Opening Day is right around the corner! Our site recaps games on the daily, so I’d like to confirm we’ve got everyone in their preferred days for the season.
Sunday – Rusty S.
Monday – cliff
Tuesday – NOT CONFIRMED (Last year was ‘Rissa)
Wednesday – OPEN (Last year was me, but I’d prefer to not have a recap day)
Thursday – tfloyd
Friday – NOT CONFIRMED (Last year was Seat Painter)
Saturday – blazon
For those not confirmed, are you interested in joining us for another season? Would anyone also be interested in doing Wednesday recaps?
I’ll keep an eye on this to see if we have a full rotation of volunteers. My only issue is that I don’t know if I’ll even get any of the games on TV, and I don’t feel like paying anything to watch these Braves. I had MLB.TV last season and barely had time to watch it.
But I’m newly back in the area. Can I get the Braves on cable without surrendering a fortune for a season package?
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/03/braves-announce-roster-decisions.html
This sums up the 25-man. Santana, Ruiz out; Adams, Bourjos, Flaherty, Sanchez in. Sanchez is your 5th starter. Tucker, Bourjos, and Adams are your outfielders. Flaherty and Culberson platoon at 3B.
Whatever.
Donny, can you shoot me your e-mail address? bravesjournalrob at gmail dot com
Monday is dreamy.
Trying to come up with a theme. Great literature? Problem is I am not good enough with that.
Hmm?
I’ll do a day if nobody else wants to.
I shall volunteer to entertain you proles on Tuesdays.
How many baseball broadcasters would even consider sharing this story on-air?
How many more people would tune in if they did?
I’d like to do some recaps but would be hesitant to commit to every week since I travel a lot for work and can’t be sure I’ll always be able to watch the game. Anyone want to tag-team Wednesdays?
Sean Q has Fridays! No one travels for work on Friday nights.
On which day does the most off-days occur?
A personal thought.
Hey guys, never take this game/ this team/this time and all their beautiful twists and turns for granted, simply moanin’ away when we start losing. A new, full season ahead is a most precious thing. It will not always be there for you. For a few already the overriding thought/hope today is that they will be around at the end of this one- greedy! We are all blessed to be where we are in the fulcrum of time today, a new season ahead tomorrow, let’s be respectful of it
@10
Ten off-days on Thursday, nine on Monday, apparently.
@7…great story, Adam
@4…cliff…your turn to play the self denying intellect. Do it please. The theme(s) take care of themselves as the games progress.None of this is actionable.
@6…Sam, my hero!. Your proles delighted.
@5…good man, your flexibility helps greatly.
@11 An excellent sentiment. One advantage of a mediocre team is that it prompts you not to anticipate any kind of reward at the end of the season, but appreciate the “now” of each beautiful moment of baseball. Of course a season is never more beautiful and hopeful than here at its beginning – here’s hoping you’re around for many more of them.
I’ll soldier on on Fridays. May even be good at it this year. 🙂
@ 15…you always were.
I can split days with Sean Q…(Wed or Friday)
Jacob Lindgren just had his 2nd TJ surgery. So much for that.
AJ Puk is going under the knife as well. Jorts.
@ 17 Awesome, looks like Seat Painter has Fridays, so we could alternate Wednesdays if that works.
Sam .
Your post on Pache c/with numbers for he and Acuna. Are you trying to tell us something or are you leaving it to the reader to form his own opinion?
Mine, which you would be expecting is this. All winter we have been told this guy is special. Terrific arm and speed in the outfield, makes decent, powerful contact at the plate but cannot elevate the ball. 4 tools not 5.
Then we heard he was getting the full instructional treatment and was responding positively. Then he hits 2 homers last night off a true ace no doubt with each being a 100 plus slider down and away. ( Hey, you weren’t there to see, nobody was).
So where do we start him now in the farm? Gwinnett say I, drop him down if he needs it but don’t let’s spend the summer just saying how wonderful he is. September for sure.
Wise words, @11. Go Braves.
Opening Day is tomorrow. 🙂
It appears we have all days covered. May we consider the matter settled?
