The rotation

[depley]

As it sits right now the Braves rotation has an average age of just shy of 24. Yes 24. You have Teheran, Wood, Miller and Perez at age 24 and Foltynewicz at age 23.

Add to that in the minors Banuelos at age 24, Wisler age 23, Jenkins 23, and do not forget Freid at 21 who is recovering from TJ, and is highly rated as well.

How many teams can match this for the future?

now to fix the relief pitching.......

[CyYoung31]

Who is Woods?

I'm just messing with ya. Seriously though, we have a very exciting rotation for the future with so much depth. As much **** as I give Hart, he did accomplish his main task this winter.

And I think the Mets are pretty close, if not better on that front.

[depley]

Who is Woods?

I'm just messing with ya. Seriously though, we have a very exciting rotation for the future with so much depth. As much **** as I give Hart, he did accomplish his main task this winter.

And I think the Mets are pretty close, if not better on that front.

Mets start with a 41 YO in Colon, Neise is 28 Harvey , DeGrom are 26 so they are a good bit older than the braves starters

[thethe]

Mets start with a 41 YO in Colon, Neise is 28 Harvey , DeGrom are 26 so they are a good bit older than the braves starters

Yeah but Harvey by himself is better than all of our starters combined. Also, Degrom would probably be our best pitcher as well.

Braves are going to have a great rotation for years to come though.

[Russ2dollas]

I think the Mets and Nats are set up better for rotations moving forward. They have more guys w/ playoff/miss bat stuff.

[Millwood1Hitter]

Maddux was good, like really really really good, like ungodly good.

[stpeteirish]

As it sits right now the Braves rotation has an average age of just shy of 24. Yes 24. You have Teheran, Wood, Miller and Perez at age 24 and Foltynewicz at age 23.

Add to that in the minors Banuelos at age 24, Wisler age 23, Jenkins 23, and do not forget Freid at 21 who is recovering from TJ, and is highly rated as well.

How many teams can match this for the future?

now to fix the relief pitching.......

But they've all struggled this year at one time or another except Miller. They're all young and promising, no doubt about that. All except Perez (not sure about Jenkins) were high draft choices. And starting pitching is job #1 when building, or rebuilding a contenter.

With our offense the pitching had better be good.

[zbhargrove]

Mets start with a 41 YO in Colon, Neise is 28 Harvey , DeGrom are 26 so they are a good bit older than the braves starters

And a good bit better

[cajunrevenge]

The flaw I think in the Braves philosophy is they want to create a team thats competitive every year. With all these great cheap players it would be best to supplement them with big free agents that might not be the best long term investment rather than trade from our wealth of prospects. We could probably sign Price/Weiters/JUpton this offseason and be around the 100-110 million salary we were at last year. Those deals might be bad 3-4 years in but in the meantime we could win championships.

[Millwood1Hitter]

The flaw I think in the Braves philosophy is they want to create a team thats competitive every year. With all these great cheap players it would be best to supplement them with big free agents that might not be the best long term investment rather than trade from our wealth of prospects. We could probably sign Price/Weiters/JUpton this offseason and be around the 100-110 million salary we were at last year. Those deals might be bad 3-4 years in but in the meantime we could win championships.

I'm fairly confident that we are going to be aggressive in FA for the right pieces in the next 2 offseasons.

[The Chosen One]

I'm fairly confident that we are going to be aggressive in FA for the right pieces in the next 2 offseasons.

I wish I had the same confidence you had. I don't see Liberty plugging more money into the team anytime soon.

[Dalyn]

I think we're definitely going to go hard after Neftali Feliz.

[Knucksie]

Have no proof to the contrary, but recent disasters with high profile/high dollar FA's has persuaded the organization to shy away. Even when they were among the top payrolls, seldom was it simply a matter of submitting the top bid. Like they did back in 1990, they'll bring a veteran presence, like they did with Charlie Liebrandt, to help tutor the kids and add experience. More likely scenario is to go about it through trade. Just don't see them going upwards of $20MM for a starting pitcher.

