Around Baseball 2015 Edition

gilesfan said:
Wren inherited a team with:

McCann

Tex (wanting to leave)

Chipper (35)

KJ

then:

Renteria (30)

Matt Diaz

Andruw Jones (30)

Francoeur

Prado

Escobar

With a pitching staff of:

Hudson

Smoltz (40)

Buddy Carlyle

Chuck James

Kyle Davies

Jo-Jo Reyes

Lance Cormier

Personally, I would assume it would be difficult to add 4 starting pitchers in 1 offseason.
Click to expand...

What do the ages have to do with anything? Were they not still productive players.

He added 3 the next offseason, so it must not have been have been as difficult as you say.
 
Carp said:
What do the ages have to do with anything? Were they not still productive players.

He added 3 the next offseason, so it must not have been have been as difficult as you say.
Click to expand...

Because a players age is a pretty important factor in deciding how well they play.
 
Hawk said:
Moves under the new ownership suggest the Braves will continue their commitment to player development. In the last year when draft-and-follows were in play, Atlanta signed seven, most notably lefthander Cole Rohrbough for $675,000. They dropped another $4.9 million on the draft and made a significant splash on the international market in July by signing Colombian righthander Julio Tehran for $850,000.

Wren also acted quickly to keep continuity in the player development and scouting departments, giving two-year contract extensions to scouting director Roy Clark, farm director Kurt Kemp and director of Latin American operations Johnny Almaraz. Clark, the game's longest-tenured scouting director, enters his 10th season in that position and his 19th overall with Atlanta.

As with the front office, the farm system also has gone through upheaval. The Braves used 18 rookies when they won the NL East in 2005, and they've continued to incorporate young talent the last two seasons. They also shipped five prospects to the Rangers for Mark Teixeira at the trading deadline, including the top three prospects on this list a year ago—catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, shortstop Elvis Andrus, lefthander Matt Harrison—and one of their most electric arms, righty Neftali Feliz.

Yet Atlanta hasn't gutted its system. They may not have as many big names, but the Braves still have plenty of promising lefthanded starters and sluggers with all-around games. The best of the young southpaws (Rohrbough, Jeff Locke, Steve Evarts and Chad Rodgers) were all products of the 2007 draft. The first three players the Braves signed out of the 2007 draft (outfielder Jason Heyward, third baseman Jon Gilmore and first baseman Freddie Freeman) added to their collection of athletes with power bats, which already included outfielders Jordan Schafer and Brandon Jones.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying Wren was a terrible GM. But I also don't think he was particularly great either. Mostly average, and put us in a bad situations every time he had money to spend. He made some shrewd trades. Some worked out, some didn't. But don't act like he took the early 2000 Pirates and turned them into a perennial playoff contender. In fact, I would argue that most of his success can directly tied to players that were already with the franchise before he took over (such as Mac, Chipper, Huddy, Heyward, and Freeman). And yet we still only made the playoffs 3 times out of the 7 years he was with the club, so not even half the time.

And the last part of your post would suggest in fact that the farm system was not gutted as some would like to suggest.
 
Carp said:
What do the ages have to do with anything? Were they not still productive players.
Click to expand...

Considering Andruw's days as a CF and a superstar were effectively over by 30, I'd say it's, uh, hardly irrelevant. Particularly for an incoming GM who has to find replacements for those guys.
 
gilesfan said:
Because a players age is a pretty important factor in deciding how well they play.
Click to expand...

And yet they still played very well, so I fail to see how that is some sort of handicap.

Did he not also bring in 42 year old Glavine, costing us a 1st rnd draft pick?
 
Julio3000 said:
Considering Andruw's days as a CF and a superstar were effectively over by 30, I'd say it's, uh, hardly irrelevant. Particularly for an incoming GM who has to find replacements for those guys.
Click to expand...

For Druw, sure, though he still played reasonably well his last year in ATL. But Smoltz was still awesome for another year, Renteria wasn't even on the team as he was traded away, and Chipper was still Chipper.
 
Carp said:
For Druw, sure, though he still played reasonably well his last year in ATL. But Smoltz was still awesome for another year, Renteria wasn't even on the team as he was traded away, and Chipper was still Chipper.
Click to expand...

Oh, hey, that's right! Renteria WAS traded away. For younger, better players.
 
Sorry got my years mixed up on Smoltz, but Druw never played under Wren so there is zero point including him. Chipper was fantastic, and Rents was traded away as Wren's 1st trade.
 
Carp said:
For Druw, sure, though he still played reasonably well his last year in ATL. But Smoltz was still awesome for another year, Renteria wasn't even on the team as he was traded away, and Chipper was still Chipper.
Click to expand...

Smoltz's last good season was 2007. 2008 was cut short with injury as Glavine. Wren took over after 2007 season.
 
Carp said:
The point is, using his age as some sort handicap for Wren is silly, especially when he never played under him.
Click to expand...

Didn't Wren inherit a roster with these guys or decided to let them walk as free agents?
 
Didn't Wren replace Druw with an older, more injury prone player in Mark Kotsay? Did he not also bring in Glavine who was older than Smoltz?
 
Carp said:
Didn't Wren replace Druw with an older, more injury prone player in Mark Kotsay? Did he not also bring in Glavine who was older than Smoltz?
Click to expand...

Well you know it's not like we had internal options like Matt Harrison and Neftali that were traded because JS wanted to go for it in his last season.

Wren acquired Jurrjens in the same offseason and he was solid for us for a while.
 
You can argue that Wren's 2008-2009 seasons were the original Mukaki rebuild of 15-17.

Freeman and Simmons are in the same boat as then McCann and Francoeur.

Wren was rebuilding JS's finally few years of going for it and it culminated in 2010 to 2013.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top