Kuzul

The Florida Marlins have agreed to trade their star second baseman Dan Uggla to the Braves for infielder Omar Infante and left-handed reliever Michael Dunn, Fox Sports reported Tuesday afternoon.

Uggla, the only second baseman in history to record four, 30-home run seasons, gives the Braves that right-handed power they were desperately lacking in their hunt for the 2010 World Series.

Now, with a much more dangerous lineup and a legitimate cleanup hitter, the Braves become the favorites to win the National League East.

Begin Slideshow

The Atlanta Braves have acquired second baseman Dan Uggla from the Florida Marlins in exchange for infielder Omar Infante and pitcher Michael Dunn, according to mlb.com (click here for the article).

Uggla is clearly the biggest piece of this deal.  He’s coming off a season where he hit .287 with 33 H, 105 RBI, 100 R and 4 SB in 589 AB—his fourth consecutive season of at least 30 HR.  He did benefit from a .330 BABIP, but he also lowered his strikeout rate for the third consecutive season:

• 2008 – 32.2%
• 2009 – 26.6%
• 2010 – 25.3%

It’s hard to imagine being able to maintain the BABIP, meaning a regression could come in the average department, even if he could maintain his improved strikeout rate.  Consider that his averages the prior three seasons were .245, .260 and .243, and the chances are likely that he regresses there.

However, he has always excelled in Turner Field:

• 2008 – 31 AB, .484, 3 HR, 7 RBI, 12 R
• 2009 – 34 AB, .353, 1 HR, 8 RBI, 7 R
• 2010 – 35 AB, .343, 3 HR, 6 RBI, 5 R

His value does not change much, as he is going to continue to be a threat in the middle of the lineup.  Our initial rankings had him at sixth.  There is a chance that he moves up a spot (fifth was Brandon Phillips), but time will tell.

As for the rest of the fallout for the Braves, Martin Prado likely shifts to third base, if Chipper Jones is still out of action.  If Jones is healthy, Prado should move to the outfield.  In other words, they scored a huge victory and strengthened their lineup significantly.

For the Marlins, Infante is going to step into the starting second baseman job.  He represents a significant downgrade, however.  He offers little power, coming off a season with 8 HR and 47 RBI in 471 AB.

His average was his biggest asset, with a .321 mark in 2010.  Of course, it also came courtesy of a .355 BABIP.  If that regresses (which it likely will), we are looking at a player with little to no fantasy appeal.  Even if he were to hit .300, without power or speed (his career high is 13 SB in 2004) he brings no fantasy appeal.

He was in line to be an everyday player for the Braves, so this doesn’t bring much of a change to his value.  Maybe, if he ultimately hits second in Florida, he’ll score a few more runs, but that’s about it.  He’s not a player you want to target in your drafts.

Dunn is a strikeout machine, posting a 12.2 K/9 in 47.1 innings at Triple-A and a 12.8 K/9 in 19.0 innings for the Braves.  Of course, he has no control.  At Triple-A he posted a BB/9 of 4.8 and for the Braves a BB/9 of 8.1.

You have to like the upside he brings, as the Marlins continue to accumulate options for their middle relief corps (click here to view my write-up on the Marlins trades from the weekend), but from a fantasy perspective he’s not going to have value.  If he can’t consistently throw strikes, he’s a disaster waiting to happen.

On paper, it certainly appears like the Braves got a huge bargain and are the clear-cut winners in this trade.  What do you think?  Did the Braves get a big steal?

Make sure to check out our early 2011 rankings:

• Top 15 Catchers
• Top 15 First Basemen
• Top 15 Second Basemen
• Top 15 Third Basemen
• Top 15 Shortstops
• 2011 Fantasy Draft First Round Breakdown

THIS ARTICLE IS ALSO FEATURED ON WWW.ROTOPROFESSOR.COM

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Dan Uggla was reportedly traded to the Atlanta Braves this afternoon for infielder Omar Infante and pitcher Mike Dunn.

