The Braves had the chance to follow up on their success from Monday and put a dagger deeper into the Marlins’ playoff hopes, but instead they pulled a Braves and didn’t. Freddie Freeman hit a two-run home run to put the Braves on top in the 1st inning; it was momentous in that it extended his hitting streak to 19 games and gave him 500 RBIs for his career, but Miami scored three runs off of Matt Wisler in the 3rd and three more off of him in the 5th to overcome the Braves early lead.
Down 6-3, the Braves had the chance to come back in the 7th, when they scored two runs and were poised to score more. Jace Peterson could not come through with the bases-loaded and two outs, though, and he grounded out to end the inning and ultimately any hopes the Braves had of completing the comeback. The Marlins tacked on an extra run in the 8th to top off the scoring and keep what little hope they have of a playoff berth alive.
Shae Simmons pitched the 9th, which really did not have any bearing on the game other than it is fun to see him back out there on the mound. The Braves’ little burst of wins here over the past few weeks has put them into a nice position to get to 60 wins on the season, a feat that looked impossible in the not too distant past. In the midst of it all Freddie is having a monster year, and it is sad to watch his accomplishments against the background of such a fledgling team. This team does not deserve him.
Above means that Braves could have put in a waiver claim on Braun to take his contract and on Puig to take his contract and passed on both.
With the money we have and the lack of position player talent, and a bunch of money and nobody to spend it on, why not?
I think the reasoning on Puig is obvious, but with Braun, it’s probably just that they don’t want to pay him. Reckon they were willing to pay for someone like that only if they were offloading Olivera’s salary.
Man, Touki’s arm is even quicker than I remember it being as a recruit. Hard not to dream on that talent.
As I read it, the Braves went after Braun, didn’t like his price, and settled for Kemp. Kemp and Braun are now redundant in any future deal unless they can then be swapped for each other. Kemp’s rocking a 121 OPS+ as a Brave, and he has one walk less than he did in 253 more PAs in SD. Accordingly, his ISO disc has more than doubled. If he can just make the routine play, he has a lot of value.
Speaking of Kemp, Coppy expressed regret in calling Kemp out publicly. I still don’t see the problem in a GM saying that a player will play better if he loses weight, but he knows the psychology of a player better than I do. Coppy also continued to express regret in the first Olivera trade, but said he was very proud of the Olivera for Kemp deal.
Hard not to dream on all of this:
A couple other things about Coppy’s interview:
-He mentioned Bryse Wilson at two different points in the same breath as Anderson/Mueller/Wentz as players with huge upside.
-He gave condolences to Harambe.
-He continued to reiterate that he wants atleast two FA SPs, and when asked if that would block the young guys, he responded, “Opportunity time is over in 2017. You have to earn a rotation spot once we add free agents.”
-He also mentioned, “We miss guys like Tim Hudson, Derek Lowe, and Javier Vazquez more than numbers can quantify.” So, get ready for a 3-4 year deal to a guy on the wrong side of 30, I guess.
-His biggest disappointed of 2016 was the lack of progress of SPs. Well, duh.
-A lot of love for Patrick Weigel.
@6
I am fine with signing a vet arm to be around these young guys. Charlie Liebrant didn’t hurt Glavine,Smoltz or Avery.
On another note, does anyone remember when there was a Heyward vs Freeman discussion. Looks silly now.
There’s something to be said about one guy who has a multi-year track record of pitching at least 180+ innings in your rotation. We had 15 guys make starts in 2016, so you really have to start cleaning that up. Even in another tryout year, we only had 10 starters in 2015. Of course, we actually had a half-way decent rotation in Miller, Teheran, Wood, Wisler, and Folty before we continued to tear it apart.
@7 Matt Kemp has more HR and 20 more RBI than Free Hugs (with fewer strikeouts). Fatt Blemp for MVP!
(Disclaimer: the preceding post has been an exercise in sarcasm.)
Thank you for the recap, ‘rissa.
I put together a tweet of SP bad contracts that Braves could take a look at this winter considering the market for SPs is crazy bad. By the way, if you’ve got a twitter handle, please share it here! I’d love to follow some Braves Journalers (as long as your tweets aren’t political!).
I would take Scott Kazmir and Liriano as rebounds, Matt Harrison and Matt Cain if healthy. Cain hasn’t made 20 starts in 3 years, though. Harrison and Cain would satisfy the desire to not commit to somebody for multiple years as their contracts are ending at the end of 2017. Cain does have a $7.5M buyout that SFG would have to help with.
I shortened the list to SP bad contracts who have 2 years of control or less,which makes more sense with the studs at Rome likely 3 years away.
The list of SP bad contracts under 2 years of control or less:
A.Sanchez 1/16.8MM w/opt.
U.Jimenez-1/13.5MM
Gallardo-1/11MM w/opt
Liriano- 1/13.7MM
Garza- 1/12.5MM w/opt
M.Harrison- 1/13.2MM w/opt
Kazmir- 2/35.3MM
McCarthy- 2/23MM
Cain- 1/20.8MM w/opt
Gallardo sounds pretty good. He has been a quality pitcher for years before the implosion this year.
Big velo drop on Gallardo though. His average FB is now under 90 MPH.
I bet we throw big bucks at Doug Fister. You could do a lot worse.
Grabbing the guys that have simply had a bad last season is a good win for us. Harang and Norris fit that criteria. Perhaps we can get lucky with an Ervin Santana or Ian Desmond, the one person every year that badly misplays the market and ends up with no chair when the music stops. Coppy also made a point twice to say that they’ll have more money than they’ve had to spend in the last 10 years. Get it done, Coppy!
