Swisher

nsacpi

nsacpi

Expects Yuge Games
In 75 plate appearances with the Braves he has slashed .267/.400/.467.

I don't really care how he does this year or has done in the past except to the extent it helps me understand what he might be able to contribute next year.

75 plate appearances is a small sample. But he was a productive hitter as recently as 2013 (.246/.341/.423).

He will be 35 next year. Until he began experiencing knee problems last year he was a durable player. He had surgery on both knees last year. Inflammation in the left knee required some time on the DL and a rehab assignment this year. His defensive numbers were quite poor last year, but he's done ok at first and left for us.

Obviously, there are significant health risks but I'm starting to think he could be a 2-3 WAR player in left for us next year.

To mitigate the risks in left (and third) I would like to sign someone like Kelly Johnson, but I'd be ok with going into 2016 with Swisher as our main option in left. It would allow us to use our remaining payroll on upgrading at catcher, the rotation and the bullpen.

Right now we project as a 75-80 win team in 2016. My hope is we can move the needle so we project to be an 80-85 win team. A productive Swisher could help us get there.
 
Swisher has played well for us and hopefully he's getting healthy and the last year and a half was just him being hurt and he's now back to what he was. If can hit well and be a 2 WAR player that would go a long way to being a respectable team next year. Still there is a long ways to go.
 
Another good game for Nick today. Hopefully this can continue the rest of the year and carry over into next season.
 
How the heck do we project to be a 75-80 win team. We have no clue who will be on the team and need significant improvement to reach that.
 
I'm happy to see the Swisher resurgence as it should help us get a better return for him when we ship him out next season. Maybe we can eat his salary and get a decent prospect.
 
mqt said:
I'm happy to see the Swisher resurgence as it should help us get a better return for him when we ship him out next season. Maybe we can eat his salary and get a decent prospect.
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You mean flip him at the deadline? Love that strategy. It worked well for us this year.
 
GovClintonTyree said:
You mean flip him at the deadline? Love that strategy. It worked well for us this year.
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Well our farm system is super deep now and you need to keep adding to it. According to the FO and others we have moved from being a bottom farm system to a top 5. You don't do that with food stamps. You need to be continually flipping to get to a super deep farm system and you need to keep flipping to maintain it.
 
GovClintonTyree said:
You mean flip him at the deadline? Love that strategy. It worked well for us this year.
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We're well on our way to achieving our goal, so yeah. This year sort of helps show that we're not going to have a real shot with or without him most likely. Might as well get something back.
 
nsacpi said:
You need to be continually flipping to get to a super deep farm system and you need to keep flipping to maintain it.
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So you're saying you essentially need to be flipping faster than lightning?
 
nsacpi said:
Well our farm system is super deep now and you need to keep adding to it. According to the FO and others we have moved from being a bottom farm system to a top 5. You don't do that with food stamps. You need to be continually flipping to get to a super deep farm system and you need to keep flipping to maintain it.
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Yes, of course. Now that we're here, the only way to crawl out of this hole would be to draft, trade for, and develop talent.

"The only thing that keeps this organization from being recognized as one of the finest in baseball is wins and losses at the major league level." -Chuck LaMar, fired GM of the D-Rays, after eight years of 64 wins per season

Stuart Sternberg promoted Andrew Friedman and suffered through two more 60-plus win seasons before their period of sustained success, largely as a result of Friedman's acquisitions, not LaMar's.

The teardown is the easy part, and the Johns have attacked it with gusto. I will be a lot more impressed when some of the guys they bring in get their ERAs under six, or maybe start swinging the bat a little.

We love our prospects here. But building the farm with lots of bodies isn't the goal. Winning at the major league level is.

It might be a long time before we do that.
 
GovClintonTyree said:
Yes, of course. Now that we're here, the only way to crawl out of this hole would be to draft, trade for, and develop talent.

"The only thing that keeps this organization from being recognized as one of the finest in baseball is wins and losses at the major league level." -Chuck LaMar, fired GM of the D-Rays, after eight years of 64 wins per season

Stuart Sternberg promoted Andrew Friedman and suffered through two more 60-plus win seasons before their period of sustained success, largely as a result of Friedman's acquisitions, not LaMar's.

The teardown is the easy part, and the Johns have attacked it with gusto. I will be a lot more impressed when some of the guys they bring in get their ERAs under six, or maybe start swinging the bat a little.

We love our prospects here. But building the farm with lots of bodies isn't the goal. Winning at the major league level is.

It might be a long time before we do that.
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It's not an either/or, it's a both/and. You need both depth and high ceiling guys. The front office did more in the depth department going into the season, but certainly added some players with projectable ceilings in the draft and international signing period in 2015. The newly-signed guys brought into the system this year aren't going to slot into the major league starting line-up next year or the year after, but it's surely a start.

I think you're right in this is probably going to take a little longer than the 2017 season, but if you build a team that pitches reasonably well and can put together enough offense, being a .500 team by that time isn't out of the question. I think the thing that really hurt this team after the trading deadline is that it was woefully thin and when Maybin and Peterson stopped hitting (and the bullpen totally imploded), there was no safety net. I think that's why it's important that a couple of decent veterans be brought in (every year) to build a reasonably good bench. I think a guy like Kelly Johnson makes a ton of sense (and there are other guys like him out there) because he can play multiple positions and doesn't have to play every day to be effective.
 
KJ would provide insurance both for Swisher and Olivera. I agree on the importance of signing someone like him this off-season. I disagree that there are other guys like him out there. At least not on the FA market and available at his price.
 
If the Braves are bold AND smart, they would look to see if they can get a great return for a Freddie Freeman trade and play Swisher at 1B short term (then flip Swisher at the deadline if he has value there).

Of course you would need to get the right value for Freeman to make a move worthwhile so you have to look for teams with current need and motivation.

A team like Pittsburgh could be a fit. Freeman's LH bat would fit nicely behind McCutchen and give them some core stability and they could play Morse in the OF.

It could go: Freeman for OF Meadows, 1B Bell and 3B/1B Pedro Alvarez (to help balance the dollars).

You play Alvarez at 3B/1B and hope to flip him for something else. Same for Swisher between LF/1B.

That means that you have to build for what is best in 2017 and beyond and treat 2016 like it doesn't exist except in the context of how it best supports 2017 and beyond (and that's not a popular view, I know).

Braves ultimately fill an OF hole and the newly created 1B hole in 2017 and beyond with young controllable talent PLUS free up more short term payroll to make moves to help the rebuild.
 
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