Spring Training 2015

ChapelHillMatt said:
I think Young deserves a chance to start the season as the opening day starter. If you tell someone it's an open competition and then they perform well in spring training and you don't give them the job what message are you sending to them and the team? If he starts to struggle you can always go with someone else but he's had a great spring, let him start the year with the job.
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Young has been putting up great ST numbers for years now and for years now it hasn't translated to when the games count. Further, Young has not looked good in CF and defense matters too. In fact, it matters even more when your RF and LF don't have much range.
 
Enscheff said:
It really shouldn't be this hard to find a decent LHed hitter to form the other half of a platoon in LF with Gomes. Literally any guy out there with normal platoon splits would be better than anyone on the current roster.
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I agree. Our need seems so obvious at that spot that you'd think we'd have a few agents dialing our number first as cuts start to be made. I'm dreaming here, but maybe we could even do a mini bad contract swap using Callaspo or Russell.
 
ChapelHillMatt said:
I think Young deserves a chance to start the season as the opening day starter. If you tell someone it's an open competition and then they perform well in spring training and you don't give them the job what message are you sending to them and the team? If he starts to struggle you can always go with someone else but he's had a great spring, let him start the year with the job.
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Eric Young Jr is a bad Major League player. He has his uses, and there's nothing wrong with having him on the roster. But he's a bad Major League player, he's 30 years old and he's not going to magically get better.

Rebuilding organizations are not necessarily bad organizations, but giving significant starting ABs to guys like Eric Young Jr is how bad organizations handle rebuilding years. Every at-bat he gets, every game he starts in center field, is a wasted opportunity.

And I frankly don't care about his feelings or any sense of betrayal. He's a 30-year-old utility guy with poor numbers who signed a minor league deal after being cut by the Mets. He can accept a non-starting role or he can leave. His morale matters not a whit to me.
 
ChapelHillMatt said:
I think Young deserves a chance to start the season as the opening day starter. If you tell someone it's an open competition and then they perform well in spring training and you don't give them the job what message are you sending to them and the team? If he starts to struggle you can always go with someone else but he's had a great spring, let him start the year with the job.
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That's one reason I'm resigned to having EY in center. He's "earned" the job on the field and it would be surprising if he didn't get some deference as a veteran, since he's (supposed to be) one of the guys who is putting in work and setting an example for the younger players. Those unquantifiable things matter in the clubhouse, presumably.

I'm just gonna cross my fingers that Fredi won't be reticent about slotting someone else in if EY struggles...or, frankly, when he performs to ordinary EY standards.

Also, yeah, I think his defense is going to be a killer with the low-range corner guys we have.
 
He reminds me of Willie Harris and Harris had some good moments for the Braves. I don't think we have a lot of good options right now. I don't think it's going to hurt the organization to give him some playing time. That's an overreaction.
 
ChapelHillMatt said:
He reminds me of Willie Harris and Harris had some good moments for the Braves. I don't think we have a lot of good options right now. I don't think it's going to hurt the organization to give him some playing time. That's an overreaction.
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He will teach the young uns how to take flight.
 
I agree. The plan was obviously to see if Upton can somehow figure something out, but while he's injured the Braves may as well see what Perez can do with ~100 ABs of regular playing time.
 
dak said:
I agree. Our need seems so obvious at that spot that you'd think we'd have a few agents dialing our number first as cuts start to be made. I'm dreaming here, but maybe we could even do a mini bad contract swap using Callaspo or Russell.
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The Braves could be holding out until the BoSox are ready to deal JBJr.
 
Enscheff said:
The Braves could be holding out until the BoSox are ready to deal JBJr.
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If it means no Young in CF count me in for that idea. However, it still doesn't fix the issue of Fredi apparently planning on starting Gomes vs righties in LF. It's pathetic that we're even entertaining the idea of starting a declining veteran vs righties after he hit .165 against them last year and has a career .222 batting average against them. And it's even worse when you consider that he is basically a DH type too.
 
Braves1976 said:
If it means no Young in CF count me in for that idea. However, it still doesn't fix the issue of Fredi apparently planning on starting Gomes vs righties in LF. It's pathetic that we're even entertaining the idea of starting a declining veteran vs righties after he hit .165 against them last year and has a career .222 batting average against them. And it's even worse when you consider that he is basically a DH type too.
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But... grit, and will to win
 
sturg33 said:
But... grit, and will to win
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Yea, tell that to our pitchers when they realize their outfield has little to no range. If we had a bunch of ground ball pitchers it wouldn't be such an issue but we're a mostly fly-ball pitching staff. It might end up a blessing Minor is out to start the season because he's not going to build up his trade value with ugly numbers. Which is much more likely when you have a RFer who's known for lacking range, a CFer who really isn't a CFer and a DH in LF.

On the bright side, Peterson and Simmons up the middle should be our best defensive combo in years. And when Callaspo/KJ/etc. is at third instead of CJ our infield defense should be very strong. Which makes you wish we had more ground ball pitchers like Huddy to make more use of it.
 
sturg33 said:
It's gonna get ugly out there. The popup that Markakis didnt catch kind of boggled my mind. Maybe it was just rust...
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Maybe a little but Markakis isn't known for his range either way, he is sure-handed in that he rarely misplays the balls he can get to and also has a strong arm too.
 
Braves1976 said:
Young has been putting up great ST numbers for years now and for years now it hasn't translated to when the games count. Further, Young has not looked good in CF and defense matters too. In fact, it matters even more when your RF and LF don't have much range.
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In fairness, this is his best spring ever. He's showing more pop than before. Could be a good thing.
 
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