Ronald Acuna Out For The Season

Mrs. Meta said:
Gimme Hessman
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I've been saying this for years.

Really tough break. No one can honestly say if it's winter ball or too much stealing. Maybe Acuna is a guy with structural issues in his knees from the get-go. I've always seen him as someone with a high-effort "violent" body. Swings hard. Runs hard (maybe not always in the OF). His first ACL came from simply landing wrong on an OF fly. I don't know how much he works out in the off-season, but his routine could put additional pressure on his knees (which would be far worse than simply playing a few games of winter ball).

Interesting to see where they go from here. The team has been a little upside-down from expectations as the pitching is carrying them while the bats slumber. There will be an uptick in the offense, but there's no doubt that Acuna's loss is huge and does produce a ripple effect throughout the line-up. Wall could come in and do a "Hurricane Hazle" to some extent, but who knows how long that might last. Curious to see what bats may be available at the deadline and the acquisition cost associated with a move. Braves have drafted a lot of college pitchers that are doing well and some of the second-tier guys (Hackenburg, Kuehler, Maier, etc.) could be in the mix. Waldrep is--or should be--off the table in discussions and I'm guessing they would be extremely reluctant to include Schwellenbach in a deal.

For you baseball history buffs:

HazleBob.jpg
 
Slippyjms said:
So far the moves are Acuña to the IL Wendle DFA Murphy activated Martinez recalled.
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Interesting. Could mean Ozuna to LF part-time and revolving DH with Murphy, d'Arnaud, and Ozuna. Martinez as late-inning defensive replacement and someone who slots in against RHP when Ozuna is DHing and Kelenic/Duvall platoon in RF.

All those years some of us thought that Wendle would have been a valuable pick-up and we only get him for a weekend.
 
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All the stupid pointless base running antics and horrible load management aside, it’s crazy to see a young guy with so many knee issues. He must have been favoring the right knee and putting extra pressure on the left knee for quite some time.

Needless to say, it’s very unlikely Acuna becomes what he had the potential to be. Terrible thing to see. The Braves should have managed him much better, and instead wasted the best baseball athlete in a Braves uniform since Hank Aaron…and maybe better than Hank.
 
The team has seemed high on Martinez. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get more play than we might expect.
 
Enscheff said:
All the stupid pointless base running antics and horrible load management aside, it’s crazy to see a young guy with so many knee issues. He must have been favoring the right knee and putting extra pressure on the left knee for quite some time.

Needless to say, it’s very unlikely Acuna becomes what he had the potential to be. Terrible thing to see. The Braves should have managed him much better, and instead wasted the best baseball athlete in a Braves uniform since Hank Aaron…and maybe better than Hank.
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I remember Hank talking about being pulled aside and told when he was a young player that you can’t go all out all the time. He was a good athlete but he picked his spots. He understood that the important thing was keeping that bat productive and in the lineup and he did an incredible job of that. Hopefully Ronnie will still develop completely with his bat. The rest of his skill set is extra. My dream is that he can be Hank for us not Otis Nixon.
 
Coredor said:
I remember Hank talking about being pulled aside and told when he was a young player that you can’t go all out all the time. He was a good athlete but he picked his spots. He understood that the important thing was keeping that bat productive and in the lineup and he did an incredible job of that. Hopefully Ronnie will still develop completely with his bat. The rest of his skill set is extra. My dream is that he can be Hank for us not Otis Nixon.
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Well, with surgery on both knees, he will pretty much have to become a different player. Hopefully focusing on hitting the ball in the air, and a long ways will provide a way for him to still be successful without the prowess on the bases that he has tried to use to define him in the past.
 
Coredor said:
I remember Hank talking about being pulled aside and told when he was a young player that you can’t go all out all the time. He was a good athlete but he picked his spots. He understood that the important thing was keeping that bat productive and in the lineup and he did an incredible job of that. Hopefully Ronnie will still develop completely with his bat. The rest of his skill set is extra. My dream is that he can be Hank for us not Otis Nixon.
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Good points. One of the things that has changed in my Methusalian fandom is that players are so much more athletic now than they were in the 1960s and 1970s and due to free agency, I think the play harder than in earlier eras in order to rack up stats (meaningless though some may be). Acuna seems to get that in the field when he lets up a bit, but he's pretty much all-out all the time in the batters' box and on the bases and like I said earlier, he has a violent swing much like Gary Sheffield had. Punishes the body.
 