Another thing from the interview is that Coppy was aware of @BravesOptions, @BravesAmerica, and @BravesReddit. @BravesReddit commenters have mentioned several times that the level of discourse on our site is a cut above. I think Coppy reads Braves Journal every now and again. Hey, Cops!
Coppy, don’t sign Doug Fister unless it’s for 2 years or less–he can’t stay healthy. I agree we need a Tim Hudson, but there isn’t one available. Please don’t saddle us with another Derek Lowe.
Jason Heyward: 7 years, .261/.345/.414 (759 OPS). 394 RBI.
Freddie Freeman: 7 years, .286/.371/.481 (852 OPS). 500 RBI.
Markakis for Liriano could work out considering Blue Jays will likely lose both Joey Bats and Michael Saunders. Edwin Encarnacion also a FA in ’17. Man…the Jays are losing a whole lot of pop.
@ 13: That’s an interesting list, but I don’t want any of those guys. Nola could be interesting, but too expensive. Hellickson is a possibility, but he may get a qualifying offer.
I agree the best approach is to look for a couple Bud Norris types. I think the starters from Miss. can fill 1 – 2 slots. I don’t think Ellis and Whalen should be written off either at this point.
None of those guys really fit the bill, IMO. Maybe the two Dodgers, but the Dodgers don’t need anything we could offer other than elite prospects, which aren’t going to be made available in this kind of deal. I’m expecting to add a couple of guys like Bud Norris, RA Dickey, Kyle Lohse, Ryan Vogelsong, or Colby Lewis — older guys who have decent health track records and aren’t in line for more than a two-year deal.
So – I just saw the tag line at the top of the page:
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate
I had to google it to figure it out. Well played/nicely done, Alex or whoever’s (whose-ever?) idea that was
I’d rather see our prospects than bad and expensive vets. Thus, I fully expect the FO to do the opposite.
@24, the idea is that we are two veteran pitchers away from contending. I actually agree with this idea, but it only if they are actually good veteran pitchers, not just warm bodies. The FA market is horrible this year, so we should either pick up one of the guys Stu mentioned @22, take on a bad 1-year contract for just money, and/or go with our many mediocre young arms (Bradley, Whalen, Gant, Ellis). By the end of the year, you might have Newcomb, Weigel and Povse pushing for spots.
I don’t expect Newcomb and Weigel to be mediocre. If I were running the team they’d be pitching opening week at WFF.
I’m ready for the offseason. I hate just playing out the string.
I am Coppy.
Well, I’ve never seen you and Coppy in the same room at the same time, so you just might be.
@23, thanks. I felt that summarized my feelings on this team at the time.
Giving money to Doug Fister just feels very Derek Lowe-ish. Ugh…
My choices, if we have to make 2 moves for SPs are
1. Trade- Liriano for Markakis
2. Incentive laden 1 year deal for Buchholz.
Leaves money for filling 3B and/or C.
RA Dickey is the definition of an innings-eater. Sign him to a 1-year deal. Buchholz is interesting.
Are we so beat down that the best we can hope for is 2 guys to come in and eat innings and be mediocre?
#makebarvesgreatagain could start with unleashing a couple more prospects that throw upper-90’s. Might as well get some benefit from them before their arms fly off.
@34, yes we are beaten down, but we’re just being practical. There aren’t any appealing free agent candidates, and Coppy is talking about signing some. I would prefer we just keep running the prospects back out there next year. I bet Newcomb and Weigel could start the year at MLB and do better than Buchholz and Liriano.
The new market inefficiency is fielding a team complete with fresh-armed draftees. Just roll ’em out on the field as soon as you draft ’em! 25 will stick.
However:
@37, Nice, I enjoyed his mid-period work with Stone Temple Pilots.
Have we ever traded for (or purchased) a player to help with a minor league playoff run?
About Wieland
“The Mariners acquired Wieland from the Dodgers in a depth move last offseason, and he has spent most of 2016 with Tacoma, posting a 5.38 ERA, 8.1 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9 in 103 2/3 frames.” He’s pitched 52 major league innings with a 6.32 ERA.
For some reason, I don’t think he will break our top 30 prospect list. Who knows though, he could turn out to be another Kerry Ligtenberg.
Just added Collmenter.
Two veteran starters, just like Coppy promised.
Collmenter’s nickname is appropriately Tomahawk.
I like that we’re giving Collmenter an audition now. He may not amount to much, but let’s get a look at him this year and see if he can help us some. Obviously it is not the same extreme as Coors field, but Arizona can have an effect on pitchers too, IMO.
Braves just got Collmenter for cash. He’s probably our #3 starter right now. Pretty much sums up our current rotation
Tick Barkakis!
Don’t know much about Collmenter except he was a pretty good pitcher right up until this year. No downside here. Run him out there!
The guys in Rome are better pitchers than Collmenter, or pretty much anyone else we could add via FA or trade. But we don’t want to put the best players on the field, because that would be scary!
Look, I’m not following this too closely and I’m a few Maker’s Marks in but myyyyyyy kitty craves chicken, my kitty cat craves milk. My kitty cat craves tuna and my kitty cat craves crave, oh my kitty cat craves crave.
72% of my posts are bourbon aided. It’s ok. I approve.
I know kruss has been on the sauce about this entire rebuild for a while now, but the idea of just mass promoting a rotation of pitchers from A-BALL is insane for even him.
Josh Collmenter’s average fastball velocity in 2016 is 84.0 miles per hour. Whee!
@51 – Has he had shoulder problems?