Braves opening day

[msstate7]

Season predictions?

I say we win east and win it all. Why not?

While I'm making bold predictions, uggla and bj both hit .220 with 20 hr's.

[ScoobaDawg]

Hope they have a good year, and I look forward to seeing them play when they come to play the rangers this fall.. Got awesome tickets from Gf's work.

Furthermore, with that out of the way.


LETS GO RED SOX...LETS GO RED SOX

[War Machine Dawg]

I predict we're in the WC play-in game and lose it. Uggla hits sub-Mendoza aGAIN. BJ "rebounds" to hit .225. We lose at least 1 more pitcher to a mid-season TJ. Yes, I'm a pessimistic asshole at this point. Losing Beachy & Medlen before the season even started has my expectations at zero.

[shoeless joe]

High hopes for this yr until medlen and beachy went down. At some point a trade will prolly have to be made for a veteran starter if October is going to be realistic. That being said, if BJ an uggla can produce and heyward stays healthy it could make up for what the pitching lacks.

Edit to add: not to change topics but who was the last "high profile" free agent or trade that came to the braves and produced? Justin upton did early but didn't maintain thru the season. Would Fred mcgriff be the last good example? Or gallarraga..although his time was split???

[msstate7]

High hopes for this yr until medlen and beachy went down. At some point a trade will prolly have to be made for a veteran starter if October is going to be realistic. That being said, if BJ an uggla can produce and heyward stays healthy it could make up for what the pitching lacks.

Edit to add: not to change topics but who was the last "high profile" free agent or trade that came to the braves and produced? Justin upton did early but didn't maintain thru the season. Would Fred mcgriff be the last good example? Or gallarraga..although his time was split???

Can't remember if Hudson was FA or trade. Wish we still had em

[War Machine Dawg]

Can't remember if Hudson was FA or trade. Wish we still had em

Fairly sure Huddy was FA. He wanted to get back close to home.

[War Machine Dawg]

High hopes for this yr until medlen and beachy went down. At some point a trade will prolly have to be made for a veteran starter if October is going to be realistic. That being said, if BJ an uggla can produce and heyward stays healthy it could make up for what the pitching lacks.

Edit to add: not to change topics but who was the last "high profile" free agent or trade that came to the braves and produced? Justin upton did early but didn't maintain thru the season. Would Fred mcgriff be the last good example? Or gallarraga..although his time was split???

The reason is we won't part with top prospects for top players. And we also don't have the budget to pay for some of the more elite FA types that were available. I'd say Sheffield was the last big trade we made who panned out.

[smootness]

JD Drew was a lot better in his one year here than most remember. Renteria was really, really good for a while. I would still say Justin Upton produced last year. It fell short of expectations ultimately, but it was still a good year.

[dawgs]

the braves minor league is pretty tapped out at this point though with guys like heyward, freeman, kimbrel, teheran, minor, simmons, etc. all making it to the bigs in the last few years.

also, the brave have the $$ to spend, they just choose not too, and spending on big FAs is really a foolish way to try to build a winner these days. you wanna look for value (like that santana 1 year deal was a GREAT move), but you don't wanna be investing 8-10 years in guys already around 30 because they are going to be burdens on your roster for at least half that deal, if not longer. and 4-5 years of wasted $20M/year salary can really hold you back.

i think the biggest issue is the braves offense on paper could seem to be better this year, but in reality won't score more runs. they got pretty lucky last year being as solid offensively as they were with 2 of the worst regular hitters in MLB and j-upton being a mess for the final 4 months of the season. even if those guys rebound, you figure there's a solid to very good chance that freeman's ridiculous BABIP with RISP will regress, chris johnson will go back to being chris johnson, and gattis will be exploited and turn into a jp arrencibia type.

[shoeless joe]

Hudson was a trade. Got him for Charles Thomas and prospects. Did sign a big deal shortly thereafter.

Sheffield definitely panned out. Drew was good but a 1 yr guy. Brett Boone helped us to the series in 99 but was only 1 yr guy.

Renteria was awesome offensively but his calling card was his D and I believe he never was stellar while with braves...tho I could be wrong.

[smootness]

even if those guys rebound, you figure there's a solid to very good chance that freeman's ridiculous BABIP with RISP will regress, chris johnson will go back to being chris johnson, and gattis will be exploited and turn into a jp arrencibia type.

