Braves are savlaging a salary dump (FG article on Maybin's resurgence)

dak said:
SSS, but Eury Perez has very similar career numbers to Maybin's against RHP, and he's likely no worse defensively in CF.

I'd also be very open to finding a platoon partner for Jace Peterson next year (ducks tomato).
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I've been thinking Daniel Castro might work as a platoon partner at second. No hurry to implement it. Castro needs some more time in AAA. And Jace is young enough he could improve on this year's performance. So I'd be fine with Jace having the job to himself at the start of 2016. But I suspect we are ultimately headed for a platoon at second.
 
Dalyn said:
Ah. I've been extremely disappointed in Maybin's defense. That's the one thing everyone pimped about him.
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No doubt his defense has been disappointing this season. But one year of defensive data tends to be quite unstable due to small sample issues. I expect his defense to snap back next year.
 
nsacpi said:
No doubt his defense has been disappointing this season. But one year of defensive data tends to be quite unstable due to small sample issues. I expect his defense to snap back next year.
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Good point. In Maybin's other two full seasons (2011 and 2012) he put up 2.0 and 1.3 dWAR (according to baseball-reference). This year seems to be the outlier. Hopefully it's just that, and not a sign of decline.
 
DirkPiggler said:
Good point. In Maybin's other two full seasons (2011 and 2012) he put up 2.0 and 1.3 dWAR (according to baseball-reference). This year seems to be the outlier. Hopefully it's just that, and not a sign of decline.
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When I watch him, he doesn't look bad, just...klutzy. Like an overgrown puppy. I think he's fine.

At a .780 OPS, good baserunning and above average defense, he's a full time starter. Only question is whether the offense is for real. I think he's actually improved, from what I remember in SD and Florida. He could have an .800 or three in him.

I'm okay with him in CF all the time, but we've got to go find some power. We sure do have a lot of 10-20 HR guys.
 
GovClintonTyree said:
When I watch him, he doesn't look bad, just...klutzy. Like an overgrown puppy. I think he's fine.

At a .780 OPS, good baserunning and above average defense, he's a full time starter. Only question is whether the offense is for real. I think he's actually improved, from what I remember in SD and Florida. He could have an .800 or three in him.

I'm okay with him in CF all the time, but we've got to go find some power. We sure do have a lot of 10-20 HR guys.
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.780? He's currently at .733 for the year.
 
nsacpi said:
I've been thinking Daniel Castro might work as a platoon partner at second. No hurry to implement it. Castro needs some more time in AAA. And Jace is young enough he could improve on this year's performance. So I'd be fine with Jace having the job to himself at the start of 2016. But I suspect we are ultimately headed for a platoon at second.
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Curious to see if they hang on to Ciriaco during the off-season. Castro has really advanced well and quickly through the system.

Back to Maybin. Always hard to tell with guys like him. Looks the part, but doesn't "play to the look." Nice piece of hitting yesterday to bring home the win. He's a support level guy who has shown himself to be helpful this season. But you don't build around guys like him.
 
50PoundHead said:
Curious to see if they hang on to Ciriaco during the off-season. Castro has really advanced well and quickly through the system.

Back to Maybin. Always hard to tell with guys like him. Looks the part, but doesn't "play to the look." Nice piece of hitting yesterday to bring home the win. He's a support level guy who has shown himself to be helpful this season. But you don't build around guys like him.
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Agreed. But isn't that kind of at least part of the point of the exercise Hart & Company appear to be going through? Playing a lot of different guys so they can sort through and find the ones that can be useful moving forward has been a big part of the season.

That's the part of the Bourn/Swisher acquisition that I disliked. It makes all the sense in the world from a business standpoint - getting rid of commitments to players who aren't going to be integral pieces for 2017 and beyond certainly should be a focus. But I agree with those who thought Eury was showing himself to be a pretty useful piece as well. While I still don't personally think he's as good as Maybin, he's much less expensive and looked the part of a pretty good 4th OF option over the long haul. Bringing Bourn in pretty much ends whatever chance we had of giving him enough playing time to find out for sure IMO.

While I won't call the Johnson deal a "mistake" by any stretch (because of the financial end), I'd personally prefer that they simply release Swisher and Bourn no later than this winter. Neither will be here in 2017 (regardless of their performance), and they're simply getting in the way of finding out what other players are capable of. It's odd to me that the organization has completely sold out on the pitching end and committed to stick with Perez, Wisler, Folty, Banuelos, and the pen (for the most part) while they go through their adjustment struggles but they won't commit to doing so for any of the young position players outside of Peterson and (apparently) Garcia. Garcia's situation is only temporary obviously, meaning they're evidently only interested in DEVELOPING Jace.

