GDT 8/26: Hurston vs. Sandy, No Drake, 6:40 start
- Thread starter Hulavol
- Start date
bravesfanMatt
Steve Harvey'd
hoping the team replaces the entire coaching staff at this point. Hyers needs to go. I used to think everyone but Kranny, but now I sort of just want an entire new coaching staff. The rash of injuries to the pitching since he has been in charge is concerning. Hard for me to rationalize him being at fault, but man, it almost seems curse level voodoo since he has been coach.
UNCBlue012
Well-known member
Extremely impressed. Obviously, the strike-out stuff has to be better, but he made really big pitches when he needed to. You can't ask for much more from a rook.
UNCBlue012
Well-known member
Man, I’m so impressed with Tyler Kinley. Such a great pickup for the Braves. I’m getting serious Pierce Johnson vibes here — Rockies arm comes over, goes on an insane run. The surface numbers look good, but it’s the peripherals that really jump off the page: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/tyler-kinley-641755?stats=statcast-r-pitching-mlb
The 2026 bullpen is going to be nuts.
The 2026 bullpen is going to be nuts.
cajunrevenge
Well-known member
Rockies and White Sox are trash organizations. So many of their players get better when they go somewhere else.
bravesfanMatt
Steve Harvey'd
I have no problem with Kinley as a nice depth piece for next year. But he is going to make 5 million (again not a bad price).. but he is 34, going to be 35, who walks too many, and doesn't K enough.. which leads me to think he is a junk baller who gets good chase for now.. but will that work over an entire year. he should be a mid leverage guy at best imo.. And since the Braves might need a couple of high leverage guys, then is 5 too much??
That said, I don't really watch the team anymore and I don't know if he changed something since joining the team.
Kinley looks really good man… he seems to know what he’s doing and not “uh oh, I hope this dude doesn’t sit on the curveball that everyone in the stadium knows I’m about to throw”…. Like Bummer.
Baldwin is very clearly the best NL rookie, and it isn't particularly close. Once everyone regresses to their xwOBA, and voters realize Baldwin is a catcher, the choice should be blatantly obvious.
50PoundHead
Hessmania Forever
Agree on Harris, but worried that Albies might be fool's gold.
bravesfanMatt
Steve Harvey'd
I agree he is the best rookie.. but there is not much season left for guys to regress that much and the playoff race narrative is a thing unfortunately. those guys are going to get more air time, more press, more attention and Baldwin will get mentions.
Mrs. Meta
Well-known member
Do you think all of the injuries he's been through at his still relatively young age are beginning to catch up with him? And I guess to this end, has he already hit the point of no return..... as it were?
50PoundHead
Hessmania Forever
Possibly. So much of the team is feast-or-famine when it comes to hitting. I think that's where a lot of fans got misled by 2023 when it was feast all year long and pretty much the entire line-up hit like crazy for the whole season. Albies has been banged up and while he's more disciplined than Harris, he still swings at a lot of crap. His Baseball Savant page looks bleak (which doesn't produce a death sentence, but still). It will be interesting to see going forward what they do this off-season. My guess is Albies is still a given in team leadership's mind.
There isn't much that is going to change his overall savant page for 2025. He was just too terrible for too long.
But we can look at his raw 2nd half data. He has a .763 OPS on only a .280 BABIP. His .170 ISO is back basically to his career average compared the putrid .096 it was during the 1st half. His EVs are still below career average, but not excessively so. He's had multiple seasons in this EV range. His contact rate is up and his whiff% is down.
In short, he's making more contact and he's hitting the ball harder when he does. I am honestly more focused on his RH PAs from here on out. Hitting like prime Jose Altuve against LHP is his path back to being an all-star caliber 2b. If he can start mashing RHP again, I have total confidence we can see the Ozzie we were used to seeing pre-2025.
Hudson2
Well-known member
The voting happens before the playoffs right?
50PoundHead
Hessmania Forever
Yes.
I think team performance can contribute to a post-season award (think 1991 MVP going to Terry Pendleton over Barry Bonds), but I think it has become increasingly less likely. I think Baldwin checks more boxes than his competition. If Waldrep ends the season with an ERA under 1.00 with 10 starts, he's probably the stiffest competition Baldwin will face. Voters do what voters do, so nothing is guaranteed and Collins has been a nice story and Horton a solid contributor for the Cubs, so it likely will be a close vote. I still go with Baldwin (and that's not me being a homer).
bravesfanMatt
Steve Harvey'd
I wasn't meaning postseason results would influence votes.. that down the stretch, the Cubs and Brewers will get a lot more air time and coverage. Thus those rookies will get more eyes on them.. it is just human nature to be swayed by something you are exposed to more.
yes hopefully voters look at expected stats and not just highlights and counting stats.. but unfortunately, that is not how it always plays out.
yes hopefully voters look at expected stats and not just highlights and counting stats.. but unfortunately, that is not how it always plays out.
I think this happens way less often with ROY voting than it does for MVP awards, etc. And counting stats are what should matter. I don't like performance awards to be based on expected stats.
Yeah, expected stats matter for things like predicting future performance, but things like MVP and RoY should be what actually happened. The guy who hit his bomb with the bases loaded was more important than the guy who hit a solo HR, for example. Even though the grand slam in no way predicts anything more than the solo HR.