There’s really not much to say about this one. The Mets continued their powerful ways by hitting another 4 home runs today, all of which were given up by Jhoulys Chacin. He had his worst start as a Brave, and has yet to pitch more than 6 innings this year. He’€™s averaging about a strike out per inning, stingy on walks, and until today, had not given up a homer. He tends to have to go deep into counts to finish off hitters, and it’€™s causing his pitch counts to get elevated too early. Today, he just didn’€™t have it.
The Braves mustered three hits today with no one even lucky enough to register an extra base hit. Nick Markakis was out of the lineup tending to a family matter, and Adonis Garcia was back at third today.
We head back to Atlanta to play the Diamondbacks with Aaron Blair getting the first start. He has dueled opposite Jacob deGrom and Jon Lester in his first two starts, and now draws Zach Greinke. Lucky fella.
Aaron Blair will probably have some setbacks, but I think that his case the Braves have a real solid pitcher.
I wonder if Inciarte will be back in time to face Shelby Miller…..
Nice, Rob Cope.
What are the odds we take two of three from Arizona?
Is today the day Fredi is shown the door?
Dans.
That’s the best video they can do in 2016?
They’re a real estate company, not a video replay company.
How long before Danby is considered the top prospect in baseball? The kid just seems to get better.
He is three years older than Albies. He should be good, but I wouldn’t read too much into him crushing it just yet.
@7 The only thing Dansby hasn’t done is show in-game HR power against upper level competition… he’s put one ball over the fence in 95 ABs so far in 2016 (the other HR was a line drive in front of the CF that ended up as an inside the park job). Looks to me like he profiles as an excellent #2 hitter with his great plate discipline, contact and speed; I could see a .350+ OBP and a .450 SLG with 30+ 2B and 10-15 HR per season in his prime.
With any luck, Ozzie + Dansby + Freddie will anchor the infield and the top of the Braves lineup by early 2017.
EDIT: Apparently Dansby’s given first name is James – who knew?
I’m starting to feel the Dansby hype. It’s not just the tools and skills; it’s how they talk about his leadership, character, makeup, etc. He just seems to have the intangibles package too. A SIX tool player! With how truly putrid Erick Ayabr is, it’s going to become very tempting to get one of these guys at the big league club, however short-sighted that may be.
I don’t understand all the namby pamby worry over making sure our top prospects are “seasoned”. Both Swanson and Albies should have left spring training with the major league club, and should be starting right now. Age is just a number. The best players should play. That’s the whole damn point. And Swanson is older than a number of past Braves rookies. Him being in AA is a joke.
I’m inclined to agree with you with Swanson considering he’s already 22. I do worry about Albies being so young. And when you factor in how bad Aybar is, and it’s just becomes low-hanging fruit for us.
Does Aybar have any value to maybe an American League team? Could we get a team with a decent farm system’s 28th prospect for him or something?
@11, you might show respect for people you disagree with. There are lots of intelligent people on here whose thoughtfulness can’t be reduced to “namby pamby worry”.
Swanson being in AA is not a joke. He didn’t crush low-A last year. He started the season at high-A because of that and partially because there was a better shortstop in front of him who was already skipping a level (Albies). He was promoted after just 1 month of good play at high-A, which is a very quick promotion. I suspect he will be in AAA by July or skip it altogether and come to MLB.
If he is in AA at the end of the season, OPS’ing 1.200, that will be a joke. Won’t happen.
Dansby’s Southern enough not to go by his first name.
Erick Aybar is, and is roundly perceived to be, one of the worst players in the major leagues. He’s also on a contract that pays $8.5 million this year. (The Angels are paying $2.5 million of that.) Until he starts hitting and fielding, his contract is so far underwater that the Braves literally couldn’t give him away.
They have two options: keep playing Daniel Castro and occasionally spelling him with Aybar because that’s the best team you can field with this roster, or try to showcase Aybar to build his value back up. If you think he’s just slumping — he was terrific two years ago and okay a year ago — maybe you do that. If you think he’s got a fork in his back, though, you just eat the contract and bury him on your bench until Castro gets hurt or can no longer hit his weight.
@12, I usually try to imagine being on the receiving end of a trade involving one of our players. I can’t imagine being anything but infuriated if my team traded anything of value for Aybar. It would have to be a bad contract swap or just cash considerations.
P.S. Touki is dealing today for a change.