I can't help but agree that it's time to pull the plug on scrapping together a lineup that is "competitive" on the surface - A. J. is worth a roster spot IF he's here to help Bethancourt and the Pitchers, but if we're relying on him to continue to put up the offensive numbers he has been it seems a waste. Like him or not, Bethancourt's been better on both sides of the ball since his demotion. If the organization wants him to learn to call games better and handle a staff better, get him back up here and let Pierzynski and Eddie work with him on that EVERY DAY. I still think Joey T's a AAAA player (at best), but there's little reason to have Swisher taking ABs from him in the event I'm wrong. Bourn's proven two things to me recently - 1.) that his contract wasn't quite as bad as the one given to B. J./Melvin, and 2.) that he's just not an everyday player anymore.

My point about Maybin is that he's the best option we have in CF through next season, and would be a really good option off the bench once Smith shows he's ready to take the job. He's certainly better than Bourn at this point, so keeping Michael around as the stopgap until Mallex steps in seems rather crazy IMO. I'm not saying he's a long-term option beyond next season at all, but the offense will be much better off with him for the present and you have an easy "out" following 2016 with him - we're simply not going to get someone as good as him on a one year deal this winter.
 
Dalyn said:
Maybin has been absolutely dreadful the second half. If we can sell high, we should do it. If not, we should start platooning him.
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He had a bad July, but has been red hot in August so far. I think he's legit personally. He's always had a ton of potential and how he has hit this year is essentially the exact hitter he was projected to be when he 1st came up.
 
clvclv said:
Agreed. But isn't that kind of at least part of the point of the exercise Hart & Company appear to be going through? Playing a lot of different guys so they can sort through and find the ones that can be useful moving forward has been a big part of the season.

That's the part of the Bourn/Swisher acquisition that I disliked. It makes all the sense in the world from a business standpoint - getting rid of commitments to players who aren't going to be integral pieces for 2017 and beyond certainly should be a focus. But I agree with those who thought Eury was showing himself to be a pretty useful piece as well. While I still don't personally think he's as good as Maybin, he's much less expensive and looked the part of a pretty good 4th OF option over the long haul. Bringing Bourn in pretty much ends whatever chance we had of giving him enough playing time to find out for sure IMO.

While I won't call the Johnson deal a "mistake" by any stretch (because of the financial end), I'd personally prefer that they simply release Swisher and Bourn no later than this winter. Neither will be here in 2017 (regardless of their performance), and they're simply getting in the way of finding out what other players are capable of. It's odd to me that the organization has completely sold out on the pitching end and committed to stick with Perez, Wisler, Folty, Banuelos, and the pen (for the most part) while they go through their adjustment struggles but they won't commit to doing so for any of the young position players outside of Peterson and (apparently) Garcia. Garcia's situation is only temporary obviously, meaning they're evidently only interested in DEVELOPING Jace.

I can't help but agree that it's time to pull the plug on scrapping together a lineup that is "competitive" on the surface - A. J. is worth a roster spot IF he's here to help Bethancourt and the Pitchers, but if we're relying on him to continue to put up the offensive numbers he has been it seems a waste. Like him or not, Bethancourt's been better on both sides of the ball since his demotion. If the organization wants him to learn to call games better and handle a staff better, get him back up here and let Pierzynski and Eddie work with him on that EVERY DAY. I still think Joey T's a AAAA player (at best), but there's little reason to have Swisher taking ABs from him in the event I'm wrong. Bourn's proven two things to me recently - 1.) that his contract wasn't quite as bad as the one given to B. J./Melvin, and 2.) that he's just not an everyday player anymore.

My point about Maybin is that he's the best option we have in CF through next season, and would be a really good option off the bench once Smith shows he's ready to take the job. He's certainly better than Bourn at this point, so keeping Michael around as the stopgap until Mallex steps in seems rather crazy IMO. I'm not saying he's a long-term option beyond next season at all, but the offense will be much better off with him for the present and you have an easy "out" following 2016 with him - we're simply not going to get someone as good as him on a one year deal this winter.
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All good points. My discomfort (not so much with Maybin) is that I've seen so much of this up close in Minnesota with the Twins. Gardenhire, and Kelly before him, used to patch the team together to look competitive to the casual fan while the more astute fan knew that the team wasn't competitive. You throw together a collection of scrappy guys and support level tools guys and you generate a bit of short-term buzz that dissolves when reality sets in.

I'm fine with the re-build. I've said all along there was going to have to be a re-build after 2015 and that the decision was made to accelerate the process when it was judged that the return on trading Heyward and J. Upton was likely to be greater than what would be garnered through draft picks. My only criticism is that it's too bad that Melvin couldn't have been packaged with his brother earlier in the off-season (perhaps even prior to a Heyward deal) that would have given us both salary space and players and a better timeline within which to operate. But I give Three Johns Inc. the benefit of the doubt because we don't know how things unfolded.

As for Maybin. I'm fine with him hanging around for another year. If Olivera can hit some and we get a decent platoon in LF (or if Mallex Smith steps up), the offense should be better. That would reduce the relative importance of Maybin to the team's prospects for success.
 
nsacpi said:
Like a lot of hitters, Maybin is pretty good when you take out his bad month(s).
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He's been pretty good even when taking into account his bad month. And since taking over as a full time starter, he's maintained a .292 average, even with his terrible July.
 
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