Fangraphs Top 100 Prospects

How many times are we going to keep revisiting this nonsense? It was detailed on this site last year that the Braves took a good,close look at Lewis, including interviews and face time. There was SOMETHING that had them scurrying to get away from him. We likely won't know what this was out of respect to Lewis.

This wasn't a mistake. It was a well-researched decision. It will still be that way next week, next month, in June.
 
rico43 said:
This wasn't a mistake.
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How do you know that?

People have different opinions. Some will be right, some will be wrong. Saying it wasn't a mistake is just a guess at this point, just like the people saying it was a mistake.
 
Yeah the mistake was winning meaningless games and keeping us from Senzel.

A future infield of Freeman, Albies, Swanson, and Senzel would be beatufil
 
thethe said:
Its almost as if people forgotten the Cubs fans outnumbering Braves fans in teh playoffs at Turner field.

No way fans are going to stay with the team if they are purposefully trying to lose.
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Who exactly do you think is buying tickets to see the team with the worst record in baseball (or second worst) and what exactly do you think they are expecting to see?

You think people that go to baseball games are going to quit going to games because the Braves didn't start Teheran in the season finale or because they gave a lot of kids from the farm some playing time?

I disagree.

And people who don't buy tickets to watch the worst team in baseball very likely will buy tickets when you have a product that is young and exciting and hasn't been a contender lately.
 
striker42 said:
The consistent threads you see throughout all the scouting reports of Anderson is a fastball that tends can reach the mid-90s but sits more comfortably in the low-90s and tends to lose velocity as the game goes on. There's a slurvy breaking ball there that scouting reports seem split on whether it will eventually be slowed down and kept as a mid-70's curve or whether it will be turned into a low 80's slider. Either way, the pitch will need to be tightened up. And the changeup is developing but projects as at least average.

You hear different things about whether there's much more velocity potential left. I tend to think there's a potential for a couple ticks. I could see him with a fastball that averages 94 and stays there throughout the game as his body develops. I'd actually worry that if he focuses on velocity it might straighten his fastball out a bit.

In the end, reasonable projections has a guy with a good fastball, a good curve, and a respectable changeup with above average command. He might never reach that but those projections are reasonable. That's a number 3 starter.

If he wants to be an ace, then something out of the ordinary will have to happen. He'll need to develop a fastball that averages 96+ and keeps its movement or one of his secondary pitches to become plus-plus. That just sounds like something that can't really be projected for him at this point.
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I think it is fair to say that the analysis suggests #2 starter is easily within reach for him, which is actually quite a lot of upside.

If he's pitching at 94 with movement deep into games, and can locate two other above average pitches he's going to be very good.
 
rico43 said:
How many times are we going to keep revisiting this nonsense? It was detailed on this site last year that the Braves took a good,close look at Lewis, including interviews and face time. There was SOMETHING that had them scurrying to get away from him. We likely won't know what this was out of respect to Lewis.

This wasn't a mistake. It was a well-researched decision. It will still be that way next week, next month, in June.
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It's abundantly clear that the Braves did not love Kyle Lewis. Neither did a lot of other teams high in the draft. That's how he slipped to Seattle.

Whether that turns out to be a big mistake is anyone's guess, but it is not really a mistake specific to Atlanta if that's how it turns out.
 
smootness said:
No manager or player ever has any interest in draft position. Again, any manager or player on your team is trying to win as many games as possible, no matter the context. If they're not, they all need to be fired immediately.
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Oh come on, that is true for players, but it's a massive oversimplification of a manager's role on the team. Should Joe Maddon be fired for giving his starters extra rest after the Cubs clinched home field last year? The fact is that a manager's goals are dependent on context rather than just being a near-sighted win at all costs; in the Braves' case that context is that there was no real short-term difference between finishing 68-93 and finishing 66-95, but the long-term difference is pretty significant.

You and several other posters seem to be conflating 'being aware of the team's long-term goals' with 'tanking as hard as possible,' when I think most of us on the other side just take issue with Snitker managing every game like it was the Wild Card play-in. He didn't have to rest every starter 3 times a week, but why not use the last month of the season to see what we have in some of our fringier prospects? Why did Rio Ruiz only get 7 AB after being called up? These are not radical tank-at-all-costs moves, they're savvy baseball moves to help prepare the team for the future in a season that's already lost.
 
nsacpi said:
Bullpen usage. Stashing Ruiz on the bench for weeks after he was called up.
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Those are moves made by the manager, who is always going to try to win games. If your FO is either telling your manager to not try so hard to win games or telling him what moves to make, you suddenly have serious organizational issues.
 
rawwr said:
Oh come on, that is true for players, but it's a massive oversimplification of a manager's role on the team. Should Joe Maddon be fired for giving his starters extra rest after the Cubs clinched home field last year? The fact is that a manager's goals are dependent on context rather than just being a near-sighted win at all costs; in the Braves' case that context is that there was no real short-term difference between finishing 68-93 and finishing 66-95, but the long-term difference is pretty significant.

