April and May was Rocky but after that he gotten in a groove. Was glad to see him not miss a start had almost 200 innings too
Starting Pitchers - Free Agents Brett Anderson Bronson Arroyo Brandon Beachy Andrew Cashner John Danks Jorge de la Rosa R.A. Dickey Scott Feldman Jaime Garcia Gio Gonzalez * Jeremy Guthrie Jason Hammel * Jeremy Hellickson Derek Holland * Daniel Hudson Edwin Jackson Cliff Lee Cory Luebke Kris Medlen * Matt Moore * Charlie Morton * Jon Niese * Ivan Nova Jake Peavy Edinson Volquez * Jered Weaver C.J. Wilson Travis Wood
not much on the free agent side of things except for justin turner and dodgers have said they will spend to keep him from that list, i would love to get either Jaime Garcia, Matt Moore, or Derek Holland. Wouldnt mind Edison Volquez or CJ wilson as long as they are healthy but I wouldnt spend big money or anything and im sure someone else will, and will take a chance on them
We need stability and innings. No one on that list really offers that. I guess Hellickson and Nova are the top guys? Guthrie or Dickey might benefit from a move to the NL. Neither of them have much left but they'd be cheap and give us innings.
Dickey, Guthrie, Peavy, Danks, all fit the mold of a classic Braves signing. Vet that would sign for cheap and may or may not have anything left. These kind of guys have worked out OK for us in the past. Sheets, Garcia, Floyd, Stults, Chacin, Norris to name a few.
DGIAF, would love to finally see Peavy in a Braves uniform. If we can get him for the right price I think he'd be really, really good for our young arms, too. Always been one of my favorite players. From Mobile, and we played under the same high school baseball coach.
I just relooked up Vazquez's stats while on the Braves in 2009. Dude had the best season of his career (219 IP, 2.84 ERA, 238 Ks), and despite being 32 he only had 2 more seasons left in the bigs. Crazy imo. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/v/vazquja01.shtml
I see the logic, but I'm such a big Snit fan. Was going to suggest someone other than McDowell as pitching coach going forward. It seems the only guy he's really helped that much is Jim Johnson. It seems like a change is in order considering how badly our young arms struggled in the bigs.
Starting pitching and catching are Braves’ main needs this winter The Atlanta Journal-Constitution As the Braves’ 2016 wore on, Adonis Garcia did plenty to allay concerns about third base, while starting pitchers provided frequent reminders that most of the high-level arms Atlanta acquired in recent trades and drafts were either still in the minors or not quite ready for big-league roles they’d been thrust into. And so, the projected offseason primary-needs list evolved since summer, from third base and catching to starting pitching and catching, with an emphasis on the starting pitcher. The Braves can live with Garcia at third base, but can’t afford to have such a shaky starting rotation again if they expect to make strides at SunTrust Park in 2017. And while they got better-than-expected production from the catching duo of Tyler Flowers and Anthony Recker after A.J. Pierzynski struggled mightily and eventually went on the disabled list, the Braves would like to add a preferably left-handed hitter to pair with Flowers in 2017. “(Starting pitching) would clearly be our big need,” Braves general manager John Coppolella said of the to-do list. “We need two starters at least, possibly three. As the season’s gone on, we’ve been very pleased with the job Adonis has done. He came back — from when he was sent down (to Triple-A) — a new man; offensively and defensively he played very well. “There’s a need to get a catcher to help Tyler Flowers; we like him a lot. He had a great year for us. That isn’t a knock on Tyler or anybody. We want to see what’s out there. There isn’t a whole lot of catching out there. If we can’t find anything, we’re very happy going with Flowers as well as (backup Anthony) Recker. They both did a real nice job for us.” The free-agent catching market was slim even before Wilson Ramos tore up his knee in the last week of the season. Switch-hitting Matt Wieters has some appeal but could be too pricey and a little risky given his past injuries. Still, he hit 17 homers in an All-Star season in 2016 and has three recent seasons with 22-23 homers. Former Braves catcher Brian McCann also could be considered again if the Yankees lower the trade ask for him. As for the rest of the lineup, where there appeared to be multiple holes early, by midseason the Braves felt a lot better about things as several slumping players suddenly began to produce. And after the second-half additions of veteran outfielder Matt Kemp and top shortstop prospect Dansby Swanson, the Braves looked downright potent most nights. Even when the starting pitching was struggling for long stretches, the Braves scored enough to play over-.500 ball after their 18-46 start, and that was