GDT 8/25: K For the S

[Braves1976]

Outside of the second Ender injury our position player injuries have been blessings so far as they opened spots for hot players to help carry us for a time. When Ender hit the DL the first time he wasn't on fire like he was this last time. He was really struggling and Austin Riley came in and hit a ton for a time to help us win games. Even Markakis getting injured helped as Duvall keyed that series win in D.C. and Markakis hadn't been doing much since the All-Star break (about a .700 OPS).

That said, Ortego for Ender is a bad trade off. Ender was red hot when hurt this time and so that injury hurts. Though it hasn't hurt so much yet thanks to the Ortego grand slam game and great pitching allowing us to win low scoring games. Plus Ortega did finally contribute again Saturday against the Mets too.

[CyYoung31]

Neither. It’s loads and loads of testosterone

That’s a bunch of BS (bull semen).

[Braves1976]

Yeah I don't think anyone can look at our 2nd half and not see how lucky we've been given the amount of injuries we've had.

AA gave us the kind of depth most teams lack.

[CyYoung31]

AA gave us the kind of depth most teams lack.

I don’t hear anyone mocking “Financial Flexibility” anymore. I wonder why?

[bravesfanMatt]

I said before the fish series I sensed the starters were going to go on a run of dominance. The six game sweep produced 9 runs in 39 innings pitched for a 2.09. That includes the Fried 5 in 5. And he was the one I thought would be great this week. I loved his Dodger start and thought he would build off it. But all in all the starters were terrific.

What I didn’t sense was the bullpen being even better than the starters. Man they were fantastic. 17 innings and only 1 run for a .53 era.

[nsacpi]

I don’t hear anyone mocking “Financial Flexibility” anymore. I wonder why?

that's the demographic that has gone missing from the GDTs

I wonder if our old friend clv has any new thoughts on the wisdom of the Donaldson signing

[UNCBlue012]

From what I understand, Kimbrel was basically sitting around eating Twinkie’s until he signed. It’s very telling that DK was ready to start a MLB game before Kimbrel was able to relieve one.

As a result, this is likely to be a lost year for Kimbrel as he never really got ramped up properly.

With the knowledge that CK wasn’t ready to pitch at all, I’m glad the Braves didn’t even get him for 1 year.

*Michael Scott cringe meme*

[Tapate50]

I don’t hear anyone mocking “Financial Flexibility” anymore. I wonder why?

That striker thread needs a reboot.

[striker42]

That striker thread needs a reboot.

The one about how he failed in fixing the pitching staff in the offseason? The mid-season additions don't change the fact that it was a bad move to go into the year with Tomlin as our only added pitcher. I'll give credit to AA for making fixes on the fly but the offseason could have been better.

[Tapate50]

The one about how he failed in fixing the pitching staff in the offseason? The mid-season additions don't change the fact that it was a bad move to go into the year with Tomlin as our only added pitcher. I'll give credit to AA for making fixes on the fly but the offseason could have been better.

Which pitchers would you have signed and at what price?

You are totally aware that we have two levels of arms better than 99% of teams in MLB right?

[striker42]

Which pitchers would you have signed and at what price?

You are totally aware that we have two levels of arms better than 99% of teams in MLB right?

I don't want to re-litigate this here. I'll just say the argument of "What guy could we have gotten" is one that is always unanswerable. We don't know what kind of trades were out there, how guys would have performed here, etc.

In the end if we maintain our lead, win the division, and AA doesn't consistently swing and miss in fixing needs in the future, we can write off the pitching inaction last offseason as a fluke.

[Super]

Which pitchers would you have signed and at what price?

You are totally aware that we have two levels of arms better than 99% of teams in MLB right?

lol. same story every single time.
so many of the RPs signed this offseason have turned out terribly. AA knew that happens a lot, so stayed out of it. not only logical to back away, but very wise. the team was good enough to hold up (more than good enough, as it turns out) until AA could assess mid-season what needed to be done. he addressed it, and it's worked out beautifully.

if striker had his way, AA would likely be sitting on a couple of bad 2+ (2 years at best) year RP contracts.
of course, i've yet to see the answer to the question: who would you have signed?
and of course, he now has the benefit of hindsight. pick the couple of good contracts out of the sea of now-terrible contracts and look like a genius. unfortunately it doesn't work like that, AA very clearly made the right call, but i guess it's hard to admit for some.

