The Braves today acquired 1B Lucas Duda from Kansas City for cash considerations. The Braves have struggled all year with RH pitching and needed a LH bench bat not named Ryan Flaherty. Lucas Duda hits RH pitching and is a LH bench bat. He’s also not Ryan Flaherty. So you can see the appeal. Duda’s 118 wRC+ against RHs is actually now one of the best on the team, which is why they needed to…
Welcome back to the increasingly infrequent Transaction Tuesday, our rundown of all of the moves from the Dominican Summer League to the majors. This week, we cover a few pitchers beginning their rehab assignments, the return of a former possible third baseman of the future, and other assorted moves. If you missed it earlier, I also covered the signing of Tyler Flowers to a contract extension. Give that a look after you read this article.…
The Atlanta Braves will bring back catcher Tyler Flowers for at least one more season after agreeing to a contract extension Tuesday. The particulars of the deal are pretty simple as reported by Jon Heyman. Flowers will receive $4 million in 2019 and the Braves hold a club option in 2020. They can either bring him back for $6 million or pay him $2M if they deny the option. The first thing that stands out…
With today’s news that Rio Ruiz was called up and Chris Stewart was designated for assignment, it got me curious about a few things. #1 – If the Braves want a third catcher for September, the DFA of Stewart is interesting. While third catchers who are Quad-A quality are a dime a dozen, keeping someone who has caught many of the Braves pitchers seems reasonable. There’s a little more here as well. Under normal circumstances,…
A lot has been written about the surprising – and did I mention surging? – 2018 Atlanta Braves. Many credit Brian Snitker for his steady hand and guidance for a young squad. Others look at Alex Anthopoulos for astute trades and free agent additions after replacing disgraced John Coppolella last winter. Even others will credit Coppolella for the farm system he built. Certainly, all of these things and many more deserve credit. But I’ve always…
Last January, I provided projections for three versions of the 2018 Atlanta Braves. One was called the Realistic Model. It stayed very true to the conservative projections the Steamer system at Fangraphs provided. The second was an Optimistic Model which took the projections and looked at more of a best-case scenario. Finally, I took the Realistic Model Projection and added talent to the team in hopes of building a playoff contender despite the conservative projections…
With less than two weeks before the August 31 waiver trade deadline, the Atlanta Braves seem likely to shop hard for improvements to their current roster. While the team can continue to add assets after the calendar switches to September, those players will be ineligible for any potential playoff roster. That increases the incentive to get a trade or, for that matter, a waiver pickup completed before the deadline reaches. This is nothing new for…