How is this garbage supposed to compete in 2-3 years?

bravesfanMatt said:
The team will be drastically different by this time next year.. just look at the 25 man roster, here is my opinion on chances of guys still here this time next year...

FF/Flowers/Viz/Ender/Mallex/Wisler/Withrow all have about an 80% + chance of being on the team next year..

Nick/JT/Jace/Ogando/Perez/Adonis/Castro/Cervenka all have around 50% chance IMO

Beckham I am not sure.. I think he has a shot at utility bench guy if he has a good season

Aybar/Frenchy/KJ/AJ/Stubbs/Norris/Chacin/Grilli/EOF/JJ have zero chance... they will either retire, be cut or be traded before spring of next year.

so IMO, there are about 7 guys who have a good shot at being on this team next year..8 if you throw in Winkler and he is healthy.. So saying, how can we make this garbage good isn't the right question.
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With the extra payroll we can buy some wins. I see us as a team whose position on the expected win curve is in the 75-80 range for 2017. With bad luck we could be a 70 win team. With good luck 85 and sniffing at a playoff spot.
 
Russ2dollas said:
I don't think it happens but it's possible

Ff is himself
Albies and Swanson are ready next yr to be plus defenders and top of the order plus hitters
Adonis hits like he hits and we deal with his **** d or Ruiz is a player and Adonis goes to lf
Inciarte or mallex is a plus plus defender in cf and put up a wrc+ north of 100
Markakis plays like plays now or he is flipped to field another hole
Catcher will suck. Somebody has to bat 8th

Sp has Tehran and wisler. Find 3 more out of Newcombe Simms Blair Jenkins gant. Others are bp or trade bait

Bp has power arms in viz Simmons winthrow winkler. Paco comes back as himself.

We would still have young arms coming to allow trades (Tehran?) allard fried touki etc.

Small chance Ruiz or Peterson are useful bats in 17 or 18.

Likely two top 5 picks who could play by 18 or 19 if college guys

In 18 or 19 you prob have options in Riley Acuna etc who u either know are in holes or u trade

Lots of money to plug a hole with a fav and extend some young guys

It's a lot to go right. I wish we had more bp health. Wish our non Swanson prospects were 2 yrs older now. Wish the 18 fan class was in the 17 class.

But I can see us being in the 80 win area and having a shot
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With the payroll flexibility I think we'll pick up some decent players to fill in at catcher, one bullpen spot, and one or two infielders. The tricky thing about 2017 is finding a couple guys with positional flexibility that will occupy a couple spots where Albies and Swanson will eventually slot into. We want guys like that so we can take our time with those two. Ideally they spend two or three months in AAA at the start of 2017 and come in after that. So I'm thinking guys like Drew (on a one year deal) and Prado might make sense. You can shift Prado to the outfield or third once Albies and Swanson arrive.
 
I've probably been one of the bigger critics of the direction this club has moved in the last 2 offseasons, I've praised the quality moves but hated the bad ones. Let's try and look at things objectively as far as future forecast.

Catcher - Short term we have some guys there, long term we're weak. C is a position of need for us long term for sure.

First Base - Freddie has 1B locked up short term and long term, but he seems to have a penchant for getting hurt which means having a backup 1B PH specialist is a must for the Braves.

Second Base - Jace at 2B now should be fine. We'll see if he's worth paying a mil or more for in a few years. Prospectwise we have little as a pure 2b but....

Shortstop - Aybar will hold it down fine this year, but this is where we have our prospects at. Swanson and ALbies are both long term high quality prospects. Both should be at worst quality major league players.

Third Base - Adonis Garcia seems to be doing OK there now, long term we have 2 major options (or move ALbies or Swanson here instead of 2B but that's not likely when we have...) Riley and Ruiz. Ruiz could be ready to step into 3B with a strong performance from him and a weak performance from Garcia.

Outfield - this is where things get dicier but simpler. Olivera and INciarte are under contact for 5 and 4 seasons after this season respectively. Mallex is in his rookie contract so he will also likely be in that 5 year. The dicier part is that Ender and Mallex are both CFs. Neither hit enough for RF. Markakis is under contract for 2 more seasons, but he's not an impact bat. Where I think we'll have to go is trade Ender and a SP to get either a power RF bat or a great young catcher.

Starting pitcher - This is the biggest long term strength. Our current rotation of youngsters is Julio, WIsler, Perez, Man Ban, and FOlty, for prospects we have Newcomb, Blair, Allard, Sims, Soroka, Toussaint, Jenkins, Bird, Fried, Gant, and Graham. That's a slew of prospects to go with young and promising arms. Some will obviously get moved to the pen because of injuries and things. Others will be trade bait.
 
Albies and Swanson will almost instantly give the lineup a facelift. You also could draft a college hitter at 3 that is a threat to make the team by some point in 2018. Improvement from Ruiz or Dustin Peterson, or quick progression from 1-2 of the younger prospects, and suddenly you've got a pretty good lineup.

Think about the potential of 4 guys that can get on base with speed in Inciarte, Mallex, Albies, and Swanson with the power of Freeman, a college bat with pop, and another of the young guys. That's solid.

And obviously we all know the pitching talent. By 2018 our team will look entirely different than it does now.
 
Too early to say now.

Albies/Swanson should be up by next year.

Could draft a college hitter at 3.

There is free agency but 2017 doesnt look great in terms of hitters.

