NL East Enemies: 2017 Atlanta Braves

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Talk me down from worrying about the Braves, would ya?

I know what you're thinking: Having shitcanned pitching coach Roger McDowell, there's no WAY they will compete in 2017 but I'm looking them over and see:

-- a 1-2-3-4-5 of Enciarte, Swanson, Freeman, Kemp, Markakis that doesn't really suck. They are not very scary at 2B, 3B and C but FA Sean Rodriguez addresses the first 2 problems better than however they did it last year.

-- They had awful starting pitching last year but added three veteran signee starting pitchers who might not all suck and two probably mean trouble for us in particular (Dickey, Colon, Jamie Garcia), and if nothing else add more depth between Teheran, who's really good, and some over-their-head younger guys (Wisler, Blair) who aren't good yet but might be.

-- They look like they have a good enough bullpen, nothing outstanding

-- We're gonna come out of the gate in April facing Teheran, Colon, Dickey [crossout:20hiol6h]in their brand-new stadium[/crossout:20hiol6h] at Citi Field. Are you worried? Why or why not?

Edited January 8, 2017 by Guest

[Guest d'Kong76]

First six against the Braves are April home games, they don't visit
the new place until May.

Any team with Uncle Bartolo is worthy of concern!

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Doh.

Saw grey boxes on the schedule but forgot I was looking at Braves site.

[Frayed Knot]

They were certainly a much tougher team in the second half of 2016 as compared to the first and has anyone made, then un-made, then re-made their team on the fly faster than Atlanta over the last three seasons?

I mean, yeah, this gear shifting from the days of L-T contracts to Andrelton Simmons, Kimbrel, Upton^2, etc. has resulted in three losing seasons in a row including the last two with 90+ losses, but their dive into the depths certainly wasn't as bad what say the Astros went through (324 losses over three seasons) and they seem to be coming out of it quicker with good and mostly prime-aged (Bart & RA aside) major leaguers at the top plus a bunch of good prospects (a SS + a bunch of pitchers) on the verge with another high draft pick coming up.

[Lefty Specialist]

I'm more worried about the Braves than the Phils or Marlins, quite frankly.

[Edgy MD]

Bartolo has made fools out of us all, but I'm not ready to buy the Teheran-Dickey-Colón-Foltynewicz-Garcia rotation. Plus, they're breaking in a new pitching coach.

[Centerfield]

I worry that the NL East is better as a whole, making it more likely that we have to take the division to make the playoffs.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Atlanta Braves schedule Bartolo Colon bobblehead giveaway for game against Mets. This triggers Noah Syndergaard's inner Liam Neeson.

http://tomahawktake.com/2017/01/08/atlanta-braves-just-unintentionally-intentionally-start-war/

[batmagadanleadoff]

The Braves will pay Bartolo $12.5M for the 2017 season. Has a 44 year old pitcher ever received that much MLB contract money before? I don't know for sure, but I'd say no.

[Edgy MD]

baseball-reference says Rawja Clemens got $17,400,000 at 44 in 2007, but I don't know. That might have just a full-season-equivelancy figure to establish his rate from, and was then pro-rated down for his partial season.

Even pro-rated, it might have exceeded the Colón figure.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens on quick lookie?

OE: I need to post quicker and type faster in 2017.

[MFS62]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Atlanta Braves schedule Bartolo Colon bobblehead giveaway for game against Mets. This triggers Noah Syndergaard's inner Liam Neeson. http://tomahawktake.com/2017/01/08/atlanta-braves-just-unintentionally-intentionally-start-war/

The Mets had one of those, but also had a Steven Matz lunchbox giveaway day.
Big mistake.
The heck with a giveaway, they could have SOLD enough Bartolo Colon lunchboxes to pay him to stay.

Later

[Edgy MD]

Kurt Suzuki joins the Braves on a one-year deal to share the catching duties with Tyler Flowers.

Anthony Recker, coming off his best year ever, has good reason to be very sad.

[Frayed Knot]

Some pretty scary shit for new Brave Sean Rodriguez.

A Florida man (of course it's Florida) is trying to run from something and so he decides the best way to get away is to steal a police car.
But during his getaway he t-bones Rodriguez's car at an intersection causing the cop car to burst into flames killing the perp. Rodriguez himself was unhurt but his wife and two young children are all hospitalized with a variety of serious injuries although all are expected to recover.


http://m.mlb.com/news/article/214682878/braves-sean-rodriguez-family-in-auto-crash/

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Close to a deal to acquire Brandon Phillips from Cincy, Internet reports

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah it now seems that Sean Rodriguez came out worse from his traffic accident [posted above] than first indicated, that it turns out he's looking at 3 to 5 months of recovery from a shoulder
injury as a result.
The Braves tried to acquire Phillips late last year but he invoked his no-trade clause to block it just like he had the previous year to a potential deal to Washington. I suppose he still could again
and scuttle this deal but I'm not sure what he thinks he can get be threatening to do so, shirley the Braves would walk away from the trade before they'd agree to extend his contract which is
what N-T guys usually try to negotiate out of these situations.

[Edgy MD]

That could really clear the runway to allow Dilson Herrera to land, although José Peraza is also looking for a position.

[bmfc1]

So Brandon Phillips is OK with a trade to Atlanta but not Washington? He vetoed a trade to WSH last year which would have meant that Murphy wouldn't have gone there.

[Frayed Knot]

Phillips also vetoed a deal to the Braves just a few months back even though he's an Atlanta area native. Not sure what's different this time but the deal is now official with two minor league pitchers*
heading to Cincy and with the Reds picking up "nearly all" of the remaining money on Phillips's contract.



