Official 2024 Off-Season Thread!

Find another team that has hit on every single position prospect coming out of a rebuild to the extent they built the best offense of all time. You can’t because it hasn’t happened, which is why the Braves had the best offense of all time.

Even Pache, who was the only notable flop, was used to acquire a major position player. The closest I can think of is the Indians back in the early 90s.

I don’t follow other teams much. But it seemed the Cubs built a good team with the rizzo/bryant/contreras era. I think they hit some pitchers too.
 
Teams like the Cubs and Astros have had good rebuilds that produced good teams, but nothing like the historically good offense the Braves just created. This team is legitimately among the best 2-3 offenses in the history of the sport, and almost none of it came via FA.
 
Pretty sure the baseball writers are just trolling Andruw now. They elect two guys to the HOF in Helton and Mauer that have been on the ballot less time than Andruw and who each have more than 10 fewer career fWAR than Andruw.

Ridiculous at this point.
 
Druw and Billy are inevitable now though -

Glad to see Todd Helton make it - the Tennessee Vols had two future HOFs in the same QB room - one went in football, one in baseball.
 
What top 100 position prospects did the Astros have fail in their rebuild?

Jon Singleton. But to Scheff's point, basically all of the Braves position prospects hitting or turning into elite players like Olson/Murphy is unheard of. Even then, guys like Swanson/Freeman/Albies/Acuna/Riley/Harris all turning into great players is freaking absurd.
 
Little bit of Stove: Hoskins to the Brewers for 2/34 with an opt out after year 1, and Matt Moore to the Angels for 1/9.
 
Glad that Helton got in. Beltre was obvious.

But Joe Maurer as a first ballot HOFer?????

I like Maurer. I can see the potential HOF case. Former MVP. Playing for the same team his whole career. .306 lifetime hitter. There's a lot chew on for voters. But in no way shape or form did I think he was a HOF lock.

I guess that means Posey and Molina are a lock as well, which also is baffling to me. Anyone with less than 60 career WAR who didn't have a Sandy Koufax-like peak, does not deserve to be a first ballot HOFer. They are the very definition of borderline HOFer. I don't care if there aren't a lot of primary catchers in the HOF. That isn't a reason to let in guys that had a handful of really great seasons regardless of position, mixed in with a career of "good hitting seasons for a catcher."
 
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Glad that Helton got in. Beltre was obvious.

But Joe Maurer as a first ballot HOFer?????

I like Maurer. I can see the potential HOF case. Former MVP. Playing for the same team his whole career. .306 lifetime hitter. There's a lot chew on for voters. But in no way shape or form did I think he was a HOF lock.

I guess that means Posey and Molina are a lock as well, which also is baffling to me. Anyone with less than 60 career WAR who didn't have a Sandy Koufax-like peak, does not deserve to be a first ballot HOFer. They are the very definition of borderline HOFer. I don't care if there aren't a lot of primary catchers in the HOF. That isn't a reason to let in guys that had a handful of really great seasons regardless of position, mixed in with a career of "good hitting seasons for a catcher."

Once you factor in his above average framing, Maurer’s career WAR would rocket well past the acceptable HOF threshold. As is, he ranks 7th all time in JAWS for catchers.
 
I was surprised that Mauer had such an easy glide path to the Hall of Fame, considering his relatively abbreviated career and resulting superficially unimpressive counting stats. But I don't put any weight on supposed distinctions between "Hall of Famer" and "first ballot Hall of Famer," so I'm cool with Mauer getting in.
 
I was surprised that Mauer had such an easy glide path to the Hall of Fame, considering his relatively abbreviated career and resulting superficially unimpressive counting stats. But I don't put any weight on supposed distinctions between "Hall of Famer" and "first ballot Hall of Famer," so I'm cool with Mauer getting in.

I'm not bothered by Mauer getting into the Hall.

I'm bothered by him getting in while Andruw Jones barely missed. The best defensive CF of all time, who also happened to hit over 400 home runs, should be in the Hall easily.
 
If we are celebrating the best players at each position, which Mauer is a clear case of to get that many votes, there is zero reason if you voted for him to not also vote for Andruw and Wagner.
 
Jon Singleton. But to Scheff's point, basically all of the Braves position prospects hitting or turning into elite players like Olson/Murphy is unheard of. Even then, guys like Swanson/Freeman/Albies/Acuna/Riley/Harris all turning into great players is freaking absurd.

This discussion has entered the "semantics stage", where folks are going to start dissecting my use of singular words in an attempt to prove me wrong. Expect the next few pages to be filled with arguments over what "elite" and "bust" means as folks try to prove the Braves roster isn't an extreme rarity and was a foregone conclusion due solely to the greatness of the organization...and by extension, themselves as fans (you know, to stroke that sense of pride in a team they have no part in).
 
Glad that Helton got in. Beltre was obvious.

But Joe Maurer as a first ballot HOFer?????

I like Maurer. I can see the potential HOF case. Former MVP. Playing for the same team his whole career. .306 lifetime hitter. There's a lot chew on for voters. But in no way shape or form did I think he was a HOF lock.

I guess that means Posey and Molina are a lock as well, which also is baffling to me. Anyone with less than 60 career WAR who didn't have a Sandy Koufax-like peak, does not deserve to be a first ballot HOFer. They are the very definition of borderline HOFer. I don't care if there aren't a lot of primary catchers in the HOF. That isn't a reason to let in guys that had a handful of really great seasons regardless of position, mixed in with a career of "good hitting seasons for a catcher."

Boy, do I agree with you on Mauer. Nice player, but really? His last five years were an average of 8 HR, 58 RBI, .278/.359/.388/.747, OPS 105, and he DHed and played first base - didn't catch those years. 580 PA/yr. Average WAR 2.1.

He didn't have 1000 RBI in his 15 year career.

I don't think that's a Hall of Famer, let alone a first ballot HoF.
 
We definitely missed on Braden Shewmake, though I guess he was never ranked inside the top 100 at any point. More of draft miss than a top prospect missing.

Probably the biggest bust other than Pache is Waters. We gave up Drew Waters for a draft pick and used the pick to draft JR Ritchie. I guess JR Ritchie will determine whether or not that was a good use of resources.

IMO, Waters still seems like a guy who could make a living as back-up OFer or potentially as the strong side of a platoon. Still only 25 and made some major improvements to his K rate and exit velocities last year.


Yeah, Waters was the first one who came to mind.
 
Really hard to understand Mauer over Andruw. If defense means anything, obviously it should. Andruw Jones should be in by now.
 
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