[clvclv]

Just don't personally see any reason they'd trade any of this depth. Some of the young hitters you might target are "sexy" and exciting, but the old "Braves' Way" was the template for this entire exercise - the pitching depth has now been rebuilt to the point that you'd still be a contender if you walked out on that limb an offered big money to an "Ace" like they did when they went after Maddux. If that "Ace" went on the shelf, you'd still have plenty of SPs capable of stepping up to keep you in games.

All the depth Hart & Company have acquired - plus all the picks in a couple weeks - have given you the cushion to actually "miss" on a high-priced free-agent and still stay in the race. There's a HUGE reason the Mutts haven't been willing to give up a deGrom, Syndergaard, or Matz for someone like Tulo - they're one pitch away from losing Harvey forever, will be one pitch away from losing Wheeler forever when he comes back, etc..

It's the "old guy" in me, but I'd NEVER give up 6 years of Syndergaard or Matz AND $118 million for 6 years of Tulo no matter how close I was to winning it all. If the Rockies were willing to eat half of that cash, we might have something to talk about.

TJ or no TJ, the Giants will always regret giving up Wheeler for Beltran just like many people around here love to point out that they'd never have traded Wainright for J. D. Drew.

[clvclv]

The flaw I think in the Braves philosophy is they want to create a team thats competitive every year. With all these great cheap players it would be best to supplement them with big free agents that might not be the best long term investment rather than trade from our wealth of prospects. We could probably sign Price/Weiters/JUpton this offseason and be around the 100-110 million salary we were at last year. Those deals might be bad 3-4 years in but in the meantime we could win championships.

This is the goal of every front office in the game - I'd personally be more than happy to see 14 more flags flying at SunTrust Park when I'm 65 even if only one of them was red (like the 1995 one at The Ted).

[Carp]

Have no proof to the contrary, but recent disasters with high profile/high dollar FA's has persuaded the organization to shy away. Even when they were among the top payrolls, seldom was it simply a matter of submitting the top bid. Like they did back in 1990, they'll bring a veteran presence, like they did with Charlie Liebrandt, to help tutor the kids and add experience. More likely scenario is to go about it through trade. Just don't see them going upwards of $20MM for a starting pitcher.


I don't know that I agree with that. We just gave Nick the Stick a good sized contract, outbidding at least a couple other teams. We made a good sized bid for Olivera as well. We showed at least mild interest in signing Lester and Moncada as well. While I know Nick's contract is nowhere near 100 million, I still think it shows a willingness by us to pay for players we really want and fit what what we are looking for.

[Carp]

I wish I had the same confidence you had. I don't see Liberty plugging more money into the team anytime soon.

I disagree. Every single team spends more money leading up to a new stadium opening. We were in a couple free agents this past winter before they signed with other teams. And this is even with Craig and BeeJ still on the team. Only reason why payroll is down is because we started our rebuild and managed to free ourselves from BJ.

[Hudson2]

I see us spending money to. They need more drawing power going into the new stadium and could use a thumper in LF. And possibly a C if CB doesn't work out. Who knows what direction they'll go but it won't be by being cheap.

[Heyward]

I think the Mets and Nats are set up better for rotations moving forward. They have more guys w/ playoff/miss bat stuff.

Now, yes.

But Strasburg hasnt been good this year.

Zimmerman is probably gone after the year, maybe Fister too.

They do have guys like mini Gio and Cole though coming up.

[Heyward]

I wish I had the same confidence you had. I don't see Liberty plugging more money into the team anytime soon.

with Uggla, Kimbrel, and BJ all off the books, there's plenty of money to spend.

I dont see them going after an ace with all the pitching they've got, or Justin/Jason.

But other types i can see them go for.

They dont really have a choice but to not spend.

They toyed with Lester, made a run at Moncada, Olivera, and few others. If the right player is there, they'll go for them.

