“Happy Father’s Day” only comes around once a year, but “Happy Padres Day” may come around many times; in this case, 3 times in the 4 game set.
Julio Teheran held the Padres hitless for 6 innings and struck out 11, before leaving after 96 pitches and some cramping. Shane Carle, A.J. Minter, and Arodys Vizcaino each managed to record 2 strikeouts AND to allow 2 hits in their respective innings, Minter allowing the run.
Johan Camargo‘s 4th inning double gave the Braves the only 2 runs they would need, but Tyler Flowers‘s 2 run homer in the 8th gave the bullpen some needed breathing room. Flowers was in for Kurt Suzuki, who was hit on the head on a backswing by his counterpart Rafael Lopez, and removed as a precaution. Nick Markakis added 3 hits, and a diving catch to end the game.
The Braves complete the homestand at 5 – 1, and open up a 3.5 game lead over the Nationals. At Toronto on Tuesday.
I get not rushing him and all, but would be nice to have Acuna in the lineup vs. back-to-back lefties in Toronto.
Also…the thought of Freeman stepping in the box again vs. Loup already has me terrified…
And that was the third game of the series and FF was the 7th Brave hit by Toronto pitchers. Five in the first game alone with no retaliation by the Brave hurlers in that one. The lack of resolve to protect your own and send a message may have contributed to FF being drilled, intentional or not, when he was playing the best bball of his life. Still remember.
From previous threads, Harper leads the league in HRs, walks, and IBB. I don’t really care what is BA is as long as he’s getting on base at a .360 clip and slugging close to .500. He’s at least as good a fielder as Markakis and has enough speed to play CF. Put him back to back with FF and one of them will not lead the league in IBB and will have a monster season. Add Acuna and Albies into that mix if both start hitting like MVP candidates and you’ll have a lineup that will score tons of runs. The actual best lineup might be Acuna, Harper, FF, and Albies if Ozzie can’t get his OBP up. You could put those four in any order at the top and be correct. Add Riley to that mix and trade for Realmuto (keep Flowers as backup) and there are no longer any weaknesses anywhere in the lineup – for like the next 5-10 years!!! The rotation will take care of itself and the bullpen will too, mostly – maybe bring in one strong bullpen pitcher. We will get an ace from among Folty, Newk, Soroka, Wright, Allard, Gohara, Fried, Stewart (already a top 100), and Touki – that’s nine potential TOR pitchers (and Weigel when he comes back from TJS). The guys that don’t make the starting five could be strong middle relief with closing potential. Add that to a bullpen of Winkler, Minter, Biddle, Phillips, Clouse, Burrows, and any holdovers from this year (like Viz and Carle) and you don’t need to add much.
Let’s see how much the market values Kakes. I bet he doesn’t get as good a deal as his last one. We should pick him up as a bench piece and insurance against an OF injury. A bench of Flowers, Markakis, Camargo, and someone (maybe Culberson) would be a great bench.
From the previous thread, @blazon – thankfully, I’m not in Russia but Switzerland currently. And okay, if it’s one or the other – hit him in the ass with that fastball!
How about that starting pitching. Less than 2 ER in the past ten games started or so?
@3
As an ‘unbeliever’ I was impressed with your Harper boosterism and logic. But, as with Cakes, you are apparently taking a passive role when it comes to quantifying your position and waiting to see what the market says. Don’t winners make markets?
I may well have underestimated the full value of his walks, thus his OBP, but here’s a thought. For how much longer are pitching staffs going to look at that BA and say, you know what, let’s pitch to this guy. Like Folty did! Cheers.
@4…timo
Shame! I was hoping you might have been able to slip across a border or two and see some games live. Switzerland did a great job yesterday against Brazil, must have warmed the cockles of your heart.
Yes, ain’t the starting pitching recently been remarkable. I put it down to Anibal and his influence plus some rapidly maturing arms and brains.
Yes, remarkable:
“The Braves’ rotation is their backbone. Over the past 11 home games, it’s earned a 1.00 ERA (eight earned runs in 72 innings) with no starter permitting more than two runs. The team entered Sunday with the third-lowest ERA in the majors (3.29).” (ajc.com)
blazon, unfortunately, I will be travelling to Asia this week, leaving no time to visit Russia. As an exile-German in Switzerland, I am rather tolerating the Swiss football than feeling affection.
