Twitter Mailbag: 11/12
November 12, 2012 at 9:02 am by Ben Duronio under Atlanta Braves
@jprice89: How bad is losing Ross to the BoSox going to hurt?
It most certainly has the potential to be a relatively big blow to the team, due to Brian McCann’s performance and injuries over the past year and a half. Since Ross came to Atlanta, the Braves had the best catching duo in baseball and it is doubtful that anyone they acquire will be of th same quality as Ross. If they sign a guy like Kelly Shoppach, they may get a hot streak out of him during the early part of the season while McCann recovers from his shoulder surgery, but the combination of Ross’s consistency both offensively and defensively in that role will be extremely difficult to replace.
@Eric_Adam10: What could Juan Francisco look like as a full timer? Any chance we reach that point?
I think he could look like Pedro Alvarez of last season if he is given regular plate appearances. I am probably a bit higher on Francisco than most, but I see the talent when he is at the plate and believe he could develop rapidly if he is able to be a bit more patient. I doubt he ever gets the shot to start on his own, but I could see him making the transition to regular ala Martin Prado. By that I mean, filling in for an injured or poorly performing player and running away with the job.
@RavensNiinja: How would you rank Fredi Gonzalez’s couching (FS09 meme) ability?
On a scale of 1-5 I think I would put him between a 4.5 and a 5. His first year was awful and his tenure in Florida wasn’t terrific either, but he did really well last year in most regards and learned a lot from the mistakes he made in 2011. He will likely never be a great manager, but if he is able to just not be terrible then the team should be able to succeed at a relatively high rate for the foreseeable future.
@Dongofrommcongo: What’syour guess on the starting OF?
My guess is just as good as anyone’s, but I’ll say Cody Ross, Denard Span, and Jason Heyward.
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I hope you guys enjoyed this quick mailbag, if you have any questions you want answered send them over to me @Ben_Duronio
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Really like the idea of that OF Ben. I hope it works. Twins will definitely be moving Span and it seems like the Braves have tried to land Cody Ross a few times in the past (much like they have tried to land Willingham).
Would love Span but no interest in Ross. Especially on a multi-year deal. He’s a platoon player for me.
Sucks to lose David Ross. Two years at $6.2 million seems like a deal the Braves should’ve tried to match or exceed. Obviously we aren’t privy to all the circumstances, but if this was simply a money issue, I’m a little disappointed.
Cody Ross and Span in the OF is not good enough, and I would consider the offseason a failure if that ends up being the case. Span is fine in CF, but Wren has the resources (cash and surplus trade assets) to do better in LF.
I agree on Span, but not Cody Ross. I would rather have Tori Hunter. We need his experience since we lost Chipper, Ross, Hinske.
So, you just want someone that’s old in the outfield? Great plan.
I loved Garrett Anderson’s experience
I believe his Hoveround is still available in the training room.
What bout trading for Lorenzo Cain from KC trading Uggla and McCann take there money with whatever is left and offer a contract for Hamilton and use him in LF.
Bobby ,Bobby,Bobby….
number one, we aren’t going to get value for either player. (which is dumb to sell low when you have alternate options available)
number two, who are we going to find to give us even the “bad” 3.5 WAR Uggla gave us from 2nd Base? (and don’t say Prado as he’s a better used to fill the void at 3rd).and who starts at catcher?
I will give you 2 rosters, you tell me which sound the best.
Cain-CF
Prado-2B
Heyward-RF
Hamilton-LF
Freeman-1B
Dioner Navarro/AJ Pierzxkxkxynksikykiy-C
Francisco-3B
Simmons-SS
Span-CF
Prado-3B
Heyward-RF
Uggla-2B
Freeman-1B
Cody Ross/Ludwick/Hunter-LF(could swap this with Uggla too
Mac-C
Simmons-SS
see? your idea isn’t a good one
Can someone please strip Bobby of his posting privileges?
Yeah, I asked the same thing a couple weeks ago. It really is hard to read the CAC blog with him posting. I miss the good ol’ days when these posters weren’t here.
