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 Your 2017 Cobb Country Braves The Braves started off 2016 on all-time worst pace, and even once they got rid of their bad manager and plenty of bad players they were still pretty awful. However, they ended up playing their best baseball of the year in September—mostly against teams who had given up long before, but no one would have blamed them for giving up either. Unfortunately, that run of games may also have unreasonably inflated expectations that the team might be competent this year, even a dark-horse for the last wild card. They won't be. They will be bad. But maybe they'll be watchable?  Manager: Brian Snitker A lifer in the Braves system, it looked like the pinnacle of Snit's career was going to be as a third-base coach famed for making the wrong calls on sending runners. (Maybe that's just what I remember? Anyway.) He got sent down to manage AAA Gwinnett, the flagship of the Braves' many town-bilking minor league clubs, before finding himself back in the bigs when Fredi got canned. Was a steady hand as the team got hot briefly down the stretch; that plus the players liking him was enough to get him the job full time. Key Gains (major league only) Jaime Garcia (SP) Bartolo Colon (SP) R.A. Dickey (SP) Brandon Phillips (2B) Kurt Suzuki (C) Sean Rodriguez (DL) Key Losses Um. No one, honestly. Maybe A.J. Pierzynski (C) counts? Oh, and Mallex Smith (CF). Position Players  Catcher: Tyler Flowers Had his best season last year in half-time action, due to revert this year to "warm body."  First Base: Freddie Freeman For much of last year, an elite player. If he can't quite maintain that level, still capable of carrying the team. Proud Canadian and cat owner, legendary hugger.  Second Base: Brandon Phillips Seemed at one pointlike Phillips had turned down the Braves, and really who wants to swap one bad team for another? But after Sean Rodriguez was confirmed out for the year following his auto accident, the Phillips trade was back on, and this time the Georgia native was all for it. Never really all that great, Phillips hasn't even been that good since 2011, or 2013 if you're really stretching. But he was cheap as hell and he won't block Albies, so a decent pickup all the same. Starting to look homeless, might get harassed by Cobb County subdivision security.  Shortstop: Dansby Swanson Dansbae.  In all seriousness, Dansby probably falls off some this year and will definitely struggle at times, so the ROY trophy isn't his just yet. And he's never going to be the best in the league at any one thing, even among shortstops. But he's at least pretty good at everything plus a hometown kid; as future franchise faces go, his is hard to top. Third Base: Adonis Garcia As of late April, he was historically the worst third baseman ever to play the game. Braves sent him down with the idea of making him into an outfielder, where at least they could disguise him a little better; he was terrible there too. Yet when he came back up, almost by default thanks to injuries, he had improved quite a bit at third, and still provided the little bit of pop that got him the job. Not good, mind you, will never be good, might still give way to Rio Ruiz this year. But no longer a historic embarrassment.  Left Field: Matt Kemp When the Braves picked up Kemp last year, the "Fat Kemp" moniker came all too easily, especially when watching his giant immobile rear end trying to get to anything in the outfield. But he hit well enough, and he's entering this year in better shape (though assuredly not the best of his life). The occasional game where he still looks like an MVP-caliber player (and the home runs generally on a team that doesn't have a whole bunch) will probably be worth the longer stretches where he looks like a washed-up mess, at least for now.  Center Field: Ender Inciarte Part of the Kemp calculation is based on the huge amount of ground Inciarte covers in center, he's easily the best center fielder I've seen since Andruw Jones got fat. His offensive production from late last year probably isn't sustainable, but he's a decent enough leadoff man until Albies takes it over, and he'll be a good 7 or 8 after that.  