You and several other posters seem to be conflating 'being aware of the team's long-term goals' with 'tanking as hard as possible,' when I think most of us on the other side just take issue with Snitker managing every game like it was the Wild Card play-in. He didn't have to rest every starter 3 times a week, but why not use the last month of the season to see what we have in some of our fringier prospects? Why did Rio Ruiz only get 7 AB after being called up? These are not radical tank-at-all-costs moves, they're savvy baseball moves to help prepare the team for the future in a season that's already lost.
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How on earth is Maddon resting starters after clinching a playoff spot remotely similar to an interim manager on a losing team?

Sure, Joe Maddon did not fill out every lineup card with the sole purpose of winning that day's game. Why? Because he had already clinched the playoffs. Therefore, he was trying to maximize the chances of winning later. But a manager is never going to lose games, or not try to win games, so that his organization can get a better draft pick that 3-4 years from now may be ready to do something.

It is insane to suggest that Snitker should have rested starters or tried less hard to win games so that we could improve our draft spot. Period.
 
smootness said:
Those are moves made by the manager, who is always going to try to win games. If your FO is either telling your manager to not try so hard to win games or telling him what moves to make, you suddenly have serious organizational issues.
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Actually a lot of teams will play a guy like Ruiz over an older player like Garcia in September.
 
smootness said:
It is insane to suggest that Snitker should have rested starters or tried less hard to win games so that we could improve our draft spot. Period.
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If you think it's insane for a losing team to use meaningless games in September to see what they have in some of their older prospects, I don't know what to tell you.
 
rawwr said:
If you think it's insane for a losing team to use meaningless games in September to see what they have in some of their older prospects, I don't know what to tell you.
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So all of this is about Snitker not playing Rio Ruiz more? Good gosh, people.

There's a chance we actually would have been better with Ruiz out there.
 
Wait, is someone really trying to argue Snitker wasn't managing every game like it was Game 7 of the WS last year?

I thought it was fairly obvious he was managing like a guy trying to earn a job for 2017 rather than managing like a guy trying to help younger assets progress.
 
rico43 said:
How many times are we going to keep revisiting this nonsense? It was detailed on this site last year that the Braves took a good,close look at Lewis, including interviews and face time. There was SOMETHING that had them scurrying to get away from him. We likely won't know what this was out of respect to Lewis.

This wasn't a mistake. It was a well-researched decision. It will still be that way next week, next month, in June.
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Not trying to be either snide or sly, but how do you define a "mistake" then? If Anderson, Wentz, and Muller all bust, and Lewis' star burns bright for ten-plus years, then can it be called a mistake? I'm not necessarily predicting that will happen; but honestly, what's the threshold? If a decision is well-researched, but ultimately wrong, can it nonetheless never be called out as mistaken?
 
Enscheff said:
Wait, is someone really trying to argue Snitker wasn't managing every game like it was Game 7 of the WS last year?

I thought it was fairly obvious he was managing like a guy trying to earn a job for 2017 rather than managing like a guy trying to help younger assets progress.
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Snitker has his own motives. But my recollection is that the rest of the front office was fully on board with this. This is the puzzle.
 
jpx7 said:
Not trying to be either snide or sly, but how do you define a "mistake" then? If Anderson, Wentz, and Muller all bust, and Lewis' star burns bright for ten-plus years, then can it be called a mistake? I'm not necessarily predicting that will happen; but honestly, what's the threshold? If a decision is well-researched, but ultimately wrong, can it nonetheless never be called out as mistaken?
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The issue I take with such arguments is that it's like acting like the Braves brass are infallible like the Pope claims to be in religion. I suppose for some the Braves are their religion and they think anyone that questions a move made by the Braves brass is an attack upon their religion. I don't look at supporting the Braves that way at all. I'm not a yes man nor will I spin things like we see in politics just to defend my home team or organization. Besides, everyone makes mistakes--such is life and it won't kill us to admit that may be the case.
 
smootness said:
They clearly didn't want Lewis. That is obvious. They preferred Anderson over Lewis, and it didn't have anything to do with the money.

As I've said before, we'll just have to see if they were right. I personally would have taken Lewis, but there are plenty of people who think he won't ever make enough contact to be an impact bat at the MLB level.
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Oh, no doubt. I was just pointing out the consistent refrain that signing Lewis would have cost us Muller or Wentz simply wasn't true. I would much rather have seen us sign Lewis or Groome over Anderson, but none of them are close to sure things of course. Any of the three could be huge busts. My major issue with drafting Anderson at 3 is we should have been going upside with the #3 pick, and Anderson seems like more #2 starter upside, the chance of an Ace seems pretty small. At least with Lewis if he does make solid contact as he moves up to the MLB level you know he has a great chance to be a stud.

Either way, time will tell if we made the right call on Anderson as always.
 
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