Braves sniffing around on Markakis; Official 4 years 44 million.

[BRule]

I miss Wren

[Heyward]

LOLZ look at Markakis the last 2 years and his age LOLZ

31 is old?

[Heyward]

Really? The last 3 years Heyward has a WRC+ of 116. Markakis is 104. How are they about the same?

Heyward is better offensively but he's gonna cost twice as much as Markakis.

[Heyward]

I miss Wren

Go be a Nats fan with giles.

[BRule]

31 is old?

In baseball with no PEDs? Absolutely

He has been declining for the last 3 years

[BRule]

Go be a Nats fan with giles.

Cardinals

[zbhargrove]

WAR is stupid LOL

Anyways.......

Heyward hasn't even hit his prime, he's only going to get better. You're using Markakis when he was 26-27-28 and he was really good, so his career numbers are skewed. He's been awful the last 2 years and is only getting older. Again, he had a 680 OPS in 2013 and 700 in the second half of last year....he's a fine player for 2 years and 10-12 mil TOTAL not PER YEAR, anything over that is just dumb.

WAR is an awful statistic... plenty of articles written about it.

[BRule]

Gattis - BJ Upton - Markakis

hahahahahahahaha

[atl717]

Why are people so focused on what Heyward was gonna make? Let's focus on the fact that we just gave big money to a low .700 OPS guy in decline with below average defense and poor base running.

Saying he is gonna make less than Heyward is terrible spin.

[thewupk]

Yes because you can feel more comfortable with positioning and jumps off the ball. Not sure how that isn't a fact.

That plays a very minimal part. Actual talent (speed, taking correct routes, etc) is way more important. And to think it's not is lunacy.

[bravesfanforlife88]

As long as he doesn't go bj upton, uggla, or Jason bay we are fine

[Braves1976]

Saunders is a far better player and just got traded for crap.

Exactly. This off-season just gets better and better, lol.

Saunders was a great buy low, Toronto is having a great off-season so far.

[Five]

Gattis - BJ Upton - Markakis

hahahahahahahaha

That's terrifying.

[50PoundHead]

I miss Wren

I don't know why you'd miss him. This is pretty much a Wren-like move.

[Heyward]

Cardinals

Of course.

[Heyward]

Joel Sherman ‏@Joelsherman1

If #Braves follow through with Gattis in LF now Markakis in RF, trading Justin Upton became more likely

[zbhargrove]

Why are people so focused on what Heyward was gonna make? Let's focus on the fact that we just gave big money to a low .700 OPS guy in decline with below average defense and poor base running.

Saying he is gonna make less than Heyward is terrible spin.

Heyward was a low .700 OPS guy... and you're really going to try and call him a below average defender and poor base runner? You're just grasping there. The dude has won 2 gold gloves... now I'm not saying he's Hewyard in the field, but lets not get ridiculous and call him a BELOW average defender. That's just plain dumb. And please show me how he's a poor base runner... I can't wait to hear your answer on that one.

[Braves1976]

Gattis - BJ Upton - Markakis

hahahahahahahaha

The all-range team on defense, but at least they all have decent to better arms. They'll need it, lol.

[emk418]

Why are people so focused on what Heyward was gonna make? Let's focus on the fact that we just gave big money to a low .700 OPS guy in decline with below average defense and poor base running.

Saying he is gonna make less than Heyward is terrible spin.

Big money? How about we wait and see how the rest of the offseason plays out. I'm pretty tired of hearing about Heywards defense. We all know he's probably the best defensive RF in baseball but we needed to upgrade offensively and our pitching if we want to compete. Markakis is currently an upgrade offensively over Heyward. We're adding a veteran presence who is consistent and can actually hit lefties.

[thewupk]

Heyward is better offensively but he's gonna cost twice as much as Markakis.

And he's 3 times the player. I know some people around here don't buy into the price per WIN. But it's a real thing. And for hitters right now the price per WIN is in the 8-10 million range which is quite a bit higher then last year. The average to above average players (like Markakis who is as average as they come) will get that amount. The high end player like Heyward will get less per win. That's why is it wise to invest in those players because they give you more bang for your buck. At 25 million a year Heyward would be signing for about 5 million per win.

To put it in other words. The Braves would need to spend about 35-40 million on the open market for these average to above average players to fill the missing production that Heyward brought.