GDT: 4/7/'15 - Atlanta Braves (Wood) @ Miami Marlins (Latos) 7:35PM EST

[CyYoung31]

I still haven't been able to catch a game yet. How does Fredi look?

[thewupk]

I don't think you'll be finding many that disagree that we need power in the middle of the order. You don't want a whole team full of slap hitters but you don't need a team where everyone swings for the fences either. There is a balance between the two. Not every hitter has to be a power hitter to contribute to a good offensive team. I'm looking forward to getting back to a mixture of different type of hitters. Wren's teams, all the hitters looked alike and we suffered as a result.

I think you mean his 2014 team. The teams before that didn't have all the same types of hitters. Let's not confuse with what happened in 2014 as what Wren's entire tenure looked like.

[sturg33]

I think you mean his 2014 team. The teams before that didn't have all the same types of hitters. Let's not confuse with what happened in 2014 as what Wren's entire tenure looked like.

I've made this point about 30 times and it falls on deaf ears. 2014 was the only thing that happened in the last 5 years

[Dunit24]

You pitch well and put the ball in play, good things happen...

We will hit a rough patch eventually but this team plays hard, tough, smart baseball and we all are going to grow to love this group.

[jpx7]

I still haven't been able to catch a game yet. How does Fredi look?

Kind of puffy.

[Julio3000]

Kind of puffy.

That's just residual swelling from the cinder block incident.

[kendiz]

You pitch well and put the ball in play, good things happen...

We will hit a rough patch eventually but this team plays hard, tough, smart baseball and we all are going to grow to love this group.

Exactly. Putting the ball in play will make this team a lot more interesting to watch than last year. I'm 100% excited, because they don't seem to be giving at bats away.

[thethe]

Exactly. Putting the ball in play will make this team a lot more interesting to watch than last year. I'm 100% excited, because they don't seem to be giving at bats away.

There will still be bad nights but overall you know those guys are going to battle. Best part is that this is just year 1 of the shift. In a year from now there are going to be upgrades at several positions.

[thethe]

I think you mean his 2014 team. The teams before that didn't have all the same types of hitters. Let's not confuse with what happened in 2014 as what Wren's entire tenure looked like.

Wren's overall philosophy came to the forefront as he got more comfortable in his position (and why shouldn't he after the 2013 year). He clearly felt strikeouts didn't matter and continued to shape the team in this way.

[nsacpi]

Wren's overall philosophy came to the forefront as he got more comfortable in his position (and why shouldn't he after the 2013 year). He clearly felt strikeouts didn't matter and continued to shape the team in this way.

Yeah. There were dramatic changes from the 2013 team to the 2014 version which revealed this philosophy of his. If he had only stuck with what was working in 2013 everything would have been much better.

[thethe]

Yeah. There were dramatic changes from the 2013 team to the 2014 version which revealed this philosophy of his. If he had only stuck with what was working in 2013 everything would have been much better.

No, but what did affect him was that the elite level talent he had became more expensive.

[sturg33]

Wren's overall philosophy came to the forefront as he got more comfortable in his position (and why shouldn't he after the 2013 year). He clearly felt strikeouts didn't matter and continued to shape the team in this way.

the only change from 13 to 14 was the loss of McCann, which, IIRC, you praised as a great decision

[thethe]

the only change from 13 to 14 was the loss of McCann, which, IIRC, you praised as a great decision

That was the right decision and still is. A shift in leagues is tough but Mac is going to never be a top catcher again and there as no rational reason to pay him that way.

Like I said...when the elite level talent that was handed to you on a silver platter gets to be expensive then mistakes are magnified.

[sturg33]

That was the right decision and still is. A shift in leagues is tough but Mac is going to never be a top catcher again and there as no rational reason to pay him that way.

Like I said...when the elite level talent that was handed to you on a silver platter gets to be expensive then mistakes are magnified.

I'm still confused why 2014 "revealed the flaws in the philosophy" if it was the same team as 2013...

[thethe]

I'm still confused why 2014 "revealed the flaws in the philosophy" if it was the same team as 2013...

There were still plenty of flaws with the 2013 team. Luckily for the Braves the Nationals were awful in that year.

[mossy]

Gotta love the Marlins.

[thewupk]

Wren's overall philosophy came to the forefront as he got more comfortable in his position (and why shouldn't he after the 2013 year). He clearly felt strikeouts didn't matter and continued to shape the team in this way.

I seriously doubt that everything through 2013 was just a facade and 2014 were his true intentions on how to build a team. Strikeouts weren't the problem in 2014. The problem is we had crappy hitters who happened to strike out.

[thewupk]

There were still plenty of flaws with the 2013 team. Luckily for the Braves the Nationals were awful in that year.

The Braves won well over 90 games in 2013. So now they just got lucky that other teams were bad?

[thewupk]

No, but what did affect him was that the elite level talent he had became more expensive.

The difference between 2013 and 2014 wasn't that players got a year older and players got more expensive. The cost of the players wasn't the reason the team couldn't score runs.

[CyYoung31]

thethe, do you actually believe the **** that you type?