Scott Boras
when he lays out all his bullet points before us
will be countered with a smirk
270/10, front loaded, now get back to work.
The Atlanta Braves Bullpen
although a very full Pen
must stop walking and hitting
else at Gwinnett they will likely all be sitting.
@7
Our favorite multi national
is never less than rational
encircling the globe
he tends and tunes his baseball lobe.
The inspiration behind my nickname for Freddie is Gordon Freeman from the Half-life video games. In a universe that is ravaged by an alien empire, The Freeman represents a sort of unstoppable chaos capable of disrupting an entire invasion. The days of the rebuild were dark days. When I saw Freeman wasn’t going to be traded, I began to see in him our only real hope. The one good thing going during a string of lost seasons. It reminded me of the premise leading into Half-life 2 in a way. And now that Atlanta is back at the top of the standings, The Freeman (often spoken as The One Free Man), too, is ready to wreak havoc on all our most hated opponents.
In the words of the G-Man, “The right man in the wrong place can make all of the difference in the world.”
Barney Calhoun’s reaction upon seeing Freeman at the height of the Combine’s occupation of Earth, “Gordon Freeman! Boy am I glad to see you!” Yes. We are all glad that the Freeman is good and well as we sit atop the NL East with a 3.5 game lead heading towards the end of June. It has been a long wait for this.
FanGraphs no longer projects the Nationals to win >90 games. The Braves are now projected to win 85.
One of the above will not be true at season’s end. One of these teams is going to eclipse 90 wins. Right now, I feel like that is going to be the Braves.
‘muscled hamster’
saw this somewhere for the first time, original?
seems perfect.
I really don’t think Harper’s numbers this year are going to meaningfully affect anyone’s opinion on whether or not they’d like us to sign him.
Interestingly, our division lead could swing a game either way today despite the fact that we’re off. The Nationals are playing a weird doubleheader with the Yankees today, where they have to complete a game that was suspended in the middle of the sixth with the score tied, then play a full game right after that to make up for another game that was completely postponed.
I think the real question on my mind is whether Harper’s numbers (stats and market value) are going to meaningfully affect anyone important’s opinion on whether or not they’d like us to sign him.
There’s no doubt the Braves have room to spend in the offseason. I’d just like to know if the team expects to be in the upper half of the league in payroll.
Bryce Harper’s most similar player through the age of 24, per B-REF, is…
Andruw Jones. Makes sense he’s being underrated by Braves fans for not being as great as the hype promised him to be.
Harper’s not Mike Trout. NOONE is Mike Trout. But if the Braves did nothing this upcoming winter but throw all the money at Bryce Harper and Craig Kimbrel, every last one of us should be ecstatic.
Wanting to sign somebody is one thing.
How much you’re prepared to pay for him is an entirely more complex decision, surely.
On another front…i saw somewhere this morning someone referring to who i believe was Ozzie as our ‘muscled hamster’. Is that new? New or old I think it’s perfect.
For a player of Harper’s age and talent, I am willing to pay him ITSONLYMONEY millions. Wait. No. I’m willing to up that to ITSONLYJOHNMALONESMONEY millions. He’s one of the ten best hitters in the game, and will be for the next decade barring injury or an unexpected smack addiction. The only player with his skill set remotely available is Manny Machado, whom I would also offer ALLTHEMONIES millions to. But given that we have Austin Riley as a potential 3B, and the next OF in the pipeline is either Drew Waters or Christian Pache, I lean Harper this winter.
From henceforth, Ozzie shall be listed on the roster and lineup cards as Muscled Hamster (or Hamster, Muscled depending on name format).
Do I hear a dilly dilly?
The point is not whether the Braves should be willing to match the highest offer for Harper. You’ve made up an argument no one is arguing, it appears. The original argument was whether or not his inability to replicate his 9 WAR season will cost him at all. He will set a new ceiling with whatever he signs, but is his ceiling lower than it otherwise could have been? The answer’s probably yes.
But Heyward, Andruw, and Harper all stand uniquely as players who had their most productive seasons in their early 20’s and have yet to match that success since. Bryce had a 9.3 fWAR season, nothing like that since. Andruw’s age 22 through 24 seasons were 7.0, 6.9, 7.7 fWAR seasons. He produced 7.9 fWAR in his crazy 50-homer season, but nothing else to that magnitude. Heyward had his most productive season in 2015 at the age of 25 and has not produced even an above average season in the last 3 years. On the other hand, Trout has produced 7 straight HOF seasons. It’s against his religion to do otherwise.
