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2016 Atlanta Braves thread

Hark_The_Sound_2010 said:
One of the Boston sports radio discussions today was whether the Braves were purposefully tanking in order to get high picks in the draft. While not as sure-fire a strategy as in the NBA, the Nationals definitely nailed building through top draft picks.
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Not even NC State fans are dumb enough to run an MLB team and decide to tank in order to get good draft picks. There are 452 ways to acquire talent if you're an MLB team. Tanking would be the dumbest damn thing in the world to do. It accomplishes nothing except losing your organization potential money at the gate. Don't believe me? See the Dansby Swanson trade (acquired the #1 overall 2015 MLB Draft selection and a young, controllable MLB-caliber CF for one good pitcher). The order of your draft picks means nothing in MLB when there's trades, free agency, international selections, et al.
 
I don't think tanking really does anything in MLB. Their draft is such a crapshoot, and since the players typically don't make the MLB roster until at least 2-3 years after they're drafted, you have no idea how they're going to turn out anyway. It doesn't really matter if you pick first or not, you'll get a handful of prospects out of it regardless.
 
coolwaterunc said:
I don't think tanking really does anything in MLB. Their draft is such a crapshoot, and since the players typically don't make the MLB roster until at least 2-3 years after they're drafted, you have no idea how they're going to turn out anyway. It doesn't really matter if you pick first or not, you'll get a handful of prospects out of it regardless.
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Agreed, I think the discussion was somewhat tongue in cheek. There are some drafts that are loaded at the top and it pays to have the top pick in those drafts. I think they said that the Nationals had a top 6 pick in in a bunch of drafts (including the top overall in back to back drafts) and got Zimmerman, Rendon, Harper, and Strasburg going that route. If you draft well, being at the top of consecutive drafts can be helpful.

However in the MLB it's easier just to spend your way into contention. The Cubs and Dodgers have done that. The Red Sox and Yankees have somewhat botched that (Sabathia, Rodriguez, Texiera, even Ellsbury to some extent.... Sandoval, Porcello, Crawford before he was dumped onto the Dodgers, Hanley [Hanley may actually be turning the corner this year though])
 
Listening to the Braves Clubhouse Report on the local station here and the dude said it's in the 40s in Boston today. LOLz. It's 81 here and sunny. We may not win at that baseball thing, but damnit if our weather ain't nice.
 
TarHeelNation11 said:
Listening to the Braves Clubhouse Report on the local station here and the dude said it's in the 40s in Boston today. LOLz. It's 81 here and sunny. We may not win at that baseball thing, but damnit if our weather ain't nice.
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I think it may have even been upper 30's when I left for work today. Was definitely cold out - unseasonably cold even for New England. But is a clear sky and sunny as well.

That's what was perfect about going to school at UNC, but going home to Boston over the summers. Get the best weather Sept-May... and get to duck out for the shitty months of June, July, August when it would be unbearably hot (although granted, it does still get unbearably hot in Boston, but for a much shorter time period).
 
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TarHeelNation11 said:
Listening to the Braves Clubhouse Report on the local station here and the dude said it's in the 40s in Boston today. LOLz. It's 81 here and sunny. We may not win at that baseball thing, but damnit if our weather ain't nice.
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The last word I would use to describe Atlanta weather is "nice." It is today, but it won't last.
 
Hark_The_Sound_2010 said:
I think it may have even been upper 30's when I left for work today. Was definitely cold out - unseasonably cold even for New England. But is a clear sky and sunny as well.

That's what was perfect about going to school at UNC, but going home to Boston over the summers. Get the best weather Sept-May... and get to duck out for the shitty months of June, July, August when it would be unbearably hot (although granted, it does still get unbearably hot in Boston, but for a much shorter time period).
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There's no such thing as unbearably hot. Give me 85+ degrees every day.

coolwaterunc said:
The last word I would use to describe Atlanta weather is "nice." It is today, but you know it won't last.
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Bro, I thought we were pre-shredded cheese buddies.
 
TarHeelNation11 said:
There's no such thing as unbearably hot. Give me 85+ degrees every day.
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You are one sick SOB... I melt once it gets to 90. I'll take 70-75 with a soft breeze every day.

TarHeelNation11 said:
Bro, I thought we were pre-shredded cheese buddies.
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Even with all the declumping flour you can add to pre-shredded cheese, the stuff would still melt into a clumped ball in your ideal temperature.
 
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The Braves look to avoid the 4 game sweep tonight at Fenway. Buchholz can certainly serve up some runs, so maybe the Braves offense breaks out of their slump a little bit tonight.
 
