There were several also-rans besides Francoeur . Most of these guys likely would have made the list if Mac’s list had been static, as they’re better Braves than the guys who were Nos. 40-44 in the Original List. But with the addition of seven new players, they no longer can bump somebody off. But they’re worth an honorable mention.
Julio Teheran: 40-30, ERA 3.44, WHIP 1.191, IP 633.1, 542 K
Teheran just fulfilled the three full seasons rule this past year. He’s actively waiting in the wings, just off the map in my view. Currently 12th lowest ERA for eligible pitchers, and 13th in Ks. But he’s a very shaky candidate at this point. It remains to be seen whether his stats improve or not. It could go either way.
Adam LaRoche: .281/.346/.512, 77 HR, 253 RBI, 217 RS, OPS+119
Adam made the Left Behind 18 before he returned for half a season in 2009. As noted, his slugging percentage as a Brave trails only four guys on this list: Hank, Chipper, Ryan, and Fred. LaRoche is a better candidate for the 44 than Claudell Washington, Lonnie Smith, etc. But all those guys have been kicked off the list by better players, and Adam isn’t quite good enough to replace Chris Chambliss, who is the anchor position player here.
Tommy Hanson: 45-32, ERA 3.61, WHIP 1.252, 635 IP, 592 K
Rest in peace, Tommy. AAR’s writeup said it all. Just misses, but can’t knock off Ron Reed as the last pitcher in. Neck and neck with Julio above, I’d probably have to go with Julio if I were forced to pick one. 11th in Ks among eligible pitchers.
Matt Diaz: .299/.347/.449 43 HR, 194 RBI, 185 RS, OPS+ 108
It took Matt seven years as a Brave to accumulate three full seasons worth of plate appearances. I loved this guy – kept him on my Rotisserie team in all weathers. He absolutely scalded the ball whenever he was in the game, and he sprinted out every ball he hit. He’s in the top 20 for OPS of guys eligible for this list; he’s in the top five for batting average. But he doesn’t fare so well in Runs Created because he just doesn’t have the at-bats. He needs back all the plate appearances he lost to stiffs like Ryan Langerhans and Gregor Blanco. While he would have been an arguable candidate to join the Original List, the New List he can’t touch.
Kris Medlen: 34-20, ERA 2.95, WHIP 1.155, 512.2 IP, 434 K
Can’t make minimum starts requirement to be eligible. Delighted to see him have some success this year with KC. If he’d had one more full season with the Braves, he’d have to be considered a serious candidate. Oh well.
Jair Jurrjens: 50-36, ERA 3.58, WHIP 1.329, 720 IP, 486 K
Jair pitched longer as a Brave than Teheran, Hanson, or Medlen, but not quite as dominantly. He’s much of a muchness with those four guys, all of whom can’t kick out Ron Reed as last man in.
Reads like a post-mortem of a certain Braves era. In some alternate universe, a rotation of Hanson, Medlen, Jurrjens, Beachy, and Minor pitched us deep into the postseason in 2014.
Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.
That’s an alternate universe I’d love to be living in. Good work, Bledsoe.
John Sickels in a thread today: “Gant could go McHugh on us pretty easily I think.”
A little support for the Fangraphs list. Could be way off-base, but I think some real thought went into it.
Jair Jurrjens
consulted with various surgeons
an incipient muscle
or a quite inappropriate absence of hustle.
Matt Diaz
with lefties a concept that only he haz
but righties confound
preposterous polarity, he never came around.
Kris Medlen
had the Cardinals backpedaling
then that throw from third base
an aberrant showcase.
Really love these. Thanks Bledsoe.
And in some even more alternative universe, Teheran is somewhere in that pitching mix too.
(Yeah it’s one Sam. I’m back.)
Have been enjoying the writeups too! 🙂
In praise of college football
My son won tickets to an Eastern Carolina/ Cincinnati game in Greenville by finishing second in an eating contest.