It’s the third major trade in just a matter of days for the Florida Marlins, who also parted ways with pitcher Andrew Miller and outfielder Cameron Maybin earlier this week.

Uggla had no interest staying in a Marlins uniform after rejecting a four-year, $48 million contract extension last week, so it’s hard to fault Florida for trading their power-hitting second basemen. But is a career utility man and a rookie relief pitcher really fair value for one of the most productive offensive players in baseball?

Uggla, who can also play third and the outfield, has four consecutive seasons of at least 31 home runs. He’s a two-time All-Star and a Silver Slugger award winner in 2010. His career OPS is a pleasant .837 and he’s still only 30 years old. Those kinds of players don’t exactly grow on trees.

But players like Infante and Dunn do. 

Infante has never played in more than 142 games in his career and is typically used as a backup infielder all over the diamond. This past season with the Braves he finally got the chance to play on a near full-time basis and had an excellent year. He led the league in hitting for a time and finished with a .321 batting average. He also contributed a handful of doubles (15), home runs (8), and stolen bases (7). 

But just because the 28-year-old made his first All-Star team, doesn’t mean that he’s good enough to be an everyday second basemen (and certainly not one of Uggla’s caliber).

Dunn, meanwhile, came over to the Braves as part of the Javier Vazquez-Melky Cabrera deal and had a nice rookie season for Atlanta. In 25 games he had a 1.89 ERA and 27 strikeouts over 19 innings. Dunn looks like he could be a power lefty out of the bullpen for years to come. But 19 innings is hardly a sufficient sample size over which to trade one of your franchise players.

So why did the Marlins do it?

Well they had to trade Uggla for one. No sense in paying upwards of $10 million for a player who is guaranteed to sign elsewhere at the end of the season. But why sell so low?

The Marlins were desperate for relief help at the trade deadline and they’re still desperate for it now. Aside from closer Leo Nunez and set-up man Burke Badenhop, the Marlins relief corps had a difficult time finishing games last season. Out of 64 save opportunities, the Marlins only converted 39 of them for a 61 save percentage.

That’s horrifyingly bad. The Marlins finished with a 80-82 record, and 40 of those losses belonged to relievers. That’s the difference between a third place finish and a playoff berth. With Dunn aboard along with former Boston lefty Dustin Richardson and San Diego relievers Ryan Webb and Edward Mujica, the Marlins now have a solid staff to back up a promising rotation.

But how do they replace Uggla’s bat?

Nobody in that lineup, Hanley Ramirez and Mike Stanton included, has the pop to equal Uggla’s production. Infante is a nice player but he’s a far cry from an intimidating hitter (45 career home runs in nine seasons).

It’s reasonable to assume that the always cost-conscious Marlins were looking to shed payroll so that they could afford to pay arbitration to some of their rising stars, like Nunez and Gaby Sanchez. But those players won’t be making big dollars for a few more years.

The more likely explanation is that the Marlins grew tired of waiting for Miller (25) and Maybin (23) to emerge as superstars and cut their losses to allow other players from their bursting minor league system to come up.

This is a perfectly reasonable course of action for a team in the midst of a long-term rebuilding project. But small market teams like the Marlins can’t afford to sell off potential All-Star talents for below market value.

Had they held on to Miller, Maybin, and Uggla till after the winter meetings, they would have been almost guaranteed to get better offers for each of their players. Decisive action is not always the correct action.

Marlins fans can only hope that they won’t be trying to figure out ways to beat their three former players as they rise to stardom in new cities.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

It’s official…the baseball offseason is finally under way. 

With GM meetings going on in Orlando, the action finally got started today with the Marlins finding a trading partner for Dan Uggla. 

Jerry Crasnick is reporting via Twitter that the Atlanta Braves have acquired Uggla for utility man Omar Infante and left-handed reliever Mike Dunn. 

So how does this impact his fantasy value for 2011?

