PECOTA projects the Braves win 82 games, finish fourth in NL East

Every year AA has relied on the still good farm to use as depth. I am not seeing much there now. Maybe some that were at alternate site last year would be available. It just doesn’t sound like AA is going to add much except maybe a RP.

really? who's been filling in great as depth from the farm recently?
 
really? who's been filling in great as depth from the farm recently?

We have graduated soroka and Riley to fill spots. Fried and Duvall both came back up from the minors to sablize positions. A few relievers as well. This year we have some pitchers who are going to be ready to fill in pache and Contreras to step in.

But I don’t know of anyone else who is really ready to help. Ender and camargo is our back up. I just don’t see waters being available this year personally. Harris, shoe-maker maybe. I just don’t know.
 
Maybe I'm not following closely enough. How in the world are player lists and organizational lists relevant when we didn't see anyone develop over the last 18 months. The below 7 positional players that aren't expected to compete for jobs in Atlanta in Spring Training (I left Pache and Contreras off), were all at the alternate site last year. Waters is the only one that has seen an AB above A ball as far as I know. The extremely limited information on alternate site performance of these 7, as reported by MLB, is below.

Jesse Franklin OF - #18 prospect on talking chop. “Franklin hit the ground running after missing his junior year at Michigan."
Bryce Ball 1B/DH - #20 prospect on talking chop.
Vaughn Grissom SS - #13 prospect on talking chop.
Michael Harris OF - #4 prospect on talking chop. “Both 19-year-olds more than held their own against the advanced pitching they were facing on a regular basis,” Sestanovich said. “Harris has very good instincts in center field and a plus arm. Grissom’s versatility on the infield and bat to ball skills stood out.”
Braden Shewmake SS - #9 prospect on talking chop.
Shea Langeliers C - #6 prospect on talking chop. “He worked hard with our hitting guys on his offense and showed consistent above-average power at the alternate site, particularly to right center-field,” Sestanovich said of the right-handed hitter.
Drew Waters OF - #3 prospect on talking chop.

https://www.mlb.com/news/braves-alternate-training-site-report

Each of the above should have progressed significantly since we last saw them in 2019. They found themselves working against advanced competition at the alternate site with the best coaching they could get from the entire organization. How that develop translates into games is anyone's guess, but I will be really surprised if the Braves treat these 7 as if last year didn't occur at all and just bumps them a single level from where they were to end 2019.

I guess what I'm saying is, in an imperfect world like ours you'd expect half of these 7 to have taken a significant step forward last year. If 3 or 4 out of this group is producing in AA this season, won't our system be better than we, or the folks making money by ranking prospects and systems, could possibly know.

And that doesn't even address the pitching.
Talking Chop has Kyle Muller as our 7th best prospect. The knock-on Muller has always been consistency. Talking Chop says his results at the alternate site weren’t overwhelmingly positive. MLB says: “Kyle is a really good athlete and his stuff is plus across the board,” Sestanovich said. “He’s developed a slider which has complemented his other pitches well. He sat it the upper 90s for the summer and touched 100 a number of times. He’s worked hard on his delivery and we saw the consistency of his stuff and strikes improve over the course of our time in Gwinnett.”
 
Don't you know that since we don't have data it didn't happen?

JK of course, but your point is a good one. We may be surprised by one or more of these guys, and we really don't know which ones, or how good they are until we start seeing data from the coming year.
 
Pache and Wilson in the playoffs.

I don’t think I originally typeticulated what I was really thinking anyway. I guess it just felt like every year we had one or two prospects we expected to come and make a splash. Even if they flopped we always felt that we had that down there. Swanson to replace Acbar. Then Acuna and Ozzie came along. We have had pitchers come and go and come and go. Then Riley and then Duvall came back after destroying Ax3. Them like you said Pache and Wilson. Contreras is here now.

So it just feels our well is drying up and we HAVE to find guys via FA. That said we lost an entire minor league season so there is also a little out of sight out of mind playing in this.
 
