In the recap of Tuesday’s game, Alex brought up Schrodinger and his cat. Inspired by Alex, I did not observe the game that I purportedly am recapping, neither in person, on tv, radio, or even my mlb app. So the outcome of the Braves’ Wednesday afternoon game, at least as far as this observer is concerned, remains in a state of superposition between win and loss.
I am aware that other persons and organizations claim to have observed this game, and if you desire to consult them about the outcome you know how to do so. No doubt these other observers report an outcome for today, but I choose for the outcome to remain in superposition. Can we do that for the rest of this season? If all of us decline to observe going forward, will there be no more wins and losses the rest of the way?
Although I did not observe today’s game, I have, regretfully, observed the season up to this point. I can assert with confidence that the season’s wave function collapsed some time ago. Many on here have ideas about why the collapse happened and what should be done about that. Personally, I have no idea how a team that set offensive records just two years ago has largely forgotten how to hit. And I don’t have any good suggestions for how to fix this team’s problems. But there are many wise and informed folks here; feel free to weigh in on those questions in the comments.
Am I crazy to think that Aaron Bummer is not a bad deal next year at $9.5 million? with what relievers were getting last off-season, I think he would probably get about that on the open market.
Not crazy but I don’t agree he is a good use of $10 million for a team with any sort of budgetary limitations. We talked about it a couple weeks ago, and you mentioned Kirby Yates but he was the most effective reliever in baseball in 2024. Quality Back-end guys do tend to get $10 million and up but Bummer is not that. He’s a mediocre middle reliever. My guess would be $4-6 million on a 1 year deal only because he’s a lefty.
We’ve talked about his peripherals at length and most of us don’t buy them anymore. He’s good at giving up singles and his metrics say those balls shouldn’t be going for hits quite so frequently. My lazy spitball take is that maybe he gives up grounders that are harder than average.
I’ll repeat what I said in the previous thread when you brought this up: the Braves have a surplus of LH relievers. Lee, Dodd, Cox, now Wentz (I don’t think he’s a starter long term when Sale/Schwelly return). Also I think Hayden Harris in Gwinnett has to be added to the 40 man this offseason. Why waste finite resources on Bummer when other guys can do it for cheaper? Plus Bummer seems to wilt in high leverage situations.
If Aaron Bummer is in your bullpen, its a bad thing. He is terrible in so many ways except allowing HRs. If he can be jettisoned for a minor leaguer get rid of him.
I would trade Ozuna, Iglesias, Albies and Profar for whatever you can get. Purge and send a message nobody is safe. Perform or you are out.
If, thanks to his underlying components, he is tradeable, we should trade him. We can get him back if we really want! If there’s one thing I feel firmly comfortable asserting, it is that there will always be more Aaron Bummers.
He’s had a 2.73 FIP in his 97 IP with Atlanta. I don’t know if that’s as easy to replace as it seems. After last offseason watching reliever after reliever go elsewhere for $13-15M+, I have a healthy fear of trying to fill a bullpen. Kirby Yates and his -0.2 bWAR got $13M last offseason! Tanner Scott, who has been exactly replacement level this year, got $16M, $20M, and $20M with a vesting option for another $5M. You can say, “Yeah, well, those had deferred money,” but guess what, they took those deals over ours. So that’s the going rate. It’s getting harder to fill a bullpen with decent guys, I fear, and what we get at the deadline for Iglesias, Johnson, Bummer, whomever will probably be an indication of that.
Even if I granted that Aaron Bummer has been an effective
starterreliever – and I don’t grant that, his career ERA is more than half a run higher than his career WHIP for a reason – I’d go back to my general take that good relievers are a luxury good. Yes, it can be hard to fill a bullpen as we’ve seen this year, but fundamentally, relievers are part-time players, and the trouble with this team and with this franchise is we don’t have nearly enough good starting players. Bullpen guys are deckchairs on the Titanic right now, and we should’ve traded Raisel a year ago when we had the chance.Justin Toscano broke his Twitter hiatus to announce he’s no longer with the AJC and declined to share details of what occured. So it seems it wasn’t a cordial separation. Would the AJC terminate him for upsetting Braves brass? I didn’t follow his work much, but I don’t recall him writing anything controversial. I do remember the last time hearing him was on the Zoom call with AA after Tui was cut loose from 3BC.
Could simply be another cost-cutting move on the part of the AJC.
Of course, he’d seem to be too young to be a recipient of a buy-out (like Mark Bradley, Chip Towers, etc.)
Ububba is probably right. They probably thought he was redundant as there are other beat writers, and nobody reads the AJC when they can get the same content for free other places.
Is Georgia an at will employment state?
Peanut says there’s nothing to the Padres/Braves chatter. And in fact: he says they haven’t even spoken.
Apparently, Jesse Chavez is retiring.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6513695/2025/07/24/jesse-chavez-retirement-braves-2/
Thank you so much for everything, Uncle Jesse. You were a wonderful guy to root for. All the best for the second half of your career!
Jesse has a Braves WS ring, not to mention quite a BRef page:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/chaveje01.shtml
https://archive.fieldingbible.com/DRSLeaderboard
Not surprised to see Nick Allen at the top of this list, but I am shocked to see Matt Olson above him.
I think they were talking about Olson’s defensive runs saved on a recent broadcast. Maybe it was after most people had turned off the set in disgust.
Farewell to arms: