What's AA gonna do?

[Chico]

We have no idea what AA is going to do, but it's fun to speculate. From some of the things he has said, others have said about him, and moves he has made we can speculate on his tendacies and try to get a gauge on what he plans on doing. We don't know what his duties were in L.A., so we can throw in any recent Dodgers tendacies as well. Using the 10 day D.L. as a resource for pitchers, growing your own players, and resigning your guys would be the top 3 that come to mind.

He likes the extension.
He likes the fallen star/late bloomer/prospect who's lost a little shine.
He's not big on free agency. Outside of the Russell Martin deal when he was all in, he never signed anyone for more than $16M total (Melky) or longer than 3 years (Izturis)
He's not afraid to make a big trade.
He'll take on contracts to get value from other players.
He likes the passionate players, the players who rub off on the rest of the team and are grinders. That's why he traded for Josh Donaldson and signed Martin.
He's valuing defense. He admitted it was an issue with the Jays. His time with the Dodgers probably made him more cognizant of his pitfalls there.
He values the draft, likes accumlating picks, and believes you need a stable of arms. (I'm guessing this is where that Coppy clone reference came from)

Taking everything in to account I'm thinking we won't see much in free agency, but could see a bevvy of trades. I could see us moving Kemp and Markakis as well as taking on a contract or two to acquire a player we want. We don't have any obvious extension candidates, but I could see an extension for Flowers and possibly one for Folty depending on how he feeels about his potential.

[nsacpi]

he will extent the late bloomer

[Chico]

he will extent the late bloomer

It just makes sense

[Enscheff]

I'm going to assume he kept his willingness to wheel and deal from his Jays days, but learned a bit about player valuation from his Dodgers days. Assuming a payroll in the $100M-$110M range, and is already projected to be $96M in 2018 with no changes being made, I expect AA to:

- Unload some portion of Kemp's deal, somehow, some way. Might use some lower end pitching prospect depth to get that done.
- Keep all of Teheran, Folty, Newk, Gohara, Fried and Sims as part of a 7-8 man rotation similar to what the Dodgers do.
- Add an injury-prone buy-low SP they can work into that 7-8 man rotation. Possibly part of a Kemp deal.
- AA should be smart enough to keep Acuna down to start the year, preferably until an injury opens a hole.
- Markakis is in LF/RF opening day.
- MAdams traded for...nothing because one dimensional platoon sluggers aren't worth much, and the Braves can't afford a $5M bench bat.
- 1-2 value adds to the BP. Nobody notable unless a legit arm is sitting there late in the offseason.
- Value add to LF/RF, probably a RHer that can platoon with Markakis once Acuna is called up.

[jpx7]

First step will probably be admitting he has a problem on his hands.

[nsacpi]

Trade someone to reinforce the left side of the infield such as Prado, trade for veteran starting pitcher such as McCarthy, sign reliever maybe Moylan, trade away Adams.

[Chico]

A trade for one of the Cardinals OF's and Gyorko makes sense for us. That will depend on the Stanton deal either happening or not first.

[bravesfanMatt]

immediately quit when Bobby, JS and Snit pull the branding iron out that says 'Braves Way' and asks AA to bend over and drop his pants.

[GovClintonTyree]

Trade someone to reinforce the left side of the infield such as Prado, trade for veteran starting pitcher such as McCarthy, sign reliever maybe Moylan, trade away Adams.

Depressing. Not particularly creative. You or I could do that. Time for some creative thinking.

[thewupk]

Depressing. Not particularly creative. You or I could do that. Time for some creative thinking.

Does it though? Just make solid baseball moves which I feel a few people on this board could do. Don't do dumb **** like trade for Matt Kemp.

[nsacpi]

Trade someone to reinforce the left side of the infield such as Prado, trade for veteran starting pitcher such as McCarthy, sign reliever maybe Moylan, trade away Adams.

Didn't happen in exactly the way I imagined, but from the start of the off-season I've thought we could pry McCarthy from the Dodgers given their other starting pitching options. His option for 2019 is very attractively priced (5M).

[jpx7]

Didn't happen in exactly the way I imagined, but from the start of the off-season I've thought we could pry McCarthy from the Dodgers given their other starting pitching options. His option for 2019 is very attractively priced (5M).

If you combine my idea to target Gonzalez and Kazmir in a Kemp swap, along with your idea to target McCarthy, you have the basic rough-edges of this deal—though neither of us apparently cared to entertain the Culberson angle.

[Carp]

First step will probably be admitting he has a problem on his hands.

It'll definitely be a 12 step solution for AA, at the very least.

