Is it just me thinking too hard, or do we have a crazy rate of players falling off the face of the Earth? Is this across MLB or are we just a lightening rod for players dropping off a cliff?
Jurrjens
Hanson
Uggla
Beej?
Minor?
Beachy
Mclouth
Melky
Kamakaze Kawakami
Lowe
I am sure I have missed a ton, but wanted to get the thread started anyway. FWIW, too early for Minors terrible year to be deemed a career implosion, but thought it was worth noting anyway.
Ivermectin Man
It is really odd that players come here and their careers die. It's tough to really include guys like Beachy, Jurrjens, and Hanson that had tough injuries. That happens to players all the time. But it's crazy to me how Melky, McLouth, BJ, and Uggla all have come and looked like the absolute worst player in the league. Not just disappointing, but hard-to-believe terrible.
Lowe was just old and Kawakami was just never that good. The 4 guys I named above though are the ultimate head scratchers.
We get a few resurrections as well. Harang has been a huge resurrection. Sheets was great for a handful of starts. The Durbinator out-performed his peripherals quite a bit the one year he was here. Sherrill also had a bounce back year if my memory is correct. Maybe Bonifacio will be our Cody Ross. One can hope.
rico43 (08-11-2014)
Good point, but it's still hard to make up for McLouth, Melky, Uggla, and BJ just completely crapping out in their time here. Like they have never seen a baseball.Originally Posted by nsacpi
The two burn outs/phase outs or whatever you want to call them that I believe have hurt this franchise worse than any are Franceour and Schafer. One was supposed to a gold glove CF would be our answer to the lead off spot, the other was to be a 25 to 30 HR 100 RBI gold glove corner outfielder. Since they didnt' pan out, approximately $28 to 30 million of our budget is now paying the Uptons to do the same the same job, yet we're still not getting those results.
Bad signings are going to happen, yet it takes an organization years to overcome the failure of highly touted prospects.
Atlanta has been known for getting more out of players for a while. A lot of players, pitchers especially, had career years here. Jaret Wright, JD Drew, a ton of relievers, etc.
There are a lot of players that have success for a few years like Hanson and Jurrjens then flame out. The thing with BJ and Struggle is that when a veteran falls off a cliff like that there is usually some injury involved but both have been very healthy. BJ is even more peculiar because he is in his physical prime. I think Tampa's hitting coach might be the difference maker here.
"Donald Trump will serve a second term as president of the United States.
It’s over."
Little Thethe Nov 19, 2020.
Guys like CJ and Justin came to Atlanta and have played as expected or better. Then a guy like Prado leaves and plays like crap. Players fall off all the time (Pujols for example), so it's not like this is a Braves-specific problem.
Not to mention we haven't had a player come thru the system as advertised since Mac arguably.
Prado came after Mac, and actually performed better than anyone thought he'd ever amount to.
Also pretty surr Kimbrel has been as advertised.
Forever Fredi
Thats why I added "arguably", and speaking position players only Freeman is even in the conversation for me. Heyward was supposed to be what Mike Trout has become. Frenchy, Schafer, Minor, Hanson, Devine, the list goes on and on...
I agree with you for the most part... however, some of those probably shouldn't fit up there. Beachy is only a problem because of injuries, Melky was never good except the year he did steroids after he was on our team... KK never really played well and was never that hyped coming over from Japan from anyone else other than Brave's management... Lowe was already old and it was generally considered a desperation move anyways.
I always forget about some players with the Braves... completely forgot we had Sherrill for a year
The short term contracts are the ones that generally work better for us, but a frighteningly high percentage of the big deals we hand out blow up in our faces.
Our prospects generally work out "better - ish" than FAs, but dang we are the place decent players go do die.
Ivermectin Man
Huh? You say speaking of position players and then go on to list 3 pitchers that didn't live up to expectation. And I'm pretty sure many folks called Hanson a ticking time bomb, so I would say he followed his realistic expectations perfectly.
Fact of the matter is Simmons (platinum glove), Kimbrel (all star and best closer on the planet), Gattis (near all star), Teheran (all star), Wood, TLS (highest rookie OBP in MLB since he got called up), Freeman (MVP candidate) and Heyward (gold glove defense and career OPS near 800) have all been as good as advertised and very valuable players.
We can complain about Wren handing out bad contracts, but we certainly have ZERO reason to knock this organization for its ability to produce MLB players from within.
rico43 (08-11-2014)
Sure, some guys have played to their level. CJ's last two seasons combined are probably where he is as a better. Justin has not exceeded expectations. Prado was bad for us at times, too.
I'm more referencing the straight-up forgetting how to play baseball by some guys.
It's really all over baseball if you'll check. It is directly related to baseball's crackdown on HGH and all these other "supplements" that help bodies heal and recover more quickly.
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