Ranking each team's worst position in 2014

BremanFan88

BremanFan88

Playing the Waiting Game
http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/53268/ranking-each-teams-worst-position-in-2014

"6. Atlanta Braves 3B: 3.1 wins below average

Chris Johnson and his .292 OBP and below-average defense helped this position score worst overall, but the Braves also scored lowest in the majors at center field (-2.6 wins) and second base (-2.8 wins).

Fix for 2015: The Braves foolishly signed Johnson to a long-term deal after his BABIP-driven .321 season in 2013. While the salaries aren't prohibitive, the deal also means Johnson probably returns in 2015. Phil Gosselin, who hit .344 without power at Triple-A, might get an opportunity, although he hasn't played much third in his career."

3B seems to be most team's weak spot. Teams pretty much have to draft one or trade an arm and a leg to get a good one these days.
 
50PoundHead said:
I wholeheartedly agree with everything except the proposed fix. Gosselin projects as a utility guy, so I don't think he's the answer.

Not that many good 3Bs anymore.
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Headley, Headley, Headley.

If we can get him to sign for a 2 or 3 year deal, we'd be stupid not to go after him. If I were the Johns, he'd be my #1 target this offseason and then I'd work the rest off of trades (including one of CJ to a team; if we have to package him with someone like Walden to get it done, so be it).
 
Huh. Headley's a better player than I thought. I assumed he only had the one good season a few years ago, but it turns out hitting in Petco in the new deadball era will really sap your raw numbers.

Still, I assume the Yankees will make re-signing him a priority, since they don't seem to have any illusions about A-Rod playing third base any more.
 
MadduxFanII said:
Huh. Headley's a better player than I thought. I assumed he only had the one good season a few years ago, but it turns out hitting in Petco in the new deadball era will really sap your raw numbers.

Still, I assume the Yankees will make re-signing him a priority, since they don't seem to have any illusions about A-Rod playing third base any more.
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Any idea what the Yankees will do with Prado? I'm not lobbying for him to return to Atlanta. I'm just curious about if and how he fits into the Yankees' plans.
 
yeezus said:
It would take a lot to get Seager, and you wouldn't platoon him if you did.
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Yes, you would. Look at his stats and look at Johnson's. They would make a fantastic platoon. Seager's only real weakness is not being able to hit lefties.
 
Dalyn said:
Yes, you would. Look at his stats and look at Johnson's. They would make a fantastic platoon. Seager's only real weakness is not being able to hit lefties.
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Anddd who knows how he'd play/hit while just platooning? He's also 400x the defender Johnson is.
Seager will not be platooned anytime soon.
 
Prado will be the Yankees second baseman. Kubitza might work as the lefty part of a platoon.
 
MadduxFanII said:
Huh. Headley's a better player than I thought. I assumed he only had the one good season a few years ago, but it turns out hitting in Petco in the new deadball era will really sap your raw numbers.

Still, I assume the Yankees will make re-signing him a priority, since they don't seem to have any illusions about A-Rod playing third base any more.
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Headley is a solid player and one FA who I actually think may get a little less than what he may actually deserve (when comparing to the rest of the FA market-- not saying he'll be drastically underpaid or anything).

Case in point:

Player 1 -- 8.0 fWAR, 2013-2014. 600 PA @ 114 wRC+ followed by 531 PA @ 103 wRC+. +9.2 and +21.6 DEF ratings. Will turn 31 in May of 2015.

Player 2 -- 2.5 fWAR, 2013-2014. 700 PA @ 88 wRC+ followed by 710 PA @ 106 wRC+. -14.1 and -2.5 DEF ratings. Will turn 31 this month (Nov 2014).

Both are projected to earn roughly the same (say around $12-14m per for 3-4 years).

Player 1 is Chase Headley. Player 2 is Nick Markakis (who, mind you, had a 0 WAR just a year before-- albeit due to injury issues).

Here's to hoping Cashman spends too much time focusing on landing Max Scherzer while we focus on Headley.
 
I like the idea of Headley, though a long-term contract with him likely gets pretty ugly toward the end. You're still left with a Chris Johnson-sized problem on the roster, however. I feel like I don't have a great sense of what sort of trade value Johnson might have. His contract is bad but not extraordinarily odious, so it's clearly not like trying to deal BJ.

Someone get Dayton on the phone. Moustakas needs a platoon partner.
 
yeezus said:
Anddd who knows how he'd play/hit while just platooning? He's also 400x the defender Johnson is.
Seager will not be platooned anytime soon.
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You get by far the majority of the playing time when you are the lefty in a platoon, especially when you will be coming in as soon as the (lefty) starter is gone because your defense is so much better. We are talking about very few at-bats for Johnson as a starter. The rest will come as one of the main weapons off the bench against lefties. Seager is terrible against lefties.
 
What I want is to create an elite defensive infield then fill out the rotation with groundball pitchers like Hale and Masterson. I would add Headley for 3b and Drew for 2b. If I was Justin Masterson I would take less money to play with that defense to get a big long term deal next year.
 
No idea where all this cash to sign Headley is going to come from...

The most pressing needs for the Braves this offseason are to replace the quality 400 IP provided by Santana and harang, and to add an OFer that can hit in the top half of the lineup (meaning a .340+ OBP and/or .750+ OPS). After those fixes are made I seriously doubt there are any resources remaining to sign a big FA like Headley.

Every year it's the same thing around here...I call it the "Holliday syndrome". When Holliday was a FA years ago, folks insisted on coming up with scenarios where the Braves signed him for LF despite it being abundantly clear there was 0% chance he could be signed by the Braves. The Braves already have CJ making significant money on a bad contract, and they would have to move it to sign someone like Headley. Why in the world would a team give up a trade piece to pay CJ's contract when they could just go ahead and sign Headley themselves? If the Braves eat part of CJ's contract to move him then they don't save near enough to make a run at Headley.

Bottom line: the Braves are not signing Chase Headley. The best we can hope for is a cheap platoon partner for CJ in the mold of Luis Valbuena (for example).
 
We also weren't signing Santana last year. No one thought we would get Justin Upton for what we gave up. Headley isn't going to happen but it's far more realistic than the Holliday/Greinke/Hamilton/Bay pipe dream we have every year.

We do have the cash for Headley, it just takes some tricky accounting
If we could unload CJ, which I admit won't be easy, we could sign Headley for 4 years to million. 2015 salary 5 million the 15 million for the last 3 years. We have a ton of money to spend in 2016 and beyond, we should be leveraging that to win now. I would guess 10 million for Masterson and 6 million for Drew. I think both might take slightly less to play here. Masterson for the defense and Drew because he is from Georgia and JD had his career year here and Stephen Drew is all about the payday.
 
We are going tp have two guys in AAA-Peraza and Kubitza-who could potentially take over at third. It doesnt make sense to spend resources on external upgrades when some promising cheap internal solutions are at hand. Id rather use the money to extent Jason and Justin.
 
I know the A's have said that Donaldson isn't going anywhere but at his salary and production he's the kind u over pay for. Probably wouldn't happen but what would a realistic package for him? Gattis and LaStella would get it started.
 
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