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Atlanta Braves Thread: Championship Edition (1 Viewer)

4 K's for BJ. Will get a chance for a 5th.

No way should he ever be leading off. Just let Simmons and Schafer split that role.

And Fredi needs to go ahead and put McCann in the 2-hole. 6 is just too far down for him. Keeps the lefties split and maybe they can finally start getting somebody on base in front of Upton.

 
I ####### hate Fredi G

God forbid you let Maholm face the always dangerous Devin Morasco, with two outs, and a whopping 105 pitches thrown.

Jagoff

 
I'd imagine Gattis just bought himself a little more time in left field.

He bailed Minor out of a 3-men on, no outs jam with a great throw to get Phillips tagging to home on a flyball.

 
I'd imagine Gattis just bought himself a little more time in left field.He bailed Minor out of a 3-men on, no outs jam with a great throw to get Phillips tagging to home on a flyball.
I was at the game and had to explain to the people around me who that fat white catcher was out in LF.

:thumbup:

 
Wow, getting McCann and Heyward back has paid off exactly as hoped.

McCann hitting like 2012 never happened.

Heyward locking down the 2-hole like April never happened. .429 OBP since coming back.

Of course, it could be that getting the Dodgers and Twins back-to-back would make a lot of struggling teams start to look much better.

 
I wonder what they're going to do with McCann at the end of the season. Bethancourt was supposed to be his heir apparent, but the kid can't hit his way out of a paper bag. Gattis is there, but is he the long-term answer? Low miles, but is already 27.

Option A : Re-sign McCann to a 4-year, $60 million deal. Pray he stays healthy. But then what do you do with Gattis? Use him as the every 5th day catcher/4th outfielder/pinch-hitter? If they want him in the lineup every day, I don't see how they do it unless they move Justin Upton to CF, put Gattis in left and trade BJ Upton for a bag of balls and eat 75% of that contract. Also, then you'd have over $50 million per year committed to the Uptons, Uggla and McCann on a team with a ~$90M payroll limit for at least the next two seasons (and $40 M for the Uptons and McCann the two years beyond that). Heyward, Medlen, Teheran, Minor, Beachy, their entire bullpen... all these guys will need to be extended or allowed to walk at some point in the next handful of years. This would be fine if it was New York, Boston, or L.A., but not for Atlanta.

Option B : Let McCann walk and make Gattis the everyday catcher. Pray he stays healthy. If he doesn't, welcome to a year of Gerald Laird as the every-day catcher. Also pray Bethancourt's bat catches up to his arm. If it doesn't..... gulp. This is the fiscally prudent (and IMO, more likely) scenario, but there are more "ifs" this way, and if things don't work out perfectly, the Braves could see what is potentially another championship window slam shut before it even has a chance to fully open.

What do you guys think?

 
I wonder what they're going to do with McCann at the end of the season. Bethancourt was supposed to be his heir apparent, but the kid can't hit his way out of a paper bag. Gattis is there, but is he the long-term answer? Low miles, but is already 27.

Option A : Re-sign McCann to a 4-year, $60 million deal. Pray he stays healthy. But then what do you do with Gattis? Use him as the every 5th day catcher/4th outfielder/pinch-hitter? If they want him in the lineup every day, I don't see how they do it unless they move Justin Upton to CF, put Gattis in left and trade BJ Upton for a bag of balls and eat 75% of that contract. Also, then you'd have over $50 million per year committed to the Uptons, Uggla and McCann on a team with a ~$90M payroll limit for at least the next two seasons (and $40 M for the Uptons and McCann the two years beyond that). Heyward, Medlen, Teheran, Minor, Beachy, their entire bullpen... all these guys will need to be extended or allowed to walk at some point in the next handful of years. This would be fine if it was New York, Boston, or L.A., but not for Atlanta.

Option B : Let McCann walk and make Gattis the everyday catcher. Pray he stays healthy. If he doesn't, welcome to a year of Gerald Laird as the every-day catcher. Also pray Bethancourt's bat catches up to his arm. If it doesn't..... gulp. This is the fiscally prudent (and IMO, more likely) scenario, but there are more "ifs" this way, and if things don't work out perfectly, the Braves could see what is potentially another championship window slam shut before it even has a chance to fully open.

What do you guys think?
No chance they sign McCann for that amount of money

I say Gattis and Bethancourt platoon for cheap.

I will almost never be in favor of paying big money like that to aging players. It was a good run by McCann, but it was just that....a run.

 
I wonder what they're going to do with McCann at the end of the season. Bethancourt was supposed to be his heir apparent, but the kid can't hit his way out of a paper bag. Gattis is there, but is he the long-term answer? Low miles, but is already 27.