[Super]

I don't want to re-litigate this here. I'll just say the argument of "What guy could we have gotten" is one that is always unanswerable. We don't know what kind of trades were out there, how guys would have performed here, etc.

In the end if we maintain our lead, win the division, and AA doesn't consistently swing and miss in fixing needs in the future, we can write off the pitching inaction last offseason as a fluke.

i've never seen you once answer who you would've signed or tried to trade for.
staying out of the RP FAs was far and away clearly the right move. it's not up for debate, unless one wants to further dig in on being wrong.
AA didn't get lucky it worked out. it was calculated and intentional.

[Tapate50]

I don't want to re-litigate this here. I'll just say the argument of "What guy could we have gotten" is one that is always unanswerable. We don't know what kind of trades were out there, how guys would have performed here, etc.

In the end if we maintain our lead, win the division, and AA doesn't consistently swing and miss in fixing needs in the future, we can write off the pitching inaction last offseason as a fluke.

Not really. Very few have worked out favorably, and even less with favorable terms. We actually have hindsight to determine the correct course, and it says AA did fine.

We had a plethora of options in house, and good arms returning.

This argument is total nonsense...

[nsacpi]

Not really. Very few have worked out favorably, and even less with favorable terms. We actually have hindsight to determine the correct course, and it says AA did fine.

We had a plethora of options in house, and good arms returning.

This argument is total nonsense...

There were a yuge number of relief pitching contenders in spring training: Viz, O'Day, Freeman, Biddle, Venters, Sobotka, Dayton, Minter, etc etc etc. AA's plan was to sift through that group and add at mid-season as necessary. That's what you do with relievers. The basic plan was a sound one. There was no strategic failure.

[Heyward]

I would have gone after Ottavino, but AA knows RP's are violatle and very very risky.

I dont really blame him for not signing any of the big name BP pitchers.

[striker42]

i've never seen you once answer who you would've signed or tried to trade for.
staying out of the RP FAs was far and away clearly the right move. it's not up for debate, unless one wants to further dig in on being wrong.
AA didn't get lucky it worked out. it was calculated and intentional.

Staying out of FA RPs is often the right move. But again, we have no idea who was on the trade market and what the prices were. It makes answering the question of "who should we have gone after" completely impossible. I could come up with a list of relievers and the response would be "There's nothing showing that guy was available." It's a pointless exercise.

Since we don't have eyes on that, all we can do is look at results over time and see how AA does addressing needs over the course of several offseasons.

AA failed to improve the pitching staff last offseason. That's not in doubt. Whether it was his fault or just the way the market worked out is a different question.

[Tapate50]

Staying out of FA RPs is often the right move. But again, we have no idea who was on the trade market and what the prices were. It makes answering the question of "who should we have gone after" completely impossible. I could come up with a list of relievers and the response would be "There's nothing showing that guy was available." It's a pointless exercise.

Since we don't have eyes on that, all we can do is look at results over time and see how AA does addressing needs over the course of several offseasons.

AA failed to improve the pitching staff last offseason. That's not in doubt. Whether it was his fault or just the way the market worked out is a different question.

There isn't direct evidence he needed to. He was in on Paxton, Diaz etc...

He didn't overpay.

Natural improvement from the staff would have had us in fine shape. It didn't materialize that way, and we signed Big D Keuchel. There you go. With your desired outcome we might now have been able to sign him or add Melancon.

You are being overly obtuse here.

[Carp]

The one about how he failed in fixing the pitching staff in the offseason? The mid-season additions don't change the fact that it was a bad move to go into the year with Tomlin as our only added pitcher. I'll give credit to AA for making fixes on the fly but the offseason could have been better.

I'm more interested to revisit the theory that AA is a yes man trying to pad the wallets of the Liberty execs.

[striker42]

I'm more interested to revisit the theory that AA is a yes man trying to pad the wallets of the Liberty execs.

Word is the Braves have actually gone over their initial budget on payroll which is shocking to me. I'd be interested to know what his paymasters think.