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Braves Ongoing Season Comments Thread..
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Comments
Another blast by Acuna. This time into the visitors "pitching area". Really cool. And Freddy's running from first to home with a great slide. I get a lil bit nervous when Freddy tries to score. But he showed a lot of speed for being a big fella on that play.
I well recall facing those Yankee teams, particularly in 1998 when we won more regular season games but their lineup was so skilled and consistent as hitters they just kept coming and kept coming.
Maddux started one of those WS games. He was pitching well but early in the game his pitch count was pretty high. That Yankee team could grind any pitcher, even one of Maddux's caliber, into the ground by forcing them to throw pitch after pitch. That team was incredibly skilled in not making outs.
Pretty sure they didn't have a 30hr hitter either. Lots of guys in the 20's though with extremely high OPS numbers. Paul Oneil types. Plus they had a lights out bullpen.
Maybe the best team I've seen in my lifetime.
P.S. Usually a pretty good indicator the Braves are going to have a good night offensively when they force the opposing SP to throw 15-20 pitches to get through the first.
I couldn't recall if it was no 40 homer season through their whole run or no 30 homer season. Paul O'Neill fought on every single pitch. Torrie called him the heart of those teams. He was more the leader of those teams than Jeter. So right in the heart of the PEDs era it was a get on base and move him over team that dominated in postseasons.
Not looking good today for the Bravos but they have already accomplished what they needed to after the first two games.
Today doesn’t exactly give me warm and tinglies about not making a trade for a starter.
Unless they make a deal its gonna be Keuchal, Soroka, then some combination of Tehran, Fried and Folty if he makes a reappearance in the playoffs.
Maybe Kyle Wright or Wilson too.
Will must likely lose but is good to see:
Ender swinging a good bat (it is the 2nd half of the season after all)
Johan - had some good AB's late last night and got some contact today. Just needs some AB's like most players do. That could help a lot in the near future til we get our regular lineup back.
I think Newcomb is being groomed for ultra long relief like happens often in playoff games where a manager can't just take the hit and move to the next game. I think Tehran might start the 2nd and possibly even the opening game of the postseason. It will come down to who is pitching best at the time and maybe the manager's gut if it's close.
Any news on Ron Jr's neck ?
As of tonight it's thought to be ok, just some soreness. Hopefully there's nothing more to it.
It might be worth considering trading for Noah Syndergaard if the Mets decide to put him on the block. He's not having a very good year but he has a solid history, he has premium physical traits and he's just 26 years old. Whether management would invest in a long term acquisition is another question. Maybe trading a couple of pitching prospects for a proven commodity would be a good move.
As a Mets fan...you don't want him. All sizzle, zero steak. Tantalize you with his measurables, then he's throwing another 100 pitch five inning affair taxing your bullpen. Better off with anyone else
Kasey. He's having an off year and he's struggled to control both his slider and fastball. He does have some good results over his career so far though and there's no denying the natural arm talent. If he can be consistent with those 2 pitches he can be very good. Randy Johnson struggled with control early in his career. Syndergaard doesn't have Johnson's stuff, but he's not that far off when everything is working.
No doubt he is a risk vs reward type though. He might get it together or he might not. How is he in the locker room ?
I'd like Cleveland's Trevor Bauer if he wasn't a head case. Today he threw a ball from the mound over the center field fence. That is a perfect act to show both his arm and his volatility.
As a Mets fan...you don't want him. All sizzle, zero steak. Tantalize you with his measurables, then he's throwing another 100 pitch five inning affair taxing your bullpen. Better off with anyone else
Agree 100 %.
He got a lot of hype because he
But for the most part his performance hasn't matched the hype. His numbers are getting progressively worse which is concerning.
My god you are a Mets fan? I knew there was something wrong with you but I had no idea it was this bad.
