You may have noticed that Braves Journal went down for a few hours on Thursday afternoon. That’s because the site was hacked and used to send out a great deal of spam, so the administrators who manage our hosted account took the site down to prevent any further harm. With help from our hosts at baseball-reference, we got the site back up.
But it is time for us to find our own hosting. Baseball-reference has been an unbelievably gracious host, and has kept the site running for nearly four years since Mac’s passing, and it’s not right to continue to impose upon their generosity.
Do any of you have the ability to host our WordPress site? Please contact me using the email address in the upper-right hand corner.
I wish I could help but I don’t even know what it means to host a website. You need your own server? A big computer that’s always running? I feel awfully ignorant.
I’d like to say that I fully agree with John R about WFF from the last thread. It is more aptly “affluence flight” if anything. Affluence has its particular demographics in this country but from the Braves’ perspective that is surely incidental to their pursuit of revenue. It’s also nothing new. I live in Dallas and the Rangers (and Cowboys’) stadiums are in Arlington, a 30 min drive without traffic that is much longer and annoying as all get out to make after work if you live in Dallas proper, and the public transportation doesn’t go there.
Slate and chisel here. Wish I were a wizard like you guys, but I’m more at home with cursive.
Four years, huh? Mac would be proud of you and his house, AAR.
As you know Alex, I am minimally proficient with issues like this.
I have a site hosted on GoDaddy. So is this a need for a “place” or for somebody to monitor the site or maintain functionality (or for money to do one or both of these)?
I am willing to donate a little coin to help out if need be.
I too would gladly hand over some coins.
Back to baseball – I’m looking at the return the Padres got from the Red Sox for Drew Pomeranz (Anderson Espinosa) and I’m pretty impressed. Espinosa may be young and a bit raw, but his stuff is excellent (fastball up to 100 MPH) and he’s considered by a couple different sources to be a top 15-20 prospect in baseball.
If the Braves could find some way to get their hands on a high-end position player prospect(s) by trading away JT, Vizzy and any of the other bullpen assets, I’d say they have to pull the trigger. At present, the Braves have a gaping hole at 3B/LF/RF in terms of 2017-beyond (Garcia, Olivera and Markakis appearing to be nothing more than placeholder-quality).
Alex,
I work in an IT shop. Although this is not my area of expertise, I’ll ask some questions of my colleagues and see if I can come up with an option. Although I am an infrequent poster, I’ve been an avid reader and fan of the eloquent discourse on this site for years and I’d like to help if I can.
OK, just doing a little quick research. I’m pretty sure I can help. I’m headed out of town for the weekend, but I will email you early next week, Alex.
Dirt Napper for president!
I’d vote for a Dirt Napper/AAR ticket in a heartbeat.
What – did I violate the No Politics rule?
Ha, thank you Seat Painter! But I’m not nearly narcissistic enough for that job…
@6, Maitan will be at 3B, no?
I don’t think anyone expects Maitan until 2020.
We have Ruiz and Riley as well. Ruiz is probably our 3B next year. It wouldn’t surprise me if Maitan is ready before Riley, though. All told, that is not an organizational weakness at this point. What we really need, as has been noted by many, is catcher and corner OF with pop. We’ve added a good bit of catching in the low minors in the last 2 seasons (Herbert, Cumberland, Gutierrez), but none of it is performing yet.
@11, Maitan will be at junior prom.
Hey guys, if me saying WFF/S offended anyone, I’m truly sorry. I was just laughing at the context that Gondee posted it in,but I can see now that its not really cool.
Mea culpa.
@15, I was not personally offended–lots of people have bandied it about here and elsewhere
I’d also like to volunteer for financial help, but unfortunately, I don’t really have any skills or connections for hosting.
It’s really interesting that we could have a completely different 2B/3B/SS/LF in July/August/September. I wouldn’t be surprised with the glut of utility players/bench players that we have that we sell Aybar and Francoeur off for scraps, let d’Arnaud/Beckham/Garcia and maybe even Mustelier get some hacks and audition in August, and then Swanson, Albies, and maybe even Ruiz in September. Somewhere in there we could see Markakis and Garcia get dealt, Olivera return, and we could have 7-8 guys be auditioning for starting and bench roles for 2017. It will be a pretty exciting couple of months, and the Braves may need to do this with the excitement of Kirby Smart’s first year and Georgia Tech seeming to have some improvement in store.