But those things should mostly level out (and I definitely disagree on Gattis, he'll be better than that). And keep in mind, Heyward and Justin Upton have plenty more they can give than they did last year. If BJ Upton can just be mostly BJ Upton instead of what he was last year and Heyward/Justin produce more than they did last year, we'll be fine even if Freeman's production comes down some and Chris Johnson regresses.

I think Simmons will hit better than he did last year as well.

The one concern I have is the health of our SP. We absolutely have to have Teheran/Minor/Santana/Wood stay almost completely healthy. If any of them goes down for an extended period, we'll have to rely on multiple guys like Harang/Hale/Schlosser/Floyd. Ugh.

[dawgs]

Like you said, it'll even out, bj upton and ugly can't be worse, but freeman and Chris Johnson, and maybe gattis, really couldn't be much better IMO. Unless gattis significantly improved him contact rates. And j-upton has kinda been an enigma his whole career, he could hit .260-20-70 or .300-40-120 and neither would shock me. I'll believe in heyward when he stays healthy and does it. On the surface you'd think Simmons has a good chance to improve, but his infield flyball rate is awful, unless he improves that, it's going to hold back his production.

[msstate7]

Heyward
Bj
FF
Johnson
Justin
Uggla
Gattis
Simmons

Opening day lineup. Hopefully bj 2nd is a sign we've gained confidence back in him. If gattis hits 7th all year, this offense could be lethal

[smootness]

Like you said, it'll even out, bj upton and ugly can't be worse, but freeman and Chris Johnson, and maybe gattis, really couldn't be much better IMO. Unless gattis significantly improved him contact rates. And j-upton has kinda been an enigma his whole career, he could hit .260-20-70 or .300-40-120 and neither would shock me. I'll believe in heyward when he stays healthy and does it. On the surface you'd think Simmons has a good chance to improve, but his infield flyball rate is awful, unless he improves that, it's going to hold back his production.

We could talk about reasons everyone will not hit well or why everyone will. All I'm saying is that Freeman and Chris Johnson may have done better than expected and could come back down some (Johnson almost certainly will), but we have several other guys who did not in any way max out what they can do.

Our lineup as a whole did not overachieve, that's my point. I don't expect our offensive production to go down at all.

[starkvegasdawg]

If you add up both of their BA's it may total .220. Now, Uggla may strike out 220 times all by himself.

I've really gotten burned out on the Braves. Worst thing that happened to them was Ted Turner selling them. The new owners are the biggest tight wads I have ever seen.

I say they hover around .500 and either come within a couple games of being a wildcard team. If they make the first round of the playoffs they go no further. They'll lose their three games 1-0, 3-2, and 4-1. The two run offensive explosion in game 2 will be because of an error on the 2nd baseman that allows a run to score.

[Dawg61]

Really love this day. It needs to be a National Holiday imo. I plan on watching 13 straight hours of baseball I think the Braves battle the Phillies for the East and Uggla hits 30 HRs this year but BJ is just terrible until he learns to cut his swing way way down. He needs two years in Japan or something. He just does not get it. Thanks for Hudson btw. Go Giants!!

[smootness]

You think a 96-win team becomes a .500 team basically just by losing McCann and O'Flaherty, and replacing Medlen with Santana?

[EAVdog]

Meh, the Braves are dead to me. They could all get scurvy and I wouldn't care. Not rooting for some Cobb County ball club.

[dawgs]

Really love this day. It needs to be a National Holiday imo. I plan on watching 13 straight hours of baseball I think the Braves battle the Phillies for the East and Uggla hits 30 HRs this year but BJ is just terrible until he learns to cut his swing way way down. He needs two years in Japan or something. He just does not get it. Thanks for Hudson btw. Go Giants!!

wut?

[dawgs]

We could talk about reasons everyone will not hit well or why everyone will. All I'm saying is that Freeman and Chris Johnson may have done better than expected and could come back down some (Johnson almost certainly will), but we have several other guys who did not in any way max out what they can do.

Our lineup as a whole did not overachieve, that's my point. I don't expect our offensive production to go down at all.

i think the braves scored more runs than they should have last year given the individual performances and complete inconsistencies scattered throughout the lineup. somehow the sum was better than the parts. i think it's not unreasonable to expect the opposite this year, where the parts are better, but the sum takes a step back.