Offseason Hot Stove 2024-25 Thread

I'm not holding out much hope for Chad Kuhl, but apparently he has a really good sweeper.

[tw]1863934716950307172[/tw]
 
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dak said:
I'm not holding out much hope for Chad Kuhl, but apparently he has a really good sweeper. Forgot how to embed Twitter links, so hopefully this comes thru okay . . .

https://x.com/louisanalysis/status/1863934716950307172?s=46

The most unhittable pitches > 100 thrown:

1. Chad Kuhl's sweeper (.000! BAA)
2. Luke Little's sweeper (.048 BAA)
3. Hunter Gaddis' changeup (.050 BAA)
4. Bryan Hudon's sweeper (.052 BAA)
5. Carlos Carrasco's curveball (.053 BAA)
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Here ya go. If you try to quote my reply, it will show you the format code.

[tw]1863934716950307172[/tw]
 
I was going to say if Kuhl would give up the sinker he might be OK..That pitch gets killed.. then I look at savant and it wasn't a bad pitch in 2024.. it was horrible in '23... so I wonder if he was tweaking that pitch to improve it and just couldn't locate it very well. He is historically bad, so no one should get their hopes up.. but he has 3 intriguing pitches (change/sweeper/sinker) and an average plus slider... so there might be some unlock potential in this guy.
 
Kuhl is worth a shot, but I remember the last time someone raved about a Braves' pitcher's sweeper, the comment was aimed at Lucas Luetge.
 
Braves signed RHP Tyler LaPorte to a minor league contract.
LaPorte, 27, went undrafted out of college and has spent the last four seasons bouncing around the independent leagues. In 2024, he compiled a 3.03 ERA, 1.12 WHIP and a 52/15 K/BB ratio over 35 2/3 innings in 39 appearances for the Windy City Thunderbolts in the Frontier League. He’ll add minor league bullpen depth for the Braves.
 
I said back in December that we should expect AA not to be shopping the bargain bins at the good will store, but dumpster diving behind the good will store. And here we are.
 
As of right now this offseason gets a Grade D.

The Profar signing brings it from an F to a D- because it was a fair deal for arguably the best FA fit for the Braves.

Resetting the luxury tax isn't exciting, but it does carry real long term value, so that bumps it up to a D.

So yes, this has been a pretty terrible offseason for AA.
 
Enscheff said:
As of right now this offseason gets a Grade D.

The Profar signing brings it from an F to a D- because it was a fair deal for arguably the best FA fit for the Braves.

Resetting the luxury tax isn't exciting, but it does carry real long term value, so that bumps it up to a D.

So yes, this has been a pretty terrible offseason for AA.
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What bothers me about the tax is AA will never be the high bidder for somebody like Cease, Tucker, or Bichette next offseason so he'll spend the money on mid market guys or have to gut the farm for somebody then extend them. If resetting the tax means him actually getting 1 of those guys next year then fine.
 
Tapate50 said:
Braves signed RHP Tyler LaPorte to a minor league contract.
LaPorte, 27, went undrafted out of college and has spent the last four seasons bouncing around the independent leagues. In 2024, he compiled a 3.03 ERA, 1.12 WHIP and a 52/15 K/BB ratio over 35 2/3 innings in 39 appearances for the Windy City Thunderbolts in the Frontier League. He’ll add minor league bullpen depth for the Braves.
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Farm system is in better shape for the most part than during the late Frank Wren era, but it's signings like this one that remind me that Wren used to scour the Independent Leagues or guys released from other organizations to fill out our minor league rosters. Nice to see that signings like this are the exception rather than the rule now.
 
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50PoundHead said:
I'm sure any prison really sucks, but Federal prison supposedly isn't as rough as state prison. At least it wasn't years ago (1970s) when an acquaintence of mine was sentenced to two years for mail fraud. He told me it was very oppressive (they checked all your incoming mail and prisoners were on a schedule), but the other inmates were for the most part in there for white-collar crimes so the chances of getting shanked or raped was extremely low. Maybe it's different now depending on where the courts send drug offenders.
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I think having my mail checked and being on a schedule would be my minimum expectation for prison, ha.

I wouldn't volunteer for it and pretty sure I would t trade years for money.
 
Enscheff said:
As of right now this offseason gets a Grade D.

The Profar signing brings it from an F to a D- because it was a fair deal for arguably the best FA fit for the Braves.

Resetting the luxury tax isn't exciting, but it does carry real long term value, so that bumps it up to a D.

So yes, this has been a pretty terrible offseason for AA.
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In your opinion, was there a realistic way to reset the luxury tax this off-season and also get a high grade? Frustrating this has to happen during a prime contention window season. But I'm hopeful because the long term success of the organization seems to be in mind.
 
The off-season isn't over, and we're clearly still trying to bring in a SP and probably a RP.

But regardless what happens, we're still sitting here with the 2nd best odds to win the WS. I feel like the Dodgers spending more money than the total GDP several small countries makes people forget that this is still an amazing team as it stands.
 
Four days until pitchers and catchers report. Today would be a good day for AA to add someone who can close games when Iglesias is inevitably injured.
 
NYCBrave said:
In your opinion, was there a realistic way to reset the luxury tax this off-season and also get a high grade? Frustrating this has to happen during a prime contention window season. But I'm hopeful because the long term success of the organization seems to be in mind.
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It doesn’t have to happen. Any “advantages” are insignificant compared to best positioning yourself to win in a prime year of a contention window.
 
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