What Hart Hath Wrought

[thethe]

He murders the low and away changeup if he's looking for it but can't put solid wood on anything else. And his numbers, puny as they are, are buoyed by speed.

It's a travesty that this late into his career he hasn't made a serious effort to shorten-up and tighten-up his swing. All that untapped potential. With his natural strength and a Pete Rose type swing could hit 40 HRs.

I'd probably screw him up but if I was his hitting coach I'd have him hitting soft toss everyday one handed, just his left hand. And I'd also have him taking some BP right handed just to shore up the fundamentals and you never know what it might develop into.

Its perplexing to me that most of the people on this forum seem to believe Heyward is a good hitter. He is a slightly above average hitter with potential. At his age I'm just not sure if he is going to realize that though or else he would have been a better hitter by now. Not many Jose Bautistas in the history of baseball.

Ultimately, I think the 2015 Braves will win at least as many games as the 2014 Braves because baseball is just like that. I expect the starting pitching to carry us yet again and with some improvements from dreadful seasons of CJ/BJ we should be mildly entertaining on the uptick for the following season.

[nsacpi]

Who thinks Heyward is a great hitter? His ZIPS projection for 2015 is .269/.348/.424. Some people might think this is a little low. Some might think it is a little high. No one thinks he is dramatically different from that.

[chop2chip]

Ervin Santana was okay last year. Had some runs of being very good, but on the while he was pretty average to below average.

But there is value in getting innings at even that rate. I get that. Just saying I won't be all that surprised if we can replace that.

With that said... I would stunned if we even won as many games as last year. Even with bounce back seasons, our division is much better than it was last year.

[Dalyn]

Before we can start talking about our pitching carrying us, we need to add some depth and ideally a veteran in the #5 spot capable of 180+ innings. Every year at least one starter goes down (usually more). The current rotation couldn't handle losing Teheran, Wood, Miller, or even Minor.

[thethe]

Before we can start talking about our pitching carrying us, we need to add some depth and ideally a veteran in the #5 spot capable of 180+ innings. Every year at least one starter goes down (usually more). The current rotation couldn't handle losing Teheran, Wood, Miller, or even Minor.

I think there are a lot of arms in AAA that could be a fifth starter for a couple of weeks. The depth is there but the lead guy needs to be acquired from outside the organization for the fifth spot. If Vogelsong comes cheap then I would go with him.

[Dalyn]

I think there are a lot of arms in AAA that could be a fifth starter for a couple of weeks. The depth is there but the lead guy needs to be acquired from outside the organization for the fifth spot. If Vogelsong comes cheap then I would go with him.

Vogelsong would be okay. He is pretty much exactly the minimum of what we need. Veteran. #5. Capable of 180 innings and not much more. And sure, there are a few (not a lot) guys who can start for a couple weeks, but they aren't going to win or carry the team. That's what I'm saying. We got incredibly lucky last year with Harang and now it seems like we are seriously considering Russell as a #5 option. If we REALLY had a lot of arms in AAA capable of being the fifth starter (even for a few weeks), Russell wouldn't be an option.

Teheran
Wood
Miller
Minor
Hale
Russell
Martin

That's pretty much what we're looking at right now, and it's also why they are seriously considering Russell.

[thethe]

I think Hursh should be an option in that as well. But again, the fifth starter is not in the organization right now.

[yeezus]

The offense will almost be better by default (still won't be good, and still would be better with Heyward/Justin).

[yeezus]

Its perplexing to me that most of the people on this forum seem to believe Heyward is a good hitter. He is a slightly above average hitter with potential. At his age I'm just not sure if he is going to realize that though or else he would have been a better hitter by now. Not many Jose Bautistas in the history of baseball.

Comparing Heyward to Bautista is dumb on a lot of levels.

[yeezus]

"At this age" when talking about Heyward. LMAO. He's 25. And shown a ton, and has produced a ton.

[thethe]

Comparing Heyward to Bautista is dumb on a lot of levels.

I'm just saying that I believe Heyward is what he is. He isn't going to just become a better than slightly above average hitter. If he was going to be a better hitter he would have shown it more consistently at this point in his career.

I was using Bautista as an example of a player that has that breakthrough later in his career and just how rare it is.

[yeezus]

I'm just saying that I believe Heyward is what he is. He isn't going to just become a better than slightly above average hitter. If he was going to be a better hitter he would have shown it more consistently at this point in his career.

I was using Bautista as an example of a player that has that breakthrough later in his career and just how rare it is.

Bautista was 29 and had shown nothing on offense.
Heyward is 25 and has shown a lot.

[dak]

For 2015 our position for on the win curve is now probably in the 75-80 win range.

I agree with the 75-80 win range right now. Our position heading into the non-waiver trade deadline will be a big factor. There are 102 games before the deadline.

If we're .500 or better, it may be tough for Hart to justify selling. We'd probably make some modest additions and have a small chance of getting a wild card. More likely though, we'd end up with a win total in the high 70s or low 80s.

If we're below .500, I'd prefer to sell all rentals and gauge the market on guys like Minor and Grilli. This probably results in a win total in the low to mid 70s. We'd be able to get a good look at the fringy players on the 40 man roster and would end up with a good draft slot.

[Enscheff]

A good scenario for next offseason would be a protected top-10 pick that allows the Braves to dive into the FA market next year without fear of losing their top pick.

Signing Moncada would also be huge, and could be how the money saved this year is spent (but probably not).

[CyYoung31]

Before we can start talking about our pitching carrying us, we need to add some depth and ideally a veteran in the #5 spot capable of 180+ innings. Every year at least one starter goes down (usually more). The current rotation couldn't handle losing Teheran, Wood, Miller, or even Minor.

This.

[Dalyn]

The offense will almost be better by default (still won't be good, and still would be better with Heyward/Justin).

You remove Heyward and Justin and probably Gattis and think it will be better by default? Not likely.

[The Chosen One]

Been saying it all offseason since the craziness began. Fredi is going to have the managerial season of his career, perhaps one for the ages in franchise lore.

He'll also probably get snubbed again.

[Dalyn]

Been saying it all offseason since the craziness began. Fredi is going to have the managerial season of his career, perhaps one for the ages in franchise lore.

He'll also probably get snubbed again.

There is some logic behind this. Reduce the roster to a bunch of bad decisions and no decision is a bad one.

[Braves1976]

There is no way our pitching will be better if our defense at multiple positions is worse. If we go with an outfield of Markakis-BJ-Gattis that will hurt all pitchers numbers, not just our fly ball pitchers that it will effect the most. Plus if AJ catches a lot more than a typical back-up, that will hurt also because he is a terrible pitch framer, etc. And I know Laird was bad in that area too, but Laird was also stronger in other areas defensively and good influence on our young staff.

To sum it up, these are some serious downgrades on defense in the outfield and possibly at catcher too depending on how much AJ catches. If this is the defense we go with there is no way our pitching staff has the hot start it did last year, IMO.

[mossy]

Perhaps I'm underestimating this team, but I find the moves made to this point utterly depressing. Keeping EITHER Justin or Jason would have been fine. But trading both and signing Markakis makes no sense to me.

If I were Kimbrel, Freeman, or Simmons I'd be thoroughly disappointed.

I normally fight tooth and nail to be optimistic about our chances, but I have zero interest 2015. And that's coming from someone with little or no attachment to Jason Heyward.