Players get the hype for a reason. They’ve all been perfectly fantastic players, but they get the comparisons because of an early track record.
Bowman had an interesting interview on MLB Network Radio this morning. Phillips asked him how much credit Coppy/Hart deserve for the team’s success. Bowman, IMO, kind of hemmed and hawed, said yes, and then also said that Wren deserved credit too. It was very dismissive, IMO.
But he made a point to say that Snit “is a lot happier now”, that there was a “different feeling in the clubhouse” and Alex “changed the mindset”. In the flow of the conversation, you would certainly get the impression that he thought the team was winning because there was more positivity and Coppy/Hart were psychos. Very interesting.
I have to wonder if there was a significant power struggle because Coppy, Hart, and JS. JS may have really wanted Snit, Coppy and Hart did not, and that just made for a very difficult situation. Hart and Coppy undoubtedly feel like the team underachieved because of Snit, and the new FO may feel like Snit is a big reason for the team’s success.
My read is that the previous admin treated Snitker as a robot to be programmed with information and sent out to do the manual labor too good for their soft hands, while the current admin treats him as a partner in a multi-pronged endeavor.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
We’re definitely getting a bump with it because the first competitive year both in a while and since a new stadium was built.
I was born in 1986, and I took three things for granted: Florida football, Braves baseball, and the Florida sun. I figured they’d always be good. As long as I can remember, they were all there and all shining. Then from 2011 to 2014, they all went away. Gators were the first, then I spent a long winter in Iowa (my first outside of the Sunshine State) in 2012, then the Braves decided to tank.
I think I’ve gotten them all back. Mullen looks like he’ll put Florida back on track, the Braves are alive and well for a while, and I ain’t moving back to Iowa. And I’ll never take those three for granted, Lord willing.
I mean, I think it’s pretty clear that Coppy was a psycho, by your meaning, and that Hart was, if not a psycho himself, at least a major enabler of Coppy.
Bowman was also one of those people pushing the “Wonder Boy” narrative for Coppy. So one has to wonder what is true.
Coppy did a fantastic job with the rebuild.
On a separate note, I’m glad that AA is our guy after everything I heard him say and read about him.
How is Maitan doing for the Angels by the way? Does anyone know?
Checked myself real quick – he has just started his season in Rookie level (going 4/11).
It’s still kind of amazing to me that Coppy was literally banned from baseball while A.J. Preller wasn’t even fired by his team.
Anthopoulos is an upgrade and I think the team and franchise will be in very good shape. But Coppy got a raw deal because the league decided they wanted to make an example of someone, and even though he was clearly guilty as sin, I don’t like overpunishment.
Looks like Maitan is with the rookie league Orem Owlz, whose season seems to have just gotten underway. Through three games, he’s 4-11 with two walks and no strikeouts.
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=t_ibp&cid=519&stn=true&sid=t519
@27
That’s fair enough, and I don’t necessarily disagree, but I find any lionization of Coppy extremely distasteful given, you know, the rampant cheating. If we win the World Series in the near future and I have to read some sort of “spare a moment of thought for Coppy” thing, my buzz will be momentarily harshed.
@26/27
Well said.
@28
the Orem Owlz
a strange mixture of vowelz
say feel free to come and view
Kevin Maitan, as he now appears to us, not you.
I still do feel that the Braves were unnecessarily punished. As I said at the time, if the Braves are going to lose players, picks, and signing budget then that asshole deserves a lifetime ban.
I stick by it.
I’m glad Snitker and the clubhouse entered the season with a more positive vibe. I’m of the impression that Coppy’s personality didn’t rub well with anyone. I can imagine his expectations of the big league club may not have been met. It’s not clear to me how much pull over the entire front office he had, and I would bet that Hart’s existence was to fill in the gaps. With Anthopolous, even us fans can see that there is an organizational vision. It certainly appears to be that even Snitker is on the same page with the front office. That’s called synergy. I did not feel like bespoke synergy was there last season.
So while Coppy did some admirable work, it’s not necessarily the case that he and Hart were grade A+ in every aspect as far as front offices go.
@29
‘rampant cheating’
he’s a moralist without the usual bleating
Coppy remains for some our Lion in Winter
because after all we still got to keep Minter.
