There’s a difference between rebuilding and tanking, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal writes. Teams like the Braves, Brewers and Phillies have already made great strides in restocking their minor league systems after only relatively recently starting the rebuild process, and it could be argued that the way baseball’s system is currently set up, a smaller-market team like Milwaukee really has no option but to tear things down in order to amass the young talent it needs to eventually compete again. Rosenthal also notes that some of the recent criticism of tanking may be less fueled by the spirit of competition than it is by big-market teams upset that their revenue-sharing contributions aren’t being reinvested in the on-field product by the smaller-market teams getting those funds. Here’s some news from around baseball as we head into a new week….
- Even without Andrelton Simmons, the Braves are building an enviable amount of middle infield depth, David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes. Dansby Swanson and Ozzie Albies highlight the prospects already within the system, and O’Brien notes that the Braves may also wind up with infielders Kevin Maitan and Yunior Severino in the next July 2 international signing period. That’s not even counting the current incumbents at short and second, Erick Aybar and Jace Peterson. If Swanson progresses as well as Atlanta hopes, he could make his MLB debut late in the season and Aybar could then become a trade chip.
- Masahiro Tanaka reported no issues following a 20-pitch bullpen session on Saturday, Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild told reporters (including MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch). This was Tanaka’s first time throwing off a mound since he had a bone spur removed from his elbow in October. Tanaka said last week that he couldn’t guarantee he’d be ready for Opening Day; while the procedure wasn’t a major one, the Yankees are obviously taking it easy with Tanaka given his history of arm problems.
- In an interview on KMOX Radio (hat tip to the Associated Press), Cardinals GM John Mozeliak said catcher Yadier Molina had the cast removed from his surgically-repaired left thumb. It will be at least a couple of weeks before Molina and the team can guess if he’ll be ready for Opening Day, though “right now all arrows point positively,” Mozeliak said.
- The odds are against a pitcher returning from a second Tommy John surgery, yet Rockies right-hander Tyler Chatwood is eager to return to action, The Denver Post’s Patrick Saunders writes. Chatwood hasn’t pitched since April 29, 2014 but Colorado is hoping he can become an important member of the rotation.
- There’s no formula for deciding when to promote a top prospect, as ESPN’s Jim Bowden lists the many factors (beyond, obviously, just talent) that teams weigh when deciding to elevate one of their best minor leaguers.
The Braves, Phillies, and Brewers are tanking. There is not much difference between what they are doing and what the 76ers are doing only the 76ers do it to more a extremist view. They are trading short term assets for long term assets, I have absolutely no issue with it, but these teams are being set up to be bad.
While all 3 may be pretty bad, I’d definitely bet, the Braves will not be a bottom 5 team for the 2016 season…
Not saying that really means much, but they do have a decent mix of the “present and future” on their currently constructed roster…This will especially be the case after the trade deadline, once the move some of the 1 year veteran signings they made, and begin to bring up future players who should be part of the organization for at least the next 4-5 years.
The braves will almost certainly be a bottom 5 team this year, just like last year there pitching is going to do much worst than braves fans expect.
Depends on the progression of wisler, chacins rebound, and how quickly Blair is called up. No reason to doubt the best farm system.
For this year there are plenty of reason to doubt the arms. Especially Newcomb and Jenkins, 1 of which can’t currently throw strikes and another hasn’t shown ability to miss bats. Given the injuries wouldn’t count on much from Chacin. Blair seems wisler like, question will be can he miss enough bats to be more than backend guy (not saying he can’t).
I could be wrong but doesn’t Wisler project as a mid rotation starter? The Braves have better arms that have a solid shot at cracking the rotation this year in Newcomb and Fried (pending his return from Tommy John). If Wisler makes some progression along with Banuelos the Braves could make a little noise at the end of the year. No matter what their future looks very bright thanks in large part to TLR believing Dave Stewart would make a great GM. They have a solid shot at contending in the NL East in 2017. Especially, if Cespedes opts out of his Mets contract and Dusty Baker continues to do what he does best and blows out the arms of half his rotation.
Not having Cespedes is not going to turn the Mets into non-contenders.
All of their pitchers outside of Jenkins or Newcomb are mid types, but their bullpen and depth will be what carries them down the road.
There’s enough young talent that at the end of the year after other teams have sold at the deadline the Braves will still be winning meaningless games, that’s why they won’t be a bottom five this year
Bullpen? That’s questionable at best. A few arms coming back from major surgery including Simmons & Withrow not including Grilli (Achilles tear), but he will be a trade chip if pitching well. There’s a lot of moving pieces and they could get better adding arms from the farm but the rotation has health while the bullpen has more experience.
