Spring Training Gamethread/Discussion

[tvsportscaster]

Come on TV. Its been a handful of appearances.

When you're trying to pitch well and earn a spot on the team, every appearance is important, just ask Ryan Buchter. If Thomas picks up and pitches well from here on out, yeah, he could be in the mix, because they do need a second lefty.

 

[50PoundHead]

If he ever learns how to hit, he could be extremely valuable.

That's it in a nutshell. Looks like he actually regressed a bit last year in Lynchburg, but it's always difficult to tell from the two-dimensional stat sheet. They may have been working with him on some stuff that required adjustments. He really fell off the table in July and August after having a decent May and June.

My guess is he'll start the year in Mississippi and we'll see how things go from there.

 

[nsacpi]

Again, it's only spring training, but it's nice to see Lipka getting his feet wet. He's been in the OF exclusively for a couple of seasons, but having played the IF early in his minor league career, I'm wondering if they view him as a possible INF/OF utility guy in the future. Always nice to have one of those guys around. He's still only 21 and learning how to get his athletic ability to translate to baseball skills.

One of the broadcasters said he's been taking a lot of ground balls at second and third this spring. Makes sense. They're doing the same with Cunningham and a year ago they started giving some work to Pastornicky in the outfield. Those three all project as utility players. Maybe the right side of a platoon at best.

 

[NinersSBChamps]

No one thought we'd get an injury before Opening Day.

When 2 of your starters are coming off serious injuries, you need to have some sort of plan in place. The Braves answer to adding to the rotation was Freddy Garcia and Gavin Floyd. Unless they are confident in the minor league players, this term did nothing to improve the starting rotation.

 

[Heyward]

When 2 of your starters are coming off serious injuries, you need to have some sort of plan in place. The Braves answer to adding to the rotation was Freddy Garcia and Gavin Floyd. Unless they are confident in the minor league players, this term did nothing to improve the starting rotation.

They didnt have too.

 

[Dalyn]

They didnt have too.

 

[nsacpi]

They didnt have too.

Well every team has areas where they are relatively weak. The question was whether Wren should have done more, whether it be for starting pitching depth or other possible weaknesses.

My view is that you want to be cautious about addressing all potential weaknesses before the season starts, especially if there are some plausible internal solutions. I'd rather keep some budget in reserve to see which areas are the greatest need come June. Now a team like the Dodgers can do more addressing potential weaknesses before the season starts. They picked up Maholm and another Cuban player who can play second to shore up potential weaknesses. Our approach has to be different.

As far as starting pitching goes, I think our depth going into the season was satisfactory. You want 8 decent starters because the eighth starter on average makes ten starts in the majors. Some teams use nine, ten or more starters to get through the season. But on average the ninth or tenth guy is just making a spot start here and there. For example, our ninth and tenth starters last year were Hale (2 starts) and Loe (1 start). We came into spring training with a top 8 of Medlen, Minor, Beachy, Teheran, Wood, Floyd, Hale and Garcia. To me that was good enough. We also have some others ticketed for AAA--Thomas, Martin, Maya, Schlosser--who could potentially step up. So I don't think starting pitching was an area where our depth was a significant issue. Of course, if Medlen is out for the season that changes things quite a bit. We have to see how that turns out.

 

[mossy]

 

[Heyward]

Ok, i didnt think we needed to sign a big-name starter like you suggested.

But what can ya do.

 

[AUTiger7222]

Yeah, they're not out of the woods yet, everybody should probably hold on until an MRI is performed and we know more. Even I'm not mistaken that was the original diagnosis with Tim Hudson a few years back and it turned much worse than that. It just didn't look good.

Same with one of Mike Hampton's injuries. Hearing that it's a forearm strain is never good.

 

[50PoundHead]

Well every team has areas where they are relatively weak. The question was whether Wren should have done more, whether it be for starting pitching depth or other possible weaknesses.

My view is that you want to be cautious about addressing all potential weaknesses before the season starts, especially if there are some plausible internal solutions. I'd rather keep some budget in reserve to see which areas are the greatest need come June. Now a team like the Dodgers can do more addressing potential weaknesses before the season starts. They picked up Maholm and another Cuban player who can play second to shore up potential weaknesses. Our approach has to be different.

As far as starting pitching goes, I think our depth going into the season was satisfactory. You want 8 decent starters because the eighth starter on average makes ten starts in the majors. Some teams use nine, ten or more starters to get through the season. But on average the ninth or tenth guy is just making a spot start here and there. For example, our ninth and tenth starters last year were Hale (2 starts) and Loe (1 start). We came into spring training with a top 8 of Medlen, Minor, Beachy, Teheran, Wood, Floyd, Hale and Garcia. To me that was good enough. We also have some others ticketed for AAA--Thomas, Martin, Maya, Schlosser--who could potentially step up. So I don't think starting pitching was an area where our depth was a significant issue. Of course, if Medlen is out for the season that changes things quite a bit. We have to see how that turns out.

