GDT 4/30/21: Braves @ Jays - Interesting lineup

The whole selling point with Smyly was his suddenly improved velocity in 2020. Well, he’s lost almost all that additional velocity in 2021, losing 1.5 mph off the fastball.

The guy the Braves scrambled to sign early in the off-season isn’t the guy they are getting now. I wanted Morton as my #1 target, and I never really had another SP picked to claim I wanted more than Smyly, but I wasn’t a fan of the deal when it happened, and I dislike it even more now.
 
Slippyjms said:
I don’t know that that’s fair. Heredia/Inciarte Adrianza Sandoval seems like the start to a good bench. The pen needs work but I like that younger players are at least getting the opportunity.

Smith
Martin
Minter
Ynoa
Matzek
Jackson
Newk
Tomlin

Is a pretty good bullpen core when everyone gets healthy. It’s players like Webb Dayton and Jones that are killing us in the pen
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Fair or not, it just seemed like they half-a$$ed it.

I think the big thing was the were waiting on the whole DH decision and had to wait on Ozuna because of that. The other part of the deal since the season started is that Martin has been out and that has shuffled the pecking order in the bullpen. So I will grant those caveats.

As for Smyly, he's not the only guy for whom the abbreviated 2020 season may have produced a mirage. We may be seeing some of that with Ozuna and d'Arnaud as well. Those two guys--and Swanson--being painfully slow out of the gate and Pache not hitting really have thwarted the offense. It's too early to toss the offense in the dumpster, but I'm not envisioning 2020 redux which puts more pressure on the pitching staff.

It's early. I just think April was some of the ugliest Braves' baseball I've seen in a few years.
 
Enscheff said:
The whole selling point with Smyly was his suddenly improved velocity in 2020. Well, he’s lost almost all that additional velocity in 2021, losing 1.5 mph off the fastball.

The guy the Braves scrambled to sign early in the off-season isn’t the guy they are getting now. I wanted Morton as my #1 target, and I never really had another SP picked to claim I wanted more than Smyly, but I wasn’t a fan of the deal when it happened, and I dislike it even more now.
Click to expand...

Hadn't seen the velocity numbers. But if what you're saying is true, this may turn out to be a disaster signing that prevented us from upgrading the team in areas of need (the bullpen). So this has already cost us games in multiple ways. Luckily our bench has been better than expected.
 
Slippyjms said:
I don’t know that that’s fair. Heredia/Inciarte Adrianza Sandoval seems like the start to a good bench. The pen needs work but I like that younger players are at least getting the opportunity.

Smith
Martin
Minter
Ynoa
Matzek
Jackson
Newk
Tomlin

Is a pretty good bullpen core when everyone gets healthy. It’s players like Webb Dayton and Jones that are killing us in the pen
Click to expand...

Those guys only seem like the start to a good bench because they've actually performed this year. Most were rightfully concerned.
 
NYCBrave said:
Hadn't seen the velocity numbers. But if what you're saying is true, this may turn out to be a disaster signing that prevented us from upgrading the team in areas of need (the bullpen). So this has already cost us games in multiple ways. Luckily our bench has been better than expected.
Click to expand...

We needed another starter. I just was a bit surprised Anthopoulos jumped as quickly as he did, especially on a guy who had a middling resume and an unexpected performance uptick in a very odd year.
 
Agreed. I can't fault AA for getting 2 SPs. My issue is with the timing, the dollar amount, the player, and the "why" they chose him.

I felt the same way when Will Smith became the FA that AA was suddenly willing to give 3 years to sign. It just didn't make sense based on previous behavior.
 
Smyly thug screams of over trusting models.

My hope is we close the year with good years from fried, soroka, Anderson and ynoa. Then we can consider spending 10 million plus on a starter or two if they are guys like Morton.

If not we shouldn’t have to spend on pitching with those four guys, Wright, Wilson, Davidson, muller, four college guys from last year and the college arms we draft this year. It’s ok to not have a great fifth starter.

With young arms look to take that smyly money and get 2-3 good right hand relievers.

That is, if we have a season after labor issues.

Soroka doesn’t have a freak injury and we probably don’t have smyly
 
Russ2dollas said:
Smyly thug screams of over trusting models.



My hope is we close the year with good years from fried, soroka, Anderson and ynoa. Then we can consider spending 10 million plus on a starter or two if they are guys like Morton.

If not we shouldn’t have to spend on pitching with those four guys, Wright, Wilson, Davidson, muller, four college guys from last year and the college arms we draft this year. It’s ok to not have a great fifth starter.

With young arms look to take that smyly money and get 2-3 good right hand relievers.

That is, if we have a season after labor issues.

Soroka doesn’t have a freak injury and we probably don’t have smyly
Click to expand...

You are forgetting the gem of the system - Vodnik.
 
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