The Braves have acquired 34-year old righty reliever Kyle Farnsworth, 31-year old lefty swinging outfielder Rick Ankiel and cash from the Royals for 26-year old righty reliever Jesse Chavez, 26-year old outfielder Gregor Blanco and 20-year old lefty reliever Tim Collins. Farnsworth has pitched in 37 games (0 starts) this year for the Royals and he was 3-0 with a 2.42 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP. He has now pitched in 690 games (26 starts) in his 12 years in the majors and he is 34-53 with 27 saves, a 4.36 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP. The Braves hope that Farnsworth pitches like he did in 2005 for them when he worked in 26 games (0 starts) and was 0-0 with 10 saves, a 1.98 ERA and a 0.81 WHIP. Rick Ankiel has played in 27 games this season for the Royals and he is 24 of 92 (.261 avg, .784 OPS) with 14 runs scored, 4 homers and 15 RBIs. Ankiel has now played in 369 games in his major league career and he is 286 of 1,136 (.252 avg, .765 OPS) with 169 runs scored, 53 homers, 172 RBIs and 8 stolen bases.

Jesse Chavez has not pitched too well for the Braves this year. Chavez pitched in 28 games (0 starts) for the Braves this year and he was 3-2 with a 5.89 ERA and a 1.42 WHIP. Gregor Blanco played in 36 games for the Braves this year and he was 18 of 58 (.310 avg, .756 OPS) with 9 runs scored, 3 RBIs and 1 stolen base. Blanco played in 204 games in his three years with the Braves and he was 134 of 531 (.252 avg, .670 OPS) with 66 runs scored, 1 homer, 42 RBIs and 16 stolen bases. Tim Collins came over from the Blue Jays in the Alex Gonzalez trade. Collins pitched in 6 games in AA-ball for the Braves and he was 0-0 with 2 saves, a 1.12 ERA and a 0.88 WHIP. Collins has pitched in 41 games (0 starts) overall in AA-ball this year and he is 1-0 with 11 saves, a 2.29 ERA and a 0.98 WHIP.

I like this deal for the Braves who are trying to win right now. Farnsworth adds another power arm to the pen and Ankiel as a lefty power bat to the outfield mix. The Braves might wish that they could have kept Collins down the road but it was still a good deal for them.

The Braves have acquired 24-year old righty swinging outfielder Wilkin Ramirez from the Tigers for either a player to be named later or cash. Ramirez has played in 97 games in AA+AAA-ball this year and he is 84 of 365 (.230 avg, .753 OPS) with 49 runs scored, 19 homers, 56 RBIs and 12 stolen bases. Ramirez played in 15 games in 2009 for the Tigers (his only experience in the majors) and he was 4 of 11 (.364 avg, 1.203 OPS) with 6 runs scored, 1 homer and 3 RBIs. Ramirez came into this season as the Tigers’ #8 prospect according to Baseball America so I really like this deal for the Braves.

The Braves have designated 26-year old righty swinging outfielder Brent Clevlen for assignment. Clevlen played in 4 games for the Braves this season and he was 1 for 4 (.250 avg, .750 OPS) with 2 runs scored. He also played in 30 games in A+AAA-ball this year and he was 27 of 99 (.276 avg, .762 OPS) with 15 runs scored, 1 homer, 17 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. The Braves would like to keep Clevlen if he clears waivers.

38-year old switch hitting 3B Chipper Jones appears to be on the downside of his career. He has played in 79 games this season for the Braves and he is 66 of 261 (.253 avg, .775 OPS) with 38 runs scored, 7 homers, 37 RBIs and 5 stolen bases. Jones still likely has some big hits left in his bat as I do expect him to rise to the occasion as the games get bigger down the stretch. Despite whispers about retirement I don’t think Jones will be packing it in this year. Still, Braves’ fans should get a good look at Jones down the stretch this year in case he does decide to hang it up over the winter. As of today, Jones is #2 all-time in games played (2,245) in Braves’ history. He’s also #2 in runs scored (1,496), #2 in OPS (.941), #2 in hits (2,472), #2 in doubles (488), #3 in homers (433), #2 in RBIs (1,482) and he’s the all-time leader in walks (1,398) in Braves’ history.

The Atlanta Braves could use a corner outfielder with power. I think a team like the Orioles would want quantity over quality in return for any of the veterans they have to deal. With that in mind I would offer 26-year old righty reliever Jesse Chavez, 26-year old lefty swinging outfielder Gregor Blanco and 26-year old righty swinging shortstop Diory Hernandez to the O’s for Luke Scott. Scott has a ton of power and he can play average defense in LF. None of the guys I would give the Orioles are in the long range plans of the Braves but they would all likely get to play a lot with the Orioles.