Still have Freeman, Incierte, Mallex with the above.

SP is where the team could make a big jump or not depending who can mold into an ace/#2 or not.

Thought it was well known the team would suck this year.
 
Albies and Swanson give us some relative certainty.

The depth of pitching prospects is great, but we may be underestimating how high the rate of attrition is going to be. I think we'll do ok, but I don't want to pencil anyone in 'til we've seen more.

Right now, we really need a corner player with some pop to emerge or be drafted soon.

Albies, Swanson, Inciarte/Smith is an interesting top of the order, but we need someone in addition to FF potentially driving them in.
 
PurpleBrave said:
Don't see it. Everyone is regressing.

Really no point in keeping Teheran & Freeman.

Prospects won't be ready by then. This is more like a 5 year plan
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They're not really planning to compete. This is the first step in closing up shop and moving the team to Vegas. SunTrust Park is actually being built for the next Olympics.
 
Julio3000 said:
The depth of pitching prospects is great, but we may be underestimating how high the rate of attrition is going to be. I think we'll do ok, but I don't want to pencil anyone in 'til we've seen more.
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Eh, I don't think anyone is underestimating that. I think everybody knows there will be a decent number that don't amount to much, but that's why it's so good that we've got so many. We should be able to find 2-3 good pitchers out of the group above A ball by 2018. That group includes Wisler, Blair, Newcomb, Sims, Folty, Jenkins, Banuelos, Ellis, Gant, and even Povse and Fried could move quickly. I don't think that's unreasonable.
 
I'm not concerned about pitching long term, and I don't think many are.

What concerns me is catcher, third base and corner outfield.

With catcher, it almost certainly comes from outside the organization. I keep thinking about Boston with Swihart and Vasquez, both young catchers. I'd love to get one of them somehow, but I'm not sure what we have that would appeal to Boston.

Third base, I realize I'm one of the few concerned here. Riley's massive strikeout numbers at the low levels have me skeptical there, as well as questions about the bat speed. Hopefully Rio Ruiz can put together a strong season and be an important future piece for us, but there are obviously still questions after being miserable at Mississippi last year.

In center, I figure either Mallex or Inciarte will be the future there. The corners are my concern. I think we draft a long term piece at 3 this year, whether it's Ray or Lewis that could come quick or Rutherford who could take longer. But I don't see many other obvious answers internally or through free agency for a while. I like the idea above of Inciarte plus a pitching prospect or two for a power corner OF bat.

It still looks pretty clear to me that we won't be competing for anything next year. 2018 would be the earliest I expect to win, but even then I'm a little skeptical that it could be 2019.
 
smootness said:
Eh, I don't think anyone is underestimating that. I think everybody knows there will be a decent number that don't amount to much, but that's why it's so good that we've got so many. We should be able to find 2-3 good pitchers out of the group above A ball by 2018. That group includes Wisler, Blair, Newcomb, Sims, Folty, Jenkins, Banuelos, Ellis, Gant, and even Povse and Fried could move quickly. I don't think that's unreasonable.
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No, I don't think that's unreasonable. And it could end up being better. I'm not prophesying doom, I just have more measured expectations for how many, how good, and how soon—for now, anyway.
 
Julio3000 said:
No, I don't think that's unreasonable. And it could end up being better. I'm not prophesying doom, I just have more measured expectations for how many, how good, and how soon—for now, anyway.
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The healthy thing to do is to take the time clock off. Rushing does not speed the process. We are where we are, who we are, and we will get better and compete for flags.

Mañana.
 
We do have one catcher in the system that could turn out to be quite good. Jonathan Morales, in his first 55 games (GCL last year, Rome this year) has a slash line of .329/.386/.509/.895. His first 9 games at Rome have been very impressive. He is 21 and could be ready by 2018. He is our best catching prospect and so far has been very impressive.
 
jimsnores said:
When will Maitan be ready?
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Isn't he 16? So best case scenario 5 years...

The morales kid is old for the level and is not a good catcher, right?

I don't see how inciarte and mallex can play in the same of.

We need two legit rh hitteers....no idea where they come from.
 
He is on par with his age. Morales was just drafted from college last year. He is 3 for 10 catching base stealers. Otherwise no idea how he plays.
 
Russ2dollas said:
Isn't he 16? So best case scenario 5 years...

The morales kid is old for the level and is not a good catcher, right?

I don't see how inciarte and mallex can play in the same of.

We need two legit rh hitteers....no idea where they come from.
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Honestly, with his talent, I'd say Maitan has a chance to be up in only 3-4 years. He could fly through the system.
 
skillet said:
We do have one catcher in the system that could turn out to be quite good. Jonathan Morales, in his first 55 games (GCL last year, Rome this year) has a slash line of .329/.386/.509/.895. His first 9 games at Rome have been very impressive. He is 21 and could be ready by 2018. He is our best catching prospect and so far has been very impressive.
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Herbert is still our best catching prospect. Morales likely won't actually stick at catcher.
 
Of course this team will look drastically different in 3 years. Problem is the young players will need time to develop. Not everyone is a Syndergaard or Correa. We may have one or two in the bunch.

2013 we won the division. In 2014 this team underachieved but still had potential. Instead of trying to get pieces they decided to blow it up and feed the fans a line that we'd be contenders when the new stadium opened. These things take more time than that. It took the Astros & royals a while. I think we'll get to be contenders again, but not after punting 5 years.
 
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