Haha, no way anyone wants to stay in Miami. They’re in perpetual rebuild mode because no one wants to stay there.
Atlanta Braves: Do they finally reel in J.T. Realmuto? 2018 record: 90-72 2019 World Series odds: 12-1 The Braves weren't bad behind the dish last season. In fact, their combined 3.0 WAR from the catcher position ranked sixth in the majors, according to FanGraphs. But the bulk of that value came from the bat of Kurt Suzuki, a 35-year-old free agent whom Atlanta isn't likely to re-sign. Tyler Flowers, the glove-first reserve whom the club inked to a one-year extension in August, is back, but the Braves need to replace Suzuki's production at the plate. They'd love to nab Realmuto from the Marlins (who wouldn't?), but the 2018 All-Star won't come cheap. Realmuto's 4.8 WAR led all catchers and ranked 11th among National Leaguers. What's more, the 27-year-old is in the prime of his career and, as a player who has two more years of arbitration eligibility before hitting free agency, works for relative peanuts. All of which is to say, if Atlanta plans to land Realmuto -- a guy plenty of teams, including the Braves, have flirted with -- in a trade this winter, it'll have to fork over considerable prospect loot. In related news, Atlanta has a whopping nine players among MLB.com's top 100 prospects. If the Braves are willing to part with a couple, it could transform the team from the upstart that got steamrollered in the 2018 playoffs into an NL powerhouse.
he was on a townes van zandt kick the other day. matter of fact he's usually bringing the heat in the music department
who are the best braves related follows? i tried with the talking chop bros but i can't have that much jurasic park 3 and walking dead chatter and my tastefully curated timeline.
TMB is pretty much the reason I don't twitter. I fear change and don't like learning new formats to navigate, and the week I was on Twitter it moved way too fast. I was overwhelmed. Anything relevant will get posted in the 5-10 threads I follow here.
So Brantley and Realmuto feels like our goal, and then we could go Brantley-Acuña-Freeman-Realmuto at the top of the lineup. I can get behind that.
I'd rather have Ronnie at lead off, even if that means moving Free to 4. It's a better line up, but dead spots of Oz, Dans and Ender means the back 4 of our order are trash.
ALEX ANTHOPOULOS, GENERAL MANAGER, BRAVES Are closers still necessary? “I think it’s easier for the managers obviously to have an established ninth-inning guy. Everybody slots down a bit. You get to the playoffs, when I was in L.A., we brought Kenley Jansen in early. It’s just like for years, starters coming: Randy Johnson was coming out of the bullpen. Chris Sale was coming out of the bullpen. So, during the season, certainly it’s nice to have that. A lot of people have talked about the most important outs might be in the seventh or the eighth. I think these are just great relievers. Andrew Miller wasn’t signed as a closer and he got a huge contract. So I do think it’s changing." What does the postseason show us about roles? “I think there’s a component of getting the save, getting the ball. There’s a status to the closer, the leader of the bullpen. All those things. And that’s just a hierarchy that’s been established for years. I do think come playoff time, there’s a selfless attitude of, hey, I’m just trying to get outs, and starters aren’t really getting that upset when they’re getting pulled. It’s just, hey, we’re getting outs, we’re lining things up, so on and so forth. The playoffs is a totally different animal with off-days. Everyone’s available pretty much. We got guys like Charlie Morton coming in out of the bullpen as well. Again, that’s not a new phenomenon, right? So for years, starters have come out of the bullpen and tried to get outs. During the season, it’s more real, I guess. But I think in the playoffs everyone just says, we’re just trying to win.” Are you seeking a closer, interested in Kimbrel? “I can tell you this. I’ve been asked, so, I know I can talk about Craig Kimbrel and say he’s great, he’s a great Brave, I’m allowed to talk about him now. And I know he’s really well thought of, really highly thought of in the organization. People that played with him adored him. Now, I’ll never get into who we’re going to pursue in free agency for obvious reasons. “What I basically said about pursuing high level, expensive relievers with term and significant AAVs: I don’t know that makes a lot of sense for us to allocate the dollars available to that position. Doesn’t mean that there won’t be a day that we do it. Or if the value lines up — right now for this current offseason, we haven’t, we don’t plan to go spend significant dollars and significant years on a reliever. And that doesn’t take anything away from the great relievers that are out there. I just think we have other areas we need to address.” Do you view the role as a luxury? “Yeah, I think so. We have a hole in right field, we need to get someone behind the plate. We’d like to get better in the bullpen. Now, maybe we make a trade and we move some salary and someone’s still out there, we may reverse course. But as I sit here today, it’s — we’d like to have it. We’d just, in terms of the list, it’s not as high on the list. That doesn’t mean we couldn’t use it and be better with it.”
I didn't read it as they're not going to address the pen. They're just not going to go out and do what Colorado did last season, spending $106M total on three-year deals for Wade Davis, Bryan Shaw and Jake McGee.
Hope you are right. When he says he's not sure about allocating dollars to the pen it's concerning. I was hoping to add a mid tier guy or two.
Bowman talking about moving Acuna to CF and using Endie as trade bait is intriguing as hell. It really shouldn't be that hard to find two corner outfielders and using Endie as the centerpiece in a deal should really limit the prospects we have to surrender. Plus, Pache and Waters are on the come-up should Acuna grow out of the position or you otherwise decide you don't want to stress him defensively as much in a couple years. I'm also still on board with acquiring Realmuto (especially with the rumors of him willing to sign an extension with his new team), so two heavy prospect packages for both a starter and Realmuto would be quite a hit, even for a system as stocked as ours.
I'd be happy with this from an offensive perspective. Acuna's defense does not seem to be up to CF standards now and could even hurt Atlanta. I believe Acuna can/will improve defensively though.
Acuna made an error last night playing CF and was actually switched from CF to LF in the bottom of the 9th in a tight game.
They aren't trying to rebuild. Just a little cash strapped and need an infusion of more affordable players.
I hear people say that. But I can’t imagine if you moved ender to LF he would all of a sudden be a mediocre OF. I know the angles are different. But it’s illogical to think a guy who looks mediocre in LF will look good in CF.
Also a rebuild could trade talent away for Ender and then in return trade Ender at the deadline for prospects
Doesn't really matter.. Pache is allegedly the best CF in baseball at any level. Acuña would only be there for a year at the longest.
True. But (and I could be wrong on this) but you're usually looking for bats... And ender is, well not
I think ender has some value. But I think if he was going to pull a decent prospect return then we would do it. He's definitely available
The difference is Acuña is 20 and still improving. He'd be better in CF because the instincts are more natural, as are angles and reads.