Option A : Re-sign McCann to a 4-year, $60 million deal. Pray he stays healthy. But then what do you do with Gattis? Use him as the every 5th day catcher/4th outfielder/pinch-hitter? If they want him in the lineup every day, I don't see how they do it unless they move Justin Upton to CF, put Gattis in left and trade BJ Upton for a bag of balls and eat 75% of that contract. Also, then you'd have over $50 million per year committed to the Uptons, Uggla and McCann on a team with a ~$90M payroll limit for at least the next two seasons (and $40 M for the Uptons and McCann the two years beyond that). Heyward, Medlen, Teheran, Minor, Beachy, their entire bullpen... all these guys will need to be extended or allowed to walk at some point in the next handful of years. This would be fine if it was New York, Boston, or L.A., but not for Atlanta.

Option B : Let McCann walk and make Gattis the everyday catcher. Pray he stays healthy. If he doesn't, welcome to a year of Gerald Laird as the every-day catcher. Also pray Bethancourt's bat catches up to his arm. If it doesn't..... gulp. This is the fiscally prudent (and IMO, more likely) scenario, but there are more "ifs" this way, and if things don't work out perfectly, the Braves could see what is potentially another championship window slam shut before it even has a chance to fully open.

What do you guys think?
No chance they sign McCann for that amount of money

I say Gattis and Bethancourt platoon for cheap.

I will almost never be in favor of paying big money like that to aging players. It was a good run by McCann, but it was just that....a run.
If there's that kind of market for his services, you have to let him walk.

He's still 29 but has caught almost 1000 games which puts him at #114 all time and #4 among active players. He's probably good for another good year or two but he's pretty clearly in decline.

It's great to have a good hitting catcher but it's possible to win without one.

 
I agree totally with what you guys are saying, but the flip side is..

Some other guys need to start hitting if they're going to cast him off. Other than Freddie Freeman, who I believe will keep it up, and Chris Johnson, who I believe will not, there's no one in that lineup driving the ball consistently besides McCann. If he goes and is replaced by Gattis, that's a tremendous X factor. Gattis, J. Upton, BJ Upton, Heyward, and Uggla (with Freeman) representing the meat of your lineup day in and day out is SO risky. If Johnson's BABIP regresses to the norm, you could end up with 1 guy out of your starting 8 hitting over .240. The power up and down the lineup will keep them in games during the regular season, but good pitching will eat them alive in the playoffs if they get there.

 
Yeah, I'm pretty torn on the McCann issue.

It's tough paying that kind of money to an aging catcher, and it's tougher when the one other dependable bat in the lineup is a young 1B, so there's nowhere to move him later in the contract.

But as EG's mentioned, he and Freeman are the only reliable bats. And he's not that old. 2 years older than Gattis. 3 years older than Buster Posey. Younger than Molina (who's contract runs until he's 34 with a team option after that).

The horrendous Upton and Uggla contracts probably take this decision out of ATL's hands, but I think it would be terrible to lose McCann. It'd be nice if he'd take something in the neighborhood of 3 years/$25-30 mill., but I don't see that happening with the year he's having.

They are looking at the very realistic prospect of having a very expensive team with 2 reliable bats on it (this is assuming Justin gets his #### together).

Let's just hope Gattis comes back strong (0 for 4 with 2 Ks in his first rehab start). I love the guy, but I'm not hopeful.

 
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BTW, what a great move that extension was back in '07.

They got 8 seasons after his rookie year. 7 were AS-caliber seasons (didn't make this year, but it's looking like it could be his 2nd or 3rd best ever). 5 silver sluggers.

8.5 outstanding MLB seasons for $41 million.

 
That royally sucks for Hudson.

While I don't think it's a disaster, I think I'm a little more concerned than most. Medlen's been pretty average all season and terrible his last 3 starts. Maybe Wood and Beachy can hold down the fort, but even if they can, that takes away options in the bullpen (Wood or Medlen). Wood or Beachy has to really come through.

Although, the situation probably hasn't changed too much. NL East is terrible, so the Braves probably win that. They only way they do any damage in the playoffs is if the young'ens are ready to be aces before they were expected to be (Minor, JT), and the offense doesn't all go cold at the same time (which, for some reason, I get the feeling that's a near certainty).

 
Pretty big win, as far as late July goes.

Any time's a good time for your 25 YO that absolutely has to become a true ace to toe-to-toe with Wainwright and throw a gem, but last night was an especially great time to do it.

 
And of course Heyward gets his jaw broken and is out for probably 3 or 4 weeks right when he gave the Braves a legit leadoff man and was red hot.

