Braves Acquire Matt Adams From Cardinals

clvclv said:
if Adams is just what he's always been (more or less) in Freddie's absence. Not because the team is particularly good, but because the other teams are so bad - several of them unexpectedly bad. The fact that they're still hanging around .500 while the starting pitching has been so bad means you should be able to expect a pretty nice improvement when the Pitchers pitch just a bit more like what's on the backs of their baseball cards. If Freeman is good to go by the break, Adams is kept as a bench piece, Swanson can keep making adjustments, and everyone stays relatively healthy
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Baseball doesn't work like that though, everybody isn't going to stay healthy and its just as likely when the pitchers start getting more consistent, Kemp/Flowers/Markakis will start slumping.

Sure in a perfect world scenario the pitchers become consistent, the bullpen stays lights out, Flowers/Suzuki/Phillips/Kemp/Markakis keep hitting and staying healthy, Adams is a suitable fill-in, Freeman comes back and doesn't miss a beat and Swanson keeps adjusting; but how many of those things will actually happen?
 
Southcack77 said:
1) He shouldn't have said that
2) You shouldn't believe that
3) No team in baseball should rule out trading players for a reasonable return

Honestly, folks need to stop taking the front office's marketing talk so seriously. They clearly want the fans to believe they are done selling and I think they mean that as far as they have no intention of trading long term pieces of the team for prospects. But there ain't no way that should apply to guys with a half year left on their contract, particularly when there are ready replacements coming up.

For example, Brandon Phillips and a theoretically mashing Matt Adams could very well be moved without affecting the ability of the team to contend. Similarly, one of the starting pitchers could be moved to promote a Kris Medlen or a prospect or to accommodate a new acquisition.
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Exactly, no team should ever draw a line in the sand and say we are done trading vets for prospects. I think what Coppy is saying is we are done trading with the teardown, not going to be trading guys with years of control like Simmons. But a guy like Phillips? If he keeps hitting decently, he's going to get traded, and he should.
 
With Freeman out, the Braves should be be comfortably out by the trade deadline, which is probably a good thing.

Markakis, Kemp, Flowers, Suzuki, Philips, Colon, Dickey, Adams, Jim Johnson, Garcia and Teheran are all expendable in the long run and each one of them could, given decent performance, bring back solid returns.

If the Braves can find a way to shed some long-term salary and pick up some top 10 prospects, that will be a huge success.
 
Preacher said:
Baseball doesn't work like that though, everybody isn't going to stay healthy and its just as likely when the pitchers start getting more consistent, Kemp/Flowers/Markakis will start slumping.

Sure in a perfect world scenario the pitchers become consistent, the bullpen stays lights out, Flowers/Suzuki/Phillips/Kemp/Markakis keep hitting and staying healthy, Adams is a suitable fill-in, Freeman comes back and doesn't miss a beat and Swanson keeps adjusting; but how many of those things will actually happen?
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Posi-Braves do not concern themselves with realistic scenarios. In their mind, a team's most likely scenario is everyone playing to their potential at all times.

Fact of the matter is the Braves are currently playing well, so folks predictably start to blabber about WC contention. When the team is playing poorly, they talk about how awful the organization is. There is no consistency since their opinions are not based in reality.

Like all teams, this team has had good and bad stretches. They have had more/worse/longer bad stretches than good stretches, so they are 20-23...on pace to win 75 games...exactly as projected.
 
chop2chip said:
With Freeman out, the Braves should be be comfortably out by the trade deadline, which is probably a good thing.

Markakis, Kemp, Flowers, Suzuki, Philips, Colon, Dickey, Adams, Jim Johnson, Garcia and Teheran are all expendable in the long run and each one of them could, given decent performance, bring back solid returns.

If the Braves can find a way to shed some long-term salary and pick up some top 10 prospects, that will be a huge success.
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The ongoing problem with every post like this is that it is totally oblivious to the fact that the Braves want to sell tickets as well as develop players. Every time I see this, I have the same response: how many games do you pay to attend in a given year? If you watched any of that late-night marathon Tuesday, you see a charged up team with chemistry, clutch hitters and a hell of a bullpen. They and the fans are having fun. This is what you want out of your baseball team. This team could have a legit run at the wild card and that's not all bad.
How many more prospects can you cram in the minors before they begin to crowd each other out? Sure, one or two of these moves are likely, but the difference from last year is that this team is competitive more often than not. There will be no purge; only cutting away the dead word (talking about you, Danny Santana).
 
