What I am saying is that "eating" salary to moves player we acquired a week ago is implicitly saying that we knowingly overpaid for a player. If we did so in order to get a higher prospect package then sure that's fine, but that's not the thought I was bemoaning.
I agree that if they have to eat salary
just to move Kemp for nothing then it was a bad trade. Hopefully, the move was made as part of a combination of moves - ie. move Olivera to get rid of Olivera and acquire Kemp. Then in the offseason, move Kemp to an AL team for a package of prospects where paying down his salary some gets you better prospects.
I mean, Kemp has power which is good as the team surely needed that even at the cost on the defensive side. However, Kemp is a win-now kind of player and the Braves
should be focused on having players who are good or will be good at a time when the rest of the talent is ready to ripen which is anywhere from 2-6 years out.
I see posters on here counting Maitan as part of the solution when he is likely 4-6 years from ever stepping foot on a ML field. Having guys like him is great BUT by the time he arrives, Folty, Wisler, ect will be headed to FA or gone already. The young talent needs to come in waves and the Braves have essentially 3 waves of pitching:
1. Teheran, Folty, Wisler, Blair, Jenkins, Gant, Whelan, Manban, Perez
2. Newcomb, Ellis, Sims, Bradley, Povse, Withrow, Franco, Clark, Lawlor
3. Weigl, Soroka, Toussaint, Fried, Sanchez, Allard, Anderson, Wentz, Muller, Martinez, Hellinger, Gamez, Wilson, Rangel, Javier
Obviously, the waves outlined above have blurry lines as some could fit in either wave or may force their way up or down through performance. But, under an ordinary growth curve, this is where they roughly fit IMO.
So, from a pitching perspective, you would have to say the rebuild has accomplished at least filling the cupboard with a lot of arms to draw from.
However, the position prospects aren't where they need to be. The waves as I see them are:
1. Swanson, Albies, Peterson, Ruiz, Mallex
2. Lien, Odom, Davidson, Curcio
3. Riley, Acuna, Didder, everybody in short season or DSL
I had to
really stretch for names there. Your only real power threats are possibly Peterson, maybe Davidson and hopefully Riley but none are anywhere close to
can't miss.
Bottom line for me is that the system is in reasonably good shape (maybe great shape) with pitching, although the most high end arms appear to be third wave guys who are probably 2-3 years away.
The hitting prospects look like a starting everyday 2hole guy for ss (Swanson), a starting lead off guy for 2B (Albies), a potential starting corner OF who just as likely could be no better than a 4th OF (Peterson), then a few possibles and long shots. The higher end talent looks to be all the way down in what is more likely to be the 4th wave of talent (Maitan, Cruz, Pache, etc.)