 
Wild game. I wish Jordan Shafer was doing more than scoring game winning runs as a pinch runner. He needs to be the every day CF.

 
What's the consensus for ranking the Braves SP for fantasy? Minor or Teheran? Who is the one to choose for this year?
Minor is lower risk. Teheran is higher upside.
Could be that it's Mr. Ervin Santana for both.

First pitcher in 15 years to start a game off with 20 straight strikes.
Or Harang.
Nah. It's Santana.
Nevermind. It's Harang.

 
Good to see the kid go blow for blow with Fernandez. Too bad it wasn't quite enough.

Maybe the most amazing stat of the game: BJ somehow didn't strikeout, while Freddie racked up 3

 
Considering the pitching injuries the start by the Braves is pretty remarkable. However, I can't believe we are going to have to watch Uggla and B.J. hit .200 again all year. At what point do you sit them?

 
Considering the pitching injuries the start by the Braves is pretty remarkable. However, I can't believe we are going to have to watch Uggla and B.J. hit .200 again all year. At what point do you sit them?
Hopefully, we're about a month away from the Tommy LaStella era.

 
Considering the pitching injuries the start by the Braves is pretty remarkable. However, I can't believe we are going to have to watch Uggla and B.J. hit .200 again all year. At what point do you sit them?
It's disgusting. At least BJ is a pretty decent fielder. Uggla is horrible defensively as well. The guy is a total black hole on the team.

The starting pitching has been insane. It's crazy that they're going to get Mike Minor back and probably have to send a guy back down that has a 2.31 ERA.

There's no way they can keep it up, but their starting pitchers came into today with a combined 1.67 ERA and then Teheran threw 8 scoreless today. That's just a ludicrous number through 24 games. I seriously wonder where that stands historically.

 
Ugh. Wood-Fernandez 2 is quite a letdown (at least on Wood's part)
Had to figure that the absurd start couldn't last forever. It does suck to have to play Hernandez twice in 2 weeks though.

The hitting seriously needs to start picking up because the starters are going to have to all come back down to earth before too long.

 
Ugh. Wood-Fernandez 2 is quite a letdown (at least on Wood's part)
Had to figure that the absurd start couldn't last forever. It does suck to have to play Hernandez twice in 2 weeks though.

The hitting seriously needs to start picking up because the starters are going to have to all come back down to earth before too long.
La Stella has to be coming up soon. He's not a terribly exciting bat, but for this team, he could be huge. We've only got 2 starters with an OBP above .306 (and Laird's the only bench player above that). At the very least, it might convince Fredi to get Upton out of damn the 2-hole. At this point, he just doesn't have many other options.

Chris Johnson's a big worry. If he's going to suck and be the player most thought we were getting last year, that's going to be a big problem. Nothing to do there. That Johnson/Francisco platoon from the beginning of last year sounds pretty nice about now.

 
Braves have to activate Gavin Floyd by Sunday. So, either him, Harang, or Wood will be going to the pen. Fredi says it won't be Wood, but he could certainly change his mind on that at some point.

I'm not terribly excited about Floyd, but the Braves are good at turning "AL meh :shrug: " into "NL stud"

 
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here's an interesting tidbit: david hale hasn't pitched in a game the braves are winning since he was sent to the bullpen. of course, he's also pitched pretty well (10 2/3 innings; 8 hits; 4 walks; 0 ER).

any chance he's back in the rotation any time soon?

 
Smack Tripper said:
Is wood a reliever now?
Yeah, and I'd imagine he will be for the foreseeable future.

If the bottom is going to fall out on Harang and Floyd, there isn't any evidence of that yet.

In a perfect world, I think they'd rather get a bunch of effect innings out of the 2 vets and keep Wood's innings in check out of the pen. That's working out at the moment, except for Wood stinking in the pen, but he should be fine there.

 
Should've known a 4-game series at Washington would help these guys get right.

It's nice to finally have a real lead-off guy too. I guess getting swept at home by the Phillies was enough to get Fredi open to the notion that putting the kid that does the one thing you want a lead-off hitter to do really well in the lead-off spot is a good idea.

 
No current thread, but it seems worth a mention that these guys knocked around Jose Fernandez and Chris Sale in a span of less than a week. 

 
Figured it's been two years since anyone posted here and we may have the most exciting and one of the most promising teams in MLB. Pretty quick turnaround. There will be lows when Markakis regressed and the youngsters hot some slumps, but if you'd told me 2 years ago during the fire sale that we'd be back in playoff contention in 2 years, I would have laughed. 

Chop on. 

 
I'm pretty sure the Braves are 1-for-25 in replay reviews this year. They get shafted every GD time. It's truly amazing. 

 

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