One thing clearly apparent from the playoff series against the Dodgers is that the Braves bench has a long way to go to be playoff quality. While the Dodgers were at various times bringing the likes of Max Muncy, Joc Pederson,...
Read MoreThere is a proverb that goes like this: Rabbi Simcha Bunim taught that every person should carry two pieces of paper, one in each pocket: in one pocket “For me the world was created.” and in the other “I am but...
Read MoreLast year at this time I wrote a series on the position players, “Where Do We Go From Here?” Think of this as “How Did We Come From There?” The Atlanta Braves reversed a 72 – 90 record in 2017 to...
Read MoreBoy, did we have a weird outfield last year. The right fielder played like an MVP candidate for half the season and then like Nick Markakis in the next half, the centerfielder played like BJ Upton for half the season but would...
Read MoreAs mentioned in Part 1, there are still plenty of needs on the pitching side. By my count, there are currently 12 starting pitchers in the organization who could factor into the rotation at some point in 2019: Mike Foltynewicz,...
Read MoreYou’ve already heard at length how much the team exceeded expectations this year. They improved their win total by a whopping 18 games to go from 72-90 to 90-72. They needed several rookies and young players to hit all at...
Read MoreLet’s new-thread. Here. I’ll provide a conversation starter via Peanut: “With his first significant move as the Braves GM, Anthopoulos cleaned the lingering mess from the Olivera trade, which was fueled by...
Read MoreSince the series began, we’ve hired a new GM and lived through the Acoppolypse. For your shopping convenience, here’s an overview of the position players in one shot. First, a brief look at where we (think) we...
Read MoreThe Incumbents The incumbents should be familiar; they are the same incumbents as last season - Matt Kemp, Ender Inciarte, and Nick Markakis. In his 3 seasons as the Braves right fielder Nick Markakis has hit 24 home runs in...
Read MoreThe Incumbent Dansby Swanson played 142 games at shortstop for the Braves in 2017, interrupted by a July demotion to AAA Gwinnett, at which point he was hitting .213. Swanson only got 11 games at AAA (batting .237) before a...
Read MoreIt’s complicated. It gets that way when you don’t have a General Manager in place, or really even know what your front office is going to look like, or how many of your prospects are going to be cast into free agency. One...
Read MoreAs an overview of the position players, here’s a brief summary of my findings and opinions from the “Where Do We Go From Here†series. The hard truth is that the Braves had only 2 position players (Freddie Freeman and...
Read MoreEd. note: Every year we publish a series of articles entitled “Where Do We Go From Here?” in which we analyze what the Braves need to do in order to get better the following year. Here’s the intro to the...
Read MoreEd. note: Every year we publish a series of articles entitled “Where Do We Go From Here?” in which we analyze what the Braves need to do in order to get better the following year. Here’s the intro to the...
Read MoreEd. note: Every year we publish a series of articles entitled “Where Do We Go From Here?” in which we analyze what the Braves need to do in order to get better the following year. Here’s the intro to the...
Read MoreThe Braves began this past season thinking that their rotation might be a — and maybe the — strength of the team, while they had serious confidence issues about the offense. Then they finished the season with the offense...
Read MoreEd. note: Every year we publish a series of articles entitled “Where Do We Go From Here?” in which we analyze what the Braves need to do in order to get better the following year. Here’s the intro to the...
Read MoreOn March 29, 2013, as MLB prepared to break spring training and embark on another summer of swings, the New York Times ran an article about the upcoming season and league wide trends. The gist of it is summarized by the...
Read MoreOne of the very few topics on which I generally default to optimism is the Atlanta Braves. It is known. I can get testy with the constant rending of garments that we seem to descend to any time things don’t go perfectly or...
Read MoreIllusion check, in order of appearance: Jason Heyward, Craig Kimbrel, Freddie Freeman, and Andrelton Simmons. Or if you’re not into using names: Immediate Sensation 1, Immediate Sensation 2, Immediate Hugsation, Immediate...
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