Bethancourt On The Way???

MadduxFanII said:
And honestly...I don't want to **** with Gattis right now. I don't know if there's any statistical support for the idea that defensive transitions can affect a player's offensive ability, but I don't want to find out unless it would present a clear upgrade. Christian Bethancourt is many things, but a clear offensive upgrade to anyone he is not. As dominant as Gattis is at the moment, I'd rather just toss him a bat and some catcher's gear and tell him not to worry about doing anything else.
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Fair points. You got me!

I wouldn't move the 2014 MVP off of his catcher position.
 
KB21 said:
Posey also has 221 at bats to Evan's 185 right now, and Evan has an OPS more than 200 points higher.

The fact of the matter is, no other team has a catcher that can hit like Evan with the exception of Lucroy, and Milwaukee doesn't take him out nearly as much as Atlanta takes out Evan.
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I also want to see Gattis get more at bats. But I would do it by resting him every fifth day or so rather than the more frequent rest we have been seeing. Tonight will be an interesting test. He caught all three of the Angels game. I think he should be in there tonight. He has 2 home runs in 3 AB's off Hamels.
 
I could see the Braves doing something similar to what the Thunder did for Westbrook. Rest him a bunch in the regular season but in the playoffs (hopefully Braves get there) you play him everyday.
 
thethe said:
I could see the Braves doing something similar to what the Thunder did for Westbrook. Rest him a bunch in the regular season but in the playoffs (hopefully Braves get there) you play him everyday.
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That seemed to work out well for the Thunder.
 
The only thing that would concern me about waiting to do this is that I feel that Braves brass is so enamored with Bethancourt that at some point he's going to be the Atlanta Braves' everyday catcher. If the only way to keep Gattis's bat around for the next few years is to move him to left field, then I think it's something you have to consider. I think lf is a place you can hide a subpar defender with a bat you can't keep out of the lineup, particularly in the National League. Hell, the Braves won a lot of games with guys like Ryan Klesko in left field. Conversely, the Braves also had Andruw Jones in center for much of that time. There are pros and cons to the move, but I'm not sure it's possible for CB to be worse than BJ has been offensively, and it can't help that all of a sudden BJ has decided not to play very hard on defense, either. The only other way I see to substantially improve this team would be a move for a 3b that gets on base more than CJ, but that's gonna cost an arm and a leg, and then you'd have 3 big money guys on the bench...
 
Sounds like the front office is up to something to solve the BJ issue. IMO Hayward is a better CF and hitter than BJ so moving him there would upgrade that position. Maybe sending Justin to RF will help him out since that is where he is used to playing before coming to Atlanta. As for LF, it would be easier to fill that postition than trying to get a speedy CF to replace BJ. If CB is ready to bring up, then I say go for it. You would have some speed off the bench with BJ. So this way it makes sense to pinch run for Gattis when you upgrade that much speed.
 
57Brave said:
Smelling a trade
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Given Wren's track record of always being open to anything that will improve the club, it's hard to wonder whether a call-up to showcase him while he's hot could be a prelude to a deal - a couple really.

If the organization's decided they've seen enough of Santana to decide they're not interested in trying to extend him and there's legitimate concern about where Minor is, you have to wonder whether they're quietly in the market to upgrade the rotation. Far fetched for sure, but Bethancourt would certainly be a key piece in a potential deal for Price or Samardzija. Assuming they thought they'd be better off trying to extend one of them, Santana could conceivably be spun off to the Yankees to get them to eat a bigger chunk of Uggla's money than if you were trying to shop them Harang or Floyd.
 
If they wanted to upgrade the offense then just replace CJ with KK. At the very least his OBP and defense would be better to go along with a little more speed. Of course this will never happen since the Braves seem to think Johnson is a good player.
 
The time is coming soon. For this to happen Wren essentially has to admit to signing one of the worst contracts of the decade much less in Braves history. If some other regime had signed BJ he would have been benched or DFA'ed long ago.
 
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