And then in the offseason, I think we’ll see even more movement based on what we see in these 2 1/2 months. And really the same deal on the pitching side. We said in the beginning of this year that the second half will be much more enjoyable than the first half, and I think we will see that.
@15
I don’t want to get too political, but I’m pretty sick of the WFF thing. I don’t know enough about the geography and socioeconomics of the Atlanta area to know the specifics, but changes in development patterns and socioeconomic shifts make this an inevitable thing in some areas. I’m a Realtor in a beach community that was one of the last cities in our area to desegregate, and our community is experiencing some extreme gentrification currently as a result of waterfront property considerations, so I’d really just care to not hear about it. It happens, it’s always happened, it’ll continue to happen, and it really has nothing to do with baseball. Let’s move on.
Agreed.
On a different note, interested in the group’s thoughts on retaining Snitker vs. seeing what’s out there. If we weren’t moving into a new park/era, I’d probably be inclined to give him another year, but with what I just said, I’d go in a different direction.
I do think he’s probably as good as 1/3 of MLB managers, probably. Maybe?
I think Ronnier Mustelier could actually be a useful player, at least in a platoon. He has really raked against lefties throughout his minor league career.
@13 I should have qualified my statement re: ‘gaping holes’ at 3B/LF/RF by noting that Ruiz is waiting in the wings and will be given a shot to succeed in 2017. Ruiz – a guy who profiles to run high BABIPs with a low ISO – has a decent shot at MLB success but given that he hasn’t hit for much power, strikes out a good amount (20-25%) and doesn’t play great D, he looks more like a Chris Johnson type than anything else.
The biggest area of concern is finding some quality middle of the order bats to play corner OF. It is difficult to develop a catcher who can handle the defensive end of things *and* hits well – I’d be happy if the Braves managed to field a decent C each year by rotating through available options.
@16, As the person who raised the topic in frustration, it wasn’t about personal offense. I think most people use it as a bit of dark humor… it is funny, I remember laughing the first time I heard it. But more and more, I find it grating and can’t see where it will lead anywhere that’s in any way remotely helpful. It’s one thing when it’s thrown around here and on Braves blogs as a bit of self-deprecating snark, but just wait until Mets or Cubs fans get a hold of it. Yeah, that’ll be fun.
I’m looking forward to being a Braves fan until I die, whether they’re at Atlanta-Fulton County, or Turner Field, or 11.5 miles up the road in Cobb County.
@20
I think trading Garcia for a single-A live arm, and letting Mustelier have a shot for a few months, and then trading him in the offseason for a single-A live arm is not a bad way to manage 3B for the rest of the year. Let’s be honest; they’re the same dang player.
@23, Can we trade Olivera for a single-A live arm first?
12—I kind of expect Maitan before 2020…
@19
I think we should kick the tires elsewhere. Snit has done a good job, but I want a guy who can come in a develop talent. I think Buck Showalter would be the perfect hire, but we aren’t getting him.
They are physically similar (shorter/stocky/Cuban infielder with questionable glove) but their bats profile differently IMO. I bet Mustelier handles MLB pitching better because he’s not such a remorseless hacker. I guess we’ll see.
They may have different ways of getting there, but they will largely have the same value ceiling.
It’s hard to think that you could still be trying to “see what you got” with Garcia, Mustelier, and Olivera, especially with them being into their 30’s, but these Cuban players just have such a different profile than the rest of the player pool. I wonder if we will see these guys play well into their 40’s because of the relative lack of age on the tires.
@22, think of it this way. We had no power to fire Fredi Gonzalez. We could just take the piss out of him until he got run out of town.
We have no power to force Liberty Media to sell the team and stop cutting corrupt bargains with pliable county government officials (*cough* whomaybeupforreelectionaswespeak *cough* no politics what did I say) Oh yeah. We can’t make them stop being terrible nonhuman beings in charge of the baseball team we grew up on, but we can take the piss out of them at every opportunity until they leave, like a corporate Fredi Gonzalez.
Honestly, for sticking the stadium in a transit-free zone and then trying to monopolize parking, “WFF” is a pretty tame insult for these faceless Dan Snyders.
I think it was a Talking Chop writer who opined that after all the play pretend games, the Braves would select either Perez or Pendleton with the loser becoming the bench coach. I have no problem with either IF our search outside the system is just smoke and mirrors.