You’d essentially be buying prospects at a premium because of Aybar’s negative value. I doubt he’s slumping. His weight gain and age suggest he’s on a steep decline. He may not be a .400 OPS player, but he won’t get close to a .700+ OPS, which he’s only done 4 times in his career anyway. I just wish he could have declined gracefully and put in an empty .270 BA with league average difference. So, Rey Sanchez.
Dansby will be in Atlanta by the end of the year even if he doesn’t put a lot of balls over the wall. His value to the Braves both now and in the future goes without saying. Back in krussell’s day, kids were tough. They played baseball barefooted and with no gloves. Once you were done tilling the fields, you were ready for a good game of hardball.
Rey Sanchez could pick it. Aybar is more like the old version of Edgar Renteria.
Breaking camp with a 19 year old kid who’s never played above A ball just because the team had a need at shortstop is a move that literally no team in the league would make.
And literally every person in the game believes a player can be damaged by rushing him when he’s not ready.
krussel’s criticism at 11 is really difficult to take seriously.
I know Aybar has had a horrid start, but going forward is he really worse than Castro? If so, we are in deep trouble at short until Albies or Swanson arrive. Castro has a .556 OPS in 161 ML at bats and I thought he overperformed last year and the first part of this year. Aybar had a .683, .700, and .639 OPS over the last 3 years. I thought a repeat of last year’s performance and maybe a little better was realistic, but apparently I’m dumb. What a waste of a roster spot if so!
With the scarcity of offense in the game, especially up the middle, and since he could be positioning himself for one last big payday, I just don’t know why Aybar would not get his body in shape and have a good walk year. We’ve talked about the macro data of whether or not walk years consistently produce elevated results, but in this individual situation, you’d think Aybar would want a big 3-4 year deal from ages 33-36 or whatever when the stupid free agent market would be dying to give it to him. Pull yourself together, man.
@15/18
there are always exceptions, and…
the precocity of youthful prodigies today is now commonly matched by their advanced maturity as people…lots of examples throughout the sports world, world wide…the status quo should not be treated so reverentially, things change, we progress, look what’s happening all around us…1’ll be a good boy and not draw the obvious example..
‘namby bamby’ could well have been directed at the front office…this is a separate point but a totally valid one…get ’em up, not across the board, but selectively…it’s called judgment and you will take responsibility for it…you have an obligation to put the best product on the field, one that merits our support not embarrasses us.
Dansby is a no brainer. Ozzie is 19, so? Max Verstappen/Jonathan Sieth/Koby/..on and on…there’s nothing special about baseball in this regard, it seems we need protection from ourselves.
Sheesh I’m not criticizing Braves Journalers uniquely here. I don’t like knee-jerk conventional wisdom stuff period. Ozzie Albies is ready to play right now. He’s not going to learn anything else in the minors. He’s better than almost everyone on our current big league roster. The only reason to keep him off the major league team is financial worries 6 years down the line. Bah.
@19, Well AAR says Castro just has to hit his weight. I think .145 shouldn’t be too hard to accomplish.
BTW @14, FIXED: Dansby is Southern enough to go by someone else’s last name.
@9
that edit explains everything…
‘Home, James’. Gatsby to his chauffeur.
Home is where we want him to be.
I do agree that the financial worries 6 years down the road could stem from outsmarting yourself or trying to predict the future. No one has any idea where Ozzie Albies or Dansby Swanson will be 2 years from now, let alone 6. If they’re ready, if they’re a use to the big league club, then call them up. If it’s an absolute can’t miss like Kris Bryant and you delay him a month, then ok, but this situation doesn’t warrant that consideration.
You might take your chances rushing a college player to the big leagues with 22 professional games under his belt (which is what Swanson had coming in to the year) if you have a need and a chance to compete. But the possibility of pushing a 68 win team to 72 wins is not worth the risk of slowing the progress of a rare commodity. For that matter, it’s not worth losing a year of that player on the back end of his control years, or the increased expense in extending him.
We’re talking about how good Swanson has been this year as if this year is a repeat of last year. Last year, he played 22 games at low A, was good but not this good, and missed time after he got hit in the face with a fastball. It was not a given that he’d excel this quickly and to this extent. Can’t we just take a positive and not use it as another reason to complain?
(Edit: all of the above doubly for the 19 year old Albies, who by the way, has so far met his match as the youngest player in AAA.)
Question … I looaround the majors and there are kids hitting HR’s like crazxy ..also the minor leagues for these teams have power … the Braves Major league team and the minors are almost void of kids wiht power .. while we seem to be able to recognize some good prospects wiht pitching from scouts . our scouts have NOT been able to recognize Major League power from prospects .. any thoughts or has any Braves fans heard any conversation around this with Braves brass or the reporters from Atl that cover the Braves ?????????????????????
