Hart's master plan: purge all expensive assets right now for young talent, and mid season after Boston falls in the crapper, acquire Hamels, Panda, Hanley, & Cespedas along with 80% of their salary paid for Even Gattis & Mike Minor. The precusor to this would be the firing of the one and only Fredi Gonzalez.
Gattis and JUp to Seattle for Walker, Miller and Saunders
Minor to LA for Kemp
CJ to SF for anything
Sign Tomas for $15M per year
Sign Masterson to 1 year $12M pillow contract, then give him a QO after the season
Payroll (including BJ and Uggla): ~$110M
C - CB
1B - Freeman
2B - Peraza
3B - Miller
SS - Simmons
LF - Tomas
CF - Saunders/BJ platoon
RF - Kemp
SPs - Teheran, Wood, Masterson, Walker, Miller
I'd really like to see us kick the tires on Brandon McCarthy if we miss out on Lester. No draft pick compensation I don't think and I don't think he will break the bank in FA either in years or total $. He could do well in this park.
Deal Minor to Tex along with Upton, and this guy can come in and do very well here.
Ivermectin Man
Dalyn (11-25-2014)
I wonder what it would take to get Jackie Bradley Jr....and if he's worth it or not. He could be a good buy low option.
For those who advocate rushing prospects, Bradley may be an example of why caution should be employed. I don't watch these guys day-to-day so I don't have any idea if he was ready or not, but I get the impression that Bradley was moved way too fast.
He could very well be a cheap option for CF, but I wonder if he is a reclamation project and, if so, how much of one.
Moncada would not sign for 4/60, he would sign for a one time bonus. The Braves would be taxed only on the amount of that bonus over their allotted international spending amount. That is why folks thought it was a big deal when the Braves traded TLS to the Cubs for $800k in international pool money. Any amount added to that pool was essentially worth "double" since it would also reduce the portion of the bonus taxed at 100%.
If Moncada is signed he becomes just like any other amateur acquired through the draft or international market. He would go to the minors and be subject to the same 6 years of team control at the MLB level, arbitration, the whole 9 yards.
The reason Tomas is different is because he has spent enough years in professional baseball in Cuba, so he is no longer considered an amateur. He is considered a regular FA for all intents and purposes of this discussion.
I would rather see Hart finalize the rotation with Masterson. He should be looking for a 1 year deal to reestablish his value for next offseason. The Braves could get 200 innings of 3.5 FIP ball out of him for ~$12M, and then make a QO at the end of the year to get a draft pick.
In fact, that is a strategy I would like to see the Braves employ routinely. There always seems to be a couple players each offseason looking for a 1 year deal to prove they are healthy and/or still productive. Sign 1-2 of them each year and net some extra draft picks (or lottery tickets) when they rebound and sign for bigger money the following offseason.
Yep, and I like to call them a JC special, as it's been noted a few times already he's been great in this regard of finding these type of players that come out of nowhere and make significant contributions in a pinch to our club (Harang, Sheets, Carpenter)
Now that we got a competant hitting coach, hopefully we can start doing things like this as well to positional players instead of just McDowell with pitchers.