But let's play with that. Medlen, Beachy, Floyd all have durability/injury concerns. Minor, Teheran, and Wood are young (and Wood is probably on an innings limit). Hale is untested and Garcia is crap. I don't see any of the other list you have--Thomas, Martin, Maya, and Schlosser--as being ready to contribute this year. Add Graham as someone who could contribute if he proves he's healthy. Rapid graduation of a lot of guys has depleted our high-minors' depth, but I just think the fall-off after Minor, Teheran, and Medlen is pretty dramatic because Wood is likely to be limited in how much he'll be allowed to pitch and Beachy is a big question mark. I think Wren could have scoured the hustings a bit more assiduously, but I'll give him a bit of a break because pitching is at such a premium.

 

[AUTiger7222]

You guys saying that Wren didn't do a good enough job stocking the rotation act like the Braves have an endless supply of money to work with to sign an A.J. Burnett, Matt Garza, Ubaldo Jimenez, Ervin Santana, ect. And not just 1 but maybe 2 would be your suggestion?

 

[NinersSBChamps]

You guys saying that Wren didn't do a good enough job stocking the rotation act like the Braves have an endless supply of money to work with to sign an A.J. Burnett, Matt Garza, Ubaldo Jimenez, Ervin Santana, ect. And not just 1 but maybe 2 would be your suggestion?

Apparently there was a surplus of money to be thrown around. Look at the extensions handed out in a two week span. With McCann and Hudson off the books there was money available to add a real starting pitcher.

 

[zitothebrave]

Apparently there was a surplus of money to be thrown around. Look at the extensions handed out in a two week span. With McCann and Hudson off the books there was money available to add a real starting pitcher.

So you'd rather have a pitcher for 1/2 years then extend Freddie, Simmons, etc.

 

[PurpleBrave]

Apparently Freddie didn't see Medlen moving his arm before he ran off the mound because he was in the dugout reading a Baseball America prospects handbook...can't make this stuff up

 

[AUTiger7222]

Apparently there was a surplus of money to be thrown around. Look at the extensions handed out in a two week span. With McCann and Hudson off the books there was money available to add a real starting pitcher.

None of the contracts given out impacts or changes the 2014 payroll and budget.

 

[AUTiger7222]

Apparently Freddie didn't see Medlen moving his arm before he ran off the mound because he was in the dugout reading a Baseball America prospects handbook...can't make this stuff up

Doesn't surprise me.

 

[Bdawg2309]

He's the last person I want to hear from right now.

DAE hate fredi??

 

[nsacpi]

But let's play with that. Medlen, Beachy, Floyd all have durability/injury concerns. Minor, Teheran, and Wood are young (and Wood is probably on an innings limit). Hale is untested and Garcia is crap. I don't see any of the other list you have--Thomas, Martin, Maya, and Schlosser--as being ready to contribute this year. Add Graham as someone who could contribute if he proves he's healthy. Rapid graduation of a lot of guys has depleted our high-minors' depth, but I just think the fall-off after Minor, Teheran, and Medlen is pretty dramatic because Wood is likely to be limited in how much he'll be allowed to pitch and Beachy is a big question mark. I think Wren could have scoured the hustings a bit more assiduously, but I'll give him a bit of a break because pitching is at such a premium.

I think just about every pitcher has durability/injury concerns. From what I've read the main alternatives to Floyd were Capuano and Chen. Capuano has his own lengthy injury history. Chen has less of an injury history but has been very inconsistent from year to year. We could have brought back Maholm, but he was hurt for part of last year. We could have brought back Hudson, but he has an injury history involving elbow, back and ankle surgery. At his age, a two-year deal is probably not a good idea. Pitchers break. Injury risk is part of the nature of the beast. And why you try to go eight deep. Once you get to #8 on most teams' lists, you're not going to find many that are preferable to Garcia. The other issue is it is hard to stash 8 major league starters on a roster. You can put one or two in the pen. But then after that you start running out of major league spots. So you reach the point where the next guy has to be someone on a minor league deal. That limits how many major league quality starters you can sign given that those guys won't settle for minor league deals.

I probably like the group ticketed for the Gwinnett rotation more than most around here. I think Thomas has the most potential of the group. I like the fact he has shown effectiveness against righties. Hale and Martin have already had some success in AAA and I think they could be serviceable starters. If one of those three is able to step up and give us 10-15 competitive starts that's pretty decent depth to back up the guys with major league experience.

As for Minor, Teheran and Wood being young, that's true but I think you can reasonably expect them to build on what they did last year. Minor gave us over 200 innings. Teheran gave us 185 innings and I think we could reasonably push him to 195-200. Wood pitched 140 innings in the majors and minors last year and we could push him to 170-180 this year. To me going into the season, the biggest question mark in our rotation is Beachy and I've assumed Floyd is insurance as much for Beachy as for Wood.

The final consideration is I'm pretty sure we have some payroll set aside for a mid season move. We can't tell at this point if the main need is going to be starting pitching, second, left handed relief or something else. But we will have some flexibility to make a move. Given that, I haven't been too concerned about the state of starting pitching on this team.

 

[Millwood1Hitter]

WTF Fredi? And what was Roger doing, looking at a penthouse? Jesus, you think someone would have noticed because he never ever ever should have thrown the next pitch.