Next Move?

50PoundHead said:
It's old, old news, but the decision to acquire Teixeira rather than sit tight with all of those resources was the first of a number of deals that robbed the farm system of depth and when the budget is tightening (which it was) I think it's important to hang onto young guys and build around them.

They should have rebuilt then.
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Agreed.
 
NinersSBChamps said:
I just think it's sad that this is what the Braves have become.
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I sense a little of this...

RandyQuaidXOut.jpg
 
50PoundHead said:
It's old, old news, but the decision to acquire Teixeira rather than sit tight with all of those resources was the first of a number of deals that robbed the farm system of depth and when the budget is tightening (which it was) I think it's important to hang onto young guys and build around them.

They should have rebuilt then.
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I'm not so sure I agree with that. Even after the Tex trade, we still had one of the best farms in all of baseball, headlined by Heyward.

We also seemed to have more bad luck than other teams with our injuries to our home grown pitchers. In the last 4 seasons alone, we've had 5 very prominent young pitchers that we've lost to injuries. I mean if we hadn't had so much bad luck with injuries, our rotation last year could/should have featured any of the following pitchers:

Hanson

Minor

Teheran

Medlen

Wood

Beachy

Jurrjens

All these pitchers aside from Jurrjens were still arbitration eligible up through this past season.
 
Nick Cafardo with a couple of mentions of Nick Markakis is his latest article. If Shelby is traded for a package that includes a corner OF, I can only hope we'd cut bait on Markakis. Would need to send $.

Kansas City — The World Series champions have a lot of work to do. Losing free agents Johnny Cueto, Alex Gordon, Ben Zobrist, and Ryan Madson creates some challenges. They would love to keep Zobrist and Gordon and both would love to stay, but the demand for those players is off the charts, as is the money. They have targeted Jackie Bradley Jr. from the Red Sox, free agent Gerardo Parra, and the Braves’ Nick Markakis (three years, $33 million remaining on his deal) as possible replacements in the outfield. They would also like a midrange-priced starter. Clay Buchholz would make perfect sense for them with a $13 million cost next season and $13.5 million team option in 2017.
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Atlanta — The Braves have some attractive pieces in starters Julio Teheran and Shelby Miller. Nick Markakis could also be had at the right price. The Braves are still building toward 2017 when their new park opens, and they are trying to stockpile power arms. They need low-cost offense. If the Cubs want Miller, they’ll have to give up Jorge Soler.
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https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/...er-meetings/zwNX22PyGrmMZQXplASGAM/story.html
 
I think at this point it'd be Soler +.

id like Baez honestly. Id rather base a deal around him plus other prospects than Soler. Baez plays a serviceable IF right?
 
You know, the funny thing is I was just thinking about Markakis as a perfect fit for what the Royals do. Markakis does the tough, professional at-bat thing all the time. You can easily see him hitting second in a postseason lineup and infuriating pitchers with his approach. He has a lot of value in that context.

He just doesn't have a lot of value in our context.
 
A couple moves involving old friends would make sense. Kelly Johnson to complement Adonis Garcia at third. And EOF as our lefty specialist. Rest of the money can be spent on one more starter looking to rebuild value. Latos would be great. Lohse is another possibility.
 
dak said:
Reason to believe?

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Unless we end up flipping Miller for Soler, i dont get it.

And sign a veteran SP as well.

For the record, i love Zobrist but just dont see the fit with him where we are as a club.
 
If we acquire a RF and trade Markakis this is making more sense. Rather you agree or not they want the steady vet clubhouse guy. If he can also play multiple positions then it's an upgrade.
 
Carp said:
I'm not so sure I agree with that. Even after the Tex trade, we still had one of the best farms in all of baseball, headlined by Heyward.

We also seemed to have more bad luck than other teams with our injuries to our home grown pitchers. In the last 4 seasons alone, we've had 5 very prominent young pitchers that we've lost to injuries. I mean if we hadn't had so much bad luck with injuries, our rotation last year could/should have featured any of the following pitchers:

Hanson
Minor
Teheran
Medlen
Wood
Beachy
Jurrjens

All these pitchers aside from Jurrjens were still arbitration eligible up through this past season.
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Outside of the continued possibility of Teheran, every one of those guys was a marginal #2, solid #3 or worse guy. I know people will point to the fact that Hanson was "highly ranked" or the results of Medlen and Beachy and JJ before injury and results can't be discounted. But none of those guys jumped off the page as the next Glavine or Smoltz. Most were not highly drafted but were successful anyway which is a clear credit to the Braves organization. But their development was more unexpected than expected, which has a certain amount of luck. To me, that's more the "Forrest Gump" method of building a team - kinda wander through the process and good things happen, as opposed to an active plan to run and manage an organization.

As far as injuries go, to a certain extent that is a process of evaluation. Hanson (RIP) was always considered an injury risk because of his pitching motion. Wood is too. Medlen is 5'10" on a good day and doesn't have a "typical" pitchers body. When you buck the trends you shouldn't be surprised when you crap out.

The thing to me is that 50 is absolutely right. The rebuild should have come years ago instead of wasting the best control years of Heyward, Freeman, Simmons, etc. The refusal to even contemplate that led directly to the barren farm that Hart and Coppy were confronted wit because players were used to acquire outside talent (Upton trade as an example) and the draft philosophy shifted to a high floor low ceiling, get to the majors quickly, approach which produced good not great players who were also potential injury risks.
 
Looks like O'Day is re-signing with Baltimore. Would have been fun to root for DOD, but we absolutely should not have matched the 4/31 he ended up getting.
 
bravesnumberone said:
Why would we be signing Zobrist?
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Agree. I love just about everything Zobrist brings to the table, but he doesn't make much sense unless a lot of other guys are moved. Even then, i think resources would best be spent elsewhere.

I know I invoke the Minnesota Twins far too often here, but I feel the Braves are kind of falling into the Kelly/Gardenhire trap of insisting on guys who "know how to play the game" rather than dedicate themselves to a rebuild. Someone wrote yesterday that they worry about us being in his middle ground where "putting a representative product on the field" is taking on greater importance than building a solid foundation and developing that foundation for the long haul. I sure hope that's not the case.
 
dak said:
Nick Cafardo with a couple of mentions of Nick Markakis is his latest article. If Shelby is traded for a package that includes a corner OF, I can only hope we'd cut bait on Markakis. Would need to send $.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/...er-meetings/zwNX22PyGrmMZQXplASGAM/story.html
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I really like Markakis but he has no business being on this team. We need to capitalize on his value now before he becomes untradeable in another year or so. We have to trade him
 
emk418 said:
I really like Markakis but he has no business being on this team. We need to capitalize on his value now before he becomes untradeable in another year or so. We have to trade him
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We really need to trade him. He's good on a close team but for us he really impedes our ability to improve the OF with a young controllable bat. Not sure what the "right return" is. I'd trade him for a middling relief arm and salary relief mainly to open up RF.
 
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