Lucas Harrell turned back into a pumpkin, and the Barves, after a good weekend last weekend in
Chicago, played like they have most of the season – badly – and fell to Colorado 11-2. Not much went
right, so we can mark off one more day until a possible September 1 call up of some guys who might
actually be good at baseball.
33 Comments
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I imagine the two things Rob is trying to figure out are:
1) What are the Braves going to do with all these (pitching) prospects?
2) How much longer do I have to wait before the team is competitive, and can’t they just speed it up?
1) I don’t think they’re going to trade any pitching prospects until they get enough of them to stick and perform at the level we’d need to compete. That could take a while. It looks like the Braves have decided they can’t win if they pay FA market price for quality starters. When Coppolella talks about FA pitching, you can feel the sticker shock.
2) I guess they could try to speed it up, at the expense of keeping our success sustainable, but after going this far to rebuild the system sustainably, why would they tear it down again now? I don’t think we’re going to see a competitive team until at least 2018.
I think Adam’s probably right. I hope 2017 we can be competitive, but I fear 2018 is the more likely date for returning to seriously talking playoffs.
My brother is in Atlanta for the first time. He’s gonna be attending today’s game with his wife and two kids, ages 7 and 5. Any suggestions on where he should sit and a kid friendly place to eat, near the stadium? Thanks.
Six Feet Under on Memorial Drive about 3/4 mile east of Capitol Avenue has a good kids menu, as well as an extensive beer selection if mom or dad partakes. Easy to find — just look across the street from the big cemetery.
@3: They also can’t go wrong with The Flying Biscuit Cafe.
I am not in favor of trading for Lucroy. It’s exactly what we shouldn’t be doing. His contract only runs through 2017 and he’s almost guaranteed to test the FA market. Why give up top prospects for a 1 year rental when we can just go after him for 2018. Flowers will be sufficient next year when we are struggling to win 70-75 games
@ 4 and 5. Thanks. I’ll pass them along. My brother is a big craft-beer fan.
@6, Same for Braun, only what’s the point in signing older versions of either Lucroy or Braun as FAs?
I would be in favor of moving a gaggle of prospects for an elite player with a couple years remaining and no chance of signing an extension with his current team — and only when we’re actually at the right spot on the win curve.
By the time we’re ready, we may be talking about someone like Kris Bryant in the outfield. It’s crazy even to speculate on this at this point. Go Braves 2019!
@6
Remember that Lucroy has a 5MM option for next year. If Braves can extend him and void that option, he could very well be open to a “handshake agreement” extension prior to a trade. He’s from Florida and went to college in Louisiana so I’d guess he’d enjoy playing in Atlanta.
I would think we would have to have an extension in place prior to the trade. I also think the Brewers will get more from him elsewhere
9 & 10- exactly. Lucroy has an option but I don’t us to contend. Trading players for a one year rental doesn’t make us better. Might as well overpay for him in 2018.
We would need an extension in place before the trade is finalized.
I respect you guys, but I think trading for players like Lucroy or Braun is absurd. We aren’t going to contend next year. 2018 is optimistic but reasonable. My bets are on 2019. I’m not opposed to acquiring young major leaguers but they need to be guys who are just entering their prime whose best years will overlap with 2019-2024.
@12
I don’t disagree, but it sounds like we are looking.
Joey Wentz looks good so far
No no from GCL. Wentz with 6ks in 3IP.
Anybody know where to get GCL stats?
Milb.com
http://m.milb.com/t464/stats/
Wait, why is hector olivera playing for them?
Probably punishment. He just got bumped up to AAA.
Is William Contreras the brother of Willson Contreras? They’re from the same city. Not that we should be excited–we have Christian Yelich’s brother and he can’t hit a lick.
@JohnWDB
I’ll not hang my hat on the opinion Braves won’t contend next year, or likely not the next. There’s too much influx to say yay or nay. They could be 2-3 trades or FA signings away from being a good club.
It would be pretty hard, if not impossible, to jump from a 55-60 win team to a playoff team in 1 year.
We need 2 outfielders, 3B, C, Swanson, Albies, and 3 starters. With that we can compete next year
I know that this is absolutely no fun, but until we know what we have over the next 2 1/2 months with the number one farm system in baseball, and how much of a budget the Braves have to work with, we have no idea how good we will be next year. There is so much uncertainty with just the budget that we could honestly be off the equivalent of a $25 million a year player. Frankly, with this ownership, it would not surprise me if we had a $100 million payroll. But because of the uncertainty of the new stadium, it would not surprise me if we had a $140 million payroll. We just don’t know. As a result, that’s the difference between rolling the dice on Jonathan Lucroy and settling for Brian McCann. Or, more emotionally stirring, Hector Olivera vs. Yoenis Cespedes.
Then there’s the farm. We have no idea what Swanson and Albies will do when they get to Atlanta. Maybe Ozzie Albies goes Rafael Furcal on us. It would certainly not surprise us if one or more of our pitching prospects at AA/AAA turn the corner. Couple relievers develop. Really have no idea. But I would certainly not bet against us having a sustainable payroll and enough young players to “compete”, which I would define as playing meaningful baseball in September.
Greetings from San Diego…
My hotel is full of SF Giants fans & the hotel folks tell me that “Giants fans are well-behaved, unlike Dodgers fans, who are a little bit like Raiders fans.”
Knowing the answer already, I asked, “Oh, yeah? What are Raiders fans like…”
“Drunk, nasty, obnoxious. They fight, they vandalize. They get arrested. When they play the Chargers, it gets ugly down here.”
“Hey, maybe they should move to Vegas.”
“Won’t matter where they are. They’re like a cult, a real bad one.”
Ohhh-keyyyy….
Is Folty out best pitcher?
Folty is figuring this pitching thing out.
Folty!
Maybe Jim Johnson will get 5 saves, and we can trade him back to the Dodgers.
Im glad to admit I might have been wrong on Folty…
Lemmer-esque play by Beckham. Sid Bream makes that play.
I really like Folty in a Nuke LaLoosh sort of way…
AJ’s Law: If a ball can bounce off of AJ Pierzynski’s mitt, it will bounce off of AJ Pierzynski’s mitt.
Why do the Braves have so much trouble throwing the ball to A.J.?
recapped