Division Opponents for 2016: Atlanta Braves

[Frayed Knot]

Even coming off a 95 loss season which had virtually zero effect on our own pennant chase (although the Mets won ‘only’ 11 of 19 in 2015) it still seems odd to be a Met fan and look at the Braves roster and immediately think of the old Butch & Sundance line; “Who are those guys?”
But that’s pretty much what’s going to happen the first series or two this season on account of, since the 2013 season, the Braves have traded, dumped, or let walk via FA-gency the following familiar names, many of whom they had only recently signed to lengthy and expensive contracts:
Brian McCann -- Dan Uggla -- Andrelton Simmons -- Chris Johnson -- Justin & Melvin Upton -- Jason Heyward -- Evan Gattis -- Jordan Schafer -- Mike Minor -- Shelby Miller
Kris Medlen -- Craig Kimbrel -- Alex Wood -- Ervin Santana -- Cameron Maybin -- plus a score of lesser names.
... which essentially leaves them with a bunch of names we either don’t know or won’t connect to Atlanta.

What they got back from all those transactions was some 'bridge' type players who can adequately man the positions now, plus a whole ton of recent high draft picks from other teams (mostly notably SD & Arz) who may be up as early as this season and ideally for their big suburban move next year. Yes, remember that this is their final season in Olympic/Ted Turner Stadium and, for that matter, the city of Atlanta itself.

So what's up with these guys?

1B - Freddie Freeman is the last of the new/old guard, starting his 6th full season though still just 26 y/o and signed thru 2021. Likely to be backed up by everyone’s favorite, Nick Swisher.

2B - Jace Peterson — was mostly their full-time 2B last season.

SS - Erick Aybar — 32 y/o vet picked up from Anaheim over the winter (along with two pitchers in exchange for Andrelton Simmons), they’d like him to hold the fort until #1/1 2015 draft pick (from Arz) Dansby Swanson is ready to take over (or, judging by that name, to mix the martinis at the next polo match).

3B - 31 y/o (or so he says) Cuban signee Adonis Garcia, who played part of 2015 in Atlanta with mixed results
Former ChiSox 1st round pick Gordon Beckham and the re-re-acquired Kelly Johnson will back up at 2nd & 3rd and maybe even SS

LF - Another Cuban escapee Hector Olivera. He’s the guy the Dodgers signed to a $64 million deal last May and, within two months and with barely 100 minor league ABs under his belt, dealt him to Atlanta in a multi-team/multi-player deal while also agreeing to pay nearly half ($28 million) of the barely dry contract. At this point he could be another Yasiel Puig or another Rich Puig or anywhere in between.

CF — Ender Inciarte
This 25 y/o Venezuelan has kind of anonymously (at least back here in the east) been a pretty good player for Arizona for the last two seasons.

RF — Nick Markakis
32 y/o and starting his 2nd year with the Braves after a bunch with Baltimore

Michael (aren’t you glad we didn’t sign him?) Bourn looks to be the first OF back-up all around, and maybe Swisher as well if Atlanta mgmt didn’t have the good sense to confiscate his OF glove as he entered camp this spring.

C - AJ Pierzynski — he was supposed to merely hold down the job for Christian Bethancourt but Bethancourt decided to suck instead and so the 56 y/o Pierzynski -- entering his 19th season -- will be the main guy again, probably backed up by former ChiSox (though originally a Braves draft pick and Georgia native) Tyler Flowers


Pitchers
Julio Teheran - pairs with FFF (Fuckin’ Freddie Freeman, as Zvon calls him) to form the pitching half of the “old” guard, if one can consider 25 to be old when already starting his 4th full season in ‘lanta.

But after him they’ve got some question marks:
- Bud Norris was signed as a FA after having some up and down years with Baltimore before being released in mid-2015 and then scuffling in relief with San Diego
- Jhoulys Chacin is a FA who was released by the Rox, Indians and DBacks last year and started just 4 games all season.
- Matt Wisler also came via SD (in the Kimbrel deal) and started regularly for the Braves after a mid-season call-up

That crew (after Teheran) seem mostly like place-holders for young guys they’re hoping for - though none, as of yet, are even on their 40-man roster:
- Aaron Blair (23) was a 1st round pick by the DBacks and has little left to prove in the minors
- Lucas Sims is their own 1st rounder (2012 - out of a Georgia HS of course) who we may see later in the year
- Sean Newcomb (LH) is supposedly the most promising of the bunch, he's a former LAA 1st round pick who may also be a mid-season guy although the Braves have been known to promote aggressively.