Why is it that cheating in baseball turns me on? The idea of Coppy at the back door with a bucketful of pesos. Beacuse i hate the Nats, thats why.I’ve just realized.
52% of the roster was acquired by Coppy. If you wish to give him credit for not trading Teheran and Freeman, which I think he does, it increases to 60%. If pretty much any young pitcher gets called up, the number continues to climb. I see no scenario where John Hart is on MLB Network, (to Alex’s point) Preller and many other GMs have jobs, AA hoists a World Series trophy, and Coppy is literally nowhere in the equation of appreciation. That’s lunacy.
Don’t like the guy? Fine. Want to fire the guy? Fine. Want to ban him? Ok, but you better ban a lot of people. And the FO has their hand so far up Bowman’s *ss that they’re working his mouth like a puppet through 4 GMs in 5 seasons, and he only loves the current one. What a joke.
Yeah but… there’s a lot more responsibilities for the GM besides draft selections, trades, and contracts.
Give the man credit. Appreciate his talent acquisition skills. If the Braves win a championship, I’ll even mail him a T-Shirt. Let’s flood him with T-Shirts.
Was he actually a good GM though?
@35
Devastating clarity. Numbers c/w reasoning. Having only one of two gets me in trouble.
@36
I think it’s generally agreed that after he made Apocalypse Now he was never quite the same. That extended scene with all those choppers flying in to attack accompanied by Wagner at full blast and a maniacal Robert Duval has destroyed many a promising career.
@35
The guy very clearly and wantonly cheated, and I’ve never seen any real acknowledgment of that from you, that I can recall, other than a token line here or there (something along the lines of: Yes, he cheated, but…). I find that to be bizarre.
Yes, Hart enabled him. Does he deserve a bigger punishment than he got? Perhaps. Does he deserve the same punishment as Coppy? I don’t see how, since it wasn’t him that was breaking rules while waving his middle finger in the air.
There also seems to be this assumption that everybody else is cheating to exactly the degree that Coppy was. I don’t know how we can assume that. I think it’s very likely that the international market involved a fair amount of cheating by a variety of teams, but why everyone assumes Coppy’s cheating in this regard wasn’t above and beyond anything else that was happening has always boggled my mind. I think, given the punishment, it probably was.
And frankly, none of that matters for our purposes. Was Coppy rampantly cheating and openly flouting league rules? Yes. Did he deserve to be fired and completely disgraced? Yes. Did he deserve a lifetime ban? Perhaps not, but some acknowledgment of the first two questions might be nice.
And why anybody should spend two seconds bemoaning Coppy’s fate when thinking about this team is almost beyond belief to me. Who cares about freaking Coppy right now? The guy earned every bit of where he sits at the moment, and has no one to blame for any of it but himself. There is no world in which he should be our GM right now, so why does the degree of his punishment matter? If he really wants it, he’ll probably be able to get reinstated after a length of time anyway. I’m not sure why anyone would get hung up on the lifetime ban as an egregious miscarriage of justice.
USA Today’s Power Ranking
7. Atlanta Braves (+1)
►To think the guy who put this team together is currently on MLB’s permanently banned list.
LOL…
I’m not sure why anyone would get hung up on the lifetime ban as an egregious miscarriage of justice.
Nick, I think your points are well-made and well-rationed, but I don’t think anyone actually feels that way. I would imagine he did indeed deserve it. The degree by which he cheated justified the lifetime ban. But it’s intellectually inconsistent, to me, for Coppy to get a lifetime ban and John Hart is on MLB Network after a “mutual parting of ways”. If Hart had been fired, then he probably doesn’t have the career on television that he has, and that is what rubbed me wrong. Once again, no issue with Coppy getting banned. But you can’t tell me Bowman isn’t full of crap and you can’t tell me Hart’s punishment was proportionate.
One issue still floating around in my mind is whether or not it’s intellectually inconsistent to laud the accomplishments of a team largely assembled by, as you put it, a rampant cheater. If Coppy deserves no credit, then that would seemingly diminish the accomplishments of a team largely built through his work.
The reason Coppy got a lifetime ban and Hart didn’t is the same reason Coppy was so horribly unsuccessful at implementing stathead thinking in the Braves day to day instruction and on-field management while AA is much better at it. John Coppalella had ZERO people skills. And when it came time for MLB to take a head re: the league wide shenanigans in the international free agency scams, his lack of people skills did him in. Hart had decades of schmoozing and old-boy talk to fall back on. Preller didn’t piss off literally everyone he ever talked to.
