What better way to start the thread than this - MAKE IT HAPPEN!
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What better way to start the thread than this - MAKE IT HAPPEN!
Man you always see players hedge against this.
I’d lock him up.
It’s no secret I want to see him be a Brave for life. Seems like it should happen
Didn't Freeman say the same thing....? To be honest, I want Acuna here for life....I hope it happens, but i'm not holding my breath. And if we get to the final year of his deal, it would be very unpopular, but if we know for a fact he isn't coming back, we should ship him off for the biggest, big league ready package we can get.
Agreed with the lock out throwing a wrench in that FA class, but still, if he wanted to be a Brave, he would have been. Chipper went on interviews the day the Braves traded for Olson and said exactly that. He told FF that if he wanted to be a Brave for life, he'd have to be okay with taking less than going elsewhere and that conversation was well before the lockout.
We have Acuna signed 4 more years after this year at 17M. If we tacked on 4 more years at 30M per year, then averaged it over the 8 years he’d be at 23.5M for the next 8 years. That would make him $1.5m more than Riley and Olson’ annual salary of $22m
I would imagine we have to wait until next offseason to add onto his deal. Doing something now would likely push us over that next tax threshold that causes our 2025 first rounder to drop 10 spots.
https://clutchpoints.com/braves-news...pring-training
Strider apparently working on a curveball. The point where he has a viable third pitch is when I think he really takes off. His ERA always seems to be so much higher than the advanced stats say it should be which imo is because he is a 2 pitch pitcher. Hitters can go up guessing and it might make them look silly a good portion of the time it also leads to some very hard hit balls that turn into extra base hits. Even a below average third pitch could really help with that.
I think it's important to note that his changeup was very solid in 2023, he just didn't throw it much (around 8% of the time) but it was most definitely viable. Realistically, he can still be a hard two-pitch guy and just throw the changeup and curve each around 10% of the time and he'd be more than fine. I'd love to see him increase the usage a bit, but he's doing exactly what he should be.
Strider with 4 pitches would be pretty fun to watch.
I’m unsure how adding a third pitch would affect the delta between the expected and actual stats. Expected stats are based on contact quality, which happens after the decision point of which pitch to throw.
I am admittedly no expert on the advanced stats but he seems to consistently underperform what the advanced stats say he should. If that stuff is supposed to balance out he should have some incredible seasons coming up.
I suppose it depends on which advanced stats you're referencing. I tend to only look at wOBA/xwOBA, which has been spot on for Strider. Other advanced stats tend to make assumptions like every pitcher has the same defense behind them, or all pitchers allow HRs at exactly the same rate. Adding another breaking ball may or may not change how those stats shake out.
Either way, adding quality pitches is always a good thing, especially as velocity starts to degrade.
People really that down on Ian Anderson?
Changing arm angles doesn't generally go very well. Not only increased health risk, but your entire pitching repertoire is affected. You have different movement on your pitches. Repeating these new mechanics becomes much harder as is consistently finding your new release point.
Yeah, original Anderson relied on perfect backspin to get the rise he did on his fastball despite mediocre spin rate. Altering that perfect backspin probably means the rise goes away. We will just have to see what the new stuff looks like, but I wouldn’t call this a good sign.
I feel like it's been relatively common over the years for players to change up arm angle to one degree or another and there isn't much better time to do it when starting from square one after injury.
Don't really have much expectation either way but I'm guessing he's going to pitch for someone again.
Dude was a two pitch pitcher with middling stuff who was always teetering on the edge of collapse even at his best. His decline was predictable and inexorable.
Anderson needed a hammer curve to unlock his potential but his curve was laughable. He was smoke and mirrors and with a different arm slot even the smoke and mirrors will be gone.
Unless Ian has developed the “eliminator,” or whatever Rick Vaughn called it, I think his best scenario is in the bullpen -
Just looking through our bullpen arms invited to camp….. we are flat out stacked. We have more good arms than we have spots. We are stacked at fifth starter too. I read that we won’t need a fifth starter until the third time through the rotation, so there’s even more time than usual to see who rises to the top for that spot if it hasn’t already become clear by the time we break camp.
There may be a better overall pitching staff somewhere else in the majors, but even if I squint I’m not sure if I can see it from here…
I started with less than 300 innings of mlb pitching and younger than 26 with positive success already is hardly a bust of a prospect. There are definitely some warts on him but he wasn’t horrible until his injury year. Let’s all just see how he does coming back from this.
And that whole draft sort of sucked so who would have been a realistic better pick at #3. How many in the top 15 have been better.