39 y/o Jason Grilli is supposed to close for them (as he did last year) although he doesn’t seem to have pitched so far this spring so I’m not sure what the story is there.
And I’m not even going to get into speculating on the rest of the pen at this point since their camp seems to have more pitchers than the table at your post-Friday happy hour.



This team may score some runs if the high-priced Cuban talent is worth what they (or the Dodgers) are paying it. But unless several of those question mark signings work out and a bunch of that young pitching blossoms quickly, they're probably going to give up even more runs and, realistically, I think they're aiming towards 2017-18 to be in contention again.

Edited March 14, 2016 by Guest

[Edgy MD]

I hadn't realized Kelly Johnson didn't even have a position.

[Frayed Knot]

Part of this is me guessing who the starters are going to be at each spot, but Johnson really hasn't been a full-timer since 2012 w/Toronto as he's been shuffled between six teams since (and this will be his 3rd stint w/the Braves).
But his versatility has been getting him 300 or so ABs/season since and any injury or slump at 3 or 4 different positions could very well get him that amount again this year.

[Lefty Specialist]

Wow. That team is reallllllly gonna suck.

[Frayed Knot]

Certainly a lot would have to go right for them -- good health, contributions from both Cuban imports, plus several young pitchers riding to the rescue ahead of schedule -- in order to contend this year.


btw, the Braves schedule calls for them to host a regular season home game this year at Ft. Bragg in Fayetteville, NC (some 350 miles from Atlanta) on Sunday July 3rd vs Marlins - and it will be that week's ESPN Sunday Night telecast.
The field is being built with a temporary 12,500 seat 'stadium' around it which will then be converted into a permanent softball field for use by the base.



http://m.mlb.com/news/article/166636990/braves-marlins-play-fort-bragg-game-on-july-3

[Edgy MD]

I salute real season games in guest venues.

Bring back the HoF Game and make it count. Make the Civil Rights game count. Play a Civil War game with no outfield walls. Play a game in Africa. Pay tribute to Roberto Clemente by building an MLB-quality diamond in Carolina and playing there. Play in Parc Jarry. Play in Western Canada. Build a floating ball field and play in the Pacific Ocean, with the stands suspended from the sides of two giant aircraft carriers, attached at a right angle, with one going down the first base side and one going to the third base side.

Pick the most economically distressed town and play a game there, with each team's owners committing to open a small business there before they leave.

Anyhow, feel free to start (and maintain!) any division opponent threads that haven't happened yet.

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy MD wrote: Anyhow, feel free to start (and maintain!) any division opponent threads that haven't happened yet.

Nats already done -- viewtopic.php?f=1&t=23952&hilit=gnats -- but threads for Phlorida and the Fillies are still wanting.

[TransMonk]

Looks like Frenchy will make the Braves' Opening Day roster.

http://www.talkingchop.com/2016/3/29/11325976/mlb-opening-day-2016-jeff-francoeur-has-made-the-team-atlanta-braves

[Edgy MD]

But the dream of a Torres reunion dies, as Carlos T. asks for and receives his release, presumably exercising a contract clause that allowed him to go free if he didn't make the team out of camp.

[Edgy MD]

John Gant, who went from the Mets to the Braves in the Johnson/Uribe deal, has made his debut for Atlanta.

And, um, he pitches like this...

[youtube:ebwlwt9r]4EoREMtZiYU[/youtube:ebwlwt9r]

Wtf is that?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Is he allowed to do that with guys on base? I don't even pretend to understand how to interpret the balk rule.

[Edgy MD]

Well, if he does, presumably the "stop" he has to come to would be the one before he rotates and does the stutter step, as he's not stopping at all there, which suggests to me that any runner on base would get a flying start.

So, I'd guess he's got a traditional delivery with runners on base.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I missed this tranny-action but the Braves scooped up O'Flaherty from Pittsburgh's camp in the final week of ST.

This must be difficult to believe but O'Flaherty has pitched 1/3rd of an inning and already leads the National League in losses (0-2, 27.00). He's given up game-losing hits in both appearances, one that double to Muffy; and yesterday surrendered a home run to the first and only batter he faced, breaking a 4-4 tie (the dangerous Almedys Diaz of St. Louis).

[Edgy MD]

Even more difficult to believe is that Álex Torres (whose season was characterized by pitching into and out of trouble) couldn't make this Braves club, but they had room for O'Flaherty (who knew nothing of the "out of" part of the equation) could.

I guess his history with the Braves and with McDowell works in his favor.

[Edgy MD]

Hector Olivera arrested for beating up a woman.

Placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an MLB investigation.