None of the players currently impacting the Braves roster and their place in the division were from the years of “rampant cheating” in South America.
Where are the Monday power Rankings?
Dammit, I wanna clickbait something!
(Did I even use that right? Prob. not.)
@41
If a large number of the players we still have were proven to be obtained through illegal means, then sure. Since that’s not the case, I don’t see any intellectual inconsistency in dropping him into history’s trash can. Maybe that’s just me.
I honestly don’t care that he cheated (everyone cheated in the international game; he just got caught badly, mostly because he was so bad a people that his fellow cheaters ratted him out.)
I don’t care who built this team.
I don’t care what Kevin Maitan is doing in late season rookie ball in Oregon.
I want flags and pennants and WS banners. In Atlanta. All of this other crap is just whinging to whinge. Flags fly forever.
I for one do not think that Owlz as a nickname is Wyz. Whoooo thought it wuz?
you…
nice.
46 – 100% agree. I don’t care that he cheated, and while the rule in this day and age is we must be perpetually pissed off at all times, I have trouble mustering outrage at effectively paying poor Latin kids something close to their market value.
Were it me though, I’d watch out for Josh Donaldson (especially given AA got him the first time). The Jays look ready to blow it up, and if the Braves can marginally beat the value of a comp pick, I think they can get him.
The bigger question is if Liberty will pony up the 7 MM, but attendance is up this year, and if the Braves are still in contention at the deadline, I think you have to go for it.
I fully support giving Thoppy free rein to go get Josh Donaldson. He’s a difference maker in the middle of an order. I’d love another arm in the pen as well. I trust AA to make those trades without giving up too much of the farm.
“Whinge” is, in all seriousness, the worst thing about the rise of baseball analytics online. I would *almost* be willing to throw out all of the gains in thought and discourse just to not ever have to see that ridiculous word ever again.
“The Worst Thing About the Rise of Baseball Analytics Online” would actually be a pretty good mathcore post-rock album title, and “John Coppolella” would be a GREAT name for that band.
“Johnny Copps and the Latino-Swindling Band”
Huh… I looked it up and I was completely wrong. I would’ve thought that “mathcore” was completely encapsulated in the Tom Lehrer song “Lobachevsky” and the Jonathan Coulton song “Mandelbrot Set.” I was W-A-Y off.
No Donaldson. He’s an injury factory.
@51
Well now you’re just wishcasting.
@55 – He is, but as recently as the 2nd half of last year he went .276/.386/.606 with 24 HR as a right handed hitter. I’d take that between Freddie and Neck in the lineup post AS break.
Combine his contract year with a potential pennant race, and I’d imagine you’ll get him at his most motivated, if nothing else.
Kelvin Herrera to the Nats.
Since we’re on the topic, I never cared that Coppy cheated, either. I find the international rules to be stupid, and subverting them all but necessary. I care that he got caught and thereby harmed the Braves. For that alone, I was happy to see him go.
Nats gave up relatively little. All 3 prospects outside their top 10. Let the games begin.
Stu whinging about “whinging” is super meta.
@60 Still too rich for my blood. I guess our #10/#11 are better than theirs. I wonder if AA even picked up the phone. We’ll need a new target. I hear Addison Reed is up for sale – maybe coming back to the NL will improve his numbers. Or Zach Britton. Maybe there are some other good targets for rentals.
Who knows if we were even really in on Herrera…I’m not so sure Dayton Moore doesn’t hold some weird feelings towards our org.
There’s not a major league starter in anything that the Nats gave up (well maybe the pitcher since he’s only 17, but…yeah…). Very good move by Rizzo, fills a need for them and keeps him away from us.
I expect the Nats to be near the top end of the going-for-it-o-meter. Will be interesting to see how this chess match plays out through July.
@63 An interesting point. Considering the Royals pitching situation, I am absolutely shocked they let their best chip get away without adding significant pitching assets. I assume the salary dump was part of the deal.
Again Braves sit on ass and let teams get better in their division .. they are afraid to make any moves,…
Based upon what MLBTR says, I’d guess the two bigger prospects were somewhere in the vicinity of Travis Demeritte and Izzy Wilson. If those two were the offer (along with a Wisler or someone off the top 30) then I’d have been good with that. That’s basically the deal I had proposed before for Herrera.