Right Field: Nick Markakis Finally got a bit of power back toward the end of last year after recovering from a long-term neck injury. Still kind of an odd presence on the team, and still trade bait if anyone comes calling, but they won't. One worrisome note: big uptick in strikeouts last season. On the other hand: dog guy. Lineup most days 1 Inciarte (CF) 2 Swanson (SS) 3 Freeman (1B) 4 Kemp (LF) 5 Markakis (RF) 6 Garcia (3B) 7 Phillips (2B) 8 Flowers (C) Bench: Jace Peterson (IF) Chase d'Arnaud (IF) Emilio Bonifacio (OF) Kurt Suzuki (C) Disaster zone, at least until Albies comes up and Phillips becomes more of a utility option. Even then the outfield will still be bad; Bonifacio is a designated bunter and pinch runner at best but will end up playing way more games than he should. There's some options in the minors—Rio Ruiz, Johan Camargo, Dustin Peterson—but they're not MLB-ready and won't be any better, not for now at least; the one possible exception is Ronald Acuna, who could charge up the levels pretty quick. Having no bench seems to be playing into the choice to carry 13 in the bullpen, at least as soon as the opening week off-days even out, in practice it means we'll probably be seeing some hilarious reliever at-bats, and probably some pinch-hit appearances for the starters, especially Teheran but maybe (we can all hope) Colon. Pitchers  SP1: Julio Teheran Seems like he's been around forever at this point, but still only 26. Undervalued thanks to a low win total, especially last year when he was very good indeed after a rough 2015. On a very affordable contract through 2020. I dig his Twitter av.  SP2: Jaime Garcia Came cheap from the Cards; Braves are hoping for at least enough of a bounceback season to get something for him at the deadline, or enough innings not to burn everyone's first MLB year. Shares a name with a famous polo player, which makes image searching extra hilarious.  SP3: Bartolo Colon The most beautiful man in baseball. Has apparently somehow lost weight on his first couple months of Southern cooking, though, that'll need fixing.  SP4: R.A. Dickey Aged knuckleballer, family man, and all-round nice guy, Dickey will carry down the tradition of the Niekros to a new generation of Braves fans. Suzuki will probably have to catch him.  SP5: Mike Foltynewicz Has the stuff of an ace or #2, doubts have always been about his makeup and how he reacts when things start going bad. Showed enough improvement in the spring that you might see him jumping up the rotation as others get hurt or traded. Could also see him flame out again and end the year in the pen. Should never grow his hair out again.  Closer: Jim Johnson As boring and dependable as his name, especially considering the few million he's getting paid in a stupid market for closers. Will see who's willing to overpay for him in trade as the year goes on. Bullpen: Arodys Vizcaino Mauricio Cabrera Ian Krol Eric O'Flaherty Josh Collmenter Jose Ramirez Chaz Roe? David Hernandez? No one? Yes, that's an 8-man bullpen. That's what the team has been leaning towards most of the spring, but there's time enough to knock that in the head. The group isn't great, but it's solid enough for a bad team; they won't lose too many more games than the team would have otherwise. If anyone sucks enough, there's loads of minor leaguers waiting for a chance; AJ Minter will probably be the first up and most likely to stick, as long as he gets over a nerve problem from the spring. Vizcaino is fine until he's not; history shows he'll get injured at some point. Cabrera throws harder than anyone not named Aroldis Chapman, but hasn't figured how to strike people out consistently yet. Krol has been suspiciously good as a Brave. O'Flaherty is coming back into the form that made him one of the most feared setup men from 09-13 or so. Collmenter is a long man who could end up starting when (not if) one of the starters goes on the DL; his delivery is one of those funky things you expect hitters to catch on to, but is good in small doses at least. Ramirez has an arm, I assume. No one else really matters. Most of these don't matter tbh. Prediction: 69-93 and locked for one more year in a fight with the Phillies for 5th. Honestly, the worst-case scenario would be flirting with a wild-card spot through to August or so, when it would be better to fall out of contention early, trade off any and all assets, and start giving innings to the future. Really the season is a success as long as the new stadium doesn't burn down, and the few actually important players don't get career-ending injuries. Peanut President posted:I'm sure someone will do a real one but here's the Atlanta Braves This too. elentar fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Mar 31, 2017 |
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Mar 30, 2017 21:16
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 00:24 |
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