Around Baseball 2015 Edition

[Julio3000]

The rebuild is not going well? By what reasonable measure?

Hey, thethe, I think it's fair to say that's an unsupportable statement at this point.

On the other hand, isn't it equally unsupportable to say that the rebuild is ahead of schedule, as you have asserted several times?

Right now, we have acquired value in Shelby, Maybin, Jace, and Wisler (Viz, too, I think). ManBan and Folty have given us, er, reason to believe that things are looking up. Everybody agrees, I think, that we have financial flexibility which will allow us to add more talent of the next couple years.

So until Fried is pitching and the other MiLB guys are further along, isn't it premature to say one way or another?

 

[Chipper]

The rebuild is not going well? By what reasonable measure?

By our roster and minor league talent? We have no one for left field or center (we'll trade Maybin before next season for a pitcher no one ever heard of). Right fielder isn't anything to be happy about. We have no one for 2nd base. No catcher. A shortstop who can't hit. Our prize 3rd baseman will be lucky to play 100 games next year. No back end of a rotation. We can probably throw a decent bullpen together.

I know there is money available, but two decent players will eat up most of that. Unless the Braves suddenly up their payroll to 150 million, there's not much to be excited about over the next three years, IMO.

 

[mfree80]

By our roster and minor league talent? We have no one for left field or center (we'll trade Maybin before next season for a pitcher no one ever heard of). Right fielder isn't anything to be happy about. We have no one for 2nd base. No catcher. A shortstop who can't hit. Our prize 3rd baseman will be lucky to play 100 games next year. No back end of a rotation. We can probably throw a decent bullpen together.
I know there is money available, but two decent players will eat up most of that. Unless the Braves suddenly up their payroll to 150 million, there's not much to be excited about over the next three years, IMO.

You can look at risk or potential. Niether will be 100% accurate, but i would sure rather see it through a positive lens than the defeatist attitude we are seeing from some of you.

There are things here to be optimistic about. In fact, looking at the farm makes me feel really good.

 

[thethe]

Hey, thethe, I think it's fair to say that's an unsupportable statement at this point.

On the other hand, isn't it equally unsupportable to say that the rebuild is ahead of schedule, as you have asserted several times?

Right now, we have acquired value in Shelby, Maybin, Jace, and Wisler (Viz, too, I think). ManBan and Folty have given us, er, reason to believe that things are looking up. Everybody agrees, I think, that we have financial flexibility which will allow us to add more talent of the next couple years.

So until Fried is pitching and the other MiLB guys are further along, isn't it premature to say one way or another?

I think the transformation of the farm system is the precursor to a rebuild personally. Couple that with the projected salary budget that most believe the Braves are going to have moving into the new stadium and I think the future is filled with possiblities.

 

[Julio3000]

I think the transformation of the farm system is the precursor to a rebuild personally. Couple that with the projected salary budget that most believe the Braves are going to have moving into the new stadium and I think the future is filled with possiblities.

Yeah, and I'm not arguing with that, per se. I would suggest that we're a little early along even to be judging that. Having traded Heyward, Justin, Gattis, and Kimbrel for youngsters, it would be hard to imagine not having enough talent accumulated to be ranked in the top five.

Those guys will prove out (or not) but we don't have enough information to know how that's going to break.

 

[Chipper]

You can look at risk or potential. Niether will be 100% accurate, but i would sure rather see it through a positive lens than the defeatist attitude we are seeing from some of you.

There are things here to be optimistic about. In fact, looking at the farm makes me feel really good.

We're definitely in a better place, but I don't see the team being in postseason contention until 2018 at the earliest.

By better place, I mean the farm and future outlook.

 

[sturg33]

I felt a lot better about the rebuild until the Wood trade

 

[thethe]

I felt a lot better about the rebuild until the Wood trade

You also were really positive about the teams offsensive appraoch and results until Freeman got hurt if you remember.

 

[Heyward]

What is different from the beginning of the year til now?

KJ, Uribe, Freeman, Wood Grilli and a few others are hurt/traded?

All were/are pretty big pieces.

 

[Heyward]

Yeah - those 96 wins from the year before with mainly the same group was not reflective at all.

We've been over this a hundred times.

You're in favor of the rebuild - but the rebuild isn't looking so hot. Our team is terrible and we don't have any impact prospects coming anytime soon. The ONLY thing that has been overwhelmingly positive was the Kimbrel trade, which I would have done whether we were re-tooling or re-building

Alot of people were in favor of it if they arent delusional who thought last years team with some tweaks could compete.

The rebuild is going fine, did you expect them to compete this year or even next?

The farm system went from bottom 5 to top 5, tons of depth pitching wise.

Lot of money to spend on the international market this winter.

I guess time will tell on the rebuild but last years team wasnt good and the pitching would be much worse. Guess we'll see what happens this winter, need to add a few bats and a vet arm, and see what happens.

