It only took 2 days for the needs of the Braves to become clear. On Saturday, July 23rd, Adam Duvall was removed from the game after 2 innings with a sore wrist. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just sore, he tore his tendon sheath (I didn’t even know that was a thing), needed surgery, and will be out for the rest of 2022.
Fast-forward about a 1/2 day and Ian Anderson laid an egg…a real stinky rotten one, giving up 7 runs in 3 innings all the while raising his ERA to 5.31. I wish there were good things, something that I could say to spin it…”Well yeah, he’s been bad on paper this year, but his peripherals…”, but I cannot.
- His K-rate isn’t good.
- His BB-rate isn’t good.
- His entire Statcast Page lives in an igloo, with exception of barrel rate
In every facet of his game, Ian has taken mighty steps back in his development. For Ian’s sake and the Braves, a AAA stint is necessary and it’s absolutely necessary for Ian to find another pitch he can get hitters out on that isn’t his changeup. Go down. Get right. See you in September.
And it would help a lot if the Braves could rely on Eddie Rosario to fill in for Adam Duvall, but he’s been worse in every facet since returning from surgery. It would also be nice to send Ian to AAA and give Kyle Muller another chance at the rotation but the Braves seem hesitant and maybe they know the risk of promoting him to the MLB right before the trade deadline. What’s also interesting is that Muller hasn’t started in 12 days and isn’t currently listed as a starter in any upcoming games. UPDATE: Now we know why.
The Way of Anthopoulos
Last year at the deadline, the Braves landed Joc Pederson, Adam Duvall, Eddie Rosario, Jorge Soler, and Richard Rodriguez and they lost Bryce Ball, Pablo Sandoval, Alex Jackson, Kasey Kalich, Bryse Wilson, and Ricky DeVito. As I type this up, I have to laugh. The Braves will not miss a single one of these players, not this year and not the next. So how did AA acquire them? Simply put, he was willing to pay salaries and was willing to wait out the market.
It’s no secret that AA doesn’t do bidding wars in free agency. If there’s one person that knows that it’s Freddie Freeman. He’ll give an offer and stick with it. It seems as though he operates the same at the trade deadline. 4 of the above 5 trades were made on the last day of the trade deadline. As other teams passed these players for the latest hot name, AA waited and when the teams met his asking price, he pounced. All in all, the Braves took on about $8.5MM in salary.
While the pressure might be on a bit more considering the 2021 season ended with trophy lifting, I can’t imagine that Anthopoulos will go after the shiniest toy. First off, he doesn’t have the prospect capital he once had, and secondly, it’s just not his style. In my head, that means that guys like Luis Castillo, Ian Happ, Josh Bell, Juan Soto, Frankie Montas, and Bryan Reynolds will not lead AA into temptation. However, that could all go away if the Braves are willing to include Ian Anderson into trade conversations. My guess is they are not.
With that little note, here are some of the hitters that I think could attract Anthopoulos:
- Trey Mancini: O’s might not deal, but if they do, Mancini would fit well with the Braves who are in need of RHH OFer.
- Joey Gallo: Gallo is having an awful year, but if the Braves could swap him for Will Smith‘s contract, it would be a nice little low risk move for both parties. Braves would have to even out the $.
- Brandon Drury: Drury is having an outstanding year and the Braves could really use his skillset with Ozzie Albies on the shelf.
- David Peralta: Peralta has always been a fave of mine and is the steady presence that we as Braves fans want Eddie Rosario to be.
- Joey Wendle: Wouldn’t cost much and comes with a mutual option.
- Anthony Santander: Switch-hitter, good hitter, terrible fielder.
- Jorge Soler: A reunion? It’s not as unlikely as you might think. If the Braves wanted to make a bad contract swap, they could do worse than sending Ozuna plus a couple of prospects for Soler. I mean…would you say no?
- Kike Hernandez: On the IL right now, but could resolve a lot of problems. He’s still hitting LHP well and is a heck of a defender. Nice platoon/plug-n-play player.
- Brian Anderson: I’ve always liked the player. He’s not performed up to his standards, but he’s still hitting well against LHP and is a good fielder.
- Tyler Naquin: An ideal platoon partner in the OF if the Braves think that Eddie won’t recover this year.
- Donovan Solano: The dude can hit and plays multiple positions including a HUGE position of need: 2B.