What’s wrong with watching him grow with the AAA Atlanta Braves this year? We’re not going to win that many more games with Swanson and Albies unless they also replace half the pitchers too. It’s not about the 2016 record, it’s about putting something on the field that interests the fanbase, makes them want to watch. Makes them want to spend money.
So. what are your thoughts about Bud Black? He any good?
@21, well said, blazon.
No, it’s about doing what is best for the long term development of the player. And understanding that the best long term outcomes for the players will lead to the best long term outcomes for the team, both competitively and financially.
I don’t know that these players will even be Braves long-term. I do know, with 100% certainty, that the product on the field and defiling my TV screen every night, is absolutely horrible.
Well that sounds like a good way to run a team. I take it all back.
Yeah, playing the best players in the org at each position is just dumb.
I would contend there’s a completely defensible middle ground in the two approaches that largely centers around a case-by-case basis approach.
@34 – I wouldn’t necessarily call that a middle ground, as that’s exactly what every team does. But the margin for error necessarily shifts in an individual case based on a) the gain to be had (how good is the team) and b) the risk (is this player in our long term plans.)
If the team is bad but the player has nothing left to prove, you advance the player. If the team is bad but the player is in A ball, you clearly don’t.
The compromise will be to call them up late June instead of right now. Waiting until rosters expand is way too much to ask. I have zero patience with this org. They haven’t earned it.
RAIN DELAY INTERMISSION
…from a recent previous thread, Rob Cope attends Gulf Coast baseball.
Bah-bah-bah-bah, bah-bah-bah-bah
Bah-bah-bah-bah. Bah-bah-bah-bah, at the Trop
Well, they can sock it they can bowl it
they can run they even stole it at the Trop
when the records start spinning
in a very early inning at the Trop
see the rookie sensation just back from probation at the Trop.
Ah, let’s go to the Trop
Let’s go to the Trop, (oh maybe)
Let’s go to the hop, (yes maybe)
Let’s go to the Trop
Come on, let’s go to the Trop
Well, you can swing it you can groove it
that will really start to move it at the Trop
where defense is lackadaisy
but the catcher hits like crazy at the Trop
all the fats and hicks can get their kicks at the Trop
Bah-bah-bah-bah, bah-bah-bah-bah
Bah-bah-bah-bah. Bah-bah-bah-bah, at the Trop!
krussell, you have said explicitly (elsewhere) that your interest in getting Swanson and Albies up as quickly as possible is that you are bored and they would entertain you. You’re entitled to your own preferences, of course, but you can’t say that and then pretend that you’re actually more concerned about what is optimal for the players’ development.
To simplify this, and address the “middle ground” comment, krussell’s position is to call them up no matter what. The opposite position is to hold them down no matter what (which nobody is arguing for). The middle ground is the position every other person on here is taking.
For those too impatient to see our minor leaguers, buy a subscription to MiLB and wAtchison prospects play there. You will certainly see a better win percentage. Given the Braves budget, management needs to maximize the benefit to cost of young players to get enough players good enough simultaneously to win.
Hey blazon,
I didn’t try to steal clerihews from you, so you don’t try to steal song parodies from me! I only have so much talent.
@39 – That’s really the only way this is going to pan out. Based on comments from management and the farce that was our involvement in the JUpton bidding last winter, we’re absolutely not ever going to pay market rates for star talent, so we’re pretty much going to need a few stars PLUS average players at the other positions to graduate from the farm all at once. If it’s a trickle, then we might get a one or two longshot playoff years before your Dansbies start getting sold off for prospects again.
Hey, neat.
@38, my position is that you play to win, and you win by playing the best players you have. If you start making 6 year plans, you’ve already lost, imo.
41—Or the payroll increases, as planned, when the revenues increase with the new stadium and surrounding developments, as planned.
Swanson and Albies are nice little players. They are both better than Aybar and Jace Peterson. They aren’t going to carry the team on their backs to the playoffs though. We don’t have any position players that fit that mold. If it’s going to happen, it’ll happen because of the pitching.
The “real” team needs to materialize this year. I want to see all of them, playing in a no-pressure but high-level environment.
New thread.
Hey Cliff,
Cheers. I remember back a bit writing you here after a few of your song parodies had appeared asking if you could somewhere identify the song in question whose youth had me struggling to name them, i had no idea. You were wise enough to offer a Solomonesque compromise – the song would be identified not on publication but later the same day, remember?
Clerihews?…the more the merrier, please!