[Frayed Knot]

[u:2rf3oyvi]KTE for series April 22-24[/u:2rf3oyvi]

Mets hit Atlanta for the first time in this city's final season of ML baseball to find our hosts 4-11 overall, 7.0 games out of 1st, 1.5 out of 4th.

Losing your first 9 games out of the blocks will tend to do bad things to your early season although they followed that up with a three-game sweep of Miami, then hung tough hung tough this week during a 3-game series with the Dodgers, bracketing a comfortable 8-1 win between two extra-inning losses.

As noted above, this is a team in transition to the point where a bunch of transitioning has gone on even since ST.

- Projected starting CF Ender Inciarte hit the DL after just 8 ABs
One would think that this would be good news for projected backup CF Michael Bourn but he was released while still being owed $14 million (much of it paid by Cleveland) on the deal the Mets just “had to make” 3+ years ago.
So the current CF is call-up Mallex Smith. The former 5th round pick by SD who came over in the Justin Upton deal, is fast as hell and had decent numbers in the minors but, so far, isn’t ‘cutting it’ on the ML level unless you count the cut that caused him to leave his ML debut after 5 innings when running into his own helmet earned him 5 stitches in his face as the welcome to the big leagues door prize.

[fimg=250:2rf3oyvi]http://a.fssta.com/content/dam/fsdigital/RSN/South/2016/04/11/PI-MLB-Atlanta-Braves-Mallex-Smith-041116.vadapt.664.high.92.jpg[/fimg:2rf3oyvi]


- LF Hector Olivera is on “administrative leave” whilst MLB investigates a women’s complaint of assault against him which occurred during their series in Washington.

- ex-NYM Jeff Francouer made the club off a spring invite. So far his year has been very Francour-ian in that he’s hitting .200 and the one time I saw him this year he was throwing a guy out at the plate.

- All-purpose IF Gordon Beckham is on the DL

I said in the intro here that I thought this team could score some runs if things broke well for them (like both Cuban imports hitting). But now with half the Cuban connection missing plus all the other parts listed above, Freddie Freeman also isn’t hitting, AJ Pierzynski isn’t hitting, 2B Jace Peterson isn’t hitting, SS Erick Aybar is REALLY not hitting, and Kelly Johnson isn’t hitting.
RF Nick Markakis IS hitting, but he and backup catcher Tyler Flowers are about the only ones so, no, they’re not scoring many runs a'tall. They’re above only Philly in R/G (although they’re miles ahead of Philly).

But at least their pitching makes up for it … except it hasn’t. Now granted they had two of their first three series vs the Washington Harper-Murphys (and got their asses kicked) and yesterday Matt Wisler pitched Kershaw to a draw for 7 innings, but pitching overall is 5th from the bottom in runs allowed/game at exactly 5/per and at the moment they don’t seem to know who’s going to start on Sunday.


Friday - 7:35
Harvey vs Bud Norris [1-2; 6.23; 1.67 WHiP in 3 starts]
Norris lost twice to the Nats, then beat the Marlins.

Saturday - 7:10
Matz vs Joulys Chacin [0-0; 2.38; 0.79]
The ex-Rockie/DBack shut out the Nats over 6 innings (Braves lost anyway) then gave up 3 over 5.1 vs the Marlins in his 2 starts this year.

Sunday - 1:35
deGrom vs TBA
Teheran pitched Wednesday, Matt Wisler on Thursday, and Williams Perez is back in the minors so we could see a ML debut here. We have a mixed record compiled over the years vs TBA.


In the pen they’ve already used 11 different guys with Jason Grilli closing seeming to be the only sure role.
Funny-pitching John Gant (see link up the thread here) is back in the minors while brief-NYM Eric O’Flaherty is lighting more fires in Georgia these days -- 4 BBs + 4 hits including 2 HRs in 2 innings pitched over 8 appearances -- than anyone since Sherman. (that's right, I stooped to the Sherman burning Atlanta analogy).

[Edgy MD]

Frayed Knot wrote: - ex-NYM Jeff Francouer made the club off a spring invite. So far his year has been very Francour-ian in that he’s hitting .200 and the one time I saw him this year he was throwing a guy out at the plate.

Jeff Francoeur has the faith of Fredi Gonzalez.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Yo, Brah, I joined the Yankees again! Yeah dude! Still in Scranton, but it's all good!

[TransMonk]

Even though the Braves are finishing out this season at Turner Field before moving to new digs, the grounds crew may already be looking to next season:

Braves may complain to union about condition of Turner Field infield

Heads up Lucas, Neil, Asdrubal and David!

