with. As a Braves fan, I'm hoping something else is in the works. They're really going to miss Hanson if their young arms don't work out.

To be fair, Hanson was worse than league average last year.

[getonbckthr]

Doesn't Atlanta have a stud closer and set-up guy?

[DSpivack]

Originally Posted by getonbckthr

Doesn't Atlanta have a stud closer and set-up guy?

They have a deep bullpen. Kimbrel is the closer, Venters the lefty set-up guy, now Walden will be the set-up guy from the right side. That said, beyond that they have Eric O'Flaherty who was maybe their best reliever last year. They made a strength even stronger by dealing away an expensive, mediocre starter.