I honestly wouldn’t call what they’ve done so far “tanking.” Sure, it was clear that they weren’t playing for 2015. But their initial plan wasn’t to give up on 2 or 3 seasons. They felt with the mixture of prospects and MLB-ready talent they acquired in all those trades after the 2014 season that they could at least be a .500 club in 2015 and back to being contenders as soon as 2016. They traded Heyward and Upton, which obviously made plenty of sense. Both were scheduled to hit the market after the season and it was clear that they didn’t have much of a chance to extend either of them. They traded Evan Gattis later that winter and while he was a fan favorite, the only role he should have ever been in was as a DH. It was another expected and practical move by the FO. The Kimbrel trade came as a surprise to pretty much everyone, especially given the timing. However, no mid-market or low-market team would have turned down that offer unless they were sure-fire World Series contenders.
So starting with the winter of 2015, here’s a list of their notable moves in the order I recall….
-Traded one year of Heyward and two years of Walden for 4 years of Shelby Miller and an intriguing starting pitching prospect in Tyrell Jenkins.
-Traded one year of Justin Upton(plus his $14M salary) and a throw-in prospect(Northcraft) for Max Fried(7th overall pick in 2012 and a top 50 prospect), Jace Peterson(MLB-ready middle infielder who was in the Padres top 10 prospects at the time), Dustin Peterson(ranked as the Padres 10th-best prospect), and an underrated Mallex Smith.
-Traded 4 years of Evan Gattis and a throw-in reliever for seemingly MLB-ready starter Mike Foltynewicz(ranked as the Astros 3rd-best prospect), a top 10 3B prospect in Rio Ruiz(ranked as the Astros 8th-best prospect), and the 40th overall pick of the 2013 draft(Andrew Thurman).
-Signed Nick Markakis to a 4-year, $44M contract.
-Traded 4 years of Craig Kimbrel and all $46M remaining of B..J. Upton for an MLB-ready starter in Matt Wisler(Padres #2 prospect and a consensus top 50), the 41st overall selection in the 2015 draft, and an intriguing outfield prospect(Jordan Paroubeck) who was the 69th selection in the 2013 draft. However, they did take on Cameron Maybin and Carlos Quentin’s contracts, though at least Maybin proved to be useful.
-Traded 3 years of Alex Wood, top prospect Jose Peraza, and relievers Jim Johnson and Luis Avilan for 4 years of Hector Olivera, 4 years of Paco Rodriguez, and starting pitching prospect Zach Bird.
They also acquired John Gant, who could be in a crowded rotation in 2016 for Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson. They went out and got Arodys Vizcaino, who could end up being a big piece for them as a late-inning reliever for a while. They gave up a quality reliever in Shreve, but that gamble seemed worth it as Manny Banuelos finally looks ready to contribute to a big-league rotation. They were able to essentially buy an immensely talented pitching prospect(Touki Toussaint ), though he’s not likely to be a factor anytime soon.
That was a nice mixture of prospects and young MLB-ready pieces. It also freed up quite a lot of money to acquire proven impact players if this “quick rebuild” plan started to work. Despite how confusing the Olivera trade was, it indicated that the Braves FO wasn’t planning on a lengthy rebuild. However, it seems like they changed course after so many of their top acquisitions struggled to make a positive impression in their first year with the organization. Mike Foltynewicz, Jace Peterson, Matt Wisler, Manny Banuelos, and Hector Olivera didn’t show a whole lot of promise at the big-league level while Rio Ruiz, Dustin Peterson, Touki Toussaint, and Andrew Thurman proved to be further away than originally thought. And even though Tyrell Jenkins won their organization POTY award and finished the year at AAA, it was clear that he still has some work to do before he’s ready to join the big-league club.
I suppose they realized that a lot of their top young recent acquisitions were either too far away or they might have overvalued them, so they wanted to see what teams would be willing to offer for an elite SS and a young #2 starter. Turns out both players were in high demand and they landed Dansby Swanson, 5 years of Ender Inciarte, Aaron Blair, Sean Newcomb, and Chris Ellis. I’m disappointed in the return for Simmons, as Newcomb has as much of a shot at developing into an ace as he does ending up as a late-inning reliever. And I don’t imagine Chris Ellis ever cracks their rotation. However, that haul for Miller was pretty remarkable. And as it stands, every single one of those guys has a shot at seeing big-league action by the end of the 2016 season. Swanson likely won’t, but he’s a safe bet for the start of 2017,.