[Frayed Knot]

The Braves biggest problem this season seems to be evident, at least if we're to take this series as a blueprint for their offense.
They banged out a more than respectable 32 hits over the three games but totaled only 34 total bases in the process: 32 singles + 2 doubles

[Frayed Knot]

The Braves (specifically Freddie Freeman) hit a HR last night.
The solo shot in the 8th inning of a game where they were already down 8-2 was their first in 15 games. The loss dropped them to 4-17.
It was the 2nd of the year for FFF who now has half of the team's season total.

[TransMonk]

Frayed Knot wrote: It was the 2nd of the year for FFF who now has half of the team's season total.

The first for Freeman since Opening Day, IIRC.

[Frayed Knot]

It's only the second for the entire team since opening day.
2 HRs on OD (Freeman & Garcia), 1 in game 5 (Stubbs), and then Freeman's last night.

[Edgy MD]

Relegate the Braves!

[Frayed Knot]

I know it famously happened during Ruth's era, where he out-HR'd entire teams for the season. But I wonder when that last happened?
I remember the '86 Cards not reaching Maris's 61 mark in round-trippers but of course those didn't come in the same season.


Still way too early to put on death watch on this one, but the Braves as a team are currently tied at 4 with 12 different NL players, are trailing 19 others, and are being doubled or more by five of those 19:
Rizzo at 8. Harper, Walker, Arenado, & Story at 9 each

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'm hoping they lose 121 games.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Amazin' article on the systemic analraping of taxpayers by the Braves, and the fatcats baldfaced denials of such.

http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-atlanta-braves-stadium/

[Frayed Knot]

As Andrew Zimbalist -- an economist who has written extensively about this subject -- has often said, 'if funding stadium construction was profitable then these team owners would be tripping over each other in order to build them themselves'.
And, yet, they never do.

[Frayed Knot]

KTE May 2, 3, 4


Since we’ve last seen [crossout]Aston Villa[/crossout] Atlanta …

… the Braves (6-18) were busy going 2-4 on the ‘Theo Epstein tour’, first losing 3 of 4 in their inter-league home-and-home “rivalry” series to the Red Sox, then splitting 2 in a rain-shortened series in Wrigley.
They tried real hard to lose Sunday’s game there — blowing a late 3-0 lead including the 9th inning tying run on a botched pick-off attempt — but then won it in the 10th so they’re apparently not even very good at being really bad these days.

- FFF now has a full 60% of Braves HRs this year (3 of their 5)
Question of the day: If Freeman takes a trip to Paris, does he feel unfettered and alive?

- they can’t seem to decide on a 2nd baseman (except to decide that they all suck) They’ve already used 5 different starters there with none of them starting more than 8 times over 24 games

- at SS they’re trying various combos as well because their “bridge” starter there, Erick Aybar, is OBP’ing at an under .200 clip, something even the most virulent anti-analytics dudes (oh Hi Mike Francesa) know suxx.

- in CF, Mallex Smith is losing PT to Drew Stubbs cuz I guess they figure that if they’re going to have someone out there K’ing in 1/3 of his ABs, they might as well do so with a guy who at least brings the threat of some power

- they tried to bolster things by calling up former Marlin Emilio Bonafacio until, after announcing his promotion, the transaction was squashed by MLB on account of it not being 30 days yet since they did the cut-and-resign thing with him in Spring. So they have to wait another week on that so we won’t see him in this series.

- they’re basically calling up and/or returning a reliever to/from the minors about once a day lately (and I mean that literally: 11 separate transactions since 4/20) so don’t ask me who’s in the bullpen because the answer will probably change before I finish typing this sentence. And, really, do the specifics matter?

- as of earlier today, all three pitchers for this series were listed as TBA. That could mean they just haven’t decided on the order yet or maybe it’s that they’re still looking for three guys. Perhaps they’re running a lottery and one or more lucky fans will get the assignment.

- Finally, though, as of late Sunday they had filled in their pitching starters for the series:

Monday - 7:10
Colon vs Mike Foltynewicz
This will be his 2016 debut although we did see him last year and basically kicked his butt (6 runs / 9 hits / 4 innings)

Tuesday - 7:10
Harvey vs Matt Wisler
Wisler won his ML debut vs the Mets last June (1 run / 8 IP) but is 0-2, 4.26 ERA this season in 4 2016 starts

Wednesday - 1:10
Matz vs Jhoulys Chacin
Former Rockie/DBack, Chacin was released and/or not signed by three different clubs in 2015, so naturally he hit right in with the Braves rotation. 1-1, 3.27 in 4 starts this year.


Other than those minor problems listed above, things are going really well for them.

[Zvon]

^Awesome,thank you.

Freeman's still in a funk, isn't he? This series I wanna see Funkin' Frdy Frmn.