Hunter might be older but he is a great leader which we do not have now. On his days off play Schafer or Gattis in Left.
As Nick said below, this is a SABR focused website. Leadership and experience mean nothing here. Playing Gattis or Schafer on our major league team is also another bad suggestion. We have money to get players that will contribute, so why would put a replacement level player on the field? We won’t make a huge splash for Hamilton or Bourn, but we will find solid, cost effective players that will make the team better as a whole. You can’t just solve one need at a time then move onto the next. Every move needs to be looked at in relation to the entire team and what it will look like in the future.
I would suggest that Gattis has an outside chance to make the team out of ST as the April backup Catcher if the team wants to see what he can do. When Mac returns he MIGHT be able to stick as a 5th OF’er/3rd catcher option. But he should NOT be considered as the LF option, the April starting catching option.
I’d give him a shot to make the big club off the bench though in spring training. if he doesn’t hit, send him back down…
I could see Gattis making the roster as an emergency catcher but not as a backup.
well, I meant the April backup while Mac is out, then the emergency catcher/5th OF’er when he returns. IF he hits.
It’ll be Boscan or some AAAA signing. Really not worried about reserve catcher assuming McCann recovers. Hoping we’ll sign an impact OF.
Uggla and McCann to Texas for whoever i don’t care.
Bobby, what criteria do you use to determine quality? because this is a sabermetric focused site. batting avg and RBI’s aren’t a good way to judge an individual player’s contribution.
so , WHY do you think the team should get rid of Uggla and Mac?
Repost from the last thread, where my comment has been awaiting moderation for almost 30 hours (even though I’ve posted before):
Did anybody see on MLBTR that the Rangers tried to get Simmons to flip to Arizona for Upton (because they don’t want to move Andrus or Profar)? That made me ask two questions:
First, what would the Braves have gotten? Olt would have to be the starting point, but I’d think Wren would want another big piece.
Second, if the Braves were going to trade Simmons, and he was ultimately going to end up in Arizona, wouldn’t it make more sense to cut out the Rangers as the middle man?
I think that was kind of a lame story where some front office guy thought “hey the Braves have two young shortstops, we can get one of them” without actually having the Braves involved at all. Slow news day story.
The Rangers were going to give us Mike Olt for Simmons. Answers both your questions.
Losing Ross will hurt more in the future – probably one of the best managerial prospects in the majors. If the Braves had been loyal to him, who knows about the future. Backup catchers have a long history of becoming GREAT managers.
Who says the Braves weren’t loyal to him? The BoSox threw an assload of money at him (for his age). That doesn’t mean the Braves didn’t want to keep him. They just weren’t willing to pay so much for an aging part-timer.
PLEASE. PLEASE STOP RESPONDING TO THE MORONS. It is absolutely KILLING the dialogue here. This is really the only worthwhile place to have an even slightly intelligent talk specifically about the Braves. Every time someone responds to a dumbass video game trade idea, talk about veteran presence, or whatever other inane drivel has permeated the walls of this site and made it nothing more than Bowman blog level. It’s like the goddamn sack of Rome by the Vandals in here. This place will never have a consistent intelligent discourse again until David or Ben (no one else writes anymore) dusts off Peter’s banishment stick. Most of the best commenters have hit the road already and are dearly missed, so unless you want CAC to degrade into a slobbering pit of dimwits and imbeciles, please try and do something about it otherwise any time invested in this site is an absolute waste.
Thanks!
What would you think about getting Mark Teixeira for Simmons, Minor, Gattis, and Beau Jones’ brother-in-law? Tex hits home runs and gives great veteran presents.
Vivabeta – feel free to come over to Bravesjournal, idiot posters are dealt with more proactively over there.
With respect to RossGate: I have to hope that the Braves have a good reason to choose not to offer Ross 2 years / $6M. That said, I have a very hard time figuring out how the Braves think they can get more value for $3M a year than David Ross, especially considering McCann will be out of commission for (probably) the first month or two of the next season.
not true, there is Chopnation forum and the chopnation facebook group (invitation only to the fb group)
but when the season is going , we have great discussions there. not everyone is saber, but it isn’t like DOB’s blog or anything.