Alright, we suck and the old guys suck, so let them go and call up the kids. Get rid of Bud Norris, Erick Aybar and some of the other journeyman trash and bring up Albies and Swanson. They've made it pretty obvious they're ready. Play them every day and get them used to playing in the majors so it's not all new in 2017. If they're so important to this franchise, then make them important and put them on the field. Keep Mallex Smith on the team and play him every day too, even when Ender comes back. When he does come back, put Smith in LF and pretend Hector Olivera isn't in the organization anymore.

Rotation (not necessarily in order):

Julio Teheran
Matt Wisler
Aaron Blair
Mike Foltywhatever
Jhoulys Chacin (for now)

If Folty keeps sucking, then try him as a reliever and bring up Tyrell Jenkins. If he turns out alright, replace Chacin with Jenkins in a couple of months.

Lineup:

LF Mallex Smith
SS/2B Dansy Swanson
1B Freddie Feeman
3B Adonis Garcia (ugh)
RF Nick Markakis (switch him and Freddie if you want)
CF Ender Inciarte
C Tyler Flowers / A.J. Pierzynski
SS/2B Ozzie Albies

Don't care about the bench since it's a wash. I don't really care what happens with Fredi since it's pretty obvious he's not managing the team next year anyway.
 
coolwaterunc said:
Alright, we suck and the old guys suck, so let them go and call up the kids. Get rid of Bud Norris, Erick Aybar and some of the other journeyman trash and bring up Albies and Swanson. They've made it pretty obvious they're ready. Play them every day and get them used to playing in the majors so it's not all new in 2017. If they're so important to this franchise, then make them important and put them on the field. Keep Mallex Smith on the team and play him every day too, even when Ender comes back. When he does come back, put Smith in LF and pretend Hector Olivera isn't in the organization anymore.

Rotation (not necessarily in order):

Julio Teheran
Matt Wisler
Aaron Blair
Mike Foltywhatever
Jhoulys Chacin (for now)

If Folty keeps sucking, then try him as a reliever and bring up Tyrell Jenkins. If he turns out alright, replace Chacin with Jenkins in a couple of months.

Lineup:

LF Mallex Smith
SS/2B Dansy Swanson
1B Freddie Feeman
3B Adonis Garcia (ugh)
RF Nick Markakis (switch him and Freddie if you want)
CF Ender Inciarte
C Tyler Flowers / A.J. Pierzynski
SS/2B Ozzie Albies

Don't care about the bench since it's a wash. I don't really care what happens with Fredi since it's pretty obvious he's not managing the team next year anyway.
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I have a lot to say about the Braves in this thread. I'm actually pretty darn positive about the near future, despite our awful record. I'll definitely get to this later tonight. I've been busy as shit the last week.
 
TarHeelNation11 said:
I've been busy as shit the last week.
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And yes, I'll call myself out on this comment before anyone else can, with the obligatory...

hqg-429.gif
 
I should add that I'd like us to trade either Markakis or Inciarte to open up a spot for a potential power threat in LF for next season, whoever that may be. I won't speculate on that. I prefer to trade Markakis to get us younger, but I won't lose any sleep if it's Ender. I like Markakis a lot, and he's probably my favorite player on the team (as if I had anything to choose from). He's just not a good fit for what we're going through right now. Ideally, I'd put Mallex in CF, Ender in RF and whoever we'd get in the offseason in LF.

We need to do something about 3B too, as I can't stomach Adonis Garcia as an everyday player. I don't mind him off the bench, but he can't play everyday if we expect to do anything.

Catcher is a concern, but I'm not too worried about it. Teams have proven you can win with a mediocre offensive catcher as long as he doesn't hurt you defensively. That shouldn't be too hard to find. I mean, if it ends up being Tyler Flowers, then that's not too bad. Could be better, but it could be much worse.
 
Here's my spiel:

Despite our terrible record, I'm very excited/hopeful about the future. I like that earlier this week they promoted Albies to Gwinnett and Swanson to Mississippi. I think both will be in Atlanta by the end of July. That's your middle infield sorted.

As for pitchers, Matt Wisler is a stud. I like him. He's good enough to be your 2-4 starter. It's early but it seems like Aaron Blair has potential to be in the starting rotation too. Teheran, ideally, would be a #2 starter (or lower) because he's good but not elite. We need to add 1-2 more starters (Norris and Chacin will be gone by August). Folty.....don't get me started. That dude sucks. He won't be anything more than a fast-throwing setup man. He has zero movement on his pitches.

As far as Markakis, I want to keep him. He's the best player on our team by far. Keep Mallex in center, even after Inciarte gets back. Could move Mallex to LF I guess. I'd rather deal Freddie than Markakis. Freddie Freeman is so, so limited, yet this organization covets him like he's friggin Mark McGwire in 1998. He hits for high .200 / low .300 average and hits less than 25 homers. That's not elite. Deal him.

