As Eric Simon on Amazin’ Avenue points out, if the Mets were to lose Tom Glavine to the Braves, which are the only team he’s said he would play for besides the Mets next year, the Mets receive an early first round draft pick in return.

If the Mets offer Glavine arbitration, which is really a no-brainer, and the Braves sign Glavine, they would receive the Braves’ first round pick next year (18th overall).

If the Braves sign Glavine prior to 12/1 they automatically forfeit their first rounder next year.

Jim Molony on MLB.com believes Glavine to Atlanta is a forgone conclusion. Molony says Glavine will wait about a week and then announce he’ll pitch for the Braves in ‘08. It would probably be for $8-9MM for ‘08 with a mutual option for ‘09.

While Mets fans have a bitter taste in their mouth after the way Glavine ended the Mets season, it will not be easy to replace the innings Glavine provided.

The Braves will seek to replace Andruw Jones in centerfield but won’t be able to target Torii Hunter, Aaron Rowand, or Mike Cameron because of their payroll restrictions. David DeJesus and CoCo Crisp are considered by MLB Trade Rumors to be more likely options.

The Atlanta Braves have declined their $5.5 million option on RHP Octavio Dotel for the 2008 Season, MLB.com reports.

Dotel went 2-1 with 11 saves in 2007 between time with the Braves and Royals. While with the Royals, he recorded a 3.91 ERA in 23.0 innings, however only pitched in 7.2 innings with the Braves while recording a 4.70 ERA.

Injury problems have been a concern over the years for the 33-year old Dotel as he has not pitched in more than 31 innings since the 2004 season. The Mets were reportedly interested in him before the trade deadline where he was sent from Kansas City to Atlanta.

According to ESPN.com, The Atlanta Braves traded SS Edgar Renteria to the Tigers for RHP Jair Jurrjens and OF Gorkys Hernandez.

This means Yunel Escobar the job at SS. Solid trade for the Braves. They add pitching depth and OF depth with Andruw Jones departing.

The good news, we're not the only NL East team with some injury problems.  The Braves have placed third baseman Larry Jones on the DL with a bruised hand. AAA Richman player Yunel Escobar will take his spot on the roster.

Today over at ESPN, they run an excerpt from Jayson Starks new book.  While I haven't read his book yet, todays little snippet is something we can all enjoy: Stark thinks Andruw Jones is overrated.

I can't do that sort of thing justice, so just go over and read it.  The better news of course is that of his top ten overrated players 0 can be found sporting the blue and orange. 

In his blog at the Daily News, Adam Rubin reports that ex Met Chris Woodward has adopted a son, Mason. Woodward is currently hitting .222 with 12 hits in 54 at bats as a Brave, which is about his BA last year as a Met, and has split his games between second, short and third for a total of 10 starts. 

He may never have been a great bat, even in his better year he was only hitting about 280, but Woodward was more than usefull as the utility guy.  For the most part, he could play anything but pitcher or catcher. In fact, in his two seasons with the Mets he started at least 2 games in each infield position.  Mostly at second last year, and mostly at third the year before.  He also 36 appearances in the outfield.  How many other bench guys are out there that could pretty much come in to start or as a defensive sub at pretty much any position (ok, maybe not centerfield). I think I'll always remember the interviews they'd have with Woodward about how he owned something like seven gloves because he had to be ready to get put in anywhere in the field.  Well good luck to Chris and his wife and their new son.

While we impatiently wait for the game to start, an extremely quick look around the NL East:

The Nat's snuck in a late rally to avoid the sweep. They had three runs in the 8th for their sole win in the series, but kept themselves in the best they could, taking Saturday into extra innings and losing by just one Friday.  All with a pitching staff cobbled together with minor leaguers and guys who haven't started in years. The Nats currently have 5 starting pitchers on the DL.

