Hart: Braves 'Lethargic', Needs Changes

Simmons isn't fast on the basepaths cause he's not a smart runner. He's again not Jason or Bossman, but he's not CJ or TLS either.

I think we do need to go out and hire someone to be a baserunning coach for this team. I think TP is fine as a base coach but I think we need someone who can teach our players the finer art of running the bases. Jason IMO doens't even maximize his speed, only year he did was when we had an elite basestealer in Bourn here and I think that Bourn giving him pointers was a big part of that.
 
The Braves consistently have below average baserunning and always bring great baserunners down a notch when they join the team. Very few exceptions.
 
Dalyn said:
The Braves consistently have below average baserunning and always bring great baserunners down a notch when they join the team. Very few exceptions.
Click to expand...

I guess that is what I'm driving at. Dascenzo was brought in to help with that (like others have been brought in to help in the past), but things didn't get better.

Simmons is an odd case because given his quickness on defense, one would think he could get a good jump on the basepaths. But he doesn't.

The 2014 Braves were not a good mix of players. Fredi managed poorly, but this probably wasn't a playoff team in 2014 unless the guys who had career years last year had them again and the guys who were terrible bounced back. Neither happened.

It's difficult to get more out of a team that swung and missed as much as this one. Can't hit-and-run effectively. The only guy who can steal bases and get on somewhat consistently is Heyward. On the pitching staff, the bridge to Kimbel was rickety all season. I'm not writing this to absolve Fredi. He didn't manage well and should be let go. But there were some real problems with the team's construction and the assumptions that went into that construction.
 
Jim Bowden @JimBowden_ESPN
John Hart just told us that he’d like to go forward w/ Fredi Gonzalez & that he deserves to come back for another year @MLBNetworkRadio

I like Hart less and less.
 
CyYoung31 said:
So, we should trade both Justin Upton and Evan Gattis even though, as he points out, our main problem is offense? How does that make any sense? If we're trying to win next year we shouldn't trade either one of them unless we can get a ridiculous haul.
Click to expand...

THANK you.
 
CyYoung31 said:
So, we should trade both Justin Upton and Evan Gattis even though, as he points out, our main problem is offense? How does that make any sense? If we're trying to win next year we shouldn't trade either one of them unless we can get a ridiculous haul.
Click to expand...

The answer is we need to win the trades. Hart would be trading for less proven players. Kind of like when we needed mid rotation starters and they traded for Jurrjens. He wasn't a proven player but he was what we needed.

We have a lot of holes to fill and not a lot of money. If we could get a .800 OPS outfielder, a .800 OPS 2b, and save 10 million in salary I think that improves the team. Identifying those players is the hard part but that's what where the scouts do their job.
 
cajunrevenge said:
The answer is we need to win the trades. Hart would be trading for less proven players. Kind of like when we needed mid rotation starters and they traded for Jurrjens. He wasn't a proven player but he was what we needed.

We have a lot of holes to fill and not a lot of money. If we could get a .800 OPS outfielder, a .800 OPS 2b, and save 10 million in salary I think that improves the team. Identifying those players is the hard part but that's what where the scouts do their job.
Click to expand...

The difference is we traded from an area of surplus to get Jurrjens. There is no area of surplus on this team. Any area we trade from, it's just going to make us weaker.
 
CyYoung31 said:
The difference is we traded from an area of surplus to get Jurrjens. There is no area of surplus on this team. Any area we trade from, it's just going to make us weaker.
Click to expand...

Well, we could trade Bethancourt, Sims, and Peraza and make our weak farm system anemic.
 
50PoundHead said:
I'm agreeing with Hart's position that this is not a particularly athletic set of baseball players. I will give you Justin Upton, but Simmons is not particularly quick on the basepaths. This isn't all that odd. He's a great defender for a number of reasons, but he doesn't appear to have anything other than average straightline speed.

Again, Heyward is our toolsiest guy across the board, but other than that, this isn't a team you can do a lot with given its weaknesses with contact issues and lack of team speed.

z, I think you greatly overrate this team's ability. It's a flat-out bad mix of players. Some of these guys may be more valuable surrounded by different guys, but it's a "Call Dr. Longball" team and Dr. Longball decided to disconnect his phone this season.
Click to expand...

that's why they fired Wren but if we're starting over its going to be a long way back.
 
CyYoung31 said:
The difference is we traded from an area of surplus to get Jurrjens. There is no area of surplus on this team. Any area we trade from, it's just going to make us weaker.
Click to expand...

You don't know what we could get or how those players will perform. We could trade Justin for ML ready prospects and sign Yasmany Tomas with the money saved. I think that would make us a better team both in the short term and the long term. If we can get a big market team to pay like they think they can re-sign him we could hit the jackpot.
 
NYCBrave said:
How about leadership from the manager? Fredi has never struck me as a leader type, and I've never seen any evidence on the field that he is. Obviously I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes, but all indications are he isn't.
Click to expand...

Wonder if we could get Baylor to come back to ATL either as a hitting coach or as a manager. Hell at this point id take Clarence Jones back dead or alive lol
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top