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2018 Atlanta Braves thread

TarHeelNation11

TarHeelNation11

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Mar 9, 2007
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This thread is basically just for @coolwaterunc and myself. for everyone who likes baseball.

**I'm gonna discuss the Braves in this poast if that's cool with the fukkin committee.**

While the W/L expectations for this season will still be low, this is a crucial season for the Braves. Specifically, Swanson, Albies, Acuña, and all the pitchers need to show what their potential is this season. New GM Alex Anthopoulos will be evaluating everyone and will need to figure out which positions are covered long-term and which need to be addressed in 2019 free agency. I'm hoping Austin Riley can also get up to the bigs by September for a trial run so we can see what he can do.

This is a big year for the Braves' development. Below are some articles I've found interesting (with a LOL at Folty included) :

https://www.talkingchop.com/2018/2/...right-atlanta-braves-to-have-a-winning-season

https://deadspin.com/tag/mike-foltynewicz

https://www.talkingchop.com/2018/2/...lan-kolby-allard-trade-rumors-spring-training
 
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I, for one, think we should grab Renfroe from the Padres. This organization is dying for right-handed power. We have none. San Diego is going to want young pitchers in return, I'd assume. Would we consider giving Fried back to them? If they would take Newcomb for Renfroe, straightup, I'd do it in a heartbeat.
 
I'll poast some tl;dr material tomorrow at work since I'll have a PC to type on and I'm too lazy to boot mine up tonight. For tonight, I'll just say the Folty thing was all time dumb. First, it's a 100K difference so WTF to begin with, and then he bitches that nobody shows up for the arb hearing. Dude, it's 100K. STFU and go pitch.
 
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I also think it's to early to give up on Swanson. He can have nice rebound season this year.
 
coolwaterunc said:
I'll poast some tl;dr material tomorrow at work since I'll have a PC to type on and I'm too lazy to boot mine up tonight. For tonight, I'll just say the Folty thing was all time dumb. First, it's a 100K difference so WTF to begin with, and then he bitches that nobody shows up for the arb hearing. Dude, it's 100K. STFU and go pitch.
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Looking forward to it.
 
I'm a Reds fan and am pretty sure they are going to suck again this year. I actually think the lineup is pretty decent and the starting pitching, while young, will have some good moments. I think the pen will be a mess most of the year and the starters will be bad enough in spots to bury them.
 
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TarHeelNation11 said:
At least y'all are rid of McCutchen. Felt bad for the dude but he straight-up forgot how to play. He was a money drag on the Pirates.
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Agreed but the problem is, they didn’t sign anybody to replace him. Really wish they’d call up Austin Meadows & let him cut his teeth now. Way better option than Adam Frazier.
 
TarHeelNation11 said:
IMO, any Southerner who isn't a Braves fan (unless you already had a favorite team before 1966) is fukkin weird.
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I can't believe I'm posting in a MLB thread, but here goes.

I can't stand the Braves. Can't stand them!! It seems everyone I know or every stranger I pass on the street is a Braves fan. Braves this, Braves that. Braves, Braves, Braves. Sheesh!

First of all, the Braves are located in Atlanta which is the most fair-weather sports town in America. Second, the Braves are owned, or at least were once owned, by that uber-wealthy tool Ted Turner. Third, the Braves were soooo dominant during the 1990s that they won exactly ONE World Series (and I hear they got lucky in winning it). And fourth, and this is the kicker, the fans in the stadium look absolutely foolish every time they do that lame-o tomahawk chop and Indian chant which, by the way, they copied from FSU fans.
 
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Any of you guys do Fantasy Baseball?

None of my buddies do it so I'm always searching for a league right around this time. Wouldn't mind throwing a little scratch on one this year.
 
TL;DR warning: baseball needs to severely reduce time of game.

I'm all for whatever measures are taken to make the games shorter. Also, I would be open to shaving 50-60 games off the season to make the total time needed to be invested to be much less (I realize this second one will never happen due to the loss in revenue).

The games just take too damn long to watch, and there are too damn many of them. Below is a breakdown of total time invested if you were to watch every minute of action of one team in a given season of the four major sports

MLB: 185.2 min/game, 162 games = 500 hours/season
NFL: 192 min/game, 16 games = 51 hours/season
NHL: 139 min/game, 82 games = 190 hours/season
NBA: 134 min/game, 82 games = 183 hours/season

An average MLB game is marginally shorter than an NFL game, yet they play 10 times as many of them! That's not even taking into account that the majority of the time of NBA/NHL games (and to a lesser extent, NFL games) are filled with action, whereas a lot of baseball is waiting around.