I wouldn’t exactly say the Braves got market value for Miller. He was in demand but the GM in his own mind, Dave Stewart woefully overpaid for him. Had Stewart shopped that package to other teams he could have landed a better pitcher than Miller. I wonder if he even bothered calling Cleveland? I am not taking anything away from Miller. He is a solid low #2 high #3 pitcher but that package should have brought back a TOR arm.
Totally agreed. Although one has to wonder if Cle asked more than what the Dbacks even offered. They really could have esp used Inciarte in the outfield. The trade for Miller obviously singled in the win-now era for the Dbacks. Stewart came to play.
Don’t underestimate Miller and don’t forget who is running the snakes – Tony LaRussa and Tony knows Miller very well. Miller could have been a Cy Young competitor at Atlanta if that bunch could have scored any runs for him.
This seems awfully optimistic, my friend. Best of luck to you guys!
It’s not tanking though. None of these teams are doing anything different then teams have been doing for as long as I can remember. Every trade dead line non contending teams trade away players for prospects that they hope will make them better in the future. The only reason this a thing now is because it has become a buzz word for the media due to what the Astros and 76ers have done.
It really boils down to each man’s “definition of Tanking”, and your definition of “Rebuilding”. There’s often a very “Fine-Line” between the two. On our side……
“Everyone has an opinion, and a preference for how teams should make adjustments”.
FWIW, any time that a team trades away talented ballplayers (who are probably expensive) to acquire quality younger talent at a clip of 2-1 or 3-1, I would consider that they are performing a rebuild. In addition, a team that sheds payroll and signs younger, lower payroll FA players could be in a rebuild as well.
IMHO……the Braves and Padres are “re-tooling”……the Brewers and Rockies are rebuilding….. and the Reds and Phillies are Tanking……LOL
In my personal dictionary…….
Rebuilding = acquiring different players who may take 2-3 years to succeed.
Tanking = losing on purpose, often by selling off assets, not acquiring quality players in return, and doing so with the intention of acquiring younger players mainly via the draft.
By your definition then the Phillies aren’t tanking because they acquired multiple talented young player in trade. Half of the Phillies top 10 prospects weren’t in the Phillies system before they started to make trades last year. The trades also moved them from having one of the worst farm systems to one of the best ones with more to come from the draft and international signings.
Let me start out by saying I’m a Brewer fan and I’m not happy with what Stearns is doing and I’m fairly certain that once fans actually see this team on the field, more and more fans will be unhappy too. In theory fans can state they will be patient but when they see how bad it’s going to get, they won’t be so patient. The issue I have is that after Melvin’s deals last year, the system was already pretty strong and they could have fielded a team this year that had a chance to be somewhat competitive with a decent lineup and some young pitching. They could have done this and still continued adding to their system.
All they got for Lind was 3 teenage arms, none of whom was on any top prospects lists. Why not just hold on to Lind and deal him at the deadline if that’s all he’s worth? For Jason Rogers, who was next in line at 1B, they got a contact challenged 25 year old AAA OF that is at best one year filler. Why not just use Rogers at 1B? For Davis, who’s HR/AB ratio for his career is better than Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun, they didn’t get anybody higher than A ball level. That’s not tanking when Davis could easily bring that much or more a year from now, when they’ll have a better idea if some of their young outfielders can actually play or not?
Brewers could have gone into the year with a lineup that included Lind, Braun, Davis and Lucroy in the middle of it. Now the middle of the lineup is Braun, Lucroy, Chris Carter and Santana. For the record that’s 2 guys in Carter and Santana that could combine for strikeout record by teammates in 2016. That’s assuming Lucroy isn’t yet traded. The staring pitching should be better by addition by subtraction now that Lohse is gone, But they could have improved it further with a cheap veteran FA like Latos or Simon and gotten rid of Garza who stunk it up all through 2015. Yeah eating Garza’s contract hurts, but that was a mistake they just need to move on from. My point is sure, contending would have been extremely unlikely but why subject paying fans to a 100+ loss trainwreck when they could have put a major league caliber team on the field?
All these teams accused of “tanking” could go out and sign guys like Kyle Lohse, David Freeze, Cliff Lee, Grady Sizemore and Dan Uggla are available. But….would they make your team better? Why NOT go with youngsters who might have an upside instead of trying to be mediocre?
