CyYoung31
Shift Leader
Or in the case of 2022, two in Strider and Harris.
Actually 3 if you want to count Contreras since he didn’t break out and stick with the big club until that year.
Looking towards 2025
- Thread starter Slippyjms
- Start date
Or in the case of 2022, two in Strider and Harris.
Actually 3 if you want to count Contreras since he didn’t break out and stick with the big club until that year.
Nerfherders
Well-known member
There is one of those goofy "What if" articles on ESPN today - "What if players couldn't change teams? Team ranking" It would be interesting to see how high the Braves would be on that list. (It's of course $ blocked so can't read it)
Southcack77
Well-known member
I think you could argue that a system that reliably produces an impact player a year is not mediocre.
Also has produced a fair number of fringe MLBers on top of the impact guys.
#2 behind Baltimore.
Mad Dog Murph
Well-known member
Top 5 were
Baltimore
Atlanta
Seattle
Dodgers
Mutts
Baltimore
Atlanta
Seattle
Dodgers
Mutts
Nerfherders
Well-known member
That makes sense. The lineup would be amazing with Contreras and Freeman added back in.
The starting pitching would be a little weaker. I'm guessing Fried doesn't count. We'd still have Morton though!
The starting pitching would be a little weaker. I'm guessing Fried doesn't count. We'd still have Morton though!
Mad Dog Murph
Well-known member
Screw it. I’m pasting what they said about the Braves.
2. Atlanta Braves
What-if wins: 98.0 (+3.3 better than actual)
Playoff odds: 96.5% | Title odds: 20.2%
Hit rank: 1 | Pitch rank: 20
Regulars: Freddie Freeman (1B), Caleb Durbin (2B), Ozzie Albies (SS), Austin Riley (3B), Shea Langeliers (C), Juan Yepez (LF), Michael Harris II (CF), Ronald Acuna Jr. (RF), William Contreras (DH)
Rotation: Charlie Morton, Spencer Strider, Ian Anderson, AJ Smith-Shawver, Kyle Wright
Bullpen: Evan Phillips, Craig Kimbrel, A.J. Minter
The Braves were a little light at shortstop, which is why I slid Albies over and inserted Durbin as my display player at the keystone. I could have shuffled in Vaughn Grissom or Nick Ahmed as well. This what-if position group is still the best of any club, with the reconstituted Braves projected to sweep the offensive slash categories. The pitching side, however, is more pockmarked by uncertainty than I would have figured, given some age (Morton, originally signed by the Braves in 2002) and injury-return status (Strider, Wright).
2. Atlanta Braves
What-if wins: 98.0 (+3.3 better than actual)
Playoff odds: 96.5% | Title odds: 20.2%
Hit rank: 1 | Pitch rank: 20
Regulars: Freddie Freeman (1B), Caleb Durbin (2B), Ozzie Albies (SS), Austin Riley (3B), Shea Langeliers (C), Juan Yepez (LF), Michael Harris II (CF), Ronald Acuna Jr. (RF), William Contreras (DH)
Rotation: Charlie Morton, Spencer Strider, Ian Anderson, AJ Smith-Shawver, Kyle Wright
Bullpen: Evan Phillips, Craig Kimbrel, A.J. Minter
The Braves were a little light at shortstop, which is why I slid Albies over and inserted Durbin as my display player at the keystone. I could have shuffled in Vaughn Grissom or Nick Ahmed as well. This what-if position group is still the best of any club, with the reconstituted Braves projected to sweep the offensive slash categories. The pitching side, however, is more pockmarked by uncertainty than I would have figured, given some age (Morton, originally signed by the Braves in 2002) and injury-return status (Strider, Wright).
This may be the fastest anyone has jumped directly to the semantics phase of the argument in the history of the internet.
I was clearly talking about the collection of players in the farm system at any one time, and was not talking about the system itself. Every other person on this forum understood precisely what I meant.
Southcack77
Well-known member
If a system consostently produces an impact player a year as well as MLB filler, then maybe it wasn't rated correctly by the experts.
It certainly isn't mediocre results whatever the rating might have been.
The Braves system seems be lacking a lot of top tier talent.
The Braves scouting/development department seems to be excellent at identifying and producing quality MLB players in recent years that weren't rated highly by scouting services.
Both statements can be true.
I will say that the Braves tendency to push prospects quickly through the system makes it quite hard for the prospect ranking services to keep up. Schwelly should be a consensus top 50 prospect right now with a chance to make the opening day rotation. Instead, he's a MLB SP with with 2.6 fWAR under his belt already. Nacho should be a top 100 consensus prospect right now, with all of us debating on whether or not he could handle SS. Instead, he came up last year and struggled both offensively and defensively and we have a much different opinion on his future. The same is probably true for Waldrep, who most everyone on here was nuts about 12 months ago. He would be rated much higher if not for the struggles he had in the MLB this year. The same would likely have been true for Bryce Elder and Michael Harris in 2022, and Vaughn Grissom in 2023. They all would have rated highly among scouting services if they spent their rookie seasons completely in the minors and continued to have the success they did. Scouting services are just now catching up to Drake Baldwin. And he's a virtual lock to start the season on the MLB roster.
