What Hart Hath Wrought

[Dalyn]

If we had an expert on Braves named Gus this whole Schlosser controversy would never have arisen.

An expert on Braves named Schlosser would have an easy job, I imagine. Hell, you could probably consider them an expert on all baseball players named Schlosser.

[nsacpi]

It may be an easy job but no one has filled it. That's why we need to reform our immigration system.

[Dalyn]

It may be an easy job but no one has filled it. That's why we need to reform our immigration system.

Whatever we can do to grandfather Fredi the hell out of here.

[nsacpi]

Do we have an expert on Fredis?

[Dalyn]

Do we have an expert on Fredis?

I think thethe, though he might be a Gonzalez expert instead.

[nsacpi]

Good. I have a lot of confidence in thethe. He's one of those fundamentally sound guys. Like Lou Holtz.

[Dalyn]

Good. I have a lot of confidence in thethe. He's one of those fundamentally sound guys. Like Lou Holtz.

Well, you know what old Lou said, "No one has ever drowned in sweat."

[blueagleace1]

I've never claimed I was an expert. Just a devoted fan like most people around here. Like I said in my reply to Braves1976, I missed that Gus signed back with the team on the 15th.

You take a very defensive approach whenever we discuss things. It's weird. People can disagree with you without it meaning they think they are an expert or you aren't or whatever. Opinions. Debate. That's what this place is about.

When talking about depth in the rotation in case a starter or two goes down, in my opinion that means pitchers who can make at least a handful of starts without killing the team and/or bullpen. With that in mind, I listed the legit (also my opinion) options we have to do just that.

I would love to see where I was "defensive" in any of my post (my jab at you was in reference to your Schlosser comment which made it seem like I didn't know what I was talking about). I am all for getting other peoples opinion and even more so if they have a different one than I do, which might make me change my opinion by getting their side. I said I don't foresee Ian Thomas throwing meaningful innings, which I was referring to him being our only lefty in the minors that could step in case Shreve missed time (in the case Russell was a starter and Avilan was traded and Shreve was our LH reliever). Having Thomas come up and just eating innings wouldn't seem to be meaningful to me.

As far as the depth we have (or don't have) I was again -as I mentioned in my original post- adding on to your list of guys that we currently have in our Minor League system that could -for all intensive purposes- come up and eat innings (which is what most teams want from their #5 starter) until 1.) whomever was injured is healthy again and ready to come back into the rotation or 2.) we can find a more viable replacement via waiver claim or trade. Option #2 would only be necessary if we were in contention, otherwise if we weren't in contention (you have made it apparent in your other post that you don't see us contending) it wouldn't matter who was in that fifth spot as long as he was taking the ball every fifth day and saving our bullpen by eating innings.

[Julio3000]

There's a note on mlbtr that we're keeping tabs on the market for Harang. I accept the reasoning that if we're not planning on contending, we could fill the gap with a collection of AAA cannon-fodder guys and see if one stuck. Still, based on the Johns' early comments about adding veteran presence to the team, it wouldn't surprise me to see us grab a veteran for the back of the rotation. Right now, Mike Minor is the old man of the rotation, and while he's certainly got some years under his belt, he seems to be a guy who is still laboring a bit to figure himself out and, as such, doesn't really profile as a role model for the younger starters. In the early days of the 90s run, we had Charlie Leibrandt and Mike Bielecki. It wouldn't be a surprise to see them go that way again.

Also, Harang something something innings eater.

[holden]

Personally, I'm tired of being Harangued this offseason.

[thethe]

Harang could be another guy that could be flipped for value at the deadline. You are certainly playing with fire exepcting another good season by maybe Roger is that good.

[thethe]

I think people are really underselling how good our starting rotation could be next season with a normal bounceback from Minor:

Alex Wood is really good (Link)

[zitothebrave]

Alex Wood rocks, but you never know if his arm will go. I can't get behind his mechanics in anyway, notthing looks great there. We could have a trainwreck season for pitchers too. Never really know. I'm hoping for the best. I'd love for Miller to explode and then to flip him for top prospects. Braves won't do it but I'd love to see it. He's not gonna stay long term anyway if he is great.

[Heyward]

Alex Wood rocks, but you never know if his arm will go. I can't get behind his mechanics in anyway, notthing looks great there. We could have a trainwreck season for pitchers too. Never really know. I'm hoping for the best. I'd love for Miller to explode and then to flip him for top prospects. Braves won't do it but I'd love to see it. He's not gonna stay long term anyway if he is great.

Why is that?

[nsacpi]

Harang could be another guy that could be flipped for value at the deadline. You are certainly playing with fire exepcting another good season by maybe Roger is that good.

I'd like to see Harang flipped. That would be quite a feat.

[zitothebrave]

Why is that?

Miller has a timing issue. Who knows if that will be a long term issue, but I don't really want to deal with that for a high price pitcher. If Miller is who we think he could potentially be he'll be a 20+ a year pitcher.