I love this bar.
I would start Pache at A+ Florida. He just turned 19. He’s the hot shit on the talk markets right now, and he certainly has the skills to grow into an Acuna-like talent. But as of today, he hasn’t broken 800 for an OPS at any level, he barely manged to break a .400 SLG at Rookie ball in the Appy, and the team isn’t stretched absurdly thin at his primary position. He hit two homers last night, yes. He’s been working on launch angle and he has a classic “grow into his power” type build. But he doesn’t have anything resembling Acuna’s performance in Australia or the AFL to justify jumping him all the way up to AAA. He’s never had a single at bat at A+, much less AA. Let him learn. If he beats holy hell out of those leagues, by all means give him the Acuna rabbit hops through the system. (Though, form AA’s comments, I doubt they’ll promote Pache nearly as quickly as the last guys promoted Acuna.)
For the record, this spring Pache had 10 at bats in spring training. He hit 200/200/200 (literally 2 for 10 with 2 singles.) He struck out 4 of those 10 at bats. His OppQual was 5.2, which means he put up those rather uninspiring 10 at bats against A+ level pitching. I think we can let him take a few months with the Fire Frogs before we bounce him up to Gwinnett.
Excited about the new season and the recap lineup. I just want to beat up on the division teams we are traditionally supposed to beat up on.
Thought some of you nerds would appreciate this as much as I did:
https:
https://deadspin.com/deep-space-nine-innings-a-star-trek-spinoffs-unlikely-1823440533
All the talk of Pache working on his “launch angle” this winter/spring might lead some to be interested in this deep dive on the new swing mechanics of MLB from Tom Verducci of SI.
Countdown to Liftoff: How Joey Gallo and Josh Donaldson Embody Baseball’s New Era
I wouldn’t be surprised if he repeated A- at least for a little while. His developmental track has nothing to do with Acuna. If he hits at A-, he can still get to AA this year. I hope the really aggressive tracks stop at this point in the rebuild.
@11
Agreed. Oddly enough, I enjoyed a lot of last year. The pitchers are frustrating, sure, but it’s fun to see the next elite players as they struggle to find their way. We’ll probably see more of it this year. Where I differ from some is that I think several great seasons from young players can come out of nowhere, and thus impossible to predict one way or the other. That’s why you have to tune in. 🙂
As an old person I find this seasons limited moves to be similar to those of the 90-91 winter. Pendleton, Bream and Bixin were brought in to shore up defense to help young pitching develop.
If anyone is looking for a theme, like Cliff, my theme was going to be how this squad compares to the 1991 squad’s record as the season went along. And if there were any parallels to draw between the performances of individual players then to now, I would include those. The problem is we might be a year early for that, but if we are, then the moves between 18-19 will be much different than the moves between 90-91. I agree the 17-18 moves resemble the 90-91 offseason more.
That squad had a slower start (39-40) compared to how they finished (55-28). Since we’ll probably start slow too, matching up the records might be closer than you might think. They started 8-10 in April, then had a great May, slowed in June, and then really turned on the burners in July through the end of the season. That team similarly had no power, even less speed, but had some young pitchers turn the corner and a lights-out bullpen. Glavine was 25 and had a career resembling Teheran’s inconsistency, Liebrandt was your veteran, Smoltzy was the 24-year old that finally turned the corner, and young 21-year old fireballer could be our Acuna. The youngest regular we had on the offensive side was 25-year old David Justice, so that doesn’t really fit.
Braves blown saves last year: 23. Three off the league “lead”.
Over/under in 2018?
The 1991 Braves were 2nd in runs and 3rd in home runs, so it’s not really true to say they had no power.
They were also 3rd in steals. Otis Nixon and Ron Gant combined for over 100.
I stand corrected! I looked at their OPS+ to get a feel for how they performed relative to the league, and didn’t think their (seemingly) low home run totals could have been that much better than league average. It makes sense now that you mention their rankings; Pendleton, Justice, and Gant’s OPSes will undoubtedly be higher than our team’s top three hitters.