primarily due to the offense, plus an improved bullpen. “We had the makings of a ballclub,” Braves president of baseball operations John Hart said. “This lineup is one that’s real now. You look at the year Freddie Freeman had, it’s an MVP-caliber year with a different club. Ender Inciarte, I think, is the player we knew we were trading for. Adonis Garcia has stepped up and played very well for us at third base. Nick Markakis, another banner year coming off of the injuries that he had two years ago. Jace Peterson (played well) when he came back from the minor leagues. Tyler Flowers…. It’s a nice list of successful players offensively.” What the Braves don’t want to do again is watch multiple young starting pitchers going the trial-by-fire course, getting knocked around mercilessly or coming apart at the first sign of adversity. They love their young pitching, but want to make sure they can develop it at a proper pace while waiting for the elite arms to arrive in coming years. Other than Julio Teheran, they can’t project with any certainty what they’re going to get from the likes of young fireballer Mike Foltynewicz, who stepped forward this year, and Matt Wisler, who took steps back. Prospect Aaron Blair, notwithstanding his 10-strikeout performance against the Tigers Saturday, was overmatched most of the season. So they’ll look for starting pitchers and a catcher. And unlike recent years, they’ll look first to fill those needs through free agency rather than trades. They’ll have money to spend this winter, but won’t say if there’s a specific amount. “There may be somebody that we thought would price themselves out that comes in at a great bargain deal,” Coppolella said. “There’s probably (a preference) to fill a need through free agency rather than trades, due to the fact we’ve worked so hard to add all this young talent, the last thing we want to do is trade away three or four of them that we really like so that we can get a quick fix. Everything we’ve done has been the hard way, it’s been build for the long haul. There haven’t been any quick fixes. And I think that’s why we’re going to build something that’s going to be long-lasting.”
Coppy can say he would rather use FA to find pitching, but if you look at the list of starters available this offseason, it's beyond terrible. It's a long list of players that will get overpaid for just being on the market in the right year. Rich Hill is likely the top pitcher out there. But does anyone really feel comfortable giving big money to a pitcher who will be 37 on opening day, and who really only began to find success as a starter just last year?
I don't give a fuck about big money. Only thing that matters to me is years. As long as the deals are a year or two, make it rain Coppy.
Rich hills late career success is explainable though. Yea and he's old so it would be a short deal. He does have pussy blister-prone fingers though
That's the thing though -- with the lack of talent out there, and teams always looking for pitching, how many players are going to be willing to sacrifice years off a contract to go into a talent heavy pool next year, or especially in 2018? Next year you've got Arrieta, Duffy, Lackey, Tillman, Estrada, Cueto can opt out. Players are gonna be at the back of the bus trying to get that money. If a pitcher is gonna cash, this is the year for them to get their money. Talent pool is extremely, extremely thin.
Guys with nicknames do well in this organization. Harry Ralston "Bud" is pretty solid. No Larry Wayne of course.
ICYMI: Bud Black is favorite for #Braves job. Sources have told me Black might give #Rockies a look, but now that may never happen. https://t.co/NpuXjiissi
I'm good either way, but if they really like both guys, it make sense to hire Bud knowing Snit will stay as a 3B coach or something.
Yeah, they need to do well by Snit of course. Been with them forever, and did a hell of a job. Like I said, I'm good with hiring Snit, but the stuff he's been praised with (great in the clubhouse, players like him, knows all the prospects) will still be a big positive as the 3B coach or bench coach.
He's been around forever so maybe not, but that just seems like it would be so weird to be demoted under your replacement Probably not as drastic in baseball as it would be in other sports.
I remember him being pretty bad at 3rd base. Would prefer him as bench coach if he isn't the manager.
Pretty sure he's come out and been quoted as saying he's gonna be with the Braves no matter what. Black/Snitker 2016
Um I don't like that. But I guess you could say he hadn't done a good job with the recent wave of prospects that have come up. Folty is the only one thats been somewhat of a success
I like it.. I've seen way too many comments this year about needing to go down to AAA and figure everything out/fix issues. Roger has been struggling with these young guys. Writing was on the wall when we brought up the extra pitching coach after FG was fired.