Philly seesawed for the weekend, but took the series with two 5-3 wins over Toronto, but mixed in a 13-2 loss. Todays win puts them back at the .500 mark for the season

In another up and down series, the Braves ended up on the losing end, dropping two to the Red Sox with a doubleheader yesterday that resulted in one victory by 14 runs to shut out the Red Sox, and one loss by 10.  The Braves lost todays game 6-3.  Matt Diaz went 4 for 5 but failed to score and had just one RBI.  the sole win came off a 7 inning shutout performance by Smoltz to earn his 199th victory.

And Marlins took the sole sweep of our NL East competitors, taking all three games over the Devil Rays in the battle for Florida. I'm sure all the Met and Yankee fans that retired to Florida were very excited.

While the Mets lost their series to the Braves, and head back to Shea with a 4-2 record, here’s a quick look at what else is going on in the NL East:

The Nats were swept by the Diamondbacks in a four game series at RFK. The games have been been both close (3-1 in their last loss) and not so much (7-1 Friday). The starting staff’s ERA’s are running a little high (Patterson 9.35, Williams 6.0, Bergmann 9.82). The Nats are now 1-6.

The Phillies are also struggling, dropping five of six, including a 6-4 loss today at Dolphins Stadium vs the Marlins. Ryan Howard is batting .217, Utley .259, and Met fan favorite Jimmy Rollins a .304 with 3 homeruns.

The Marlins, after finishing with Philly, is now 4-2. After 22 at bats is hitting .500 with 4 doubles, 2 homers, and 8 RBI’s. D-Train is 2-0, having given up 5 runs, 4 earned, in 12 innings pitched. He’s struck out 12 and walked 3.

While the Mets rested, the rest of the NL East had a busy day, for the most part beating up on each other.

In the battle of the former 3rd base coaches, the Manny Acta led Nationals fell to the Marlins (manager Fredi Gonzalez was the Braves 3rd base coach) 9-2.  Two Nats left the game with injuries (SS Guzman, CF Logan).

It's going to probably be a very long year for Manny.

In Philly, the Braves won 5-3, in 10 innings, via two Renteria home runs including the game winner in the 10th.  McCann added a 2 run shot in the 4th. Rollins hit the sole Philly homerun.

After all that talk of the wind in Card-land last night, turns out we played the East's sole homerunless game.

Mark Bowman of MLB.com reports that Braves pitcher Mike Hampton was injured while taking batting practice Wednesday afternoon.

“Hampton took a swing and fell to the ground in pain. It's still unknown whether he suffered a strained left oblique or broken rib.”

The injury will force Hampton to miss, at least, the first month of the season, possibly longer.  He had the “Tommy John” surgery in September 2005.

Since Hampton left the Mets for the “school system” in Colorado, he's been off.  His career in the Rockies was forgetable.  He was then traded to Atlanta, where he started to get his career back on track.  However, he's been a DL-staple, as well. 

The Braves were counting on a healthy Hampton to bolster their rotation.

Tommy Dee and Andrew Smith are doing their team by team previews over on their blog “True Sports Fans“

Today they take on the hated Atlanta Braves.

For what seems like all winter, the Braves had been shopping Adam LaRoche, and they finally worked out a deal with their most mentioned trade partner, the Pittsburgh Pirates. LaRoche was dealt to Pittsburgh for lefty reliever Mike Gonzalez two sources confirmed to ESPN.com

ESPN could not immediately confirm if other players were
involved in the deal.

The Braves had been trying to get Pittsburgh to include outfielder Chris Duffy in the deal, possibly as a replacement for Andruw Jones, who is a free agent at the end of this season, but the Pirates were reluctant to give him up.

LaRoche hit 32 homers and drove in 90 runs last season.

Gonzalez went 3-4 with 24 saves and a 2.17 ERA for the Pirates in 2006.

The Braves are just waiting for some information on Mike Gonzalez's
elbow before going through with a trade for Adam LaRoche with the Pirates, reports the Atlanta Journal Constitution.