On Sickel’s grades, the Nats gave up 2 C+ position players and not much else. The Nats don’t have as much pitching to give up, hence the heavy position player return. Only 3 of their top 12 are pitchers and 8 of their top 20, according to Sickel’s.
It could have come down to salary, and the Nats were more in position to take on more salary by both taking on the full amount remaining and doing it a month earlier. We may not be in position to take on what was around $5M remaining on Herrera’s deal.
Tad!
@67 Rob, true dat.
I think this sets the market in an encouraging way for the Braves, and we could have comfortably beat that deal if we wanted to. Some have attempted to monetize prospects to determine their market value, and I’m not sure if that works universally, but we could find a team that will take on salary in exchange for prospects, and I think we’re really competitive if this is the market for Herrera and his salary.
I keep going to salary because I can’t imagine we couldn’t or didn’t want to beat their deal.
Hey guys. Tad showed up to bitch and moan. I’m surprised.
Nats lose. 3.5 up.
Would have been nice to be 4.5 up after an off day, but we’ll take 3.5 up.
Here’s a question for any fellow math sufferers.
The Yanks are in DC tonight and, effectively* , played a double header. They lost the first game, 5/3, won the second 4/2.
We were off today. So what’s our lead now?
I just want to check you guys know how to do this. Show your work if you insist.
Notes. Eaton is back hitting with power. Murphy less so, still gimpy on the bases.As the go ahead run with 2 out in the ninth Trea Turner drove Chapman’s 99mph high fastball to right field and almost got it over Judge’s reach.
*First game was completion of earlier rain out some weeks ago.
That’s right Rob .. what don’t you agree with about my comment …
Team X 42-29
Team Y 38-32
1 = win total
2 = loss total
(X1-Y1) + -(X2-Y2)
————————-
2
Thus
(42-38) + -(29-32)
————————-
2
>>>
4+ -(-3)
———-
2
>>>
negatives cancel each other out, of course …
>>>
7
—
2
>>>
Final difference: 3.5
blazon: “math sufferer?” It sounds like you need to listen to The Number Twelve Looks Like You. I recommend “Don’t Get Blood On My Prada Shoes.” It’s only 1:36.
We were 3.5 up. Nats won Game 1, down to 3 up. Nats lost Game 2, back to 3.5 up. I’m not seeing why it’s that complicated, I guess.
It’s not a real question, we are just workshopping lyrics for our upcoming mathcore album.
@70 That’s going to make getting Britton more difficult. The O’s will want to drop salary and get prospects. And they care about prospects less, oddly enough. Any well known reliever at the end of his contract will have a pretty stiff salary.
Maybe we could trade Wisler and Dustin Peterson to the Padres for Craig Stammen……. LOL
@42, Sam nailed it. Copy would be a great fantasy league team owner. Managing means dealing with flesh and blood people. He lacks those capabilities. However I think the lifetime ban is excessive.
I want DeGrom.
Sam’s larger point is taken, but maybe “ZERO” people skills is a bit harsh for someone who was beloved for his accessibility and relatability by many more serious Braves fans. Coppy had the skills. He just thought he was too smart and too talented to have to use them.
I give Coppy more credit there, and I actually give him less credit in other senses. He should’ve been able to see with Ohtani on the horizon that MLB was looking for a strong deterrent against shenanigans. Maybe his fatal flaw was something more like hubris.
52% of the roster was acquired by Coppy. If you wish to give him credit for not trading Teheran and Freeman, which I think he does, it increases to 60%.
A better way of doing this: how much WAR is Coppy responsible for? How about WAR per dollar?
@76…my hero…hawkinesque….we all have our comfort zones, one of mine the clerihew…i’m guessing that one of those looks like @76 does to me…the thing is why does life become more fun/interesting when we venture beyond them…if you fear heights that is something you can artificially ‘overcome’ by having a hulk strapped to your back 3 miles up …can’t do that with math, wrong DNA…once i ignored the ‘obvious’ after the double header and tried to rationalize it i was lost…3, 3 1/2, 4…but you can read a clerihew, slowly slowly, and be a convert for life. Thank you Overlord and all you other guys, life here is special.
@83…timo
de Grom
is da bomb
but Breakfast at Tiffanys
must lead you to one of life’s lusted epiphanies.