Really hopin Yadi is ready by Opening Day. Cards don’t win without him
May not be exactly on opening day but not long after. Glad they picked up Pena who is a good fit behind the plate. If not him, they probably could and would have gone after Lucroy who is itching to be traded.
Tommy john surgery for Tanaka
I have to agree with you. His chance to opt out happens after 2017. I doubt he will beat his current contract if he continues to have the question mark over his head the next two seasons. If he gets it done around April or May this year he will be back for the second half of next season. He could then prove he is healthy, opt out, and fleece the Yankees out of another $150+ million.
@thecoffinnail, so you suggest he go against Doctor’s Orders and get TJS which certainly does not guarantee a pitcher will return back to the way he once was??
We heard that 2 years ago, but it still has yet to happen. Kind of like how Adam Wainwright had the same type of injury but didn’t get TJS until about 5 years later, as well as Ervin Santana who has yet to have TJS.
Re: Aybar…Can someone really be an incumbent even when he hasn’t played a game for the team?
Ha I forgot that Aybar is a Brave. I wonder how high the chances are that he gets moved during the deadline.
That’s what I was thinking. Aybar is not the incumbent, he is the guy they got by trading the actual incumbent Andrelton Simmons.
So a guy that’s spent the LAST 8yrs in the Big Leagues as an Everyday player, career ..276 hitter shouldn’t be considered the “incumbent”? Please enlighten me which Brave will compete or take his job??
Aybar is the incumbent SS for ATL. He currently holds the position though he’s never played a game, meaning that they’ll go into ST with him as their starting SS, unless he’s traded/injured. Everyone else (Jace Peterson, Kelly Johnson) is not suited for the position or is not ready (Swanson, Albies).
I’m just waiting for Tanaka to start doing the towel drill, a Rothschild special.
The braves? They’ll do well, and they’ll surprise a’lot of skeptics. The Phillies? The plan has finally set in…indefinatly. ( Philly isnt as patient/forgiving ) Brewers? Hard to tell. They need to renovate or, reguvinate the club.
Everyone has to rebuild at some point. Tanking isnt the case. You have to get rid of high priced players that wont help when youre an actual contender. Blame high priced contracts of aging vets. Not tanking. Building a team takes time . a short term loss for a long term gain is worth it
I don’t understand what people want from the Phillies. For the past 2-3 years everyone was complaining about the Phillies holding onto all their veterans way too long. Then, when they finally start trading the veterans away everyone accuses them of tanking. The Phillies are not tanking, they are breaking up a bad team. If they had started trading all of the veterans away while they were still in the hunt for the division, then it should have been called tanking. Same with my Rockies. Everyone has been railing on them to trade CarGo for three years now and as soon as they do, everyone will start with the tanking talk.
The only actual tanking team in the past few years has been the Houston Astros because they traded away everyone that anyone had ever heard of in order to stock the minors. The Braves are not tanking, they are just bad after making some very bad baseball decisions. The Brewers are not tanking, they are just having an ordinary rebuild. If they were deliberately tanking, they would take pennies on the dollar for Ryan Braun, Matt Garza, and several other vets.
The Brewers are doing exactly what Houston did. Khris Davis wasn’t even arby eligible and he was traded for prospects below AA level. That’s not tanking? Davis would still have plenty of value (maybe more) a year or even two from now. Garza’s got negative trade value. Braun’s got injury issues and a big contract and he can’t be moved yet but don’t be surprised when he is if he shows he’s healthy and productive.
The Phillies were hampered by huge contracts that made guys either completely untradeable or such that the return wasn’t meaningful.
I think this tanking narrative is overblown. A single high draft pick means way less in baseball than it does in football or basketball. Drafting LeBron James guarantees you make the playoffs. Drafting Mike Trout doesn’t. Baseball is just a very different sport and draft picks don’t usually pan out, occasionally even high draft picks. Leaving out the last few drafts, because those guys are still making their way through their systems, here are the #1 overall draft picks from 2002-2012:
Bryan Bullington (threw 81 innings in the majors)
Delmon Young (terrible character guy, never developed)
Matt Bush (spent three years in prison; got arrested in a bar fight a month after being drafted)
Justin Upton(star player but not elite)
Luke Hochevar (middle reliever)
David Price (elite pitcher)
Tim Beckham (maybe could be a utility player)
Strasburg (star-level player, not elite)
Bryce Harper (one of the best players in baseball)
Gerrit Cole (ace-level pitcher)
Carlos Correa (should be a superstar)
So out of those eleven #1 picks, we have three superstar-quality players, three very good ones and five washouts. The notion that tanking to get the first overall draft pick is a bit absurd when we think of the attrition rates of top prospects. Baseball is a different animal – guys don’t get drafted and go directly to the majors. And there’s lots of flops along the way.