* LHP Andrew McKirahan & RHP Carlos Portuondo
McKirahan, 27, pitched briefly (27 innings) for the Braves in 2015 but has since been hit with a PED suspension and TJ surgery
Portuondo is a 29 y/o Cuban who split 2016 pitching between A+ and AAA ball during his one season of minor league ball in the U.S.

[Lefty Specialist]

Braves are going to be not-terrible this year. They're going to cause trouble.

[G-Fafif]

Brandon Phillips will have nine chances to go a game in Flushing without a hit this year. It's something he's never done, carrying a 33-game Shea/Citi hitting streak from 2006 forward to his new team.

[TransMonk]

Braves catcher Recker: It’s easy to fall in love with ‘Big Sexy’

[Edgy MD]

It's a big, crazy scary world out there, and Otis Nixon has been reported missing.

[tweet:boooab6z]https://twitter.com/WoodstockPD/status/851226452632756228[/tweet:boooab6z]

[Frayed Knot]

Otis has been found.
No word on where he was while he was considered missing, but it looks like we won't have this story to kick around anymore.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Maybe he saw his name while on an elevator and thought it was his new home.

[Frayed Knot]

BRAVES KTE -- Apr 25-27

6-12 for the young season; 65 RS / 85 RA

Started out by losing 6 of 8 to start the year, then won four straight to open their new stadium (helps that it was against the Padres) but now are on a six game losing streak again (WAS & PHI) even though most of the losses were close games. Kinda like us in other words.

Matt Kemp was on the DL between our first series and this one but now is back to kick our butts again. No other major injuries ... kinda NOT like us in other words.

Bullpen ERA is 5.19

Freddie [7 HRs w/a 1303 OPS], Tyler Flowers, Brandon Phillips and Kemp are all hitting; Swanson at SS, Garcia at 3B and CF Ender Inciarte not so much


Tuesday 7:10 (or at sometime apres le deluge) — Gsellman vs Julio Teheran [4 starts; 1-1; 3.52; 1.43]
Most of Teheran’s bad stats are from getting thumped by the Nats in his last start. Been good otherwise including when he shut us out for 6 innings on opening day before we got to the bullpen

Wednesday 7:10 - Syndergaard vs RA Dickey [3 starts; 1-2; 3.86; 1.39]
Didn't see RA in the earlier series. He was hit hard by the Pirates in first start, two reasonably good starts since

Thursday 1:10 — Harvey vs Bartolo Colon [4 starts; 1-2; 4.50; 1.08]
Held us to 2 hits over 6 on April 5. One good, one bad, and one mediocre start otherwise.

[Frayed Knot]

Atlanta celebrates the reunion of the d'Arnaud brothers by DFA'ing Chase.
His replacement will be Lane Adams, a 27 y/o OF with 3,000 minor league ABs and 3 ML ones back in 2014 with the Royals

[Frayed Knot]

KTE - METS @ BRAVES - MAY 1-4

Fasten your seatbelt folks as it’s the biggest battle in the state of Georgia since Sherman marched into the Confederacy: Two teams will enter the ring but only one will come out in fourth place.


This will be our first trip to ‘Suntrust Park’ some 14 miles northwest of (not very) old Turner Field in Cobb County, Georgia right by the interchange of Interstates 75 & 285.

Remember also that all home Braves game now start at 7:35 PM … which is kind of ironic in that one of the reasons they gave for leaving Atlanta for the suburbs was bad traffic in downtown Hot ‘Lanta, but now here they are changing their starting time to a half hour later than any other team in MLB due, at least in part, to concerns about traffic. And that was all before some guy decided to light a fire underneath a highway a few weeks back which wound up collapsing an overpass pretty close to the Braves’ new digs. So take mass transit if you’re going … oh wait, the only mass transit are buses and they have to take the same roads. Nevermind.



Monday — Gsellman vs Teheran [2-1; 3.38; 1.40]

Tuesday — Harvey vs Dickey [2-2; 3.80; 1.39]

Wednesday — deGrom vs Colon [1-2; 5.59; 1.31]

Thursday — Wheeler vs Garcia [1-1; 3.99; 1.33]


As mentioned, this is a battle for 4th place as the Braves sit 1/2 game above us at the moment with the Phils & Marlins just a game atop of them so us finding ourselves anywhere from last to 2nd after this series is over are almost equally likely outcomes.

The Braves have had a weird season so far: they lost 6 of 7 to start the year, they then won 5 straight, lost 6 straight, and then followed that up by winning 4 in a row before losing in Milwaukee on Sunday.

RA Dickey is coming off being pulled early in his last start due to a “Quadriceps Spasm”
Colon's numbers suddenly making him not so attractive in our replacement pitcher fantasies.
Brandon Phillips was also injured in our last series with them but wasn't DL'd and is back starting.
No one else of consequence on the Braves is injured ... I wonder what color the sky is in a world like that?

[Frayed Knot]

Flicked over to the Braves/Cards game between innings (Braves are getting kill't) and when StL's [u:j15iuyqs]Randall[/u:j15iuyqs] Grichik came up the organist played the 'Odd Couple' theme song.

He/she has come up with some clever ones in the early going so far.

[seawolf17]

Frayed Knot wrote: Flicked over to the Braves/Cards game between innings (Braves are getting kill't) and when StL's Randall Grichik came up the organist played the 'Odd Couple' theme song. He/she has come up with some clever ones in the early going so far.

The organist is on Twitter, and he's a fantastic follow because he'll actually crowdsource what songs to play for the visiting teams. It's excellent.

[tweet]

[/tweet]