[jpx7]

It'll definitely be a 12 step solution for AA, at the very least.

I was worried I was being too subtle.

[bravesfanMatt]

I was worried I was being too subtle.

flew past me until Carp helped me out. well done.

[Chico]

I'm going to assume he kept his willingness to wheel and deal from his Jays days, but learned a bit about player valuation from his Dodgers days. Assuming a payroll in the $100M-$110M range, and is already projected to be $96M in 2018 with no changes being made, I expect AA to:

- Unload some portion of Kemp's deal, somehow, some way. I wouldn't be surprised to see him use some lower end pitching prospect depth to get that done.
- Keep all of Teheran, Folty, Newk, Gohara, Fried and Sims as part of a 7-8 man rotation similar to what the Dodgers do.
- Add an injury-prone buy-low SP they can work into that 7-8 man rotation. Possibly part of a Kemp deal.
- AA should be smart enough to keep Acuna down to start the year.
- Markakis is in LF/RF opening day.
- MAdams will be traded for...nothing because one dimensional platoon sluggers aren't worth much, and the Braves can't afford a $5M bench bat.
- 1-2 value adds to the BP.
- Value add to LF/RF, probably a RHer that can platoon with Markakis once Acuna is called up.

I've thought about a Matt Kemp/Phil Hughes deal as the Twins and Royals are the only teams that are in obvious need of a DH and Ian Kennedy's contract looks too bad. Hughes is due 13.2 the next 2 years, so we'd save 5.8M each year. He could be a long reliever/swingman.
I'm thinking we could flip Markakis as well by either eating a couple mil or attaching a Freeman/Ramirez guy or lower level prospect to a team like the Orioles.

If we could flip both those guys I'd like to see us go after some prospects like Joc, Grichuk, Piscotty, Kepler or even Jackie Bradley JR who may have seen their stock slip and fill two holes with those guys and then be able to keep Acuna down for a bit and then have options to work him in.

Matt Adams is definitely gone, no need for him.

[Enscheff]

I've thought about a Matt Kemp/Phil Hughes deal as the Twins and Royals are the only teams that are in obvious need of a DH and Ian Kennedy's contract looks too bad. Hughes is due 13.2 the next 2 years, so we'd save 5.8M each year. He could be a long reliever/swingman.
I'm thinking we could flip Markakis as well by either eating a couple mil or attaching a Freeman/Ramirez guy or lower level prospect to a team like the Orioles.

If we could flip both those guys I'd like to see us go after some prospects like Joc, Grichuk, Piscotty, Kepler or even Jackie Bradley JR who may have seen their stock slip and fill two holes with those guys and then be able to keep Acuna down for a bit and then have options to work him in.

Matt Adams is definitely gone, no need for him.

The reason I think the Braves keep Markakis is because he's not terrible and the Braves have **** for OFers. With no money to spend, they will be hard pressed to find a 1 win OF for less than $11M (including prospect costs). Plus, the Braves love Markakis.

I don't think any team is going to acquire Kemp to be the primary DH. They will acquire him to be a bench bat, move to 1B, rotate through the DH slot, or just cut him loose. The most the Braves could hope to save in a Kemp deal is $5M-$10M total. Swapping him for a bad SP contract is an idea that holds merit, but I haven't taken the time to identify any candidates.

Helping the Cards clear their logjam of mediocre OFers seems like a no-brainer. I actually consider a trade with them to be the most likely trade for the Braves to make this offseason after unloading MAdams.

[ramadon101]

The reason I think the Braves keep Markakis is because he's not terrible and the Braves have **** for OFers. With no money to spend, they will be hard pressed to find a 1 win OF for less than $11M (including prospect costs). Plus, the Braves love Markakis.

I thought it was solely the fact that Markakis is a fellow Greek like AA?

I kid.

I think AA will focus on getting up to speed this offseason without making a huge splash unless something falls into his lap. I do think he'll focus on organizational systems like improving player nutrition system wide (like he did with Toronto), build out (or completely replace) the Tomahawk database (and likely hire a database architect to manage same like they did in Toronto) and try and identify a few potential upside players that he can possibly buy low (Ensheff has identified a few in recent posts... for some reason I also think they will check in on Piscotty if they somehow are able to dump both Kemp and Markakis).

[JohnAdcox]

- Markakis is in LF/RF opening day.

You really think he can cover that much ground at his age? And what if Ender gets in his way as he runs back and forth?

[CyYoung31]

immediately quit when Bobby, JS and Snit pull the branding iron out that says 'Braves Way' and asks AA to bend over and drop his pants.

I believe that was part of the agreement to take the job.