@29, Nice concept. Wishful thinking but, yeah, nice concept. But I think your strategy of hanging a toxic name on a stadium that isn’t going anywhere will yield more than just insults for Liberty Media. (Again, the cut off your nose to spite your face metaphor.) I also don’t see how you can get around the fact that it’s pretty clearly race-baiting. Couldn’t you come up with a snarky name for the stadium to achieve your grand strategy of driving off Liberty Media that also doesn’t race-bait? To use your Fredi example, I don’t think anybody here took the piss out of him by making fun of his ethnicity. That simply would not be tolerated and would probably get someone banned if they even went there.
I have to yield to the locals’ views on the stadium. I just don’t know enough about the traffic issues, tax issues, etc. I have to say that in general I like urban stadiums over suburban stadiums, and I deplore taxpayer funding for stadiums, but that is the world we live in. I even dislike shopping minor league franchises to the highest bidder locality.
I am quite old and grumpy on the pricing of tickets and the baseball stadium experience. My view is that if you pay $75 for a ticket to one of 162 baseball games, you should be sitting in the dugout, and if you’re paying $100, possibly get an at-bat. And that is a mid range ticket these days. So Liberty is obviously chasing a fan demo that can pay these eyepopping prices. ( I also hate gelato and sushi being sold at the ballpark, but like I said, old and grumpy.)
I liked that the Ted was downtown and in the vicinity of other touristy things that we out of towners could visit as well. I wish I could have seen more games there.
Bledsoe, I will never eat ballpark sushi, because of both taste and general principle.
Does anyone know anything about Anthony Concepcion? He has raked for the last 2 seasons at rookie ball with a high walk rate. (I thought he played catcher last season, but no he didn’t)
http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&player_id=660862#/career/R/hitting/2016/ALL
@31, the reason the new stadium can’t have mass transit, and thus the reason the Braves are rushing to declare themselves kings of parking everywhere the light touches, is because Cobb County won’t permit MARTA. Cobb County won’t permit MARTA because its local leaders envision the Chattahoochee as a moat that protects it from Those People in Atlanta. So your crappy traffic experience next year will be brought to you by white flight mentality. If it’s a race-baiting nickname, it’s because it’s race-baiting that brought these conditions.
@30, on the baseball ops side this organization is at this point a jobs program for its friends so yes, that’s what’s going to happen. This is Bear’s Boys-era Alabama football.
Motion to end this discussion
I think we can leave it there for now.
Please reach out to me by email and let me know if you can help with hosting, or know someone who can. Thanks again.
I am happy to do a donation if that helps. This is my favorite place to go and I appreciate it so very much.
May as well wait until next April — the proof will be in the pudding.
The Astros just signed Yulieski Gourriel…wonder if Bregman is a little more available than he was before today.
I doubt they’ll trade Bregman, but what the hey…
Teheran for Bregman, straight up, who hangs up first?
Why Bregman when you could have Gattis?
Seeing what putting on 20 pounds of muscle did for Alex Bregman makes me want to drive Ozzie Albies and Dansby Swanson to the gym myself. Both of their frames can definitely take a few pounds.
Rio Ruiz, Sean Newcomb, and Mauricio Cabrera for Alex Bregman. Who hangs up first?
LMAO @42.
Hardly not “LMAO” territory. Too many suspects for your liking?
A supposed power hitter that can’t slug .400 in AA, a #3/#4 starter (my opinion) and Cabrera for a prospect many adjudge to be much better than Swanson?
First of all, AAA, not AA. Second, it’s well-established that you hate pitching prospects. And third, Swanson is technically higher on most prospect lists. Hardly not “LMAO”. At worst,
I’m 90% to value.
OK. 🙂
I don’t know why the Astros would want Newcomb more than Bregman. If they wanted to deal him, they could do better.
I don’t think there is much value in Ruiz, Cabrera, and Newcomb at this point. Bregman is the top prospect in baseball and would help the Astros a lot more than the other three. They might get to that value but not there yet
Point, Nocahoma.
That’s not “point, Nocahoma.” I read their responses as “no”, not “LMAO”.
Albies, Newcomb, and Cabrera. Remember, Bregman hasn’t stepped in a big league box. He’s just blocked. So is Joey Gallo. Might as well go for him.
What is that stench at Turner Field tonight? Phew.