Acuna was a generational talent who could have been among the best RHH of all time. I’ve never even heard of a baseball player destroying both knees like this by age 26. Tearing the ACL in both knees would be rare for an NFL player, and unheard of for a bad all player.

This just really sucks.
 
Couple things. I dont know that we should sign Acuna to an extension. If he wants to take a huge discount and sign something like 5 years 150 million we should take that but absolutely no way can we pay him some kind of massive 10 year 500 million contract. We can see the chronic knee problems coming from a mile away. And honestly if he has another big year like 2023 I might even consider trading him if he wont take a big discount on an extension. As good as he is what fuels winning teams are good cheap players. I would rather trade Acuna and Albies when their value is high than pay them a combined 70 million a year.


I know this wont happen but I think the best thing for the franchise in terms of winning would be to sell this year. I know it wont happen because revenue would fall off a cliff but we have so many good assets we could cash in on add a lot of prospect depth that we are sorely lacking. Fried would bring a premium and we could maybe even Kenny Lofton a team and sign him back in the offseason. By trading him there would be no qualifying offer which would really be a favor to him. We could unload Iglesias to a team that needs a closer and get back a decent return. A contender with closer issues would probably view Iglesias with 1.5 year left as a good option. 16 million a year is expensive for a closer but theres little long term risk associated with him. Minter and Johnson could bring solid returns. Even A Bummer might get a decent return as he has been good since his rocky start. I dont know if Morton would be open to being traded but he is a solid back end starter. We could pick up the tab on these contracts for what remains this year and get a better return or possibly if we sold enough of player with contracts expiring this year or next even get under the luxury tax threshold a year early.
 
cajunrevenge said:
Couple things. I dont know that we should sign Acuna to an extension. If he wants to take a huge discount and sign something like 5 years 150 million we should take that but absolutely no way can we pay him some kind of massive 10 year 500 million contract. We can see the chronic knee problems coming from a mile away. And honestly if he has another big year like 2023 I might even consider trading him if he wont take a big discount on an extension. As good as he is what fuels winning teams are good cheap players. I would rather trade Acuna and Albies when their value is high than pay them a combined 70 million a year.


I know this wont happen but I think the best thing for the franchise in terms of winning would be to sell this year. I know it wont happen because revenue would fall off a cliff but we have so many good assets we could cash in on add a lot of prospect depth that we are sorely lacking. Fried would bring a premium and we could maybe even Kenny Lofton a team and sign him back in the offseason. By trading him there would be no qualifying offer which would really be a favor to him. We could unload Iglesias to a team that needs a closer and get back a decent return. A contender with closer issues would probably view Iglesias with 1.5 year left as a good option. 16 million a year is expensive for a closer but theres little long term risk associated with him. Minter and Johnson could bring solid returns. Even A Bummer might get a decent return as he has been good since his rocky start. I dont know if Morton would be open to being traded but he is a solid back end starter. We could pick up the tab on these contracts for what remains this year and get a better return or possibly if we sold enough of player with contracts expiring this year or next even get under the luxury tax threshold a year early.
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The team won the WS 3 years ago after this happened to Acuna so they wont sell. They have to much invested to do so. Just tread water until the deadline and then get the best hitting OF you can.
 
Winning percentage wise, they’re tied for the second best record in the league. If they’re still not hitting 3-4 weeks from now, we can have that conversation.
 
Enscheff said:
Acuna was a generational talent who could have been among the best RHH of all time. I’ve never even heard of a baseball player destroying both knees like this by age 26. Tearing the ACL in both knees would be rare for an NFL player, and unheard of for a bad all player.

This just really sucks.
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It’s not unheard of. Frank Gore tore the ACL in both knees before he reached the pros and ended up having a HoF career. I agree that there’s a very good chance that Acuña won’t be the same hitter again, let alone overall player. And with that, along with a myriad of other factors, it is looking like it might be the beginning of the end of this great run.
 
With it being a different knee, I think he will be fine. If he tears another one, he's most likely done
 
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