tOfficial 2019 Braves season thread

[Hitman Hart]

There is no heat....well besides Urena getting a 98mph FB to the head his first plate appearance against us this year.

then why did the Marlins take the Phillies' mediocre deal?

 

[Rod Freakin' Dangerfield]

This pisses me off. Can't believe any real player would want to play for that buffoon, Gabe Kapler.

 

[Hitman Hart]

Flowers is a mountain of a man that looks like he should be hitting 35 bombs a year, and when he gets ahold of one, it goes a long ways, it's just few and far between. Only good thing about Flowers at the plate is he does have a good eye and takes his share of walks.

Behind the plate, the analytics guys say he's one of the best pitch framers in the league, but I'm not so sure I buy that, or maybe he is, he just doesn't call a good game.

Here's the ERA splits between Flowers and Suzuki last year, and they pretty well split time, so neither is a case of small sample size:

Folty with Suzuki catching- 2.66 ERA, with Flowers- 3.10
Newcomb with Suzuki- 2.67, with Flowers- 5.16
Teheran with Suzuki- 3.47, with Flowers- 4.52
Anibal Sanchez with Suzuki- 2.82, with Flowers- 2.97

Those are the 4 starters with enough starts with both to matter, they were worse across with the board with Flowers, significantly worse in 3 of the 4 cases.

replacing Suzuki w/ McCann is my only major gripe this off-season, tbh. that is a clear downgrade.

don't have an issue with not signing Harper. don't have an issue with bringing Kaiks back on a one year deal. The reward on Donaldson easily outweighs the risk so I'm good on that.

 

[Chewbaccer]

replacing Suzuki w/ McCann is my only major gripe this off-season, tbh. that is a clear downgrade.

don't have an issue with not signing Harper. don't have an issue with bringing Kaiks back on a one year deal. The reward on Donaldson easily outweighs the risk so I'm good on that.

I guess O'Day will pretty much be like an offseason pickup, and he's better than any middle relief option we have(if we don't get Kimbrel, I think Sobotka takes over as closer before the end of the year)

 

[Mistaken4193]

I guess O'Day will pretty much be like an offseason pickup, and he's better than any middle relief option we have(if we don't get Kimbrel, I think Sobotka takes over as closer before the end of the year)

Kimbrel is gonna be a lot cheaper than originally thought. He isnt 2011-2012 Kimbrel but he is still one of the better closers out there. We should add him....but Idk if AA will.

 

[Rod Freakin' Dangerfield]

Kimbrel is gonna be a lot cheaper than originally thought. He isnt 2011-2012 Kimbrel but he is still one of the better closers out there. We should add him....but Idk if AA will.

I'm not so sure AA is the problem. It's his boss that is likely the problem.

 

[Chewbaccer]

I'm not so sure AA is the problem. It's his boss that is likely the problem.

Can't find it now, but I saw a tweet yesterday that was a quote from MLB on SiriusXM.

"The way Liberty Media is hindering AA, it would be like giving Dale Earnhardt Jr a Nissan Altima"

Or something like that.

Record profits, but they don't want to put any back into the team.

They see us as a spreadsheet and as an investment and they're trying to maximize profits.

The Battery is packed every damn day, baseball season or not.

We're not gonna get out of this until the Liberty Media CEO gets caught in some kind of scandal and is forced to sell the team.

 

[Rod Freakin' Dangerfield]

MLB should never have allowed a corporation to purchase a team.

 

[Hitman Hart]

it is legit annoying that the south's MLB team is owned by some corporation based in Colorado

 

[Mistaken4193]

Guys I promise...If the Powerball ever gets back to over 1 Billion and I win....I will buy the Braves and spend on whatever we need.

 

[brandonk989]

While disappointed so far, trying to remain optimistic. Donaldson can be a monster if healthy. O'Day was great out of the pen before getting hurt. All of our young guys should take the next step forward. And arguably our best starting pitcher for all of last year didn't sign until March 16th. Frustrated as well, but trying not to jump off the bridge yet.