Let Tanaka take it nice and slow early on. No need to rush him at this point. It’s a long season and there are still 6 or 7 weeks until opening day.
Are the big market teams wrong to complain about revenue sharing not being invested in on the field product? Think about the broader ramifications for a moment. A bad team lowers ticket sales when they visit. A bad team can impact a playoff race–particularly one which trades major league talent for prospects at the break, but has played all or most of it’s games against one contender when it was say, a 75 win team, and others when it’s a 55 win team. And, there are a few teams, not many, who simply use revenue sharing as a profit center–and collect draft picks, competitive balance picks, and high draft order at the same time.
I don’t get their problem they want more competition in free agency so they can give Boras clients even stupider deals? They want the free agent market to get even more inflated than it already is? How many players could the Phillies/Braves have driven the price up on? That is what big market teams want?
Players would obviously not sign with losing teams either they would essentially be using bad teams purely as leverage for a higher contract, the money will go back in the game when they are ready to compete. Why give Boras more “mystery teams”
Players will sign with the highest bidder, with a few exceptions.
I think the problem that big market teams are having is that some owners are using the revenue money to pay down their debt instead of using the money to invest in their minor league system and big league team.
Didn’t the Braves and Phillies both spend more than the Yankees in free agency this year? Spending in baseball is at an all time high do they want it to inflate faster than TV contracts can keep up with and end up like the NHL? Do big market teams think everyone has a billion dollar tv deal?
When you have CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira on your payroll in 2016 – you’ve got to save money in certain areas — or if preparing for a Bryce Harper push.
so the solution is other teams handing out bad contracts in the mean time so the yankees can sign bryce harper?
Why can the Braves not save money to sign Bryce Harper?
They don’t have to use the money for to sign free agents to bad contracts. They can use that money to sign their young players to contracts, sign amateur players or try to improve their player development department. I remember reading somewhere a couple of years ago that one of the owners was using their revenue sharing money to pay down their stadium debt and that ticked off a number of the other owners
The Braves have done all that are you saying the Braves are being included in error? Teheran, Simmons, Freeman all extended, The Braves are heavily involved in the international market too, with Pache and Cruz and possibly Lazarito to join, they have also been active in adding minor league depth color me confused what the Braves have done wrong. Something like 9 or 10 minor league contracts.
I would argue differently–I think it could help stabilize player costs. Give the tanking teams access to the cheap young talent, and the big market teams have to bid up the price in free agency. Certainly not criticizing the Braves, who have a history of being very competitive.
I don’t understand this weird shaming going on from teams that are “tanking”. So youre saying they should strive to hit the ceiling of their mediocre ceiling instead of not doing that, so they can get a higher draft pick so they can compete. So many teams have used the draft and being bad on purpose for a few years to turn into repeat postseason appearances. It’s a perfectly fine way to operate, teams don’t get anything for winning 75 games instead of 65, and there HAS to be bad teams in the game every year.
Only way to counter “tanking” is to have so many playoff teams that sub-.500 ones can make the postseason and thats silly, seeing how long the season is to begin with. Instead, lets just live with this as part of the game.
I say the braves rebuilding process could go down as the best in history I know it’s really soon but I think not within like the next two years, but I bet within about 3-4 years the braves team will be about unstoppable. Touki and that curve ball, Max Fried, Kolby Allard, with Teheran and Newcomb too.
Check this out this teams future is scary I know these prospects aren’t proven yet but they’ve got the stuff.
Kolby Allard
Touki Toussaint
Sean Newcomb
Julio Teheran
Max Fried
The you got a solid bullpen as the Shae Simmons and the Arodys Vizcaino grow more mature and others of course including Foltynewicz, Paco Rodriguez, Chris Withrow, Banuelos, Mauricio Cabrera and which ever other SP doesn’t get traded for a big time bat.
Then this is what their line up COULD look like if they didn’t trade their tons and tons of solid pitching prospects for any bats.
