Quote Originally Posted by War Machine Dawg View Post
I'm not talking about this trade specifically. It was absolutely a huge raping for the Braves. I'm just saying the overall "strategy" we've employed to date is questionable. This team may lose 100+ games each of the next two seasons as configured. If we don't start flipping some pitchers for hitters soon, I'm going to lose my mind. I think this also clearly signals two more years of Fredi in the duguout, which is unacceptable. He has to go.
This is bizarre. 'Yes, we just pulled off a phenomenal deal where we flipped pitching for hitting (and even still more pitching), but if we don't start flipping pitching for hitting soon...' That trade was a clear signal that we do intend to add hitting and that it is indeed very possible to flip pitching for quality hitting talent.

The team will not be good in 2016, though I doubt we lose 100. Either way, though, sure, we'll lose a lot. The team in 2017 has a chance to be quite a bit better...it still likely won't be a contending team, but it could absolutely tread water and finish .500ish. You'll have a bunch of these pitchers ready to go, Swanson will likely be ready, and Albies won't be far behind. Ruiz could also bounce back and be a piece.

I would say as of now, the goal is to be around .500 in 2017 with some new faces the fan base can get excited about, then to really start making a push for the playoffs in 2018. We absolutely are not tanking in order to add draft picks. We're selling off short-term pieces for a higher quantity of long-term pieces so that we can eventually compete. If a side effect of that is that we also get a couple years of high draft picks, so be it.

I would love to hear what your strategy would have been to remain competitive in 2015-2017 while also setting us up to be competitive beyond that as well.