Lack of a Dominant Player
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50PoundHead
Hessmania Forever
At the midway point of the season, I'm looking at the teams with the best records in each league--St. Louis and Kansas City--and I'm hard pressed to find a dominant player on either of those squads. Both squads have a lot of good--even very good--players, but I wouldn't call any of the players on either roster dominant.
At least one somebody isn't going to want to hear this again. The Braves haven't been in a full rebuild mode in 25 years. Think about it. While it's nice to be able to have discussions and exchange ideas and all, the org has stated implicitly that it's targeting 2017. So, nobody knows how the club will take shape by then...or even by the end of this season.
So, best advice is to be patient and open to whatever the future might hold. That might mean combining a package to acquire somebody, who might be more appropriate at a later time. Meantime, they're not going to make "quick fix" moves, just to appease message board frustrations.
zitothebrave
Connoisseur of Minors
I don't know about dominant, but Cain and Gordon have been really fantastic for the Royals. Much better than anything we have around Freddie.
Cardinals you have a point. They have 7 players with an fWAR over 1. Holliday (1.1) Molina (1.4) Grichuk (1.8) Peralta (2.1) Heyward (2.2) Wong (2.2) Carpenter (2.2)
Yeah, it's a relatively weird year this year.
I haven't followed other teams as much this year (just Heyward's numbers), are KC actually playing better than last year? Are they getting lucky? I would have thought losing players like Aoki, Shields, Butler would hurt them but they're playing much better than I expected. Those 3 alone had so much Lairdership... guess Hart should take a flyer that acquiring old vets like Gomes don't always work out. SHould just let the young guys play and fight it out.
Have to give credit to our boy Ned though.
zitothebrave
Connoisseur of Minors
You're looking at the tree not the forest. Look at what his BABIP were those years. Then get back to me. Uribe is a good player when he has a really high BABIP, OK that's not shocking. Look at Uribe's 2012 vs 2013. Aside from power (which yes is a big factor) BABIP is the biggest factor in his massive difference offensively.
50PoundHead
Hessmania Forever
When one thinks dominant, neither of those guys comes to mind. Both are very good, but they aren't dominant players.
Horsehide Harry
<B>Mr. Free Trade</B>
I am on record that Freeman is a very good player, but not great. He's the 6-7th best 1B in baseball which is probably a high point for any Brave right now for any position.
Simmons gets tons of credit for his glove, and rightly so, but his offense is just a little ahead of being Belliard like. He likely is never going to be anything better than a .700 ops guy, most often not that. No one else on the team is anywhere close to top ten at their position unless you want to accept small sample sizes as the true gauge of a player (Maybin).
But, it's not likely that the Braves are going to add a true cornerstone player through a ML trade or FA because there just aren't any. Maybe you convince the Brewers to give up Braun since he will be 32, is owed big bucks and has shown that he's nowhere near an MVP type player since coming back from his PED suspension. But, would he even be a mid .800 OPS guy moving away from Milwaukee? I think it doubtful.
That's why I think the smart move is to move current ML pitching for as many high ceiling prospect bats as can be gained between now and 2017 and use the space and cash freed to bring in replacements from the large crop of mid to high end ML FA pitching.
Simmons gets tons of credit for his glove, and rightly so, but his offense is just a little ahead of being Belliard like. He likely is never going to be anything better than a .700 ops guy, most often not that. No one else on the team is anywhere close to top ten at their position unless you want to accept small sample sizes as the true gauge of a player (Maybin).
But, it's not likely that the Braves are going to add a true cornerstone player through a ML trade or FA because there just aren't any. Maybe you convince the Brewers to give up Braun since he will be 32, is owed big bucks and has shown that he's nowhere near an MVP type player since coming back from his PED suspension. But, would he even be a mid .800 OPS guy moving away from Milwaukee? I think it doubtful.
That's why I think the smart move is to move current ML pitching for as many high ceiling prospect bats as can be gained between now and 2017 and use the space and cash freed to bring in replacements from the large crop of mid to high end ML FA pitching.
Anthony J. Pierzynski
Arizona Fall Leaguer
Bitch, please.
keithlaw
Playing the Waiting Game
I think Ottavino could really help us.
nsacpi
Expects Yuge Games
Those kinds of teams--lots of good players no dominant players--tend to be more consistent. I would also add the absence of bad players or more specifically bad players being given significant numbers of at bats and innings pitched is also very important.
NinersSBChamps
<B>Voted Worst Poster <br> 2015 (Co-Winner)</BR>20
Freeman is a very good player. Dominant probably not. You can definitely build a good team with him as your stud though. Just improve the players around him.
I think some people are underestimating Freeman's offensive ability. He's really turned himself into a dominant hitter. Since 2013 he is 6th in all of baseball in offensive runs above average. Among 1B he is third to only Goldy and I guess Cabrera since he mostly plays there these days. Now when using the rate stat WRC+ he comes in at 11th in baseball in that time frame. And he slides to 4th among 1B with Votto sliding in right above him.
Yes his base running and range at 1st leave a lot of be desired. But offensively speaking he's been pretty dominant the last 2 and a half years. Again I think people are applying an offensive mindset from the 90's and 00's to Freeman. And thats not right.
Yes his base running and range at 1st leave a lot of be desired. But offensively speaking he's been pretty dominant the last 2 and a half years. Again I think people are applying an offensive mindset from the 90's and 00's to Freeman. And thats not right.
Agreed. Freeman is a big time impact offensive player and with his presence you can build a team around him with the right type of players which does not necessarily mean power guys.
Dalyn
Fredi Gonzalez Supporter
cajunrevenge
Well-known member
Theres only about 10 players that out up a .900+ OPS these days. Freeman is a top 20 hitter in the game at 25 years old. Freeman is Chipper Jones and I dont think you can say Chipper was a dominant player overall very often in his career. Where Chipper stood out was his consistency, hitting with RISP and crushing our division rivals. Thats what Freeman does. Ask the Mets or Nats if we have a dominant player and I think they will say yes. I think he still has breakout potential even if it is only one big career year. He was on pace for a lot of career highs before this injury and I think thats quite the accomplishment when a lot of people thought he would suffer from not seeing pitches to hit this year. He was on pace for 29 homers, 100 runs 100 RBI, .220 Isolated slugging%. Even on pace to set a career high in stolen bases.....
Oklahomabrave
Anytime Now Frankie...
I get what you are saying but Chipper was pretty ****ing dominant man. 7 6+ war seasons, 3 of those 7+.
cajunrevenge
Well-known member
Yeah but offense around the game was better at that time.
Freeman is not Chipper. That is not a knock on Freeman at all, because Chipper was an all time great and a first ballot HOFer.
That being said Freeman is still a dominant hitter. He's probably around the 4th best 1B in baseball, and honestly, aside from Miggy and Goldy, the top 5 1b are all really close in offensive value over the last couple of years. Rizzo, Abreu, and Freeman are all very close in offensive value.
Purely as a hitter, I'd put Freeman right outside the top 10 in baseball, in the 10-15 range. If that isn't dominant to you, then may be your expecting too much.
That being said Freeman is still a dominant hitter. He's probably around the 4th best 1B in baseball, and honestly, aside from Miggy and Goldy, the top 5 1b are all really close in offensive value over the last couple of years. Rizzo, Abreu, and Freeman are all very close in offensive value.
Purely as a hitter, I'd put Freeman right outside the top 10 in baseball, in the 10-15 range. If that isn't dominant to you, then may be your expecting too much.