As an owner of Uggla in my most important keeper league, I have obviously been quite interested in his landing spot. 

Sadly, the Rockies did not revive their long-rumored interest in the stocky second baseman.  

Atlanta is about as uninteresting as a destination can be for Uggla in that it probably does not significantly affect his value one way or the other. 

On the plus side, Turner Field in Atlanta yields a few more home runs than Sun Life Stadium in Miami, but Uggla’s splits do not indicate that his home ballpark as a Marlin was holding him back in a big way.  

In just under 3,000 at-bats over the last five seasons, Uggla hit .261 at home and only .266 on the road with 78 home runs at home and 76 on the road.  Moreover, RBI opportunities and run totals do not figure to receive a significant boost by going from Florida’s lineup to Atlanta’s as the two were fairly similar offensive teams in 2010.

The most important consideration may be Uggla’s playing time.  You have to think that Atlanta would not trade for Uggla unless they planned on him being an everyday player, but with Chipper Jones, Martin Prado, Alex Gonzalez, and rookie Freddie Freeman sure to see substantial infield time, it is possible that Uggla may see a few more days off than fantasy owners would like. 

There has been some talk of Uggla seeing time in the outfield, but as big of a defensive liability as he is, you should not count on added outfield eligibility in 2011. 

Of course, all the playing time worries will surely be assuaged when Chipper goes down in Spring Training, Prado moves permanently to third, and Uggla becomes the only second baseman to hit 30 home runs in five consecutive seasons (he is already the only one to do it in four straight).

Ultimately, the pros and cons of Uggla are the same as they were yesterday.  Whether in Florida or Atlanta, he is still a 30-homer guy that could hit .245 or .285. 

Written by Brett Talley exclusively for thefantasyfix.com.  Brett is a law student in Dallas who is counting down the days until he can do baseball mock drafts in class.  You can follow him on Twitter @therealTAL.

[Find the original article here]

Follow The Fantasy Fix on Twitter @thefantasyfix, or for Free Fantasy Sports Advice use our Quick Fix to get help with your team!

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Atlanta Braves acquired All-Star second baseman Dan Uggla from the Florida Marlins in a trade for utilityman Omar Infante and pitcher Mike Dunn. 

The trade reunited Dan Uggla with his former skipper Fredi Gonzalez who was fired in June after the Marlins underperformed. 

Uggla, 30, was in negotiations with the Marlins on a long-term deal but he rejected a four year contract offer valued at $48 million because he wanted a fifth year added to the offer.

Uggla leaves the Marlins as the all time leader in home runs with 154 home runs in five seasons with Florida and takes his talents to Atlanta, bringing a much-needed power bat to a Braves lineup that has lost it in recent years with injuries and departures of Mark Teixeria and Andruw Jones. 

Uggla is currently in his final year of team control, and will be a free agent after the season unless the Braves sign him to a contract extension. 

On the Marlins end, this deal fulfills team needs rather than acquiring the best available blue-chip prospect for the slugger. All-star Omar Infante is all but likely to be the teams starting second baseman, brining a much better glove at the position than Dan Uggla. If not second, the utlitityman Infante is likely to find a landing spot at third base or centerfield.  

Offensively, Infante was one of the better hitters in the National League, hitting .321 (ranked third) to go along with eight home runs and 47 RBIs in 134 games played. 

Mike Dunn, on the other hand, fulfills the Marlins need for a left-handed reliever who can be an effective arm and strikeout machine. Dunn was 2-0 with a 1.89 ERA, striking out 27 batters in 19 innings pitched. 

Dunn could find himself in the mix for the eight inning job or a specialist role rather than a closer considering the Marlins are thin with lefties. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

It’s official.

Dan Uggla‘s somewhat rocky tenure in South Beach is over, and he’s on his way to Atlanta to join what should be a star-studded cast of Braves for the 2011 season.

The Braves surrendered infielder Omar Infante and reliever Mike Dunn to get Uggla.