They only have 66 mil in contracts next year pre-arb, and thats before buying out Cahill which takes that down to 53 mil.

Could trade Grilli, possibly CJ to save even more.

[thethe]

Just don't personally see any reason they'd trade any of this depth. Some of the young hitters you might target are "sexy" and exciting, but the old "Braves' Way" was the template for this entire exercise - the pitching depth has now been rebuilt to the point that you'd still be a contender if you walked out on that limb an offered big money to an "Ace" like they did when they went after Maddux. If that "Ace" went on the shelf, you'd still have plenty of SPs capable of stepping up to keep you in games.

All the depth Hart & Company have acquired - plus all the picks in a couple weeks - have given you the cushion to actually "miss" on a high-priced free-agent and still stay in the race. There's a HUGE reason the Mutts haven't been willing to give up a deGrom, Syndergaard, or Matz for someone like Tulo - they're one pitch away from losing Harvey forever, will be one pitch away from losing Wheeler forever when he comes back, etc..

It's the "old guy" in me, but I'd NEVER give up 6 years of Syndergaard or Matz AND $118 million for 6 years of Tulo no matter how close I was to winning it all. If the Rockies were willing to eat half of that cash, we might have something to talk about.

TJ or no TJ, the Giants will always regret giving up Wheeler for Beltran just like many people around here love to point out that they'd never have traded Wainright for J. D. Drew.

No matter what people say about lack of hitting baseball will ALWAYS be about pitching and who has the most of it.

[thethe]

As others have said I'm confident the Braves could spend in upwards of 120-130 right now. Baseball is flush with cash and the Braves got a revenue boon from renegotiating their TV deal. I think they are holding back this year because they want to spend big going into the new park and of course they didn't think the team would be this good this quickly.

[Heyward]

As others have said I'm confident the Braves could spend in upwards of 120-130 right now. Baseball is flush with cash and the Braves got a revenue boon from renegotiating their TV deal. I think they are holding back this year because they want to spend big going into the new park and of course they didn't think the team would be this good this quickly.

The FA class in 2017 doesnt look so hot, depending which players re-sign with their teams or not.

Not saying i'd go spending crazy this winter but there's some players i'd target.

Sucks because there's alot of legit aces set to hit the market this winter.

[Millwood1Hitter]

The FA class in 2017 doesnt look so hot, depending which players re-sign with their teams or not.

Not saying i'd go spending crazy this winter but there's some players i'd target.

Sucks because there's alot of legit aces set to hit the market this winter.

Still think we make a hard push at Price or Grienke or one of the top pitchers on the market and then trade some of that surplus pitching for hitting, thinking we will kick the tires hard on Beltre and go after a few mid-tier FA's to fill positions of need at other positions (ie Fowler, Feliz, Wieters) etc.

Nonetheless, I don't know any more than anyone else at this point in time to exactly whom we are going to acquire, and I'm just speculating but I believe that this is the direction that this organization is headed in. Even though we aren't a top tier payroll team like we we're in the early and mid 90's, it appears to me that we are starting to build from the same framework that we worked off of during that timeframe. Deep pitching but still went after Maddux when it was obvious he wasn't interested in necessarily going to the top bidder, and then acquiring a guy like Fred McGriff to further strenghten an already pretty complete team.

But don't get me wrong, I don't even believe in the near future we're going to be in a situation where we can outbid teams for someone's services, but if the right situation arises and it's a fit for both parties we will be competive.

Think about it, adding a Price or Grienke to the top of the rotation, a Feliz to the backend of the pen, a Beltre in the middle of the lineup, and a few other pieces and we have a legit contender for sure.

[UNCBlue012]

The FA class in 2017 doesnt look so hot, depending which players re-sign with their teams or not.

Not saying i'd go spending crazy this winter but there's some players i'd target.

Sucks because there's alot of legit aces set to hit the market this winter.