Player A
1 1 1.05 25.2 22 so (23.6%) 2 bb .204 babip
Player B
4 1 2.06 20 27 (21%) 11 .227
Herrara has that cool capital C on his chest when he comes out of the phone booth but he is no longer among the best relievers in the game. He has been blessed by the babip gods this year as well as having the luck to face the bottom of the league (20 out of 29 appearances have come against losing teams, 3 against Oakland which will be a sub-.500 team by the end of the year).
He is the equivalent of Shane Carle.
For us the price was likely something like Bryce Wilson and Evan Phillips. I’d rather keep Phillips…
I just looked up the prospects that the gNats gave up and the top two are rated at 40PV by FG. So my comparison of Demeritte and Izzy was close but FG considers Ray-Patrick (or Derian or a host of others) a better prospect. All are probably 40PV. I think it comes down to money and the gNats getting ahead of the game. Surely the Braves would have dealt say Demeritte, Izzy, and Jaseel but would have wanted money to come back.
@88 The gNats gave up nothing close to Bryce Wilson. Those prospects would have been rated in the 20-30 range in the Braves system which is the appropriate value to give up for a Herrera.
I didn’t say they were equivalent. I said that was the likely price as they as both somewhere in our 2nd tier. KC got 2 2nd tier Washington guys and a lotto. It isn’t fair that we will be asked to give up better prospects by other teams but it is what I expect
I think the timing shows the urgency of the Nats’ position. They may be on their last year of their particular window, and they couldn’t risk losing the best reliever on the market. It’s not unrealistic to think that the Braves just aren’t ready to make a trade.
Adam, the players Coppy acquired have produced 65% of the team’s WAR this year. If he gets credit for having not traded Freeman, then that number would be 84%, which is subjective. And that highlights that when Bowman is going on the radio and talking about the great work that AA has done with the roster by signing… Charlie Culberson… that it’s straight BS. It’s nothing new, Bowman is always full of crap, but I found that particular point of BS uniquely egregious.
And really, the percentage is going to get bigger as the season goes along. The top 5 WAR-producing pitchers were acquired by Coppy – Folty, Newk, Winkler, Minter, and Soroka. Those numbers are only going to become more disproportionate. Coppy acquired 6 of the top 7 on the offensive side if you’re giving him credit for keeping Freddie. Lane Adams, a Coppy acquisition, in very small sample size has produced more WAR than Tucker and Culberson combined.
All this is about Bowman’s BS, which is not the end of the world. I’m just highlighting how flat-out wrong it is.
On Herrera,
I wish I knew for sure that Anthopoulos had at least checked in and said we had interest at a price for Herrera and Moustakas. That was too good of a shot for an upgrade that wouldn’t have been extremely expensive. Also, the natural development curves of the players we have suggest that losing Herrera and Moustakas as rentals would not be so likely to create a notched drop off.
Also, a pu pu tray of second and third tier pitchers from the Braves could really help the Royals, Reds, and Orioles. And, we have a 40 man crunch this year that needs to see a couple of them moved for whatever we can get so they don’t just walk away.
Coppy was talking to the Astros about Freeman. After he unloaded Simmons, there was a lot of negative feedback from the fans; then rumors of moving Freddie stopped. I credit the season ticket holders for keeping him more than I do Coppy.
@93 – Not that any of us argued with it, but I think you can pretty easily make the case that from a 20/20 hindsight perspective, the Kemp/McCarthy trade hasn’t turned how AA would’ve expected to this point either.
I would just stop trading with the Dodgers in general; we don’t appear to be very good at it.
I feel fairly confident that the Braves will get a middle reliever at some point in the next two months, either before or after the non-waiver trade deadline.
In the beginning of the season, one could stomach Kemp’s success by saying that he started hot last year and Kakes was playing equally well. But in the past month, Kemp is hitting .365/.396/.677 and in that same time, Kakes is hitting .303/.351/.420.
And in the beginning of the year, McCarthy looked fine with a 3.09 ERA in 6 starts. In the 8 starts since, he has a 6.26 ERA. With that said, Culberson has looked perfectly cromulent as a versatile utility infielder with the flair for the dramatic.
So, no, now would not be a good time to take a snapshot of that trade.
@98
If the promised financial windfall with which to acquire players comes about, it will be a good trade for us regardless of what Kemp does the rest of the year.
Right on cue for our trade wishcasting, Success! is available — and he’s a pitcher now.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/players/74077/
There has been a non-recapping. But a new game thread is up.