Just a thought experiment... how good could the team be as currently constructed, and thus what would we need to do to get to 90 wins?

Here are what I think are attainable WAR totals next year (not necessarily likely, but possible).

Position - WAR (2017 WAR)
C - Flowers/Suzuki: 4 fWAR (4.7)
1B - Freeman: 6 (5.5)
2B - Albies: 4.5 (3.3)
3B - Ruiz/Camargo: 2 (0.4)
SS - Swanson: 2.5 (1.3)
LF - Adams/Markakis: 2 (-1.5)
CF - Ender: 3.5 (3)
RF - Acuna: 2.5 (0.8)

Total: 27 (17.5)


Improvement: ~9.5 WINS

Teheran: 2 (1.1)
Dickey: 1.5 (1.7)
Folty: 2 (1.8)
Newcomb: 2 (PACING 2.3)
Gohara: 3.5 (PACING 6)

Total: 11

Braves starting pitchers in 2017 = 8.2

Improvement: ~2.8 WINS


Not going to look at bench bullpen... but I project we could improve by ~1.5 WINS just with the bullpen additions of Winkler, Minter, etc.

So by my math, by simply dumping Kemp, our current roster stands to improve year over year by ~13-14 WINS.

This is assuming no regression... but it's not assuming wild predictions either.

So where does that leave us? Anywhere between 84-86 wins.

What do we need to get to 90? Where can we realistically improve?

We could probably pick up an extra win or two in the rotation by replacing Dickey with a Lance Lynn type.

We could potentially pick up a win by picking up a Todd Frazier at third.

We could potentially pick up a win by picking up a better player in left field.

If we did all of that, we get to the 88-90 range.

Is my math off here?