Finding positives in lower profile deals

They settled on Miley, who in a given year will give you a 3.50-4.00 ERA through 30 starts and call it a season.

With a southpaw in the mix, they can force an opposing team to have to think a little more in a playoff series, but since that southpaw has been giving up 3.2 runs and 6.1 hits per start, maybe his ineffectiveness outweighs his dominant hand? But hey, let’s dig up some more optimism from the sadness mines: In the last month, Miley’s ERA has been at 3.45 through five starts, and opposing batters are only hitting .248 against him.

Team chemistry is huge during a playoff run maybe all the starters can talk about how hard it is to not give up five or six runs a game.

I mean, Kemp’s Braves career is off to an 0-for-4 with 2 SO start, but that’s only one night of the two months this Braves roster has left together.

Maybe Kemp gets to be the grizzled vet during the upbringing of a new Braves generation, his attitude rubbing off on them as the Dodgers chip in to pay $3.5 million of the (*eye twitches involuntarily*) $21.5 million Kemp is owed annually until 2019.

But perhaps the best news resulting from this trade is what it cost the Braves to bring Kemp to Georgia.

Yes, in his first appearance with Boston since being acquired from Minnesota, reliever Fernando Abad gave up a go-ahead three-run blast to Robinson Cano, losing the game for Boston during a tight race in the NL East.

Abad is replacing LOOGY Tommy Layne, who was not getting the job done against lefties, allowing them to get on base to the tune of a .355 OBP (Abad’s is at .297).

It may not seem like one now, since Abad has had his struggles, and had one of them last night in his first game in a big spot with his new team, but Boston has the roster to win the NL East, and a logical move to acquire bullpen help for cheap who can fight off the left-handed hitters late in the game can, if you look at it right, maybe by squinting and turn your head sideways, can be seen as a positive.