Overall though, the future is bright with all our young talent coming through the pipeline. The players who are sucking at the major league level are all older guys who aren't part of the long-term plan. Or they're guys like Jace Peterson who also aren't part of the long-term plan (which I hate because I like JP, but he's just not good enough).
 
TarHeelNation11 said:
Here's my spiel:

Despite our terrible record, I'm very excited/hopeful about the future. I like that earlier this week they promoted Albies to Gwinnett and Swanson to Mississippi. I think both will be in Atlanta by the end of July. That's your middle infield sorted.

As for pitchers, Matt Wisler is a stud. I like him. He's good enough to be your 2-4 starter. It's early but it seems like Aaron Blair has potential to be in the starting rotation too. Teheran, ideally, would be a #2 starter (or lower) because he's good but not elite. We need to add 1-2 more starters (Norris and Chacin will be gone by August). Folty.....don't get me started. That dude sucks. He won't be anything more than a fast-throwing setup man. He has zero movement on his pitches.

As far as Markakis, I want to keep him. He's the best player on our team by far. Keep Mallex in center, even after Inciarte gets back. Could move Mallex to LF I guess. I'd rather deal Freddie than Markakis. Freddie Freeman is so, so limited, yet this organization covets him like he's friggin Mark McGwire in 1998. He hits for high .200 / low .300 average and hits less than 25 homers. That's not elite. Deal him.

Overall though, the future is bright with all our young talent coming through the pipeline. The players who are sucking at the major league level are all older guys who aren't part of the long-term plan. Or they're guys like Jace Peterson who also aren't part of the long-term plan (which I hate because I like JP, but he's just not good enough).
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Agree on the pitchers, especially Wisler. I too believe Folty will eventually be in the bullpen, and I don't mind that. I just say keep in the rotation for a while to see how he does. It can't hurt; we're 7-20.

I wouldn't mind trading Freeman too, but I didn't mention it because:
1.) Since he's had such bad start or if he has a bad year as whole, I'd rather just hold on to him. The potential of a bounce back season from him would be better than the value we'd get for him in return after a down season.
2.) I don't think they'd realistically deal him anyway.

I like Markakis too A LOT, but if it came down to it, I'd pull the trigger to get younger and to make room for a power bat. We need someone with power, and LF is an easy spot to put a power hitter in there. With a potential outfield of Smith/Inciarte/Markakis, there just isn't any power. First base probably isn't an option since, like it or not, they're not getting rid of Freddie. I just don't see it. We need a third baseman too, and ideally, someone with power would go there, but good third basemen are a lot harder to find than left fielders.
 
Impressive performance by Folty this afternoon. Gotta give the guy a chance. If he throws his secondary pitches for strikes and locates his fastball, he can be very good. The question he needs to answer is can he put up a decent performance and keep his team in the game when he doesn't have his best stuff. When he has it, he's really good, when he doesn't, he's awful. Hopefully, the more we run him out there, the sooner he'll learn. He needs seasoning, but if he can figure out, he's a legit top of the rotation starter, IMO. I'm really hoping he comes through because we haven't had a legit power pitcher since John Smoltz.
 
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when is mf'r gonna get fired?

somebody just said here locally that gonzalez wants an extension or a vote of confidence.
 
Isn't this karma? So many people were tired of Bobby Cox for not being able to push through in October, when IMO those teams were built in a flawed manner by the GM. Being able to have elite pitching will only carry you so far -- at some point, you're going to have to put runs on the board, and Atlanta continually would lose games 2-0 or 3-1 or something like that where the pitching staff gave you a gem, but had zero run support. Personally, don't think you can blame that on Bobby Cox.
 
While on the topic of Fredi, stop benching Mallex Smith, for goodness sake. How the F is he supposed to learn how to hit at this level if you keep sitting him against lefties? The dude lobbied for him to stay, but he's using him as a platoon player. Just dumb. Stop playing by the book to try to win games because, in case you haven't noticed, winning is an afterthought this year. This year is about giving guys experience, and you're not helping Mallex right now. Idiot.
 
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Blue2010 said:
Isn't this karma? So many people were tired of Bobby Cox for not being able to push through in October, when IMO those teams were built in a flawed manner by the GM. Being able to have elite pitching will only carry you so far -- at some point, you're going to have to put runs on the board, and Atlanta continually would lose games 2-0 or 3-1 or something like that where the pitching staff gave you a gem, but had zero run support. Personally, don't think you can blame that on Bobby Cox.
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I didn't agree with everything Bobby did, but the man is a legend and at least provided valid reasoning behind most of everything he did. I disagreed with some of his by-the-book managing too, but he had the pedigree to back it up. Fredi's decision to keep David Carpenter out there and refuse to put Craig Kimbrel in the 8th inning facing elimination from the playoffs did it for me. Fredi is a straight up buffoon when it comes to managing a baseball team. He consistently pushes the wrong buttons and his out-managed by his opponent 90% of the time. I'm sure he's a great guy and everything, and I wish him well, but I will rejoice when he's gone.
 