 

[bamafan4evr12]

Not happy at all with the offseason. We downgraded at C, big time. McCann would be a fine addition as a backup mentor to someone young and not the same age as him. Flowers might can frame pitching like a boss, but he can't hit a ball off a tee for shit.

We downgraded at RF. he's a year older, he can't catch up to a fastball and I'd be willing to bet his season this year mirrors his second half of last year more than anything. Terrible decision, even if it is 1 year and 4 million.

Acuna should be Acuna. Freddie will be Freddie. Hopefully Albies fixes his second half issues. Maybe Swanson is better with his wrist fully healed? Hopefully Ender returns to 200 hit form. Hopefully Donaldson is the former MVP he is used to be and stays healthy.

 

[Hitman Hart]

Not happy at all with the offseason. We downgraded at C, big time. McCann would be a fine addition as a backup mentor to someone young and not the same age as him. Flowers might can frame pitching like a boss, but he can't hit a ball off a tee for shit.

We downgraded at RF. he's a year older, he can't catch up to a fastball and I'd be willing to bet his season this year mirrors his second half of last year more than anything. Terrible decision, even if it is 1 year and 4 million.

Acuna should be Acuna. Freddie will be Freddie. Hopefully Albies fixes his second half issues. Maybe Swanson is better with his wrist fully healed? Hopefully Ender returns to 200 hit form. Hopefully Donaldson is the former MVP he is used to be and stays healthy.

agreed with the points about C + RF.

you could certainly argue that we'll see an upgrade at LF + 2B, because it is much more likely that Acuna and Albies are going to get better, not worse.

 

[bamafan4evr12]

agreed with the points about C + RF.

you could certainly argue that we'll see an upgrade at LF + 2B, because it is much more likely that Acuna and Albies are going to get better, not worse.

Agreed LF and 2B should be better. Worse case scenario, other than either of them getting injury, would be if they repeated last season which I'd be okay with too

 

[Mistaken4193]

Rumor is we are about to sign Kimbrel to a 1year deal. I like it. Kimbrel,ODay, Sobotka, Viz, and Minter should be a solid backend

 

[brandonk989]

Rumor is we are about to sign Kimbrel to a 1year deal. I like it. Kimbrel,ODay, Sobotka, Viz, and Minter should be a solid backend

If this is true, I think you have to be okay with our off-season. The bullpen becomes so much better having a guy like Kimbrel back there. Let's you use Minter & Viz in high leverage situations instead of saving them until the 9th. Sobotka has nasty stuff, and O'Day has always been solid.

Starters tend to pitch better knowing a guy like Kimbrel is out there to lockdown the 9th instead of pressing to do it themselves.

 

[Chewbaccer]

Rumor is we are about to sign Kimbrel to a 1year deal. I like it. Kimbrel,ODay, Sobotka, Viz, and Minter should be a solid backend

If it's true, I'd say I'm happy with offseason despite the downgrade at catcher and not a larger payroll like we were told(if it's a one year deal, Kimbrel will probably put us right at last season's payroll).

With those 5, Winkler, Biddle aren't bad middle relievers, they just had way too prominent of roles last season.

 

[bamafan4evr12]

Rumor is we are about to sign Kimbrel to a 1year deal. I like it. Kimbrel,ODay, Sobotka, Viz, and Minter should be a solid backend

They need to make it happen!

There's also rumors going around now that Harper would want a 2 or 3 year deal for more money now that Machado has signed

 

[bamafan4evr12]

Braves think their fans are idiots

Didn't see this article posted here, but a good read. Makes me hate Liberty Media even more, and makes me dislike the FO a little more for their half truths

 

[Rod Freakin' Dangerfield]

I sure hope AA gets booed if he's introduced to the crowd at any time during the season.

Would love to hear what Joe Simpson thinks of this crap.