 

[thewupk]

KJ, Uribe, Freeman, Wood Grilli and a few others are hurt/traded?

All were/are pretty big pieces.

Wood and Grilli are not offensive players so I don't see how that matters much. And we were in full suck mode while Wood was still here. Uribe wasn't on the team to start the year and played in all of 46 games for the Braves. KJ started the season on a minor league contract. I hardly recall anyone expecting him to do much but be a bench bat at best when he was signed.

 

[Heyward]

Wood and Grilli are not offensive players so I don't see how that matters much. And we were in full suck mode while Wood was still here. Uribe wasn't on the team to start the year and played in all of 46 games for the Braves. KJ started the season on a minor league contract. I hardly recall anyone expecting him to do much but be a bench bat at best when he was signed.

Pitching doesnt matter?

Good to know.

Who cares what KJ was signed for, he was a solid offensive bat. Uribe had a good year.

 

[thewupk]

Pitching doesnt matter?

Good to know.

Who cares what KJ was signed for, he was a solid offensive bat. Uribe had a good year.

Pitching does matter. But the discussion was about offense so why bring pitching into it?

KJ has had a good year for him but he was in a downward slide after his hot start which was expected. WRC+ 113 for the Braves and now 108 on the year and falling. So whether he stayed with the Braves or not I don't see the offense magically being better. He's a bench player that got hot. Should we expect that to continue?

Uribe was good but was brought in after the offense hit it's high mark. He wasn't really responsible for it so his departure doesn't really mean much.

The lineup has had a ton of turnover from spring training until now. They had a few good spurts to start the year but it's never been a good offensive team.

 

[Heyward]

Pitching does matter. But the discussion was about offense so why bring pitching into it?

KJ has had a good year for him but he was in a downward slide after his hot start which was expected. WRC+ 113 for the Braves and now 108 on the year and falling. So whether he stayed with the Braves or not I don't see the offense magically being better. He's a bench player that got hot. Should we expect that to continue?

Uribe was good but was brought in after the offense hit it's high mark. He wasn't really responsible for it so his departure doesn't really mean much.

The lineup has had a ton of turnover from spring training until now. They had a few good spurts to start the year but it's never been a good offensive team.

Ok?

Neither last years or this years offense were that good.

 

[Carp]

Also, when Freeman came back the offense was still dreadful.

It's because the offense sucks. Losing KJ didn't take it from good to suck.

I don't know that anyone said the offense was "good." But it was performing better as a whole than last year's team for a decent bit of the year.

And while you guys brush off KJ like he wasn't a relevant player, the fact remains he performed very well in his time in ATL. He was probably one of our top 2 or 3 hitters. And before he was traded, our offense was still pacing on par or better than last year's. This despite KJ and Freeman missing over 30 games combined, and Maybin and Peterson not getting full time reps til the end of April.

Now we certainly would have never been called an offensive juggernaut, and it's possible the magic we had at the start of the year would have faded regardless. But, I still feel like this year's offense had more quality hitters as whole than last years team. Aside from the pitcher and CB, we didn't really have an easy out anywhere in the lineup when everyone was healthy.

 

[gilesfan]

But, I still feel like this year's offense had more quality hitters as whole than last years team. Aside from the pitcher and CB, we didn't really have an easy out anywhere in the lineup when everyone was healthy.

First statement is wrong. 2nd one....Simmons, CJ, Peterson, LF? We pretty much had easy outs everywhere in the lineup but 1B, RF, and wherever KJ was playing.

 

[thewupk]

Ok?

Neither last years or this years offense were that good.

Back to changing the subject again?

 

[thewupk]

I don't know that anyone said the offense was "good." But it was performing better as a whole than last year's team for a decent bit of the year.

And while you guys brush off KJ like he wasn't a relevant player, the fact remains he performed very well in his time in ATL. He was probably one of our top 2 or 3 hitters. And before he was traded, our offense was still pacing on par or better than last year's. This despite KJ and Freeman missing over 30 games combined, and Maybin and Peterson not getting full time reps til the end of April.

Now we certainly would have never been called an offensive juggernaut, and it's possible the magic we had at the start of the year would have faded regardless. But, I still feel like this year's offense had more quality hitters as whole than last years team. Aside from the pitcher and CB, we didn't really have an easy out anywhere in the lineup when everyone was healthy.

That was the case for like a couple of months. This is why we wait until the end of the year. There were times last year when the entire offense didn't suck. Overall? It did. Will be the same case this year.

 

[yeezus]

I'm just not sure how you can complain so far about the rebuild. It's not even a year in, and the farm went from bottom to top already. I'm not sure what you guys expect.

 

[yeezus]

Jace Peterson is an easy out?
You can really tell who never actually watches games.