No doubt. But I believe what Russ means is that Tucker/D Pete in 2019 will likely produce what Neck will. The idea of signing Neck for 2019 as a starter is just bad. We need to be aiming for much higher.
Has Markakis changed his swing?
- Thread starter PurpleBrave
- Start date
No doubt. But I believe what Russ means is that Tucker/D Pete in 2019 will likely produce what Neck will. The idea of signing Neck for 2019 as a starter is just bad. We need to be aiming for much higher.
The idea of Neck as a starter in 2018 was bad in your estimation as well.
Will this continue or repeat in 2019? Unlikely but if he happens to have a 4 WAR season then it should be considered. With so much youth you need these veteran guys even if they aren't ideal $ per WAR fits.
There are actual things that impact a team other than stats. These are human beings and the team respects Neck. That has power in a clubhouse. We are going to be flushed with youth the next two years.
You wanted Neck benched a month ago. Players usually don't go from below avg to all-star at 34 and continue to sustain that.
I'm not expecting him to be an all star. And my first choice is Harper. Otherwise I don't see a big difference with the rest of the candidates and Neck (Pollack aside).
There will be players available via trade. We have the resources to get a good player in LF next year and if we settle for a 1-2 WAR player then that will be a disappointment and a failure.
You wanted Markakis benched a month ago...
You wanted Markakis benched a month ago.
Southcack77
Well-known member
People who expect a big upgrade in the OF and also who don't expect the Braves to land Harper and Pollack are somewhat confusing.
Other than unknown trade targets, who exactly is out there on the market that is likely to do better than 1-2 WAR?
Bunch of names that don't put up that kind of production anymore is all I see.
Other than unknown trade targets, who exactly is out there on the market that is likely to do better than 1-2 WAR?
Bunch of names that don't put up that kind of production anymore is all I see.
Russ2dollas
10 yr, $185 million Extension
yes.
I'm not saying we should do that. I'm saying in negotiations and planning you have to know what your fallback option is. We should know we can get 1-2 War for a million. If we are going to invest more than that we should expect to get many more WAR.
Is anyone projecting Neck to be 4+ WAR at age 35?. If you have to pay 15+ million for the difference between Peterson/Tucker to Neck then maybe you can get more WAR/$ elsewhere. You can move people to a corner OF spot if needed.
Neck has been a 1 WAR guy. Maybe he is a launch angle guy. But the D is bad and getting worse. He's getting older. That is not a risk I want to take with 10% of the Braves' payroll.
Russ2dollas
10 yr, $185 million Extension
IF neck is a 4-5 win player this year it is very unlikely we upgrade that spot. Even if we kept Neck it would be unlikely.
cajunrevenge
Well-known member
There is value in short term risk. If he accepts we could still trade him if we sign a big free agent like Harper.
Russ2dollas
10 yr, $185 million Extension
so we offer him the QO. He takes it b/c it is the most money. And then we trade him? How? If someone thought he was worth 20 million they would have offered it.
I think the only time this happened was with Rafeal Sorano. We offered him and we were surprised he took it. We had to dump him and eat money as I recall.
AA is going to go into the season knowing he has $X. He will make moves. I do not think any of those moves will be on 35 yo.
Braves1976
It's OVER 5,000!
I still wish we'd gotten Corey Dickerson from the Rays, then we'd certainly see Markakis traded while hot like this. Dickerson has been great in Pittsburgh, both offensively and on defense. An outfield of Acuna-Inciarte-Dickerson would be very solid IMO.
chop2chip
Well-known member
I get that, but in my estimation under the definition of replacement level is a picture of Preston Tucker in the strong side of a platoon. It’s one of the few scenarios which makes resigning Nick reasonable.
Edit: to make myself perfectly clear, I don’t think it’s very likely that platoon is worth one WAR.
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cajunrevenge
Well-known member
Maybe we eat a few mill or take back a player making a few bucks. If Markakis keeps this up I think there will be plenty of teams that would take a shot on him at 1 year 18 million. This is such a long shot scenario though. That Markakis keeps this up for a full season and we sign Bryce Harper.
If he has a 6 WAR season, I definitely could see him turn that into a 2 or 3 year deal more than 10 million per.
Again, it's moot because there is very little chance that happens.
McCutchen, I think can be a 2-3 win player (or better). Brantley still is a force at the plate but metrics seem to think he is Kemp level bad on defense. Not sure what to make of that seeing as he hasn't been this bad in the past. I prefer either of them to Neck in 2019.
But on the trade front I'd target the following:
Starling Marte
Nick Castellanos (1 year left, so should come relatively cheap)
Max Kepler
Giancarlo Stanton (seems like a tough fit in NY right now, may be they would eat a little money to move him and bring in Harper instead???)
Probably not. And Neck likely isn't either next year.
chop2chip
Well-known member
I mean he likely is. He’s been worth roughly that since the beginning of time and hasn’t shown really any true signs of regression the past four years. The version of Nick we have grown used to is one WAR personified.
Let’s just agree that we both don’t think Nick is ideal. The stronger side of my argument is that we should be willing to pay free agent premiums to avoid replacement level holes in our lineup.
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I mean he has gone from 1.4 to 1.2 to 0.7 last year.