Uggla is currently in the midst of one of the most impressive runs ever for a second baseman, at least in terms of power. He has hit at least 31 home runs in each of the past four seasons. He also has driven in at least 88 runs in each of his five big-league seasons.

He doesn’t offer much in the way of high average (set a career high at .287 this season) and he certainly strikes out more than a few times (760 in five seasons), but considering he offers more power than any other second baseman in the league (no offense, Chase Utley), you know the Braves won’t complain.

This trade is all fine and dandy for the Braves, but you kind of get the feeling the Marlins got screwed, and that they were just looking to dump Uggla. 

However, I find it hard to believe that the most they could get for him was Infante, a 28-year-old utility player who has only played in 100 games in one season three times, and Dunn, a 25-year-old rookie reliever with 29 games of experience under his belt. He’s only pitched 23 innings!

As an Orioles fan, I was kind of hoping Andy MacPhail would jump in on the Uggla sweepstakes, but I feared the Marlins would want too much. Had I known that he could be had for a unproven reliever and a Julio Lugo-type, I would have called MacPhail and the Marlins and scheduled the meet myself.

I don’t think there’s anyway in heck that you can argue that the Marlins came out on top in this one, even if Uggla is a free agent at the end of next season.

Convince me I’m wrong.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Unless Dan Uggla accepts the Florida Marlins’ four-year condition on contract talks, he will likely get traded, perhaps before Thanksgiving. 

Reportedly, the teams who have expressed more than a mild interest in the 30-year-old second baseman include the Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals. 

Despite the fact the Marlins will be left with a hole in the middle infield, the team wants a catcher and a couple of pitchers in return for the power-hitting second baseman. 

An Uggla trade would also allow the Marlins to allocate the money intended for him towards alternatives in free agency. Options could include a pair of Gold Glovers in the way of second baseman Orlando Hudson (who has won four Gold Gloves) and a revitalization project in Eric Chavez (six Gold Gloves), who was cut by the Oakland Athletics after injury-riddled seasons in 2008, 2009 and 2010. 

The Marlins are moving towards being a team built on pitching and defense and neither option should be surprising considering the team’s decision to bring back defensive guru Perry Hill. 

Another alternative, according to Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post, would be free agent catcher A.J. Pierzynski if the Marlins fail to acquire a catcher in a trade. Both sides share mutual interest and expect for the Marlins to offer a two or three-year deal if it ever gets that far. 

Dan Uggla will turn 31 in March, and the Marlins aren’t willing to give him a contract that extends to when he is 36. Uggla committed a career-high 18 errors this season while having a career year with the bat, hitting .287 with 33 home runs and 105 RBIs. 

Let’s take a look at what they will demand from each team based on what they have to give that appeals to the Marlins.

Begin Slideshow

It will be almost impossible as the off season wears on to go into all that much detail about every rumored player the Blue Jays will have interest in acquiring. The what ifs almost always turn out to be nothing more than that and just about anything passes for news during baseball’s off season. But as of now there isn’t all that much going on with the Jays, leaving the opportunity to explore the one big rumor sitting out there in some detail.

That rumor is that the Florida Marlins are looking to deal Dan Uggla and, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney, the Blue Jays are the front runners to acquire the power hitting second baseman. Uggla has established himself as one of the top hitting second baseman in the game over the last five seasons. He’s gone deep over thirty times in each of the past four seasons while also collecting his fare share of doubles and walks.

Last season he hit 33 homers, collected 31 doubles, walked in 11.6 percent of his plate appearances and had a career high .381 wOBA. He also had career highs in batting average(.287), BABIP(.330) and on-base percentage(.369). His walk rate was actually the lowest it’s been since 2007 but still well above average, same for his .221 isolated power, an excellent showing but also a mark he’s bested in two of his three previous campaigns.