TarHeelNation11 said:
What would firing Fredi do to help? I don't care if he gets fired or not, but what would it help?
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for me, first, it would show the org isn't tied to every decision bobby has made...theres a lot tied into this, too much to finger type whilst in carpool, but cut bait now with a guy that has progressively gotten worse tactically and philosophically.

second, maybe the guy that could do better is already there...i don't know who it might be; pendleton, snitker, mcdowell, etc, but someone else with different ideas.

third, selfishly, i want some type of publicity/excitement generated for this org...it's a stagnate org, with old school ideas, and no incentive for 2017.
 
gteeitup said:
for me, first, it would show the org isn't tied to every decision bobby has made...theres a lot tied into this, too much to finger type whilst in carpool, but cut bait now with a guy that has progressively gotten worse tactically and philosophically.

second, maybe the guy that could do better is already there...i don't know who it might be; pendleton, snitker, mcdowell, etc, but someone else with different ideas.

third, selfishly, i want some type of publicity/excitement generated for this org...it's a stagnate org, with old school ideas, and no incentive for 2017.
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I don't think this is a stagnant organization at all. They did an excellent job cleaning up Frank Wren's gigantic mess of a system and created something entirely brand new. If the Braves were stagnant, they would have went on with everything as Wren had it, let Upton and Heyward walk and continue to have the worst minor league system in baseball. Instead, they made necessary drastic changes. My only problem with the FO is they need to shut up and stop making stupid comments to the media. Stop saying they had higher expectations for this season and take it for what it is. Anyone who looked at the roster at the beginning of the year and actually expected them to be competitive is either:

1.) Delusional
2.) Idiotic
3.) Lying

It's a rebuilding year. It is what is, so let the players develop and get better. That's really all you can do at this point. Besides, it's a foregone conclusion Fredi is not a part of the long term plan in Atlanta, so as far as the big picture is concerned, that's good enough for me.
 
coolwaterunc said:
I don't think this is a stagnant organization at all. They did an excellent job cleaning up Frank Wren's gigantic mess of a system and created something entirely brand new. If the Braves were stagnant, they would have went on with everything as Wren had it, let Upton and Heyward walk and continue to have the worst minor league system in baseball. Instead, they made necessary drastic changes. My only problem with the FO is they need to shut up and stop making stupid comments to the media. Stop saying they had higher expectations for this season and take it for what it is. Anyone who looked at the roster at the beginning of the year and actually expected them to be competitive is either:

1.) Delusional
2.) Idiotic
3.) Lying

It's a rebuilding year. It is what is, so let the players develop and get better. That's really all you can do at this point. Besides, it's a foregone conclusion Fredi is not a part of the long term plan in Atlanta, so as far as the big picture is concerned, that's good enough for me.
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Yeah I'll go along with this. The organization seems stagnant on the surface because all the dynamic changes and improvements are taking place at the minor league level. The cavalry is coming, it's just not here yet. Your typical fan isn't going to follow the inner workings of the minor league teams (which is understandable), so if all you are paying attention to is the W/L record of the Braves' major league club, then yes it seems terrible. But the minor league guys are getting closer and closer. Albies is tearing up AAA and is probably going to get called up by July. I'm hopeful Swanson "graduates out" of AA quickly and gets on up to AAA by July.

The "excitement" you're looking for @gteeitup will come in March 2017 with the new stadium. Nothing earth-shattering is going to occur between now and then that will excite the non-hardcore fan.
 
So is @keysersosay#1 still Bryce Harper's #1 fan?

That dude is not only the biggest prick in baseball, he might be the biggest prick in sports- it has to be between Harper and Grayson Allen.
 
UNC71-00 said:
So is @keysersosay#1 still Bryce Harper's #1 fan?

That dude is not only the biggest prick in baseball, he might be the biggest prick in sports- it has to be between Harper and Grayson Allen.
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Agreed, Harper is a prick - but the thing I like about him is that he has no qualms with letting you know he's a prick. And the media for the most part doesn't try to cover up that he's a prick. So there's at least something salvageable there. As opposed to Cam Newton who is another grade A prick, but he and the media try to play off that he's some great guy.
 
Hark_The_Sound_2010 said:
Agreed, Harper is a prick - but the thing I like about him is that he has no qualms with letting you know he's a prick. And the media for the most part doesn't try to cover up that he's a prick. So there's at least something salvageable there. As opposed to Cam Newton who is another grade A prick, but he and the media try to play off that he's some great guy.
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Yeah I have to say my hatred of Harper has waned considerably. My main gripe with him was always that he wasn't very good and was wasting his potential. Now, he's realized that potential and is pretty darn good (but still not as good as Mike Trout).
 
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