Given that Cody Ross has shown no interest in joining the Braves in the past (based upon his own comments), I’d be surprised if he’d be interested in the Braves, especially with so many teams interested in his services.
A realistic every day roster for the Braves in 2013 is the following:
CF, I think the best option is to trade for that position by flipping one of the trio of Teheran/Delgado/Hanson. (Most people would prefer Hanson, but I doubt he nets any of the following players without adding more prospects) The possible trade candidates at CF (in order that I would want them) are Gardner, Revere, Span, Fowler or Cain.
I don’t think the Yankees are looking to trade Gardner, but I would certainly try hard to see if a deal is even possible. I would pay a little more for Revere than the other three guys mentioned above.
LF, we sign a free agent. I prefer Hunter at this position given what is available on the market. Swisher will be extra expensive due to the Braves having to forfeit their 1st round pick to sign him and he will get at least a 3 years deal. Ross and Ludwick don’t get me that excited. I would like Hunter at a one year deal, but that probably doesn’t get it done. So you are looking at a 2 year deal at somewhere between $20-26 million. I would do it and front load the contract. This year I would over pay since we have a surplus of money, Yr. 1 – $15-18, Yr. 2 – $5-8. This protects the team in case father time catches him this year and makes it easier to justify his roster spot in 2014. Additionally, it frees up resources in 2014 for the team to look at a more permanent player for LF, via trade or farm system.
The ideal team in 2013 would look like:
1 Gardner/Revere
2 Prado
3 Heyward
4 Hunter/Uggla
5 Freeman
6 Hunter/Uggla
7 McCain
8 Simmons
9 Pitcher
The Braves defense will be good to great at every position, excluding second base, with this roster, which is an added benefit. Spend the rest of the money on bench players and player extensions for Prado, Heyward, Freeman and Medlen (in that order).
Hunter apparently wants to stay in the AL.
I kind of like the idea of going after Ethier with the Dodgers saying he may be in play. If we could make that trade and Span, a solid lineup could be built.
1- Span
2- Prado
3- Heyward
4-Ethier
5- Freeman
6- Mac/Uggla
7- Uggla/Mac
8- Simmons
“Swisher will be extra expensive due to the Braves having to forfeit their 1st round pick to sign him”
Didn’t that rule change?
it changed, but not in the way you think.
before you gave up you first round spot to the team who lost the player, now the signing team loses their pick, and the losing team gets a pick in the compensation round. The pick doesn’t transfer it just is removed (and the teams beneath slide up a spot)
Ah, thanks for the info.
David Wright is being moved, the Mets (Wilpons) are bankrupt. What would that deal take (for ATL)?
IMO we should focused on singing Hunter on a 1 or 2 year deal. I know DOB said he wanted to stay in the AL, but him and JHey are close friends supposedly. Hopefully its an attractive enough offer to persuede him. He would also fill that hole we have in clubhouse leadership with Chip and Ross gone, and keeping the spot warm for Gattis in 2014
I think Boscan elected free agency
Ha, as much as rubes annoy me, sometimes it’s so funny to see commenters get their panties in a bunch that it’s worth sifting through the DOBlog-level filth.
Because this is a “sabermetric” focused site, does that mean it’s verboten to even consider human factors? I’m not saying you should acquire someone simply because of “leadership” abilities, but it seems sort of close-minded to say that you can’t even mention anything non-sabermetric on this site. Actually, it’s sort of arrogant.
That’s really all you got out of my post?
Marc, I don’t think mentioning non-measurables is necessarily prohibited, but I do think stating that the Braves should get someone because we “need” his experience due to the older players we are losing is ridiculous, and the kind of thing that doesn’t belong here.
I think this site is to be focused on discussing things we can know, or at least measure. Hunter may very well be a great leader, but none of us knows that, and even if it’s true, the value of that certainly can’t be measured. So, discussing that factor really doesn’t add value to the converstation.