Uggla has been a very healthy player in his career playing in at least 146 games in each of his five seasons, and missing just seven games in the last two seasons combined. The only downside to Uggla’s game has been his less than impressive defense at a position of relative defensive importance. Uggla will also be 31 next season leaving no reason to think his defense will improve, but his offense should remain strong for several more seasons.

The first issue with acquiring Uggla is his contract expectations. It’s been reported today that he turned down a four-year, forty-eight million dollar offer to stay with the Marlins. The Jays wouldn’t be wise to go much beyond that type of offer in either money or years and essentially pay for his prime years of production in Florida while playing out his decline stage in Toronto. There’s also no guarantee that Uggla would sign with Toronto in the first place if they did land him, he could simply play out his last arbitration season(for which he’ll be payed well) and go into the open market in 2011.

In that scenario the Jays would be giving up some prospects(determining whom exactly that would be is almost a pointless excercise) for one year of Uggla and a couple of 2012 draft picks. If the Jays are looking at 2011 as a win now season then maybe it’s the right approach. But if they’re not, keeping the prospects they already have would be the better route if the plan is to compete in 2012 and beyond.

If Uggla was just going to cost an expendable amount of money(i.e. cheap) in return for draft picks that’d be one thing. But eight or nine million dollars, plus two-three prospects for two draft picks in 2012 hardly seems practical. The Blue Jays do have two organizational positions of strength to deal from with their plethora of catching and starting pitching prospects. The problem with that is that if you could choose two positions to be deep in it would be catching and starting pitching.

If the Jays did get him and sign him, the issue with Uggla would move to where he plays on the field. Obviously, this would also be the issue if he was only going to be around for 2011 as well. Olney’s report cited one scout who thinks most of Uggla’s fielding issues involve throwing issues. The scout when on to say he might fare better at third because the ball arrives quicker, therefore leaving more time for Uggla to make solid throws. Uggla could also play first and naturally make even less throws but finding someone who can field first base isn’t exactly hard or a major concern.

Uggla’s bat would still be above average at third and maybe his defense would creep closer to average. That’s great in of itself but if the Jays want a power hitting third baseman who walks a lot and may struggle defensively…they already have one. Jose Bautista would fill that role quite well and the Jays have already gone through the trouble of acquiring him. Playing Bautista at third also opens up playing time in the outfield.

Keeping Uggla at second is another, poorer, option that would require moving Aaron Hill to third or trading him. The latter is a horrible idea, selling low on a twenty-eight year old, cost controlled player coming off the worst year in his career to bring in a thirty-one year old, coming off a career year for more money is not the ideal way to go about one’s business. Neither is moving the defensively superb Hill off his position to make room for an inferior fielder at an up the middle position.

It’s early in the off-season and there figures to be loads more options to come about for the Blue Jays. They won’t all be discussed in such length as this one, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be better.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Alex Anthopoulos is ready to prepare his Blue Jays for the 2011 season.  His coaching staff has all been assembled and it is an interesting mix of old and new.  Now it is time for Anthopoulos to work on the team he is going to field in the coming season.

One of the issues that must get dealt with sooner or later is Jose Bautista’s new contract, or whether he will just get a raise through arbitration.  

The outfielder and third basemen just won the Silver Slugger for the right field position, making him the third Blue Jay in two years to win the award.

There is a good chance that the GM will wait until part way through the season to see whether the slugger can keep up his record breaking numbers, then work up a contract based upon his performance.

After letting Edwin Encarnacion be claimed off waivers by the Oakland Athletics, the Blue Jays could be looking for a new third baseman, or slotting Bautista into that spot. Bautista’s arm is highly valued in right field, so there is a chance they will keep him there and look for a more permanent solution in third.

A couple of options could be the Kansas City Royals Alex Gordon or the Chicago White Sox’s Gordon Beckham.  The Toronto Sun was reporting that the Blue Jays were talking with Kansas City about their former first round pick, as well as their Cy Young winning pitcher Zack Greinke.  