Not much but pride on the line. Loved the Pirates raising a “No quarter” flag at the start of the 4th quarter. When they played “Living On a Prayer” over the PA, they cut it off at the chorus and 30000 sang the rest. They also shot off a cannon when the home team scored.
Fun for all ages.
Go Braves!
Annd
Checked out the site after seeing their teardown of the Gallo-hype. Rotoprofessor has the Angels top prospect as our old pal Kyle Kubitza. Curious to see what they see in the Braves’ system.
UGA fans will soon rue this day.
Being the best guy in the Angels system isn’t a ringing endorsement, per se.
Right. That says more about them than Kubitza. Plus, he’s been terrible at the major league level.
Had not seen the Braves linked to Zobrist until this:
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/11/latest-ben-zobrist-mets-braves-nats.html
Zobrist is on the older side (34), but he makes sense for Atlanta in a lot of ways. He doesn’t really rely on power or speed, so he’s the type to age really well (even making a 4 year deal make sense). We all know about the versatility, but he makes so much sense to the Braves when you slot him in at 2B. He turns Peterson into a super-sub (making Daniel Castro either some very valuable depth or a trade piece), and he provides insurance for Neck’s Neck or Olivera being a bust in LF. His .816 OPS in 2015 would have been second on the team. Plus, he’s an incredibly strong veteran presence on a young team (something the Braves clearly value by signing Markakis and Pierzynski) and, for fans, the signing would prove that the Braves are serious when they say they’re speeding up the rebuilding and are planning to exceed expectations in 2016. And though maybe not important to some, him and his wife are great people and did a lot of great things in St. Pete while he was here. Just like Edward is the chairman of the Jason Heyward Fan Club, I’ve been silently a huge Zobrist fan since he became a local folk hero in St. Pete.
Mark Richt fired
https://www.dawgnation.com/football/team-news/georgia-fires-mark-richt
He had a good run.
@12-13 We’re on the same page.
Good run indeed, and I hope he stays on in the AD dept in some fashion. Now let’s get Tom Herman and move our offense into the current millennia.
If UGA is committed to spending money, and continuing internal program improvements, and get the right guy, this could be a monster opportunity.
If.
Richt served Georgia well but it was probably time.
If. UGA had done those things prior…maybe they already had the right guy. Richt leaves the program much better than he found it. Good luck getting 13+ and into the playoffs every year.
My crazy prediction: UA wins the NC, UGA hires Smart, Miami hires Cristobal, someone hires Kiffin, and Saban shocks the world by taking the Colts job with full control. Swinney gets hired at Bama and proceeds to rebuild the coaching staff and find a starting QB and RB.
@20
I can see all of those things happening. Not that crazy. Bama has a lot of people over-qualified to be there, hence their success. I’m surprised Saban can keep it all straight. And Saban just needs to go back to the NFl already. There’s not much to prove at the college level this year, especially if he wins another NC.
If Saban wins another championship, he can name whatever compensation he’d like from Alabama and stay in arguably the best gig in the game for a long time. I can’t see the attraction of going back to the NFL myself, but who knows. I think the athlete coach relationship on the college level appeals to him more than the professional one.
@21: I guess it would be like Seinfeld and going out on top (at least at the current level).
@22: You are probably right. The comments he made regarding Richt’s departure spoke a lot to molding young men and that sort of thing.
So long, CMR. A good run for sure.
#22
You only go NFL if you have a legit QB, and Indy certainly does.
But, I agree, he has a kingdom as long as he wants it. Why leave it?
And who knows if it means anything to Saban, but he still has a couple more national titles before he catches Bryant.
Saban’s wife doesn’t want to go anywhere, hence he’ll be at Bama til he retires. He makes them so much money not just in football but look at the enrollment and acceptance rates since he’s been coach. Enrollment has doubled while acceptance has shrunk by half, he’s printing UA money. He could get paid $20 million next year and be wildly underpaid. Alabama will do whatever it takes to keep him.
New thread.