The Braves scouting/development department seems to be excellent at identifying and producing quality MLB players in recent years that weren't rated highly by scouting services.
Both statements can be true.
I will say that the Braves tendency to push prospects quickly through the system makes it quite hard for the prospect ranking services to keep up. Schwelly should be a consensus top 50 prospect right now with a chance to make the opening day rotation. Instead, he's a MLB SP with with 2.6 fWAR under his belt already. Nacho should be a top 100 consensus prospect right now, with all of us debating on whether or not he could handle SS. Instead, he came up last year and struggled both offensively and defensively and we have a much different opinion on his future. The same is probably true for Waldrep, who most everyone on here was nuts about 12 months ago. He would be rated much higher if not for the struggles he had in the MLB this year. The same would likely have been true for Bryce Elder and Michael Harris in 2022, and Vaughn Grissom in 2023. They all would have rated highly among scouting services if they spent their rookie seasons completely in the minors and continued to have the success they did. Scouting services are just now catching up to Drake Baldwin. And he's a virtual lock to start the season on the MLB roster.
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50PoundHead
Hessmania Forever
I think the interesting thing about Schwellenbach is that the Braves really took their time with him after his elbow surgery and managed his innings vey carefully in the lower minors in 2023 before letting him go full-time in 2024. Remember that he also started last season in High-A. Unlike Smith-Shawver and Waldrep, he wasn't rushed through the system (although he was a college player and he had to recover from an injury he incurred before he threw a professional pitch). Braves seem to be following somewhat the same pattern with Adam Maier (also recovering from an arm injury) although Maier's first season in A and A+ were not as impressive as Schwellenbach's.
50PoundHead
Hessmania Forever
I didn't read the article, but where's Andrelton Simmons? If they can go back to Charlie Morton's 2002 signing out of the draft, I don't know why Simmons shouldn't be in the discussion.
bravesfanMatt
Steve Harvey'd
I think he retired, so he wouldn't be on this years team..
50PoundHead
Hessmania Forever
Got it. Thanks. I still think Ahmed would be a better choice than Durbin (and I've always liked Durbin).
Down the semantics rabbit hole we goooooo....
Producing 1-2 impact players means the system is top heavy, but mediocre overall. Do we understand that basic mathematical concept? You could have a fleet of cars headlined by 2 super cars with the rest broken down VW beetles. Compared to a fleet full of brand new BMWs, the top heavy fleet is still mediocre overall.
Again, "system" wasn't meant to describe the system that produces players. It was describing the player population as a whole. So yeah, let's keep arguing semantics every other poster on this forum understood...except you. What other word choice do you want to take issue with over the slight variance in definition we may decide is most appropriate? Stick with "system"? Maybe switch to arguing over "good", or mediocre"? Maybe the word "overall"?
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A strong system has two components ( well, several actually) but two we are talking about.
1. A large number of potentially viable prospects, and
2. The ability to turn them into good MLB players.
The rating systems look at 1 because it is easier to quantify. The Braves have proven to be pretty good at 2.
The rating systems don’t really try to measure it, so they will not rank the system very high, but I am pretty happy with the performance of the Braves system in the second category.
1. A large number of potentially viable prospects, and
2. The ability to turn them into good MLB players.
The rating systems look at 1 because it is easier to quantify. The Braves have proven to be pretty good at 2.
The rating systems don’t really try to measure it, so they will not rank the system very high, but I am pretty happy with the performance of the Braves system in the second category.
And everyone knew I was talking about #1 being mediocre, while claiming #2 was good due to the fact they continue to produce 1-2 impact guys per year.
Like I said, literally everyone but southcuck understood what I was saying. The subsequent semantics discussion was completely needless.
Like I said, literally everyone but southcuck understood what I was saying. The subsequent semantics discussion was completely needless.
UNCBlue012
Well-known member
Southcuck is brutal. lmaooo
50PoundHead
Hessmania Forever
I'm old. Braves basically have the old Red Sox system that produced guys like Lynn, Rice, Evans, Clemens, etc., and often traded it (sometimes in stupid deals like Bagwell for Larry Andersen). At the same time, the system lacked depth.
Problem with the Braves' system at the moment is that they have only 1 and 1/2 hitting prospects above AA. There's some potential in the hitting department below that, but there's no question they are pitching heavy (and some of the pitching prospects will likely be major league contributors either in Atlanta or somewhere else). But there's no question they have found guys with both tools and skills and have put the finishing touches on them to make them successful at the major league level.