It seems unlikely that they would pry Greinke away from Kansas since they seem hesitant to deal their primary starter, also due to the costs for the Jays to acquire him and the options they already have for starting.  

Both the Jays and the Red Sox have inquired about Greinke, who has a partial no-trade clause with two years and $27 million remaining on his contract.  

Gordon is a much easier target, once a highly regarded prospect, his stock has fallen after struggling to make it at the big league level.  His defense was rather weak when he played at third, so he has since been moved to the outfield.  Gordon is rather injury prone, but could develop into a hitting star if given the proper guidance and at-bats.

MLB trade rumors has been discussing that the White Sox have thought about dealing Beckham, and listed the possible suitors for the young infielder.  His experience at third base, combined with his youth and potential seem like a prime option for Anthopoulos to pursue.

The same site is also reporting that the Florida Marlins talks with Dan Uggla have stalled, both sides in disagreement after the Marlins 4-year, $48 million contract extension was rejected.  ESPN’s Buster Olney mentioned that two executives both said that Toronto would be their best guess for a possible trade destination for the second baseman.  

Whether that would mean that Aaron Hill or Dan Uggla would be moved to third base remains to be seen, but this is all still speculation.

On ESPN, a survey by the analysts of the top free agents and their possible destinations mentioned two names for the Blue Jays, Manny Ramirez and Magglio Ordonez.

 Both sluggers are nearing the end of the careers and don’t seem like a long term option for the Jays, so it seems unlikely Anthopoulos would bite on adding either of these two to his roster.

In other waiver news, both Brian Tallet and DeWayne Wise refused their assignment to Triple-A, which makes them free agents now.

Finally, since Tallet leaving creates an opening in the left handed long relief role, a possibility to fill that role is Marc Rzepczynski, who is currently working on his game in the Arizona Fall League.

 Rzepczynski was just named one of the two Players of the Week, and in three starts so far has gone 1-0, with a 1.29 ERA, nine strikeouts and seven walks.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

According to Buster Olney of ESPN, he is claiming that “two rival executives cast Toronto as the favorite to land Dan Uggla, assuming the Marlins follow through on trade talks.”

With all the talk revolving around who the Jays will get to fill in at third base, it looks like they may fill the void from within and move second baseman Aaron Hill from second to third, while adding Dan Uggla possibly to the fold.

If they don’t move Hill to third, look for Uggla to possibly play third if the Jays do in fact acquire him. Who knows, I’ve heard some rumors that Uggla can also play first base, so it appears the door is wide open with Uggla in terms of a position to play.

Rumors started this week with talks of adding Zack Greinke and Alex Gordon to the Jays, and now this hot rumor comes off the shelf.

Does this rumor have legs? I for one believe this would be a huge addition to the Blue Jays roster. The Marlins have been looking to trade Uggla because they are having a tough time coming to an agreement on an extension and it appears Uggla’s days are numbered with the Marlins.

According to Ken Rosenthal and Jon Moresi or FoxSports, a deal could be finalized within the next seven-to-10 days. Uggla has already passed on a proposed four-year, $48 million deal from the Marlins.

Uggla last season hit .287 with 33 home runs and 105 RBIs, along with 100 runs and a tidy .369 OBP.

Uggla is the only second baseman to hit at least 30 home runs a season the last four years, and could really add an extra punch to the Jays offence this year, no matter where he plays.

What really could the Marlins be looking for?

Well, if they are looking to trade Uggla, they’ll be looking for a middle infielder for sure, a starting pitcher, and of course, a starting catcher.

Right now I hazard to believe J.P. Arencibia may be involved in a Blue Jays-Marlins swap. Along with Arencibia, I expect a prospect such as Zach Stewart to possibly be involved, too.

It’s very hard to speculate on what could be given up, given the contract situation with Uggla, and his uncertain future, but I thought I’d get the speculation going.

If Uggla is added to the roster, look for him to hit fifth or sixth in the order and provide some protection for sluggers Jose Bautista and Vernon Wells in the order.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com