- Tommy Pham: Wouldn’t it be funny to grab Tommy Pham for a playoff stretch a year after picking up Joc Pederson? Tommy’s hitting the ball hard and that’s a good thing.
Thoughts?
I’m still a Gallo believer… let him grow that beard back and rake into the chop house… then I’d want Kike… followed by Refsynder in Boston due to positional versatility…aka build depth. If possible add a starting pitcher… whether that be Mahle (Cincy), Skubal (trading Anderson +), or maybe sneakier in Quintana, unless you have full confidence in Soroka making it back. If Gallo was swapped for Gallo… then I’d go hard for David Robertson with the Cubs… might be overkill with Yates coming back. But there is no overfilling the Arm Barn. Stream of conscience, but maybe Kike and Refsynder is redundant… but if they can be had… not knowing how/when Albies comes back… they will make the lineup more versatile
I meant Gallo for Will Smith up there
The Mets just got Naquin, so strike him from the list.
Kike can play any position, and you can bat him anywhere in the line-up. He knows how to play it cool in a pennant race.
There’s a bit of this that could be outdated as I wrote it 2 days ago & haven’t had time to edit.
Wish for Joey Gallo at your own risk.
I’ve never seen a major-league veteran — and one who should be in his prime — look this hopeless.
https://youtu.be/O4CD1uZJpHo
Good gosh I love Brian Snitker
the thing is, Ozuna looks pretty good, and the underlying metrics are reasonably strong. He’s just gotta turn that corner somehow.
I like the idea of getting a good fielding LF and let Ozuna at DH with some off days where Rosario spells him. I gotta think 5th starter is not that big a deal. But a good RH reliever would be a big add. Is a Happ/Robertson deal too much to ask? Happ can fill in at 2B too.
How about Melancon?
I’m really hoping Tyler Yates is our RH addition, so we use our limited bullets on the larger roles.
Jonathan Villar available for nothing. Swap with Cano, who’s worth nothing?
What was that? It was like Dansby didn’t even try to catch it.
I’m guessing the runner screened it so that Dansby didn’t see the throw.
Some of these alumni really shouldn’t be asked to talk on TV.
I assume catcher threw it away but Harris got beat by the RF throw to second?
16 — Correct. RF did a good job backing up the play.
Riley is killing the ball tonight.
Riley has missed like 5 HR this past week by a matter of 50 feet total.
Guy is on fire
I think the rest did Kyle some good.
Riley is on pace for 46 homers and 46 doubles for the year……and getting hotter. It may not be that rare but it seems pretty special. I bet JonathanF can tell us the last time someone had that many or more in the same yr.
@21 I bet the last time someone did that was 1995, Albert Belle.
Edit: on review I’m not confident that’s the right year, but I know Belle did it.
@22, I was about to post that, and I think it was 1995 because doing it in a 144(?)-game season made it much more impressive. I believe Belle got 50 & 50.
Quite distressing how this bullpen has been a tire fire since the ASG. Seems like Hancock is contagious. (Although Kenley was getting squeezed.)
Since June 23, Kenley hasn’t been very good.
Riley is hitting .299 with a .963 OPS. I’m surprised his OPS isn’t higher. Goldschmidt, Alvarez and Judge are the only 3 with OPS over 1.000. Surprisingly Alcantara leads the league in WAR. Goldschmidt is 2nd, Arenado is 3rd, and Riley is 4th. I think Riley is easily 2nd or 3rd place for NL MVP if the vote is held today, but if he keeps this up he may give Goldschmidt a legitimate run this year.
he was getting squeezed a little, but it definitely seemed like his cutter was moving well. i don’t entirely mind the walks as long as he’s not giving the batters good pitches to drive, and he eventually ended up striking out the side while not allowing the leadoff triple to score which is more than enough if you ask me.
Albert did it twice, as did another Albert, a few Rockies, the Iron Horse and Derrek Lee. https://stathead.com/tiny/gbIw1
Thanks JonathanF. Wow. Only been done 7 times by 6 players. Pretty rare after all. Albert Belle’s top of the board yr in a shortened ’95 is so impressive.
Mariners getting Luis Castillo.
I thought hard and decided Pujols probably hadn’t done it.
That was a weird ninth. The three strikeouts Kenley got were all dominant, he just pitched to three other hitters as well.
This month, Riley’s been hot.
And against LHP, he’s always hot.
recapped