Preacher said:
Baseball doesn't work like that though, everybody isn't going to stay healthy and its just as likely when the pitchers start getting more consistent, Kemp/Flowers/Markakis will start slumping.

Sure in a perfect world scenario the pitchers become consistent, the bullpen stays lights out, Flowers/Suzuki/Phillips/Kemp/Markakis keep hitting and staying healthy, Adams is a suitable fill-in, Freeman comes back and doesn't miss a beat and Swanson keeps adjusting; but how many of those things will actually happen?
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Except for our catchers pretending they're Carlton Fisk and Mike Piazza, most of these things seem more likely than you would have it seem. There are plenty of reinforcements for the bullpen (Cabrera), Swanson is already showing leadership, Adams is more than suitable in my mind. Kemp and Phillips have already fought back from an injury and Markakis hasn't missed significant time in his entire career.

My beef with them is that it would be very easy to beef up the bench. Look at how little it took to acquire Adams; that tells me they could build one of the best benches in the NL with a little bit of risk-taking among which prospect to keep and which are expendable.
 
Southcack77 said:
Pretty sure the trade to Braves negated his prior no-trade clause, but I think they may have agreed to a less restrictive list at the time of trade. Could be making that up.
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I recall he lost his no trade. His no trade was not contractual, it was his 10/5 rights. Now he's lost those. We did put in a 1 million bonus if he gets traded.

Everyone calling the Adams deal a win reminds me of the posts about signing Troy Glaus long term after his start at 1B.

We are honestly running out of rotation spots and some roster spots for all of these prospects. The Coppy will try to make a splash move. I hope it's not a Quintana or some other stretch move b/c we are NOT READY for prime time there.

I hope the Sox get desperate and we can take on Panda's deal (b/c IMO there is very little to spend money on in FA) to get some guys that will help. I don't think they are dumb enough to move Devers and Groome but maybe there are other guys worth getting....I don't know their prospects and I know they have sent a bunch out. Maybe there is another similar deal where we could take on someone else's Melvin Upton and fill a hole.
 
Russ2dollas said:
I recall he lost his no trade. His no trade was not contractual, it was his 10/5 rights. Now he's lost those. We did put in a 1 million bonus if he gets traded.

Everyone calling the Adams deal a win reminds me of the posts about signing Troy Glaus long term after his start at 1B.

We are honestly running out of rotation spots and some roster spots for all of these prospects. The Coppy will try to make a splash move. I hope it's not a Quintana or some other stretch move b/c we are NOT READY for prime time there.

I hope the Sox get desperate and we can take on Panda's deal (b/c IMO there is very little to spend money on in FA) to get some guys that will help. I don't think they are dumb enough to move Devers and Groome but maybe there are other guys worth getting....I don't know their prospects and I know they have sent a bunch out. Maybe there is another similar deal where we could take on someone else's Melvin Upton and fill a hole.
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I don't think the braves are in a position to take on someone else's badcontract anymore.

I don't think they've run out of roster space particularly though there will be culling in the minors soon.

But we've seen them flip stalled assets for lottery cards and for farther away prospects before. I think they'll keep churning.
 
rico43 said:
The ongoing problem with every post like this is that it is totally oblivious to the fact that the Braves want to sell tickets as well as develop players. Every time I see this, I have the same response: how many games do you pay to attend in a given year? If you watched any of that late-night marathon Tuesday, you see a charged up team with chemistry, clutch hitters and a hell of a bullpen. They and the fans are having fun. This is what you want out of your baseball team. This team could have a legit run at the wild card and that's not all bad.
How many more prospects can you cram in the minors before they begin to crowd each other out? Sure, one or two of these moves are likely, but the difference from last year is that this team is competitive more often than not. There will be no purge; only cutting away the dead word (talking about you, Danny Santana).
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I understand that point, and I think it's extremely valid. I'm not advocating for a massive sell-off, especially if the Braves are fringe contenders, but prudent trimming of the roster to make way for younger players that do factor into the competitive window and salary space to sign difference makers.

If the Braves are out of contention come July, no individual fan is going to make the decision to come to a game based on whether Jim Johnson is pitching that night.
 
The fact that our bench is so porous is evidence enough that we need to continue to stock the minor league cupboards with more position players. If the Braves strategy is to build from within, then there's no reason to become complacent.
 
chop2chip said:
I understand that point, and I think it's extremely valid. I'm not advocating for a massive sell-off, especially if the Braves are fringe contenders, but prudent trimming of the roster to make way for younger players that do factor into the competitive window and salary space to sign difference makers.

