HALFWAY HOME! Share your pros and cons about the first half!

rico43

rico43

<B>Director of Minor League Reports</B>
With 81 down and 81 to go before today's afternoon contest, I thought I should start a thread where everyone could state what they like and don't like about the team so far.

TWO RULES: This is not going to turn into commentary about other people's posts. State your own thoughts or go elsewhere. This is not going to be another thread where name-calling and ridicule takes over. No matter how badly you'd like to.

With a 48-33 record and a 5.5 lead on the Phillies, a 100-win season seems like a very real possibility. Don't recall many predicting that kind of success. And this has been with only two reliable starters and a dicey bullpen. Both of those things seem to be sorting out; and last night's game was very reassuring in that way that Keuchel is close to looking like Keuchel and Minter is starting to look like 2018 Minter.

If I had my way, Minter would gradually take over the bulk of the closing but have Jackson take it now and again; his most recent save was his best. Gausman and Folty would never see rotation again, but I will assume Gausman will get some more starts. Don't think Bryce Wilson will give us anything special, but I really want to see Muller and/or Anderson make their debut this half. Muller especially is a beast.

Want Sobotka back up in the bullpen, would just as soon Blevins disappear quietly but I can live with him being a LOOOGy. Newcomb is fine right where he is. No late trade, unless they can steal Grienke.

Love the catching platoon. Both guys should stay fresh and healthy. But the infielders need to be given days off down the stretch, since we have the horses to fill in. Would be happy with five days off for each.

Makakis needs to be in a platoon if Inciarte comes back. And if that is the case, I would be happy with one less pitcher and keep he and Riley around. Come September, want Duvall, Jackson, 2-3 relievers including Roney now that he's healthy.

And I want to go with a three-man rotation in the postseason. No Teheran.
 
We're second in the NL in runs scored (to the Rockies and just ahead of the Dodgers). That pretty much sums up the strength of this team. Every spot in the lineup has been productive as has the bench. We have been deep enough to not miss a beat with our starting centerfielder missing most of the first half. We still have a valuable spare part (Duvall) in AAA that we have not even used yet at the major league level. The team is constructed to withstand an injury or two to the position players.

Pitching of course is a different story. I think the second half (and post-season) will turn on how much we get out of Gausman, Folty and Wilson. We need one of them to step up and give us another reliable starter. And ideally a second one steps up as well and contributes to the pen (directly or indirectly by bumping someone currently in the rotation to the pen). I take it as a given that we will acquire a reliever who can help with the 7-9 innings. I think the chances are good we can also get someone to step up and provide internal reinforcement to the pen (either someone who has been starting or one of the AAA relievers). The pen has been doing better, but as I have discussed elsewhere it has also been getting lucky. So reinforcement of the pen (some of which could come internally) remains a priority imo.

We should win the division. Success in the post-season is always a crapshoot, but it would be very helpful if we had three starting pitchers pitch well down the stretch so that we had a solid core for the playoffs.
 
Concerned a little about the rotation, gonna need some combo of Folty, Gausman, Newk, Wilson, etc to help in the 2nd half.

Bullpen has been better but overachieved, a little.

Lineup has depth, with guys like Duval and Ender incase of injury. Wish Snit would give guys more days off.
 
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The lineup and bench have been our biggest asset so far, though people are underestimating just how important these young guys have been to stabilizing the bullpen. We’re in a really good place but we definitely need to see improvements from the rotation. I think we’ll go hard for a Will Smith type at the deadline and end up grabbing a guy just a step under. I also think we will grab a starter and go from there, ending the season with Keuchel-Soroka-Fried-said-starter-Gaus/Folty.
 
Batting: Pretty clearly the strength of the team. The Braves are fifth in wOBA per Baseball Savant. is it sustainable? the Braves have underperformed their xwOBA. They also have underperformed xBA, xSLG.

Swanson, Markakis, Acuna, Albies, and Donaldson have all been somewhat unlucky for the contact they've made. The luckier Braves are Flowers, Camargo and Riley.

I'm not sure luck relative to quality of contact is necessarily predictive to the second half, but it's nice to see the Braves better players have if anything underperformed their expected results.

The Braves have a championship level offense with some depth of options.

Rotation: In a very real way this season could not have gone much worse for the Braves. Their #1, #2, and #5 starters have all performed badly enough to be demoted. Wilson, Wright, and Touki all pretty much failed to be effective in early season starts.

