Brownie19

You're just wasting your time man.

It's pretty ironic that we're talking about how all our old hitters suck and there are very few old guys in baseball who hit well these days....and one of the old dudes who's actually hitting is Kevin Pillar....who never hit much his whole career.

QUOTE=glory;1802581]I don’t think Atkins views the farm system as a mirage as much as he doesn’t want to be in a position where there is a rash of injuries and they have to sign Billy McKinney types to fill holes. In his mind he wants AAA to be well stocked so that if injuries happen they can have prospects fill in. That’s my guess at least. The problem with that is that he chose Turner, KK, IKF, and Vogelbach as his big league signings. Holding prospects back in favor of the most marginal big league talent you can spend $40m on is an issue. I don’t think even Horowitz, Barger, etc, are the answer. They are just better than 39 year old Turner, Vogelbach, etc, and you’re better off giving them a shot hoping one pulls a DS than the alternative. If the prospects fail, and some/most probably will, then no harm done. It’s better than watching an old bad (expensive) team. Agree with all of this 100%

Explains a few things...

How about old fan favorite Kevin Pillar hitting cleanup for the Angels, casually hitting .317/.375/.577 with a 167 wRC+ at age 35. Good for you Kevin. Keep grinding Superman!

Pinch hit - facing a real tough lefty. Kirk's bat has been pretty good as of late.

To be fair, it's a pretty small sample size and he's coming off an injury. Our farm system blows. They can have anyone they want really.

100%

I think you're underselling him a bit. 26 years old with big time power with a super team friendly deal until 2027. He's going to cost a ton to acquire. That said, he comes with warts. He's been injury prone and he's a free swinger who rarely walks.

Perhaps, but the Phillies (best team in baseball) were essentially built on FA deals Harper Turner Realmuto Schwarber Wheeler G. Soto Then a couple of misses Castellanos T. Walker

Castellanos is 32 and he's at 82 wRC+ and -0.9 WAR for the best team in baseball - making $20M.

Honestly? I don't know. I think Steamer still projects him as a 114 wRC+ bat for the rest of the season. No idea how realistic that is. I would have no issue if the team wants to cut back his PA's and wants to give them to Barger to see if he can spark the offense. If Barger hits, then Springer has to work his way back into the everyday lineup. Same goes for KK. That would help me "hit" with one of my Bold Predictions That said, if they think he's showing enough signs of breaking out that they keep him in the lineup - I'd understand that also. My point was that lots of organizations, good and bad, are giving players who aren't performing a lot of at bats. Accordingly, I'm not completely willing to s*** on the Jays for doing it with Springer. It sucks and is hard to watch though.

You have to wonder - now that we're out of the steriod/PED era, will this true aging curve start to have a huge impact on the FA market (ie, fewer 6 year deals for 30/31 year olds)

It makes me sad to see Springer struggle so bad. He was such a great player in his prime - one of my very favourites. As we know, offense is down across baseball and I was having a look at the bottom of the leaderboard and there seem to be a lot of once great players who are struggling this year - like Springer. Vets that look cooked: - Saurez - Goldy - Rizzo - McNeil - Castellanos - Tellez - Renfroe - Michael A. Taylor - Josh Bell - Haniger - Benintendi - Baez - TA - Kike Hernandez Great players who seemingly fell off a cliff this year without any explanation: - Arozarena - Riley - Michael Harris - Adolis Garcia - Manny Machado? - Soler (obviously not as much success as the others) Younger players who've had success (or a pedigree) in the past, but have been useless this year: - Andrew Vaughan - Tork - Cedric Mullins - Jake Burger - Colt Keith (never had success) - Lux - Evan Carter / Wyatt Langford - Gelof All of these players have had 150+ PA's this year. Great organizations and s***** organizations are all generally giving these guys lots of PA's this year - much like the Jays continue to with Bo, Springer, Kirk, etc. And like the Jays, the justification varies based on a variety of reasons.

They called him up when he was f***ing RED HOT and he went like 0-17 (and yes he may have had other things on his mind).

I mean - he was a lefty power bench bat who's hit righties well throughout his career. $2M is peanuts.

Let's not make this a Braves v. Jays debate. The initial point was simply the Braves offense has gone from incredible (most runs scored in a full season since the 2007 Yankees) to below average over night. Even to a VERY GOOD organization with a very good GM and recent history of strong development. AA said himself on the FAN590 that if he could figure out why, he'd have fixed it already. It's an example of now random baseball can be and how sometimes, the people driving the ship have less control than we think. That's really it. Decisions to go with Arcia at SS, move out Contreras for Murphy, bring in Kelenic/Duval also illustrate how even very good GM's make moves that don't work out. The Braves are so good, they'll probably overcome most of this and will still make a run for the playoffs this year, but there are some bizarre similarities to the frustrating developments we've seen on the Jays over the past couple of years.

I think that's a fair assessment. We're seeing eye to eye a lot lately.

We hung out in the right field corner. There was all kinds of craft beers and then those standing areas. Atmosphere was super fun and laid back. A lot of the new reno's at the dome remind me of elements I saw at Progressive Field (and others I've visited lately).

Oh s*** - well said. POTY candidate.

Dude has always had that monster arm.

Imagine being the GM. He's just sitting there, mailing it in, collecting a paycheck. Tough life.

I was in Cleveland back in 2017 or 2018 and we enjoyed it. Ball park was a ton of fun and we ate on 4th Street East, which is a pedestrian only street with all kinds of great patios and night life.

All true. But, the Braves offense has gone from the best in baseball by a mile (41 runs more than #2 and a 125 wRC+ v. 118 for #2) to below average. Acuna wasn't anywhere near himself before the injury and most of their young core players are having horrendous years. Acuna alone doesn't move the needle this much.

It's wild to see. And yes, the sample size is a lot smaller than Toronto's, but, it might give a slight indication of how fickle things can be in baseball. I wonder if Braves fans are calling for their hitting coaches to be fired, suggesting they must have implemented a new philosophy across the organization that has ruined their offense, or questioning if there are issues with their player development. And then of course, there is a possibility that all these things are true (or that some of them are) and whether AA should be to blame for it.