Division Opponents in 2015: Atlanta Braves

[Edgy MD]

But of all teams to throw in the towel so... utterly... completely. Here's an organization that stood for quality year in and year out. Long-term planning, and changing on the fly without falling back... THAT WAS THE BRAVES!

Did Dan Uggla break the whole franchise? I suppose he might've.

[Frayed Knot]

Uggla & Melvin Upton are certainly the main culprits.

I suppose they'd argue that breaking it apart when you start to realize that this particular long range plan isn't working is better than waddling in mediocrity until those contracts die a natural death and then do the rebuild that you already know you need to do. This way they get new blood on board while those they did keep -- Freeman, Teheran, and Simmons -- are still young and under control.
Problem is that at least some of the reports on the haul they got for the likes of Kimbrel, Gattis, various Johnsons, et al. aren't all that high. But they've also been smarter than conventional wisdom before so time will tell.

[Gwreck]

How about this one?

July 31, 2007: Traded Beau Jones, Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz, Matt Harrison and Jarrod Saltalamacchia to Texas Rangers for Mark Teixeira and Ron Mahay.
July 29, 2008: Traded Mark Teixeira to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for Stephen Marek and Casey Kotchman.

Teixeira was a great player for them in 2007 and 2008 (6.1 WAR over the two partial seasons) but they missed the playoffs in 2007 (finished behind the Mets) and when they traded him a year later they didn't get anything good in return.

[Edgy MD]

Mahay: there's a well-traveled LOOGy we haven't employed yet.

[Gwreck]

Edgy MD wrote: yet.

He's, 44 years old and hasn't pitched in the majors since 2010.

BUT, it never hurts to have left-handed relief depth...

[Frayed Knot]

The Braves' 97 losses this year was the most for them since 1990 (also 97). That was the year Bobby Cox took over mid-season as manager and the 4th of four straight 90+ loss seasons (92, 106, 97, 97).
It was also the 2nd full season for John Smoltz, the 3rd for Tom Glavine, the 1st for David Justice, saw the debut of Steve Avery, and the drafting of Larry Jones. The following season was their 'worst to first' year.

Just sayin'

[Edgy MD]

The 1991 Braves had young position players sprouting up at every position. The Braves may not even have their manager survive the off-season.

I mean, yeah, the last time they were that bad, they became good shortly after. But most bad teams are bad shortly after, like the 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1989 Braves.