It'd be great if they got that number down to 250 hours/season (cut it to roughly 2.5 hours per game for 100 games), but really any progress in the right direction would be nice. We don't need 162 games to figure out who the best teams are that should make the playoffs. It's also especially frustrating that you can play 162 games, only to get bounced in 1 game (Wild Card Game) or 3 games (Divisional Round sweep), which equate to 0.6% and 1.9% of the season you played respectively. In the other sports the playoffs as a percentage of what you just played is much higher: NFL you can get bounced in 1 game, 6.3% of the season, NBA/NHL you can get bounced in 4 games, 4.9% of the season.
 
71df8465763da07202806037546d8951--cardinals-baseball-st-louis-cardinals.jpg
 
Hark_The_Sound_2010 said:
TL;DR warning: baseball needs to severely reduce time of game.
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We're already doing this and the season hasn't even started?

Repeat after me, "It. Won't. Make. A. Difference." The pace of the game is not why people (and by people, I mean the ultra-coveted 18-35 demographic) don't watch. People don't watch because they find the sport, itself, boring. Like the sheer design/purpose of the sport. No amount of time-shrinking is going to make one iota of a difference. If you don't like baseball, you don't like baseball. Bastardizing the rules isn't going to bring in young fans.

These measures they're enacting are extremely silly, and don't do anything. Baseball needs to accept that it's a marginal sport in society now, and they need to tailor their experience accordingly. Down-size ballparks to 25,000 seats in most markets, etc. etc.

To reiterate, shortening the game with silly things like eliminating intentional walks won't do anything to increase ratings. All you're going to do is alienate your current fans and lose them too. Leave it alone.

MWHeels said:
Whether the topics are about the Braves or other teams, it's so great to be discussing baseball again. While everyone says baseball isn't popular anymore and the NBA is the new "cool" league, I will always love baseball. I just hope Manfred doesn't ruin it.
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He's going to ruin it with all these game-shortening initiatives. The one thing they SHOULD consider, that will make an actual impact, they won't do... which is shortening the season (in terms of # of games) as @Hark_The_Sound_2010 pointed out.
 
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TarHeelNation11 said:
We're already doing this and the season hasn't even started?

Repeat after me, "It. Won't. Make. A. Difference." The pace of the game is not why people (and by people, I mean the ultra-coveted 18-35 demographic). People don't watch because they find the sport, itself, boring. No amount of time-shrinking is going to make one iota of a difference. If you don't like baseball, you don't like baseball. Bastardizing the rules isn't going to bring in young fans.

These measures they're enacting are extremely silly, and don't do anything. Baseball needs to except that it's a marginal sport in society now, and they need to tailor their experience accordingly. Down-size ballparks to 25,000 seats in most markets, etc. etc.

To reiterate, shortening the game with silly things like eliminating intentional walks won't do anything to increase ratings. All you're going to do is alienate your current fans and lose them too. Leave it alone.
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Yep, baseball is meant for baseball fans. It's one of those sports where you either like it or you don't. It's not like football or basketball where a casual sports fan can sit back and watch a game just because sports. Baseball does not have the constant non-stop action those sports have, so it doesn't attract casual fans. Getting rid of intentional walks or installing a pitch clock isn't going to bring in fans. Baseball fans are going to watch because they love baseball. They already don't care that it's a slower paced sport because that's how they've watched it all their lives.

As for how to bring in new fans, I mean, baseball fans are always going to inherit it from others. I like baseball because I got it from my dad, and he got it from his dad, and so on and so forth. Personally, I think it's the greatest sport in the world, and I wouldn't change anything about it. That goes back to alienating their current fans with all these BS changes. Just play baseball. That's all I want to see because, guess what, I'm a baseball fan.
 
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TarHeelNation11 said:
Baseball needs to except that it's a marginal sport in society now
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I wouldn't say marginal. If so, the NBA is a marginal sport too.
http://news.gallup.com/poll/224864/football-americans-favorite-sport-watch.aspx

And that's just the US. By the time you add Japan and Hispanic countries, it laughs at football.

TarHeelNation11 said:
Down-size ballparks to 25,000 seats in most markets, etc. etc.
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Um, not really.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/235634/average-attendance-per-game-in-the-mlb--regular-season/
 
coolwaterunc said:
Yep, baseball is meant for baseball fans. It's one of those sports where you either like it or you don't. It's not like football or basketball where a casual sports fan can sit back and watch a game just because sports. Baseball does not have the constant non-stop action those sports have, so it doesn't attract casual fans. Getting rid of intentional walks or installing a pitch clock isn't going to bring in fans. Baseball fans are going to watch because they love baseball. They already don't care that it's a slower paced sport because that's how they've watched it all their lives.

