Hooters Stock Plunges

Yes, that was an easy joke, and probably made by Jeff Schultz in a column somewhere, but I don't read him very much.

But anyway, I'm a little surprised I missed this, but it looks like Chipper's taking one for the team and restructuring his contract so the Braves can save about $15m over the next three years.

The AJC suggests that the $$$ will be used to try to re-sign Furcal. But with Betemit looking so good this Winter, the Braves trying to find PT for Marte, and the Mets and Cubs possibly bidding up the price of Furcal, perhaps other options are available.

Commenters at Braves Beat have brainstormed that if the price isn't right for Furcal, the Chipper savings could be used to sign Brian Giles (discount to play with Marcus?), sign/trade for Adam Dunn, or perhaps a trade for Javier Vazquez.

Furcal is the lead domino. Depending on him, this could be a very busy off-season.

Also, I didn't think the Marlins were going to be as bad next year as conventional wisdom would suggest, but now that they've unloaded Delgado, they'll be really bad. Cabrera might take 250 walks. Question: when the Marlins move to Las Vegas or Portland, will MLB realign and move the Marlins to the West and the Pirates into the East (5E-5C-6W)? That's how I'd do it.