Braves sign Gavin Floyd 1 yr 4M + incentives

I actually don't believe we've lost that much. McCann was a 250 hitter that hit 20 HR's. Why can't Gattis do that? Hudson was an aging pitcher and he wasn't even with us at the end of the year. Their leadership might be hard to replace but their numbers shouldn't be.
 
Just for the record, McCanns career line was .277/.350/.473. He's a bit more than "just a .250 hitter that hit 20 hrs"
 
gilesfan said:
Just for the record, McCanns career line was .277/.350/.473. He's a bit more than "just a .250 hitter that hit 20 hrs"
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The last three years he's put up OPS of .817, .698 and .796. Steamer projects him at .786 for 2014. I think that's a bit low considering the change in hitting environment. I think he'll be in the .800-.820 range.

Gattis was at .771 in 2013. Steamer has him at .777 in 2014. That's pretty reasonable, although I would take the over. OPS for McCann will likely be higher than for Gattis in 2014, but most of that is park environment. We will not miss McCann's bat as much as we will his skill at handling the pitching staff.

The last part of the equation is to look at how well Doumit will do in replacing the production from the bench Gattis gave us in 2013. Doumit has put up OPS of .830, .780 and .710 the past three years. Steamer has him projected at .724 in 2014. I think that's a little low. We will likely lose a little going from Gattis 2013 to Doumit 2014, but it won't be that much.

Net, we lose a little offensively from the McCann to Gattis to Doumit transference. The bigger effect might be felt in the form of some regression on the part of our pitchers due to the loss of McCann's skills behind the plate.
 
We're also hearing that the pitchers like throwing to Gattis. Apparently he's got some soft skills, too.

We'll have to see how it shakes out, but I'm optimistic that we won't lose much.
 
gilesfan said:
Just for the record, McCanns career line was .277/.350/.473. He's a bit more than "just a .250 hitter that hit 20 hrs"
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I was referring to last years numbers, those are what Gattis will have to replace. McCann is not the player he used to be.
 
ChapelHillMatt said:
I was referring to last years numbers, those are what Gattis will have to replace. McCann is not the player he used to be.
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So just using last years numbers, Gattis will have to replace .256/.336/.461 with strong defensive numbers.
 
ChapelHillMatt said:
McCann was a strong defender?

I think Gattis is more than capable of putting up those numbers.
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McCann's defensive numbers are helped by his pitch framing abilities. Btw Gattis has also scored well on pitch framing. Smaller sample than McCann's so we have less confidence they are real. But the early returns are promising. The area where I believe there will be a real loss is McCann's ability to help a young pitcher get through a tough situation. His pitch calling and presence behind the plate.
 
Carp said:
I don't think anyone expects us to be a bad team. But you are being a homer if you can't see that we lost a lot to FA and have not replaced it really at all. Very doubtful that we will win 96 games again this yr.
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Don't forget too that the Nats will likely have a better year, including their record against us. So That will probably take 3-5 wins away from us.
 
gtcway said:
Don't forget too that the Nats will likely have a better year, including their record against us. So That will probably take 3-5 wins away from us.
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Not sure adding up wins and losses against individual teams is a good way to predict overall records. We went 1-5 against the Padres. I'm very confident we'll do better against them in 2014, but that doesn't amount to much when trying to figure out how the team will do overall.
 
We lose McCann, but BJ himself could put up those numbers. Ive lost hope in Dan, but our offense will be a good offense again next year. Guys are going to get better and better.

Freeman will be the MVP.
 
ChapelHillMatt said:
McCann was a strong defender?

I think Gattis is more than capable of putting up those numbers.
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Yes he is. Mac is below average at throwing out base runners but that's really a small part of a catchers defense despite a lot of attention being put on it by fans/media. Framing pitches is way more important since it happens on literally every pitch. And Mac is one of the best in baseball at doing that. We will miss it, a lot.
 
thewupk said:
Yes he is. Mac is below average at throwing out base runners but that's really a small part of a catchers defense despite a lot of attention being put on it by fans/media. Framing pitches is way more important since it happens on literally every pitch. And Mac is one of the best in baseball at doing that. We will miss it, a lot.
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Wait a minute. I saw the same numbers nsacpi did. In pitch framing Gattis was first, McCann a close second, Laird a distant third. Everyone who matters complements Gattis' pitch calling and receiving. By August every year Mac was too worn out to block balls in the dirt, instead stabbing them backhand with the glove. And Gattis has a gun, while McCann was an average thrower.

If Gattis relearns to lay off the off speed stuff away and the high cheese, which he did in the minors, we could be better at catcher. He strikes me as smart. I think he understands he needs to have better strike zone judgement, and I think he will.

Edit: it was Baseball Prospectus, and it was a ratio of pitches stolen to pitches lost. Mac was 1.29, Gattis 1.17 (both close to the top) and Laird was way down the list at .48.
 
GovClintonTyree said:
Wait a minute. I saw the same numbers nsacpi did. In pitch framing Gattis was first, McCann a close second, Laird a distant third. Everyone who matters complements Gattis' pitch calling and receiving. By August every year Mac was too worn out to block balls in the dirt, instead stabbing them backhand with the glove. And Gattis has a gun, while McCann was an average thrower.

If Gattis relearns to lay off the off speed stuff away and the high cheese, which he did in the minors, we could be better at catcher. He strikes me as smart. I think he understands he needs to have better strike zone judgement, and I think he will.

Edit: it was Baseball Prospectus, and it was a ratio of pitches stolen to pitches lost. Mac was 1.29, Gattis 1.17 (both close to the top) and Laird was way down the list at .48.
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Sample size. Who knows if that is truly how good Gattis is or if it was just random. Mac has been close to the top pretty much every year. Hopefully that's truly Gattis' level but we will need to see it for more then a portion of a sason. Mac had only 3 passed balls last year and 17 wild pitches against him in 800 innings. Gattis was at 2 and 17 in 350 innings. I think a lot of people sell Mac short because of base stealers. He's a good defensive catcher.
 
From what I saw, Gattis is more upright than McCann (knees more closed in), while McCann has a wider crouch but level mitt position.

Gattis actually reminds me of Eddie Perez's stance and receive.
 
ChapelHillMatt said:
I actually don't believe we've lost that much. McCann was a 250 hitter that hit 20 HR's. Why can't Gattis do that? Hudson was an aging pitcher and he wasn't even with us at the end of the year. Their leadership might be hard to replace but their numbers shouldn't be.
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I don't get it either Matt.
 
nsacpi said:
McCann's defensive numbers are helped by his pitch framing abilities. Btw Gattis has also scored well on pitch framing. Smaller sample than McCann's so we have less confidence they are real. But the early returns are promising. The area where I believe there will be a real loss is McCann's ability to help a young pitcher get through a tough situation. His pitch calling and presence behind the plate.
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I don't get where this whole Gattis is not a good defensive catcher comes from. That doesn't come from the numbers of from the Braves team.
 
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