Originally Posted by
Horsehide Harry
I agree with you but would add that Inciarte would either be traded prior to setting the protected list OR would be left unprotected. The exercise as stated assumes certain players being around to be drafted. I think all teams, including Atlanta, would try to trade at risk pieces that have value but not necessarily long term position before having to cement a list.
If you couldn't get enough value in trade to warrant a trade then that informs your need to protect.
d'Arnaud also likely wouldn't make my list simply because he is signed only for 2021 (assuming an after 2020 season draft). You would have to weigh his one year of control against the value you need to protect PLUS the options available in FA or trade for a replacement.
From the MLBTR article, I'm not sure Folty would be protected. Likely he's like Inciarte. If you take Folty off that leaves 7 spots.
Also, it appears that the choices given to protect is pretty limited. For instance, they left out Waters, Langeliers and Anderson for some reason (plus Muller, Shewmake, Davidson, etc.). They likely did this to limit their list only to those who played in 2019 OR are top 100 and at AAA.
Having said that, I think I would go with the following 7, (in addition to the 8 mlbtr selected (less Folty): Waters, Anderson, Langeliers, Shewmake, Newcomb, Riley, Wilson.
According to the rules, the Braves would lose one player then be able to protect three more, lose one/add three, etc.
The ones I left unprotected assuming no pre-protection trades would be: Inciarte, Folty, d'Arnaud, Touki, Luke J, Alex J, Smith, Martin, Minter, etc. can't see that hurts too much.