Around Baseball 2015 Edition

Like Alex Wood?

Yes, Alex did.

I suspect Wisler, Folty, Man-Ban, Perez, Fried, Jenkins, Touki, and several others have the ability to get better as well. Not all will make it, but with that many good young options, it is safe to assume that a few will.

Some might be traded, some will get hurt or flame out, and some will bring the Braves back to relevance.
 
I think he is suggesting that good young pitchers get better with experience. History has proven that to be the case.

You can't expect to go from below-average to very good just through individual improvement. Obviously the bullpen should be better, but I don't see it being one of the better bullpens in the league. We have talent there but it's mostly unproven and/or coming off injury.

As for the rotation, it's unlikely Miller will be better than he's been this year. We would be thrilled if he just replicates this. Teheran will hopefully be quite a bit better, certainly. Wisler should be a little better. But we lost Wood, and none of the ready arms are going to be studs next year in all likelihood (Jenkins, Banuelos, Folty). So we're going to add at least 2 pretty significant pitching pieces in order to carry that offense into the postseason.

As of now we have the potential makings of a decent pitching staff, not a clearly above-average one.
 
Yes, Alex did.

I suspect Wisler, Folty, Man-Ban, Perez, Fried, Jenkins, Touki, and several others have the ability to get better as well. Not all will make it, but with that many good young options, it is safe to assume that a few will.

Some might be traded, some will get hurt or flame out, and some will bring the Braves back to relevance.

What the? Touki? Fried?

We're talking about next year.
 
On what basis? Unless we sign a very good FA pitcher this offseason our starting pitching is going to be much worse due to losing Wood alone. Our bullpen will most likely be a bit better just because it is so crappy this year, but we will still have to replace the very good production of Grilli (for most the season at least) and JJ. Without any major FA upgrades it's unlikely our pitching will be all that much better at all. We are currently 10 games below .500 and likely to be much worse by the end of the year, unless we are getting a major talent influx from FA we aren't even close to a playoff team next year, and would have to be very lucky to hit .500.

Grilli wont return?

A couple vets, Viz, Withrow, Shae, Paco, Marksberry and a few others is plenty fine for a bullpen.

Rotation depends if Julio pulls his head out of his ass, and progression of a guy like Wisler, Manny, Perez, etc, and if they sign a vet SP in FA.
 
On what basis? Unless we sign a very good FA pitcher this offseason our starting pitching is going to be much worse due to losing Wood alone. Our bullpen will most likely be a bit better just because it is so crappy this year, but we will still have to replace the very good production of Grilli (for most the season at least) and JJ. Without any major FA upgrades it's unlikely our pitching will be all that much better at all. We are currently 10 games below .500 and likely to be much worse by the end of the year, unless we are getting a major talent influx from FA we aren't even close to a playoff team next year, and would have to be very lucky to hit .500.

I think its foolish to assume we won't make additions this winter to improve both the rotation and BP. The likelihood of getting a high quality addition is certainly up for debate. However, it is very unlikely we go into 2016 with 3/5 of our rotation having less than 300 big league innings combined. And we'll likely try to bring in a RP much like JJ or Grill, coming off a less than stellar season. I would also expect to trade or sign for a hitter or two of some sort. Again, the quality of such a hitter is up for debate, but I think we bring in a hitter, probably a catcher or LFer.

Regardless, improvements will certainly be made.
 
Exactly. Next year is only part of the future... actually a very small part. The Braves are headed in a very good direction. It might take another year or two to get there.

When did I debate that? I responded to thethe asking what pitching he thinks we'll add next year because he thinks we'll have much improved pitching next year that could take us to the playoffs.

Touki and Fried obviously won't factor into that at all.
 
When did I debate that? I responded to thethe asking what pitching he thinks we'll add next year because he thinks we'll have much improved pitching next year that could take us to the playoffs.

Touki and Fried obviously won't factor into that at all.

Good players and their agents can see beyond next year as well. Just planning to compete next year is not the only thing that counts. My point is that FA's will not eliminate the Braves from consideration because they are not ready to compete in 2016. Some of them will see a team on the rise, and consider them based on the longer term potential. I am not ready to name which players... A lot of water to go under the bridge before next year.

Just don't assume that no FA's will consider them because 2016 is not the year.
 
Good players and their agents can see beyond next year as well. Just planning to compete next year is not the only thing that counts. My point is that FA's will not eliminate the Braves from consideration because they are not ready to compete in 2016. Some of them will see a team on the rise, and consider them based on the longer term potential. I am not ready to name which players... A lot of water to go under the bridge before next year.

Just don't assume that no FA's will consider them because 2016 is not the year.

I honestly have no idea who you're replying to. Thethe said he thinks our pitching will be much improved next year, enough to carry a below-average offense to the playoffs potentially. Considering our pitching has not been good this year, even with Wood, I asked who he sees us adding this offseason. You then responded and said we'll get improvement from young guys, listed Touki and Fried among those, then said FA's won't turn us down if we don't compete next year.

I really have no idea what discussion you're in the middle of. I'm specifically talking only of next year because that's what thethe said.
 