This year has shown me that we actually could be much more competitive than I thought. I expect us to fall off a bit down the line, but I'm still confident in our pieces.

I'd absolutely love to go after a guy like Price, Grienke or Zimmerman. Price doe... I think Lucroy is a great person to go after. We need one really good bat, one solid bat and a couple BP arms and I think we are a 90 win team. Seriously.

[Heyward]

This year has shown me that we actually could be much more competitive than I thought. I expect us to fall off a bit down the line, but I'm still confident in our pieces.

I'd absolutely love to go after a guy like Price, Grienke or Zimmerman. Price doe... I think Lucroy is a great person to go after. We need one really good bat, one solid bat and a couple BP arms and I think we are a 90 win team. Seriously.

I dont disagree.

If we had a good pen, we'd probably be in 1st in the division or holding down one of the WC spots.

The rotation is good, but could use a top of the line arm.

Lucroy would be great but depends what they want for him.

The team has certainly been better than what most thought, even though we'll probably regress as the season wears on.

[Enscheff]

Signing JUp this offseason just makes too much sense not to do it, in my opinion. He is exactly the type of hitter this team needs to pair with Freeman, and LF is the biggest gaping hole on the roster. Next year the lineup could be:

Jace 3B
Peraza 2B
Freeman 1B
JUp LF
Markakis RF
Maybin CF
Simmons SS
CB/AJ/FA/Trade C

That's a legitimate championship caliber offense.

[Heyward]

Signing JUp this offseason just makes too much sense not to do it, in my opinion. He is exactly the type of hitter this team needs to pair with Freeman, and LF is the biggest gaping hole on the roster. Next year the lineup could be:

Jace 3B
Peraza 2B
Freeman 1B
JUp LF
Markakis RF
Maybin CF
Simmons SS
CB/AJ/FA/Trade C

That's a legitimate championship caliber offense.

I agree but given he trains in Arizona, i dont see that happening.

[smootness]

Signing JUp this offseason just makes too much sense not to do it, in my opinion. He is exactly the type of hitter this team needs to pair with Freeman, and LF is the biggest gaping hole on the roster. Next year the lineup could be:

Jace 3B
Peraza 2B
Freeman 1B
JUp LF
Markakis RF
Maybin CF
Simmons SS
CB/AJ/FA/Trade C

That's a legitimate championship caliber offense.

That's a solid lineup that could win with good pitching, but I certainly wouldn't call it championship caliber.

You would still have Simmons and Maybin, who have both been much better than expected but still only 'solid', a complete question mark at catcher, and a 3B who is hitting well but still OPS'ing under .700. You also have a RF with apparently no power right now.

With that lineup, I only see 2-3 positions that I would qualify as above-average offensively with respect to their position.

[yeezus]

That's a solid lineup that could win with good pitching, but I certainly wouldn't call it championship caliber.

You would still have Simmons and Maybin, who have both been much better than expected but still only 'solid', a complete question mark at catcher, and a 3B who is hitting well but still OPS'ing under .700. You also have a RF with apparently no power right now.

With that lineup, I only see 2-3 positions that I would qualify as above-average offensively with respect to their position.

There is no way the Giants and Royals lineups last year are much better, if at all, than that lineup. So yes, it could win.

[smootness]

There is no way the Giants and Royals lineups last year are much better, if at all, than that lineup. So yes, it could win.

Like I said, you can win with it. But it's not what I think of when I think of a 'championship-caliber' offense. It would be about average.

[yeezus]

Like I said, you can win with it. But it's not what I think of when I think of a 'championship-caliber' offense. It would be about average.

To me, "championship-caliber" means you can win a championship with it.

[thewupk]

There is no way the Giants and Royals lineups last year are much better, if at all, than that lineup. So yes, it could win.

Offensively? Maybe not. But the Royals were leaps better defensively. Could that lineup win? Sure, anything is possible. Probable? Likely not unless the pitching took a huge step forward overall.