As for how to bring in new fans, I mean, baseball fans are always going to inherit it from others. I like baseball because I got it from my dad, and he got it from his dad, and so on and so forth. Personally, I think it's the greatest sport in the world, and I wouldn't change anything about it. That goes back to alienating their current fans with all these BS changes. Just play baseball. That's all I want to see because, guess what, I'm a baseball fan.
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Yep. If anything, they need to take some things away from the fans. Example one: All-Star Game voting. Get rid of the fan vote. I'm really not interested in seeing the Kansas City Royals vs. the St. Louis Cardinals, with a couple Red Sox and Yankees and Dodgers thrown in, because those teams' fans flooded the ballot box. I would be much more likely to watch the All-Star Game if I truly knew it was a collection of the best players from the first half of the season, as selected by managers / writers who know the game. Also, get rid of the "every team must have one rep" thing. If your team doesn't have an All-Star... suck it up and get better.

One thing baseball could do to bring in new fans is let its black star players play something other than outfield. I read a very interesting article a few years back that pointed out that, since Charles Johnson hung up the cleats as a catcher, basically like 90% of black MLB players have been outfielders. Stop making it a self-fulfilling prophecy (same way in football how athletic white kids are steered away from corner back) that they have to be outfielders.

Things like these are what baseball should be doing, as well as flooding social media and trying to get a better presence for its star players. Its biggest stars are basically invisible, relative to NFL and NBA stars. This is what baseball needs to do..... not shorten games.
 
tarheel0910 said:
I wouldn't say marginal. If so, the NBA is a marginal sport too.
http://news.gallup.com/poll/224864/football-americans-favorite-sport-watch.aspx

And that's just the US. By the time you add Japan and Hispanic countries, it laughs at football.
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Marginal in terms of news coverage and "getting talked about." Take a spin around any national radio station or TV programming during any point of the year and it's all NBA / NFL / CFB talk. Baseball's viewership is on the decline, while NBA's is rebounding (especially on streaming devices).

tarheel0910 said:
Um, not really.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/235634/average-attendance-per-game-in-the-mlb--regular-season/
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Think link does nothing for me (says I need a membership). But yeah, many MLB markets could downsize to 25,000. Not ALL of them obviously (Giants, Yankees, Royals, Red Sox, Cubs, Cardinals), but many of them could. I mean, Seattle may not even have a team in 5 more years. The Mariners can't get anyone to go to their games.

Either way, we're on the same side on this argument. You and I both like baseball and want to see it get healthier. Bottom line is shortening the game with gimmicky moves isn't the way to increase viewership.
 
Not at all looking forward to the Yankees starting 12-12 and every media outlet's hot takes on how Stanton is ruining the clubhouse.
 
BTW, one thing I absolutely love about baseball is no salary cap. And I'm saying this as a fan of the Braves, who are a mid-market team in terms of available funds to spend. The no salary cap, for one, is quintessential American, and two, it creates fascinating scenarios. Shrewd, smart GMs can go to a small-market team and be successful, with a fraction of the payroll of, say, the Yankees or Red Sox, whose GMs can just buy their way out of trouble if they make bad GM moves.
 
TarHeelNation11 said:
Marginal in terms of news coverage and "getting talked about." Take a spin around any national radio station or TV programming during any point of the year and it's all NBA / NFL / CFB talk. Baseball's viewership is on the decline, while NBA's is rebounding (especially on streaming devices).
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Ok, but who actually cares if they are talking about it on the radio? Viewership is about the same as the NBA. And again, you are only counting the US. Baseball is extremely popular in other countries.

TarHeelNation11 said:
But yeah, many MLB markets could downsize to 25,000.
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I saw an article somewhere that showed that around 2/3 of MLB teams averaged more than 25,000. This has nothing to do with the popularity of baseball increasing or decreasing though. No one says they aren't watching baseball because the stadium is half full.

TarHeelNation11 said:
Bottom line is shortening the game with gimmicky moves isn't the way to increase viewership.
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Agreed, although as a baseball fan I would like for the games to be shorter as long as it's not a gimmick.
 
tarheel0910 said:
Ok, but who actually cares if they are talking about it on the radio? Viewership is about the same as the NBA. And again, you are only counting the US. Baseball is extremely popular in other countries.
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Who cares about overseas numbers? We all know baseball is healthy in Latin America and Japan. That doesn't help American numbers, really. And yes, it's about the same as the NBA, but you're not taking into account the trajectory. NBA viewership is on the rise, augmented by streaming platforms. MLB is on the decline (though the World Series numbers were up last season, even with one of the teams being a non-major media market. This points back tot he huge number of games being the problem.
 
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