Braves sign RA Dickey

[intentional wok]

 

1 year, option for 2018. Dollar figure unknown, but we don't exactly care about the dollar figures on this one here, do we?

[jays4life19]

f*** i was really hoping we would re sign him....said no Jays fan ever.

[L54]

That'll probably work out nicely for both ends. Braves get an innings eater and RA stays in the bigs. I wonder what the park effects of that new stadium will look like.

[L54]

Josh Thole is ecstatic.

[Jonn]

Josh Thole will join him soon enough. Wouldn't shock me if he had a good season in the NL. I'm just suprised he signed so fast.

[Governator]

http://i.imgur.com/YW5cUOU.gif

[BTS]

I'm so f***ing stoked about this.

[Slade]

He makes a lot of sense for them, can still easily give them 200 IP and probably provide some positive value. The Braves are going to turn him into some prospects at some point when another NL team is looking for pitching.

[burlingtonbandit]

What are the dimensions of their new ballpark? Assume its a pitcher's park still?

[Orgfiller]

This is amazing news.

[Jonn]

People here are pumped to watch the Braves next season!

[xposbrad]

More recently when people describe RA, I think people just say he's an 'innings eater'? I think the braves figure if he pitches half decent in the NL maybe they can flip him at the deadline for a prospect or they have someone to pitch a lot of innings next year.

[intentional wok]

http://i.imgur.com/YW5cUOU.gif

 

You have the instincts of a great artist.

[L54]

More recently when people describe RA, I think people just say he's an 'innings eater'? I think the braves figure if he pitches half decent in the NL maybe they can flip him at the deadline for a prospect or they have someone to pitch a lot of innings next year.

 

Having someone to pitch a lot of innings and make 30 starts is the definition of an innings eater.

[43211234]

Makes sense. With this signing and the talk about their outfielders, the Braves are apparently trying to go into their new ballpark as a team that's somewhat semi-competent. At least going into the season that is.

 

Dickey can give you the potential for 200 innings of slightly above replacement level innings.

[bendera3]

Do we tender Thole and try to trade him to the Braves?

[jays4life19]

Do we tender Thole and try to trade him to the Braves?

 

lol no.

[Dick_Pole]

Do we tender Thole and try to trade him to the Braves?

 

Do we play Russian Roulette with bullets in 5 of the 6 chambers?

[jays4life19]

I'm a little surprised he signed so quick with a garbage team. He's made enough money in his career to support his family, has interests outside of the game of baseball and seems like a really big family man.

[Governator]

I'm a little surprised he signed so quick with a garbage team. He's made enough money in his career to support his family, has interests outside of the game of baseball and seems like a really big family man.

 

Which is why he probably signed 3hrs from his house (Nashville)...

[The Cats Ass]

Which is why he probably signed 3hrs from his house (Nashville)...

 

I was just about to say this. This makes complete sense on both sides, a perfect match. Braves are a young rebuilding team that need a cheapish guy that will give them innings at slightly above or at replacement level. Dickey gets to still play baseball and be close to home.

[Slade]

I'm a little surprised he signed so quick with a garbage team. He's made enough money in his career to support his family, has interests outside of the game of baseball and seems like a really big family man.

 

You get paid as long as possible. It's unlikely he had interest from any team that's looking to be highly competitive and the Braves probably gave him a really fair deal.

[jays4life19]

Which is why he probably signed 3hrs from his house (Nashville)...

 

Ah touche.

[KingKat]

I'm a little surprised he signed so quick with a garbage team. He's made enough money in his career to support his family, has interests outside of the game of baseball and seems like a really big family man.

 

I don't think it's a garbage team in his eyes. I read somewhere (probably MLBTR) that he had a strong geographic preference for Atlanta.

[KingKat]

Josh Thole is ecstatic.

 

Josh Thole will join him soon enough. Wouldn't shock me if he had a good season in the NL. I'm just suprised he signed so fast.

 

I'm very interested to see how another organization handles the Thole situation. Dickey doesn't have the kind of leverage he did when he was coming off a Cy Young season. A personal catcher is a big ask for a player of his caliber on a short term deal but apparently getting a new catcher to familiarize themselves with the kuckleball is too (at least that's what we've been told but several posters on here are skeptical of that). If they don't sign Thole and go with someone else, I expect a lot of people to express bitterness over the fact that the Jays were unwilling to do the same thing.

[glory]

No Dickey or Thole this season is a blessing.

[intentional wok]

I'm very interested to see how another organization handles the Thole situation. Dickey doesn't have the kind of leverage he did when he was coming off a Cy Young season. A personal catcher is a big ask for a player of his caliber on a short term deal but apparently getting a new catcher to familiarize themselves with the kuckleball is too (at least that's what we've been told but several posters on here are skeptical of that). If they don't sign Thole and go with someone else, I expect a lot of people to express bitterness over the fact that the Jays were unwilling to do the same thing.

 

I've always been skeptical about Thole's importance to the KB. The starting catchers since Dickey has been around:

 

2013: Arencibia (not very good defensively, and also the first year of the Cy Dickey honeymoon so it made sense they stuck with what has previously worked very successfully)

2014: Navarro (not very good defensively)

2015: Martin (great defensively and caught many Dickey games; also a factor: Navarro being the back-up)

2016: Martin (still good, but the org preferred to keep the two apart)

 

The good "luck" here is that the Jays have had healthy catchers for four straight years, so Thole never had to pull an LBJ. We were always pretty afraid that a catching injury would occur and wanted an upgrade at back-up C. Not doing so after 2013 seemed silly and that it was going on as long as up to last year was just egregious. There's no reason to believe it couldn't have been done. It's not like learning a KB isn't a learnable skill.

[HERPDERP]

I've always been skeptical about Thole's importance to the KB. The starting catchers since Dickey has been around:

 

2013: Arencibia (not very good defensively, and also the first year of the Cy Dickey honeymoon so it made sense they stuck with what has previously worked very successfully)

2014: Navarro (not very good defensively)

2015: Martin (great defensively and caught many Dickey games; also a factor: Navarro being the back-up)

2016: Martin (still good, but the org preferred to keep the two apart)

 

The good "luck" here is that the Jays have had healthy catchers for four straight years, so Thole never had to pull an LBJ. We were always pretty afraid that a catching injury would occur and wanted an upgrade at back-up C. Not doing so after 2013 seemed silly and that it was going on as long as up to last year was just egregious. There's no reason to believe it couldn't have been done. It's not like learning a KB isn't a learnable skill.

 

uhhh why are you pointing out the starting catchers? Those were never the guys who caught Dickey except Martin for a bit.

[intentional wok]

uhhh why are you pointing out the starting catchers? Those were never the guys who caught Dickey except Martin for a bit.

 

Because of the possible rationale that Thole was considered Knuckleball Catcher, PhD because the first two guys were bad defensively (and before the Dickey-Thole marriage became a bit of an anchor). I'm not excusing the lack of effort in developing some KB back-up catchers. Just trying to understand the decisions that were actually made by the FO at the time. Don't forget that these decisions were mostly made by execs who were happy with JPA as a starting catcher on an all-in team. A 40-yo Henry Blanco was even in the loop for a little while in 2013.

[Terminator]

That's a good signing by the Braves. They need 3 starters so to strike early on an okay back-end guy so early is a solid move for them.

 

I was always a big proponent but given our current roster he wasn't needed anymore.