But, Soroka, Fried, and Teheran held things together in the first half by all pitching above what is probably their true talent. Soroka is not Greg Maddux. Fried is probably not a #2. Teheran is nothing more than a back end piece who should not face the order a third time and who arguably should be moved to the pen.

With all those problems, the Braves starters have managed to finish 18th in ERA, 16th FIP, 19th xFIP, 15th wOBA, 16th xwOBA.

The addition of Keuchel probably is going to help them somewhat, though it may just offset regression from Soroka, Fried, or Teheran.

I think it's reasonable to expect a return to useful form for Folty and Gausman unless their struggles are injury related and are signs of future surgery. I personally have never quite understood why people have shelved Newcomb as a potential option in the rotation again (especially given how much rope has been given to Teheran), but I do think he has helped stabilize the bullpen and perhaps that might be his best use on a team that does have other options for the rotation.

Since I think it is very possible that the Braves will have two veterans bounce back to at least mid-rotation form and Keuchel seems to fit in that same general neighborhood, I've not been as keen on making another acquisition of a mid-rotation talent.

Stroman, Wheeler, Boyd, and Bumgarner may well help this team, but I think the Braves can afford to wait out Folty/Gausman a little longer. I'm a little intrigued by Wheeler, because I'm pretty aware of how good he was the down the stretch last season and know his stuff can play up. his peripherals are pretty much in line with last season, so another strong finish seems very possible. But I don't necessarily think that's a pennant winning acquisition.

Bullpen:

Jackson, Newcomb, and Webb have been pretty good. Swarzak has been great for Atlanta, but his performance really does not make sense in the context of his career. Tomlin has been really good in his role. Touki has been ok. I believe in Minter returning to form.

Beyond that, I don't really trust anyone. Maybe hard throwers Sobotka and Ynoa have a place, but hard to trust those guys with big moments.

I would like to see the Braves grab one of the Will Smith, Kirby Yates, Brad Hand, Felipe Vazquez, Ken Giles types. Then one or more out of the Jared Hughes, David Hernandez, Tony Watson, Craig Stammen, Francisco Liriano, Ian Kennedy pile of veterans.

If they could grab two of the better guys without parting with much great. But seems like 2-3 relievers is probably about right.
 
The lineup and bench has been so good it's almost to the point of a roster crunch. If/when Inciarte comes back, someone is the odd man out and won't deserve it.

The defense has been a bit of a concern, but it's essentially the same guys as last year, so it could just be an off half-season.

The starters have me concerned to a point. It's nice being able to hopefully have guys back from the minors/DL instead of needing to trade for someone. We need at least one of Gaus/Folty to come back and give us something. Unlike most people here, Teheran doesn't bother me. He is who he is, and he's going to keep the Braves in games more often than not.

I would like to get an established closer for the pen. I think that would even more shore up what has been a solid bullpen of late. What I think will happen though is bargain shopping at the deadline for a middle-reliever and going with what we have in the backend.
 
Offense is special but just waiting for the cool down.

Pitching might be playoff caliber.

Mac has been awesome. Really thought this was a catch twice a week retirement tour. Glad to be wrong.

Still don't think this team wins the East.

Shocked Kimbrel is not a Brave.
 
If I had told you that Luke Jackson would be our closer and our top 3 starters going into the season would suck and lose their rotation spots due to bad performance and/or injury you would probably have said we had no chance to make the playoffs. Baseball is a funny sport and this is why I usually **** on projections. The biggest con for me is how Markakis is used. He is not a starting caliber corner outfielder. He very well might be a good part time player but I guess Snit is scared of upsetting Markakis. I am okay with running a sub par hitter out there as long as they can atleast play quality defense. The biggest Pro for me is our depth. All the injuries and underperformance in the rotation and pen but we are still getting through it because we have a ton of options.
 
This board has been bitching about Markakis since the day he became a Brave and he's been nothing but steady the whole time. We're scoring runs like crazy so his veteran presence in the lineup should not be messed with. :cooter: A small drop in his numbers in the first half of the season means only one obvious thing - he's gonna catch fire in the 2nd half.

Snitker deserves some credit for taking a very flawed team to 15 games over .500 into the AS break and in a division that everyone said had spent its way past the Braves.

The offense has blown my mind. Don't HRs usually increase in hot weather? Hard to imagine them hitting even more in the 2nd half.

I think the pitching will settle down and finish way above average, but will that be good enough against the Dodgers?

I don't like Juan Soto and that goes double for Wilson Contreras. Bryce Harper went 0-3 today (now 100 Ks) in another loss to the Marlins.

How many Braves are going to the AS game? Life is good.
 
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