Kyle Might be Getting his Farns-worth

The NY Daily News is reporting that the Yanks want to add Kyle Farnsworth to their bullpen as a replacement for Tom Gordon to set up Mariano Rivera. They’re throwing money at Farn north of the Eyre / Howry line. ‘Money’ quote:

“The Braves have interest in bringing Farnsworth back, but do not want to meet the expected price.”

If the price for a closer is only $5 million a year, and we ‘do not want to meet that’ yet we apparently still have interest in Farnsworth, then how much do the Braves ‘really’ value a closer. Don’t tell me we’re going to go out and get this year’s Dan Kolb via trade and forego a power arm like Farnsworth. One postseason collapse aside, Farnsworth was by far our best reliever last year, and the only one who seemed to have the temperament for the job.

If we don’t retain Farnsworth the logic and rumblings seem to point to us then only being interested in Todd Jones as a closer acquired via free agency. He lives in Atlanta and would probably be agreeable to some hometown discount. But that brings up another bone of contention with the way the Braves operate sometimes; do we have to insist that everyone give us a hometown discount? Farnsworth lives in Atlanta, but we shouldn’t force him to take $1 to $2 million less because of geographic lineage.

This leads us to the broader question of ‘how are the Braves going to spend their money this winter?’ They don’t seem to be willing to go high enough for Furcal. They don’t seem willing to give Farnsworth half of what B.J. and Billy got. What the hell does Schu have up his sleeve (from here on out I will be referring to Schuerholz as Schu)? How unhappy will Chipper be if we don’t use his restructured contract money on either of these two guys? More to come. . .