Braves rumor

[dawgs]

A better comparison for Bethancourt is Salvador Perez. Benito had more pop in the minors, and Salvador may be the best defensive catcher in baseball not named Yadier Molina.

Yeah just like Salvador Perez. Minus the whole hitting ~.300 in MiLB and MLB thing. If bethancourt could hit like Perez, this wouldn't be a discussion.

[msstate7]

Yeah just like Salvador Perez. Minus the whole hitting ~.300 in MiLB and MLB thing. If bethancourt could hit like Perez, this wouldn't be a discussion.

Christian's hitting .274 this year. He hit .277 last year

[dawgs]

Christian's hitting .274 this year. He hit .277 last year

Perez hit above .300 in the minors and is a career .297 hitter over parts of 4 seasons in the bigs. If yall really believes bethancourt was a .300 hitter in the bigs, there wouldn't be an offense for defense debate.

[KB21]

At the same age in AA ball, Perez had a .756 OPS. Bethancourt had a .741 OPS. In their minor league careers, there is very little difference between their slugging and on base ability. The fact of the matter is, when Perez came up through KC's system, he was more noted for his defense than his offense.

Over his last 137 at bats, Bethancourt has been slugging .423 and has an OPS greater than .720.

[dawgs]

Y'all spend the whole thread concerned about his offense. Someone compares him to sal Perez. I point out that may not be the best comparison for a guy y'all are concerned about his bat. Now he's a future .300+ MLB hitter apparently.

[msstate7]

Y'all spend the whole thread concerned about his offense. Someone compares him to sal Perez. I point out that may not be the best comparison for a guy y'all are concerned about his bat. Now he's a future .300+ MLB hitter apparently.

Braves' fans can rip braves. Nats' fans cant*

[dawgs]

I never ripped him, just pointed out the sal Perez comparison might be a bit ambitious given y'all's concerns.

[smootness]

I never ripped him, just pointed out the sal Perez comparison might be a bit ambitious given y'all's concerns.

His defense is better than Perez's, so even if his offense isn't quite as good, their value could still be comparable.

Bethancourt's ability to make contact and end up with a halfway decent BA has never really been in question. But his power hasn't yet developed (it could, he has a big frame) and he hardly ever walks. Those are his primary question marks offensively.

[BoomBoom]

It is a dumbfoundingly stupid coaching decision to do that, and this is the 2nd time in 3 days that he has done it. In both cases, Evan's spot came up to bat again. Now, down 5 runs after Fredi's dumbfoundlingly stupid bullpen management, the Braves have the pitcher leading off the inning.

it only seems stupid because you are thinking only of that game, and not of the season. Gattis can't catch every inning. Knowing that, i'd rather him catch 3 innings where he'll bat twice than 3 when he'll likely not have an AB. now, it didn't work out that way because the game went 13 innings, but it's still the right move.

Fredi is still an idiot though. that's two games this week we lost in 13 innings because the last guy in the pen got tired.......except that the best guy in the pen, Kimbrel, didn't pitch.

[TopDog58]

A bigger problem that I think deserves some discussion: The Braves have done a very shitty job of evaluating and developing OF talent. Schafer looked like he was going to be big time, then got hurt in his very first MLB game, tried to tough it out, and has never really recovered since. JHey is very good but that's about it. And there's no one in the farm system currently that's generated any sort of buzz in the OF. That's why we had to overpay to sign a marginal free agent OF and give up some prospects to go get Justin Upton. Although I do think Justin has been worth it overall. Still, the Braves have GOT to start nailing the evaluation of elite OF talent if they want to improve.

Also, where the hell is Terdoslavich? Dude looked like he was on his way to being a serious player last year. I'd love to get his bat into the lineup.

Marginal free agent outfielder? The top 3 outfielders in the 12 class were Josh Hamilton, who the Braves were never going to pay, Michael Bourn who wanted too much money for his limited offense, and BJ Upton.

Sure BJ has been a bust up to this point, but at the time of his signing he was a 25-28 HR, 80 RBI, 40 SB strikeout machine. If you look back at the deal now, sure it's a bad one. But like I said, the Braves were never going to pay Hamilton, Bourn has been injured as much as BJ has been a bust, and without BJ it's very doubtful that Wren even thinks about pursuing Justin. The only other options the Braves had with that class were Nick Swisher, Angel Pagan, Victorino or Cody Ross. Melky Cabrera had already burned his bridge. I just don't see any other route the Braves could have gone that would have landed them something similar to both Uptons.

[KB21]

it only seems stupid because you are thinking only of that game, and not of the season. Gattis can't catch every inning. Knowing that, i'd rather him catch 3 innings where he'll bat twice than 3 when he'll likely not have an AB. now, it didn't work out that way because the game went 13 innings, but it's still the right move.

Fredi is still an idiot though. that's two games this week we lost in 13 innings because the last guy in the pen got tired.......except that the best guy in the pen, Kimbrel, didn't pitch.

It still wasn't the correct move to make. Evan's run didn't matter. Had Freddie scored, the game was over. It made absolutely no sense to take your best hitter out of the game in that situation when that run made no difference in the game.

As for thinking about the entire season, well, Evan is the team's best hitter. I want his bat in the line up, and the best move to make to keep his bat in the line up is to put him in left field, get BJ's bat out of the line up, and bring up Bethancourt to catch. As long as you keep Evan at catcher, you are going to continue to have 1-2 games a week where his bat isn't in the line up. Evan Gattis needs to be pushing 600 plate appearances this year, not 450.

[KB21]

Career minor league numbers:

Salvador Perez -- 0.110 ISO, 0.305 BABIP, 5.2% BB, 9.9% K
Christian Bethancourt -- 0.105 ISO, 0.303 BABIP, 4.0% BB, 15.2% K

Essentially, the hitter that Salvador Perez is in the majors, he showed only flashes of this in the minors. Same with Bethancourt. That doesn't mean Bethancourt will suddenly be a 0.170 ISO guy at the major league level, but it also doesn't mean he will fail to meet that mark in the majors. And if you say that Bethancourt has not shown flashes, you missed how he finished the season at AA last year as a 21 year old and one of the youngest players in the league, and you have missed what he has done this year since the first part of May.