1. Ozzie Albies 2B
2. Dansby Swanson SS
3. Freddie Freeman 1B
4. Austin Riley 3B
5. Braxton Davidson LF
6. Ended Inciarte RF
7. Mallex Smith CF
8. Lucas Herbert C (sleeper)
I know they aren’t proven or anything yet but all the pitching we have we can replace ANY of those names in the lineup through trades. And when contention comes back around for the braves I think they will be pretty scary. Ontop of that the free agent market in two years is terrifying and the braves will have pretty low pay roll. Couldn’t trade for talent and pickup someone like Josh Donaldson.
I hope you were knocking on every piece of wood around you when writing that article. Seriously.
I love dreaming with you – especially when uttering the ability to sign former Auburn product, Josh Donaldson – but I hope people realize see in your argument the depth they’ve created. That there’s even more names than those you mentioned if those don’t pan out. And that’s not including the influx of cash coming in — or the international prospects ATL has always lined their system with.
Signing Donaldson makes no sense what so ever are you sure you are not a yankees fan? He is going to command being signed deep into his 30s
Donaldson is a hometown boy, coming off a MVP season, who I hope would like to play for the Braves. If we don’t find Chipper Jones’s heir to 3B in Riley, Ruiz or another by then, and Donaldson is still gaming, in a dream scenario from which I was speaking about doing – Donaldson would be great. However, in that dream dollars and sense is not a factor. Sure, he’ll be older than most FA, but I don’t see ATL contending for Bryce Harper nor would I want them to give $500MM to one player, considering they balked at paying $400MM to renovate Turner Field (rightfully so). I like Donaldson, but I don’t think he’d exactly be the best fit, but we’re also talking about 2 years into the future.
It will be one of the deepest classes ever Donaldson would have to take a huge discount, Machado makes much more sense if 3B is still a problem at that point., The Braves should have plenty of money flowing to at least get one grade A guy from that class and it should be Machado, who could fall through the cracks with the bidding war Harper generates.
That’s what I like to hear. As long as it’s not Chris Johnson – I’m ok.
see Maitan, Kevin
Machado makes more sense? Gonna donate 300 mil to the team?
I already donate to the team as a life long season ticket holder brand new stadium Machado better not be out of the “price range” of the Braves. Machado is not getting near 300 million either but you obviously seem a little bit slow.
The Heyward contract will be Machado’s starting point he has no incentive to go 10 years.
While it may look good on paper, the roster is filled with unproven pitchers and batters. You can hope they all pan out but history suggests only a couple (or a few) will. I understand Braves fans are excited and all about their prospects but don’t forget about the realities of baseball. Most prospects don’t pan out or end up being marginal. It’s not like you’re going to end up with a roster full of Mike Trouts and Matt Harvey’s.
Believe me when I tell you, probably 15 teams can write down a list like that, and dream on it. And that “starting rotation” doesn’t look scary at all. Half those guys don’t miss bats and the other half either hasn’t started their career yet or can’t throw strikes.
Precisely my point.
Best in history? Are you really being serious?
Max Fried just turned 22, has had TJ, has thrown 147 minor league innings with a worse than 2/1 K/BB ratio, he hasn’t even touched high A yet, and he was a high school draftee.
Koby Allard just turned 16 and has only thrown 6 innings as a pro
Sean Newcomb- I understand the dream with him, but at some point he has to be able to throw strikes or else keith law/ba is going to look a bit foolish with where they have ranked him
Teheran- He is good, I think he’ll bounceback, but doubt he’s with the braves for too long.
Touki- Career 5.1 BB/9 so far in his young career, not saying he has no chance to get his command in order he is very young, but his prospect status got way out of control, no reason not to buy him from Diamondbacks however.
You are getting extremely ahead of yourself counting on these pitchers. The reality is braves have a lot of quantity of young pitchers but they all have lots of questions. There isn’t a guy in there that you’d say is a decent bet to be a top of the rotation guy, and save me with the allard counter.
The Braves are way behind what the Cubs had in quality.
In addition to what’s already been said, tanking does not really work in baseball because so many things have to work out for any attempts at stockpiling young talent to actually work. You can have all the high draft picks you want, but if your farm system doesn’t develop well or kids get injured or if they just don’t work out you’re right back where you started and half a dozen years have passed. Look at the Royals as an example. It took them nearly a decade of drafting and developing to assemble the core of the team that won the World Series last year. They were trying to be patient and certainly weren’t tanking — it was just a matter of the talent taking much longer to come together to accomplish something.
You sign all the mid tier free agents that we don’t want to over priced contracts because we the big market teams have jacked the market up and priced half the league out of top guys like David Price etc Yeah lets get right on that. You need a brand new TV contract just for the chance to overpay a front line starting pitcher like in the Dbacks case.