Kinda think the rotation piece comes from the group of Bumgarner/Hamels/Keuchel since it'd be nice to have two lefties in the rotation. Everyone (AA included) would prefer to have someone who misses more bats than Keuchel, but is it really that important given our infield defense? It would be downgraded a bit going from Donaldson to Moose, but it's not like he's a butcher over there.
If he's not going after a true swing-and-miss TOR guy like a Kluber/Morton/Snell type in a trade, those three probably all likely get in the $13-$15 million AAV range (unless someone like Minnesota steps up and seriously overpays for MadBum), and Hamels seems to be the best fit since he could probably be had on the shortest deal.
Rosenthal posed an interesting question this morning on Hot Stove - could the Cubs be considering trading one of Bryant or Contreras to try to get a SP? Would Theo and Jed consider Wright plus for Contreras? If we really aren't considering Grandal at all and they got an inexpensive rotation piece, the Cubs might be. If they gave the money they were paying Hamels to Grandal, moved Bryant to RF, and Baez to 3B they'd still be pretty scary (although the OF defense would be pretty weak).
If AA traded for Contreras ($4.5 million projected), signed Moose ($10 million), and could stretch the budget slightly, he could add Ryu AND Pineda to the rotation and have enough left to pick up another decent arm like O'Day for the pen for a little more than the $45 million figure being tossed around with Wilson, Weigel, Touki, Anderson, and Davidson in Gwinnett.
Has there EVER been a statement and question a certain someone should absolutely never have made and asked publicly more than...
Kinda pathetic to see yourself as a message board knight in shining armor. How impotent does someone have to be in real life to resort to playing hero on a message board?
Highly doubt the Cubs would trade Contreras or Bryant for any prospect(s). They cried all season long about having to play Heyward in CF so I guess what little value he has left is best spent in RF.
The more time passes and shock of yesterday dims, Im inclined to believe a high dollar or even 2 will be coming via trade. Have little confidence Donaldson will be one of them. Braves won 90 games in 18 with a worse configured pitching staff then won 97 with what amounted to a cobbled together staff and some luck.
If Justin Turner truly becomes available he pretty much replaces JD, at least offensively.
Assuming the OF stays roughly as is, Grandal plus Mous is a net upgrade, while Castro plus Mous is a net downgrade. In the event Grandal isn’t a Brave, AA will have to use that extra money to upgrade other areas.
I’m no sales engineer, but that’s my take anyways.
Last edited by Enscheff; 11-05-2019 at 03:36 PM.
That’s kinda what I was saying. With most of the positions locked down we are limited where we can upgrade and add a big bat. Our lineup last year after JD wasn’t very good. If we don’t stretch the lineup out with better hitters we’ll have a repeat of last year imo. JD probably doesn’t produce 4.9 war again unfortunately but maybe I’m wrong. Maybe AA has something else up his sleeve to add offense but I can hear the cries now about how bad Markakis and Duval are next year.
Few minutes ago Chris Rose gave some input on Red Sox and cap issues. I don't know why it is an issue with them but maybe so. Roses posit David Price, Xander Bogaerts and money as a package for I don't know what. Also Sean Casey only gives JD a 20% chance to come back to Braves, Rose 33%.
TC got themselves another writer who isn't a complete twit:
https://www.talkingchop.com/2019/11/...-markakis-back
The author understands any OFer added will be a RHH, and lists Marte, Garcia and Puig as options.
Haniger may be another option if the Ms are finally willing to play ball in trade talks. Soler as well, though his defense may be too bad.
Any other RHH OFer options?
Assuming Grandal gets priced out of AA's comfort zone, I think my ideal off season works out as follows:
Dodgers sign Rendon for 4-5 years at $40M AAV.
Braves trade ~$20M in prospect value to LA for Justin Turner.
Braves sign Jason Castro to platoon with Flowers.
Braves sign/trade for a RHH OFer, preferably Avisail Garcia because he is young and carries some upside.
Braves sign/trade for a SP on a 1-2 year deal...possibilities are many.
C - Castro(vs RHP)/Flowers(vs LHP)
1B - Freeman
2B - Albies
3B - Turner
SS- Swanson
LF - Markakis(vs RHP)/Garcia(vs LHP)
CF - Ender(vs RHP)/Acuna(vs LHP)
RF - Acuna(vs RHP)/Duvall(vsLHP)
UNCBlue012 (11-06-2019)
Enscheff!! What you think is the cost for Haniger and Gonzales?
I think the Ms would be foolish to sell low on Haniger coming off an injury plagued season. Like many other dumb teams, they likely missed their chance to sell high on him. I doubt he’s available at a reasonable price until the trade deadline after he’s proven to be healthy.
They will likely also waste Marco’s value when they ask for more than a soft tossing LHP is worth. We will hear versions of the line, “we don’t have to trade him now because he has a lot of team control”, just like when the Tigers wastes the value of Boyd and Fulmer on losing teams
Last edited by Enscheff; 11-05-2019 at 09:14 PM.
Double yuk- like puke yuk.
Swanson, Waters, and Wilson for Lindor? Yeah I make that trade. Waters is the only one that would suck to trade and we don’t know if he’ll ever amount to anything in the majors.
I don’t get all the Haniger love. He had a down year and who’s to say he won’t have another injury plagued season. Not that I dislike him, but if we would have given a big package for him last year....everyone would agree we came out badly. Doubtful the M’s trade him with his value anyway....but he might not even be as good as the platoon we will have. He could be...then again...he might not.
Had AA emptied half the farm last year and traded for Diaz and Haniger....we would have thought those were great gets. If it happened it would have been a disaster. Heck even JTR would not have moved the needle that much with what we got out of our guys (and he had a good year).
I think there are guys we definitely need to move...I just think we will regret moving Waters or Pache. Trade the Touki and Wilson type players if you can I the right deal. Leave the top guys alone.
Lindor & Betts would be great to have, but short lived and no way we would have a chance of signing them back. It would be a win now move. We don’t have the payroll to make those type of moves. We have most of these young guys for years to come. 2020 should be the first of many contending years.