4/13: Marlins at Braves

I didn't like the Smyly signing, largely because I thought Anthopoulos should have let the market play out a little longer. We did need some help in the rotation, but I thought at the time that there may have been better options.

What puzzled me was the decision not to non-tender Camargo and Dayton. Not big ticket items, but I think if you have a tight budget, every dollar matters. I wasn't surprised (nor heartbroken) that Duvall was non-tendered and I'm not going to let one game say that was a terrible decision.

Bottom line is, as Enscheff lays out, the team rolled the dice and some of those decisions aren't playing out as well as hoped, at least at this point. It's always tempting after a terrible couple of games to replay everything, but it's important to remember it's early.
 
I highly doubt we see Harris any time soon. He's in Florida at minor league camp, not at the alternate site.
 
Smyly was a $3M guy. Giving him $11M was insane, just as giving Will Smith 3-$39M was insane.

For a guy who is generally very careful deploying his scarce resources, as he should be, Anthopoulos was absolutely off the reservation with those two signings. I've been thinking of better ways to deploy the $11M ever since that deal was announced.

He threw his lot in with waves of home grown pitching, it really came through for him in the playoffs last year. Then he lost his nerve and fired the ones that got him there in favor of a high risk project, giving himself no real backup plan if Pache didn't work out. And here we are.
 
Some sort of Ender/Heredia platoon in CF was likely the backup plan in case Pache wasn't ready in ST. It looks like that may be the plan now that Pache is "injured".

When this plan fails, the Braves will probably be forced to move Riley to RF and try Arianza, Pablo and/or Arcia at 3B for a bit.

When that plan fails, the Braves will be shopping for a rental bat like Marte.
 
I don't quite comprehend how folks see the early-season set-back of Soroka's recovery, then see Fried pitch like complete ass—before also getting injured—and then turn around and continue to complain about the Smyly signing. If anything, I'm more happy about that signing today than I was when it originally happened.
 
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I don't quite comprehend how folks see the early-season set-back of Soroka's recovery, then see Fried pitch like complete ass—before also getting injured—and then turn around and continue to complain about the Smyly signing. If anything, I'm more happy about that signing today than I was when it originally happened.

This and with Morton’s age we will need to ‘IL’ him too at some point. It was a fore gone conclusion that we would need 8-9 starters throughout the 162 games. Wilson and Wright will still factor into this year at some point.
 
Some sort of Ender/Heredia platoon in CF was likely the backup plan in case Pache wasn't ready in ST. It looks like that may be the plan now that Pache is "injured".

When this plan fails, the Braves will probably be forced to move Riley to RF and try Arianza, Pablo and/or Arcia at 3B for a bit.

When that plan fails, the Braves will be shopping for a rental bat like Marte.

He was the guy I thought they might pursue last trading deadline, but he does carry a budget number that likely exceeds the Braves' current ability in that department. Acquisition cost wasn't that high. LHP Caleb Smith is a fungible major league arm, but the Braves have a ton of those. The minor league players the D-Backs received don't appear to be anything special.
 
I don't quite comprehend how folks see the early-season set-back of Soroka's recovery, then see Fried pitch like complete ass—before also getting injured—and then turn around and continue to complain about the Smyly signing. If anything, I'm more happy about that signing today than I was when it originally happened.

Good points and it's only one game, but if what we saw on Sunday night is any indication of what's to come, I'm not that enthused. My bigger complaint was with the timing of the signing (as it turned out, it really didn't matter because the market basically remained static) and all the hoopla because of his uptick in velocity as measured over a mere 26 innings in 2020. It's early and we'll see how it plays out.
 
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