Smells like Harrell.
http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/freddie-freeman-has-cancerous-mole-removed-from-his-back-just-in-time/
The Astros traded us Ruiz and Folty for, all joking aside, a replacement level player. So they probably don’t think much of Ruiz, and perhaps rightly so.
But obviously Newcomb, one of the consensus top 50 prospects in baseball at a time when prospects are being overvalued, has some trade value. He’s just not in Bregman’s league. What Newcomb is is a very appealing project to take on. That’s not what the Astros need right now. But if Newcomb can refine his command and stay healthy, the sky is the limit. You just can’t say that about most pitchers in the minors.
@51. Not starting a feud, but you strike me as a gotta get the last word, you never lose, kinda guy.
Your trade proposal was ridiculous. Ruiz will never be anything in MLB, Cabrera’s a novelty at a position that’s completely fungible and Newcomb is a crapshoot. For a SS that everybody in SD said was head and shoulders the best American player, there?
Come on, man.
Rob strikes you as a “gotta get the last word kinda guy,” yet you posted “Point: me,” and “OK :)”
Strange, that.
Well, this was fun.
Vizcaino has no trade value at this point
That looks like an oblique. There go hopes of a Viz trade.
In all seriousness, I think the Braves will need to, and be able to, trade a quantity of non-elite prospects for one established major leaguer. Take a look at the JD Drew trade. We gave up one elite prospect (Wainwright was the #18th prospect in baseball), Jason Marquis, and Ray King for Drew and Eli Marrero. And while hindsight is 20/20, Adam Wainwright was not Adam Wainwright until he became Adam Wainwright. He was only 21 when we traded him, and while he had very good seasons at A+ and AA, he had two miserable seasons at AAA before the Cardinals called him up. It’s easy to look back and say we gave up a big piece, but it wasn’t a slam dunk (kinda like Newcomb). Marquis was Just a Guy (think Jenkins), and Ray King was a mediocre reliever (think Ian Krol).
Gary Sheffield came over for Brian Jordan, Odalis Perez, and Andrew Brown. Brown never made the big leagues, Odalis Perez was mediocre at best, and Jordan was an established major leaguer.
Once again using the Teixeira trade as an example, we gave up a large quantity of nothing for him. According to BA, we had the 15th best farm system in baseball, and we gave up our #1, #2, and #3 prospects, along with Neftali Feliz, and we also got an established lefty reliever back in the deal. But by trading a ton of organization depth, we got a year and a half out of one of the best players in baseball. This is the trade I really think the Braves will make in the offseason. We’ll trade one elite prospect, two to three non-elite prospects, and we’ll get back a player who will be one of the top players at that position. That clearly seems like the route the Braves are taking with all of this depth.
And I do think that some will be surprised by how “little” we actually give up (meaning the lack of elite prospects sent) that will net us an above average position player. I really don’t think we’ll have to give up three elite prospects for anyone, let along a guy like Bregman who hasn’t played an inning in major league baseball. And since we’ll have payroll we can absorb, we’ll probably give up even less in actual prospects.
I guess Cabrera will be the closer now.
@61, The players we gave up for Teixeira — regardless of their ranking relative to each other or other prospects at the time — were all expected to be major league contributors, not “a large quantity of nothing.” And sure enough, they all were real contributors, for quite some time.
All of that got us a year and a half of Teixeira. That’s all.
What good would that be to us now? That was a huge price to pay even when we thought we were ready to win in that year or so.
We are currently the worst team in baseball, or really close to it. Barring the sudden and dramatic emergence of more than one of these starting pitching prospects and immediate success from Swanson and Albies and everybody else healthy and playing up to their capabilities all at the same time, we will not have use for one rental position player superstar next season.
We would have to pay even more for a longer term elite presence that could help us win when we’re ready.
#61 I am expecting us to trade some top prospects for Teixerira this off-season…
AAR, you keeping track? How many points to I get for lurking? What about for keeping my poker face when other people are laughing their A’s O?
The four prospects we traded for Teixeira included our #1, 2,3 and 10 and the top 3 were all top 100 prospects.
Regarding Bregman, it is rare for an elite prospect to be traded, but when it happens, it is almost always for a major leaguer and not for a collection of lesser prospects.
I honestly hope I will never see another Tex style of trade ever in my life. That was the retirement gift for JS and let’s keep it that way. The idea wasn’t bad but we gave up way too much.
@2
slate and chisel
for hi tech hosting then this cat might fizzle
but read his recaps
the final out recorded, not a single relapse.