Braves’ Wren: Trade for Vazquez the “move of the year”

ATLANTA — Atlanta Braves GM Frank Wren declared today that the trade he made for Javier Vazquez last week was the “move of the year” in baseball in 2008.

“Now that it’s the end of the year and we are all taking account of how things went, I think enough time has passed to declare this the ‘move of the year,’” Wren said. “Just as Michael Phelps is the sportsman of the year, because of his excellence and dominance, so too should this move be recognized.”

The trade brings Vazquez to the Braves from the White Sox in exchange for four different prospects. Vazquez makes about $12 million a year that the Braves will pay.

“Check it out,” Wren said. “It looks like it will take 92 or 93 wins to win the NL East or at least to get the Wild Card. So we’re now locked and loaded for 12 to 13 wins from just one of our starting pitchers. That means that if the rest of our four pitchers average just 20 wins each, we are in the playoffs. And if you factor in a few wins from the bullpen, we may get that number down to 18 or 19 wins per pitcher! Basically, we’re right there.”

Wren said he is probably going to ask for a salary extension as a thank you for his hard work with Vazquez.

“I don’t feel like GMs should get automatic extensions every time they make a move,” Wren said. “But when a GM makes the move of the century, then I think it is warranted. Even if it does happen in 2008.”

It’s going to be tough for this sport to sweep any nations, but it’s still pretty frickin’ cool!