Barfield To Cleveland, Giles to San Diego?

With the San Diego Padres dealing young 2B Josh Barfield to the Indians, it seems more and more likely that Braves 2B Marcus Giles will be joining his brother in San Diego. As Ken Rosenthal has reported, a deal was rumored to have been discussed, but Barfield was potentially blocking Giles at the position. There was talk of Giles being moved to 3B, a position at which the Padres were thin.

Now, however, the Padres have their 3B of the future in Kouzmanoff, and a void at 2B. In exchange for Giles, the Braves would probably receive reliever Scott Linebrink. As all Braves fans know, the bullpen was horrible in 2006, and Linebrink was better than every single reliever the Braves had in '06, with the exception of Bob Wickman and Chris Reitsma.

(Kidding about Reitsma, just checking if you were paying attention).

Anyway, Linebrink went 7-4 with a 3.57 ERA (118 ERA+) and 68 Ks in 75.7 IP. He also had a 32 PRAR, or Pitching Runs Above Replacement. The best PRAR total by a Braves reliever in 2006 was 30, by Oscar Villareal. This only includes innings pitched for Atlanta. If you include all innings pitched, Wickman had a PRAR of 39.

Bullpen (with 2006 Atlanta statistics)



Linebrink would be a solid setup man and good first step towards restoring a bullpen that needs to be much better in '07 if the Braves want to regain control in the NL East. More will be addressed on the topic of the Braves bullpen throughout the off-season. Next, however, we will examine the ramifications of potentially losing Marcus Giles.