Grilli wont return?

Rotation depends if Julio pulls his head out of his ass, and progression of a guy like Wisler, Manny, Perez, etc, and if they sign a vet SP in FA.

As I said in my post, replace Grilli for part of the year. And yes, the bullpen should be improved, but it's highly unlikely we get Withrow, Paco, and Shae back and they all pitch like gangbusters and are strong right off the bat. They are all coming off major injury, and will likely struggle for a while till they get back in the groove. So while I expect it to be better than this year, it's highly unlikely to be a major force in 2016. In 2017, sure I could see it being a major strength, but we are counting on way too many arms coming off injury for it to be great in 2016.

And even if Julio returns to his prime form somehow in one offseason, we still would just be equal to what we had this year with Wood on board. And the rest of pitchers are very young, even very good starters generally struggle a bit their first year and a half in the league, so I doubt Wisler and company blow the doors off next year.

Unless we sign a very good #2 starter or better in FA this offseason and have Julio return to his 2013-14 form we are unlikely to have a pitching staff tremendously better than this year. If we don't spend money on a good SP this offseason (and this last trade with Bourn and Swisher makes it unlikely we will have the money to spend this offseason for one), and Julio doesn't get way better, then there is a chance our pitching could actually be worse next year.
 
As I said in my post, replace Grilli for part of the year. And yes, the bullpen should be improved, but it's highly unlikely we get Withrow, Paco, and Shae back and they all pitch like gangbusters and are strong right off the bat. They are all coming off major injury, and will likely struggle for a while till they get back in the groove. So while I expect it to be better than this year, it's highly unlikely to be a major force in 2016. In 2017, sure I could see it being a major strength, but we are counting on way too many arms coming off injury for it to be great in 2016.

And even if Julio returns to his prime form somehow in one offseason, we still would just be equal to what we had this year with Wood on board. And the rest of pitchers are very young, even very good starters generally struggle a bit their first year and a half in the league, so I doubt Wisler and company blow the doors off next year.

Unless we sign a very good #2 starter or better in FA this offseason and have Julio return to his 2013-14 form we are unlikely to have a pitching staff tremendously better than this year. If we don't spend money on a good SP this offseason (and this last trade with Bourn and Swisher makes it unlikely we will have the money to spend this offseason for one), and Julio doesn't get way better, then there is a chance our pitching could actually be worse next year.

They'll have around 30-40 mil to spend this offseason, stay negative though.
 
I think its foolish to assume we won't make additions this winter to improve both the rotation and BP. The likelihood of getting a high quality addition is certainly up for debate. However, it is very unlikely we go into 2016 with 3/5 of our rotation having less than 300 big league innings combined. And we'll likely try to bring in a RP much like JJ or Grill, coming off a less than stellar season. I would also expect to trade or sign for a hitter or two of some sort. Again, the quality of such a hitter is up for debate, but I think we bring in a hitter, probably a catcher or LFer.

Regardless, improvements will certainly be made.

You are vastly overestimating the amount of money we will have to spend this offseason after trading for Bourn and Swisher if you think we are making that many moves. I'd like to see us go after a good FA pitcher this offseason (and before the Bourn trade I figured we would), but I doubt our ability to sign anyone worth it since the FO obviously is clearly setting up the money with 2017 in mind.
 
You shouldn't count out Minor. Easy to forget him but there is a decent chance we bring him back.

I'm starting to think we will bring Minor back. He's not in the same situation as Beachy and Medlen who were coming back from TJ2.
 
You shouldn't count out Minor. Easy to forget him but there is a decent chance we bring him back.

I'd be fine with that even though he may be cooked, he's under control for 2 more years.
 
They'll have around 30-40 mil to spend this offseason, stay negative though.

We are currently at 82 mil only including Swisher, Bourn, Freeman, Olivera, Markakis, Quentin's buyout, Maybin, Grilli, Simba, Julio, and the imaginary Toscano.

Add in the 10 mil we got back in the Bourn deal and we are at 72 mil. Factor in resigning AJ and Shelby's first year of Arb and we are back at 80 mil. Once you add in our team control players we will have around 20 mil (or a little less) to spend, assuming our budget stays in the same ballpark as this year.
 
You are vastly overestimating the amount of money we will have to spend this offseason after trading for Bourn and Swisher if you think we are making that many moves. I'd like to see us go after a good FA pitcher this offseason (and before the Bourn trade I figured we would), but I doubt our ability to sign anyone worth it since the FO obviously is clearly money with 2017 in mind.

30-40 mil isnt that much
 
We are currently at 82 mil only including Swisher, Bourn, Freeman, Olivera, Markakis, Quentin's buyout, Maybin, Grilli, Simba, Julio, and the imaginary Toscano.

Add in the 10 mil we got back in the Bourn deal and we are at 72 mil. Factor in resigning AJ and Shelby's first year of Arb and we are back at 80 mil. Once you add in our team control players we will have around 20 mil (or a little less) to spend, assuming our budget stays in the same ballpark as this year.

Bowman said a few days ago we'll be around 110-120 mil so.

I guess you know more than him.
 
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