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…
As I type this up, our beloved Atlanta Braves are in 1st place… …and in the debate upcoming, that cannot be watered down. Yes, they’re in first place despite the fact that Peter Moylan and Sam Freeman have logged nearly 70 innings of poorly-pitched baseball. Or, that Ryan Flaherty has carried a .372 OPS in 98 plate appearances since April 23rd. Or, that Lucas Sims (10.1 IP, 7.84 ERA), Brandon McCarthy (78.2 IP, 4.92 ERA),…
Transaction of Today…August 5, 2017 – The Atlanta Braves traded Sean Rodriguez to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Connor Joe. I was just going to tweet about this, but all of the details of this small-time deal require a bit more investigation. I covered this deal in some depth exactly one year ago, but here’s the Cliff’s notes version. Rodriguez was signed by the Braves on Thanksgiving in 2016 for $11.5 million. At the time, the…
When the opening day rosters for the Braves’ minor league clubs were announced, a bit of a narrative was born. While it would be easy to suggest that the narrative was related to the demotion of Ronald Acuna Jr. to Gwinnett to open the year, that was really just a small part of a bigger picture. The previous spring, fans who follow the Braves’ minor leagues were excited about the hyper-aggressive promotions of Mike Soroka…