Nixon stole 72, which is obviously a huge number (he also got caught 22 times), and Gant 34 (caught 15), but otherwise, it doesn’t appear to be a particularly fast team. I think we have more speed this year.
I love the 1991 comparison. For the record, when Rob asked us to predict I asserted that this team will win 94 games. And it’s the ’91 season that prompted my prediction.
Of course if I had anything at all riding on the prediction I’d probably say something like 78 wins. But it’s opening day–hope springs eternal!
Triple post!
Albies, Acuna, Inciarte, Adams, Bourjos, Swanson, and Camargo really should be able to rack up the steals, doubles, triples, and extra bases taken.
When considering that teams power and HR totals you must remember that 1991 was before 1994.
I think most of us are in violent agreement that if Pache develops power, he could be pretty special. Of course, if pigs had wings, … you know the rest. For anyone to say that he’s turned the corner based on his 2 HR night is ridiculous (I don’t know of anyone who has ). Given that, it’s fun to speculate. Isn’t that what spring training is for?
Of all of the Braves hitting prospects last year, Pache hit the worst in the entire system against other pitchers ranked in the top 30 overall within their various organizations at .156.
For comparison, Albies hit the 2nd highest and if someone can guess without looking who hit the best, I’ll be extremely impressed. Hint, it was not Acuna and he was actually middle of the pack…
@34 WAY under.
@34–the most interesting question about saves this year is the date that Minter takes over as the closer and starts earning the saves. I say June 15.
When I was a bit younger, I used to get SO mad at our idiot managers and their ignorant moves. Eddie Haas and Chuck Tanner ought to have been glad there was no internet back then. But when it came to the results of yet another losing season, well, there was always next year, hope spring eternal, etc. etc.
Now that I’m a bit older, I don’t get so bothered about the tactics in the 7th inning on May 29th, but I do find that giving away an entire season galls me to no end.
@46–I was just the same. I well remember opening day in 1983. Butler led off the first with a double. Torres had Ramirez bunt him to third. Sure enough they scored one run, but blew any chance at a bigger inning. I was furious with Torre; he clearly had not read the newly published Bill James Abstract as I had.
I still believe Torre was wrong but now I wouldn’t get so worked up about it. After all, he is in the HOF as a manager, and who the hell am I?
This is how the blown saves broke down:
Jim Johnson had 22 saves in 31 chances. Vizzy was 14 of 17. Motte, Ramirez, and Freeman blew all 11 save chances.
Vizzy with Minter as a backup is a lot better, of course, than JJ with Vizzy as a backup. Vizzy also missed a little bit of time. The 11 opportunities, though, that the three middle relief stooges blew will hopefully be chewed up by Minter, so you have to love those getting converted. And those weren’t just in the 9th inning, so that’s why I don’t care if Minter pitches the 9th. If they throw him the way we all think your best reliever should be used, then they’ll clean this up quickly.
I’m a few days late, but the Flaherty and Bourjos signings are nice, and the whining about them is hilariously pointless. Cheap, good (versatile) defenders have value. These guys are better than Rio Ruiz and Danny Santana are. No, the Braves are not going to win the World Series.
It seems clear AA values defense differently than Coppy did. Guessing he would not have made the Andrelton deal.
Maybe my single biggest problem with the Andrelton deal was that the general market reaction was, “That’s all he got?” It was a deal that absolutely didn’t have to be made, and he didn’t get blown away with his return to the extent that you could understand why he made it. All of the other potential process flaws — the possible misevaluation of Andrelton’s future offensive value, the clear misevaluation of Erick Aybar and possible misevaluation of Chris Ellis, etc. — proceeded from that. I have no problem with dealing from strength or making a deal when you aren’t forced to, but doing so and getting what everyone in the sport agrees by consensus is less than top value is inexcusable.
I can reluctantly accept the new format, but would gently request that the comments be numbered, like they were in the old days. Thanks for all of the time and effort, Rob.
Sam
What say you to Chipper’s estimate just now as to where Pache should be playing this year – majors, now? You said 1A i believe, i said Gwinnet.
You simply must keep up with a changing world! Wouldn’t it be great to have the two of them.