Short of Bumgarner (who probably wont be moved because the dang Giants started winning.) I am not a big fan of getting rid of prospects for rentals. The Braves are ahead of schedule anyway. Did anyone seriously think we could win the WS this year? I didn't. Stay the course and continue to develop those arms.
With Acuna, Albies, Freeman, Swanson, Riley, Soroka, Fried etc etc the future for ATL is very bright.
Separate question but just now playing the Phillies made me think of something.
Think about all the money they are paying Harper. Then think about how cheap the Braves have locked Acuna up for a good long time.
Now which one would you want even if the salaries were even? Its Acuna by a mile. Put the money back in the equation and its definitely Acuna.
This is why the Phillies are the Phillies and the Braves are the Braves. This applies to the Mets as well.
The Braves have always developed within while their NL East competitors try to take the short cut.
I mean Thor has still performed like a quality pitcher this year... would definitely help our chances. And our huge pitching centered rebuild has shown that a lot of pitching prospects fall flat on their face in the big leagues. So far we have gotten soroka and fried and had probably a dozen guys flame out.
You absolutely need to consolidate talent if you want to win titles. Idk if Thor is the guy to do it for, but saying that he is all sizzle and no steak is confusing to me. He may not be an “ace” but he would for sure be in our top 3 starters and give us a huge boost in the playoffs.
So far we have gotten Soroka and Fried and had probably a dozen guys flame out.
Folty showed last year he has the goods. Now he just needs to mature. He will be back.
The Bryse Wilson guy I really like. He has good stuff you can see it.
Seen Kyle Wright pitch a couple of times at AA and he has the goods too. He is getting closer.
Generally the Braves do the opposite. We traded Simmons and got Fried back for example. McCann or was it Gattis for Folty.
We traded Shelby Miller and got Swanson and Inciarte back. That was highway robbery.
Keep stockpiling elite talent and developing them. Leave the high priced rentals alone
Just my two cents.
I agree with everything in that post Kirb. I'll add as a potential long term keeper Syndergaard is very intriguing. He has similar stuff to what Randy Johnson had. Lets say The Big Unit had A+ combo fastball/slider and Thor has A-. Of course we can't project anybody to develop like a Randy Johnson or in Soroka's case a Greg Maddux lite. We can see the potential though.
If we have the right mentor and pitching coach to steer and develop this guy he has a chance to be exceptional. The advantage with Syndergaard over our prospects is we have proof he can be good at this level, as you pointed out there are far more elite pitching prospects who don't develop for one reason or another. I'd say with Thor our odds would easily be twice as good as with Ian Anderson or any of our other starters in the minors.
The dangerous thing about pitching prospects is that they all seem to have the goods to laypeople and even MLB scouts. I loved Matt Wisler, he had the goods until MLB hitters got to him. Same for Aaron Blair, Manny Banuelos, tyrell Jenkins, Luiz gohara, potentially Sean Newcombe, lucas sims, Jason Hursh, etc. all these guys were well regarded and fell flat on their face in the MLB or were only borderline playable. With the exception of Newk, who the jury is still out on, all have been failures at the major league level. A handful were even top 100 prospects.
And yeah, we went the other way on those trades because we were rebuilding. We are on the other side of the fence now, where we are trying to win now. We won’t be trading established MLB contributors for prospects.
My main point I want to make is that pitching prospects are really volatile and are a low probability of big time success. It’s just the nature of the beast for whatever reason. If a team is trying to maximize their opportunity to win a title in a given window, you typically have to make trades or spend money on big time rentals/free agents to fill out your team.
What would this squad look like without Donaldson or kuechel? What would it look like if we added Thor or Trevor Bauer plus a strong relief option? There’s a time and place for hoarding prospects, and that time for the Braves ended last year. I don’t want to advocate moving everyone or overpaying, but we have a deep enough system to get a guy like Thor or Bauer for the next 1.5 years and still have a top 5 farm system.
@WCDawg what is happening, we are agreeing too much lately lol.