I don’t think I originally typeticulated what I was really thinking anyway. I guess it just felt like every year we had one or two prospects we expected to come and make a splash. Even if they flopped we always felt that we had that down there. Swanson to replace Acbar. Then Acuna and Ozzie came along. We have had pitchers come and go and come and go. Then Riley and then Duvall came back after destroying Ax3. Them like you said Pache and Wilson. Contreras is here now.

So it just feels our well is drying up and we HAVE to find guys via FA. That said we lost an entire minor league season so there is also a little out of sight out of mind playing in this.

yeah, i thought you meant more depth-related as opposed to full season starters who had recently come up.
Pache and Wilson i guess fit that but it wasn't over a whole season, it was a very limited time.
 
yeah, i thought you meant more depth-related as opposed to full season starters who had recently come up.
Pache and Wilson i guess fit that but it wasn't over a whole season, it was a very limited time.


Soroka & Fried (starters)
Wright and Wilson (depth starting)
Ynoa, Minter, Jackson, Webb (relieving)
Contreras, A. Jackson, Pache, (reserves)
Acuna, Albies, Swanson, Riley (starters)

All of them came up from the minors within the last few years...that is a lot
 
Soroka & Fried (starters)
Wright and Wilson (depth starting)
Ynoa, Minter, Jackson, Webb (relieving)
Contreras, A. Jackson, Pache, (reserves)
Acuna, Albies, Swanson, Riley (starters)

All of them came up from the minors within the last few years...that is a lot

"depth-related as opposed to full season starters."
like it's literally right in the post you replied to.
i wouldn't say Wright and Wilson have been particularly impactful depth pieces.
 
"depth-related as opposed to full season starters."
like it's literally right in the post you replied to.
i wouldn't say Wright and Wilson have been particularly impactful depth pieces.

You understand the term "depth pieces", right? They're the exact opposite of "impactful".
 
This got a bit more side barred than I intended. For me it just the let down of not having that call up waiting in the wings. I still remember the Newk and Blair and touki debuts. The Swanson Ozzie and Acuna call ups. Even Riley and Duvall getting called up after both were going bonkers in Ax3. I just don’t feel like we have anyone waiting there anymore. I know we do. But to me it feels different.
 
You understand the term "depth pieces", right? They're the exact opposite of "impactful".

um, na.
depth pieces are frequently impactful.........
if Wright and Wilson actually pitched well for their stretches i'd consider them to be in that group. but they've pitched overall terrible, so they're not.
 
This got a bit more side barred than I intended. For me it just the let down of not having that call up waiting in the wings. I still remember the Newk and Blair and touki debuts. The Swanson Ozzie and Acuna call ups. Even Riley and Duvall getting called up after both were going bonkers in Ax3. I just don’t feel like we have anyone waiting there anymore. I know we do. But to me it feels different.

feel like my question to you has been resolved for a while now, but people keep arguing points i never made in response. gotta love it.
 
This got a bit more side barred than I intended. For me it just the let down of not having that call up waiting in the wings. I still remember the Newk and Blair and touki debuts. The Swanson Ozzie and Acuna call ups. Even Riley and Duvall getting called up after both were going bonkers in Ax3. I just don’t feel like we have anyone waiting there anymore. I know we do. But to me it feels different.

The difference now is the Braves no longer have the deepest and best farm in the game because they are in the midst of a competitive window. Unless a team is like the Rays and constantly trading MLB vets for prospects, the pipeline dries up once the rebuild is over.

If the Braves can get 1-2 contributors per season they will be doing well. This year it looks to be a back up catcher and Pache coming in from the prospect pool (I don't count Anderson as a prospect anymore, but he technically counts too). That's pretty good, imo.
 
Rotation has Morton, Soroka, Fried, Smyly, Anderson as a top 5 with guys like Wright, Wilson, Newk, Davidson, Ynoa, Touki, among others as depth options. Considering what we had to go through last year.... Not bad, not bad.

Lineup could use more, as could the pen and like Scheff, i expect AA to add there before the season begins.
 
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