If the Braves are out of contention come July, no individual fan is going to make the decision to come to a game based on whether Jim Johnson is pitching that night.
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I would absolutely advocate selling at the deadline unless we are clearly in contention (meaning easily in a WC spot at the time). But posts like this miss the way casual fans think about this stuff. Sure, you will still get people coming to the stadium just to watch the Braves because it's something to do. But while a guy like Jim Johnson is not bringing anybody to the park one way or another, when a team sells off players, it sends a message to the fanbase that they're not really trying to win. So it's not, 'Man, Jim Johnson got traded? No reason for me to watch now.' It's, 'Screw that, I'm not watching a bunch of scrubs lose games.'
 
Yeah I am sure teams are going to be throwing prospects at us for Jim Johnson who seems to turn into Dan Kolb when he isnt on the Braves. I know the Dodgers were thrilled with that 10+ ERA he put up when they traded for him last time. These arent even small samples, combined he has 100+ innings not with the Braves since 2013. The A's even gave him 40 innings to turn around his 7+ ERA and 2+ WHIP. Maybe a team will trade prospects for him if they are aiming to tank for the #1 pick. He might help in that regard.
 
rico43 said:
How many more prospects can you cram in the minors before they begin to crowd each other out? Sure, one or two of these moves are likely, but the difference from last year is that this team is competitive more often than not. There will be no purge; only cutting away the dead word (talking about you, Danny Santana).
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Even with a very deep minor league system, there are PLENTY of roster spots available in the minors for decent prospects. I'm also not advocating for a purge, but selling off vets who do not factor into the long-range plan for additional prospects just makes too much sense to me. I'm not talking about Teheran/Freeman; I'm talking Phillips, Suzuki, Johnson, Colon, Dickey, Motte..... and I'd listen very closely on Kemp/Markakis/Flowers types. A few of these guys need to be traded anyway to create innings/ABs for younger players.
 
Preacher said:
Baseball doesn't work like that though, everybody isn't going to stay healthy and its just as likely when the pitchers start getting more consistent, Kemp/Flowers/Markakis will start slumping.

Sure in a perfect world scenario the pitchers become consistent, the bullpen stays lights out, Flowers/Suzuki/Phillips/Kemp/Markakis keep hitting and staying healthy, Adams is a suitable fill-in, Freeman comes back and doesn't miss a beat and Swanson keeps adjusting; but how many of those things will actually happen?
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Again, this misses the whole point.

No one's talking about a "perfect world" where the SPs suddenly throw as well as they ever have. I mentioned simply pitching like they always have - Julio's ERA gets back closer to the mid 3s, Bartolo's back to around 4, etc..

To remain "relevant" until Freeman returns, the hitters simply keep producing like they always have as well - Adams doesn't suddenly become Freddie, Markakis doesn't have to suddenly become Bryce Harper, etc..

Read the whole post rather than looking for something to nitpick about, your post completely ignores the fact that I (and quite a few others who are regarded as "overly optimistic") stated plainly...

"No one is crazy enough to think it's a team that's close to good enough to make a playoff run (and as badly as it hurts some of the *ricks around here, not even the most rosy-eyed poster has said it was), and likely isn't good enough to even win a playoff series if everything went right, but saying it's not in a better position than several other teams at this point is foolish. The schedule is only going to get better as the season goes on - 33 home games in August and September at the "New Launching Pad" ought to be nice, and September is chock full of games against the Mutts, Phillies, and Fish."
 
Preacher said:
Even with a very deep minor league system, there are PLENTY of roster spots available in the minors for decent prospects. I'm also not advocating for a purge, but selling off vets who do not factor into the long-range plan for additional prospects just makes too much sense to me. I'm not talking about Teheran/Freeman; I'm talking Phillips, Suzuki, Johnson, Colon, Dickey, Motte..... and I'd listen very closely on Kemp/Markakis/Flowers types. A few of these guys need to be traded anyway to create innings/ABs for younger players.
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The point many try to make is that they're in favor of this too - as soon as the team has completely fallen out of contention - which it simply hasn't yet. You don't trade guys that can help you win now (as well as buy more development time for prospects who are ALMOST ready) to make your #22 prospect become your #24 prospect. IF you can get something that can be a future piece, sure you trade them. Of course trading Colon means you plug Newcomb and his 6 BBs in his last outing into the rotation. If he's walking 6 guys in Gwinnett, he's going to look like Wisler at this level. The bigger problem is that you're simply not going to get anything of consequence for the veterans RIGHT NOW - no one other than Kemp is producing at a level that's enough to get much of a return at all, and none of the contenders have had significant enough injuries to overpay in late May.
 
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