I think the arrogance probably comes from knowledge of what’s going on. When you have measurable stats to back up what you *think* it gives you a validated position. Saying we should sign someone for experience and leadership presents nothing but speculation. Fredi was killed on this site for playing Constanza over Heyward, mostly because of his reasoning that Constanza had the ‘hot hand.’ Obviously, that doesn’t exist, and a make believe intangible kept Heyward off the field, and promoted a career minor leaguer.
I think you’re forgetting that people aren’t robots, and that this isn’t a video game where every day no matter what a player is the stats that were given to him by the little kid behind the controller.
Life is more than numbers on a page.
Now this is the kind of nonsense that REALLY doesn’t belong here.
First of all, I’m not even sure what point you’re making here. But, I’ll give it a go.
If you’re saying that things like emotion and leadership and heart factor into a player’s performance, no one here disagrees with you. Or, at least no one should. The point though, is that there is no way to measure any of that. Since you can’t measure those things, or the impact they will have, they are useless in trying to predict which player will give a team the most value. Because they’re useless, it’s nonsense to rely on those factors in discussing which player is better for the Braves, and it’s detrimental to the conversation.
Torii Hunter kind of really scares me. His last season was a good bit better than all of his career averages, although his career averages are still above average. He will turn 38 during the season and I don’t think that bodes well for his defensive tools or his offensive power. Having a righty that could potentially hit for power is enticing, but I think there are better, younger options. Hunter was worth 5.3 fWAR last season, but he’s really closer to a 3-4 WAR player. Players who perform noticeably better in contract years scare the hell out of me.
Also, if Simmons for Olt straight up wasn’t enough, do you think the Rangers start to add on pieces or just move on? What about Simmons/Uggla for Olt/Kinsler? It nets the Rangers Uggla and Upton, and we basically get Olt and a younger Dan Uggla. Uggla was actually worth more than Kinsler last year (3.5 fWAR to Kinsler’s 3.2) and anything he could add defensively would be an upgrade. Uggla and Kinsler have very similar contracts, so not much is changing there. If the Rangers want to get talent, they have to give talent. I think Uggla/Upton makes them a better team, and Olt/Kinsler certainly makes us a better team.
There’s no way the Rangers move Kinsler at all. Not a chance
I would think the same. But he’s kind of the odd man out with Profar coming up. If they want Upton, who do they replace on the field? They would replace Kinsler before Beltre, Cruz, Profar, or Andrus. Assuming they really want Upton, they have an infield of Moreland, Profar, Andrus, and Beltre. They have an outfield of Murphy/Gentry, Upton, and Cruz. Kinsler would have to change positions or they’d have to hold Profar back. It all comes down to how much they value Upton and how confident they are in Profar. I don’t think it’s likely, but who would have thought we’d trade for Uggla a few years back? The Rangers also have Michael Young under contract for another year. The Braves won’t be the ones asking, but I’d do it if they come calling.
The thing about Torii Hunter is that he is not Garret Anderson. Anderson started declining dramatically at his age 33 season, whereas Hunter has been pretty decent since his age 33 season. He’s had 5, 2.7, 3.4, and 5.5 WAR seasons over the past four years (including his age 33 season). In Anderson’s four years before signing with the Braves, he had -0.4, -0.7, 1.6, and 0.5 WAR seasons. Now, will Hunter be the best defensive outfielder we could get? No. But he’d be better defensively than Nick Swisher, and his WAR is higher than Swisher’s over the last few years. Now, could Hunter completely fall apart upon moving to the NL? Possibly, but we can’t know that. Is Hunter better than Cody Ross? Absolutely. However, he’s also going to command a greater salary. What Ross wants is absolutely ridiculous, and I don’t foresee a GM giving him 3/$25 for what he has done recently and can project to do in the future. He has value, but I probably wouldn’t pay more than $5 million per year for him.
In the end, I say all this to say that Hunter is worth going after at the right price. Will the Braves land him? Probably not. MLBTR wrote today that he is visiting with the Tigers and wants to stay in the AL. But, who knows. If he came to Atlanta, he’d be close to where he grew up and he’d get to play with Heyward, who is apparently a good friend.
The Royals are looking for pitching (as always) we should offer jair jurjjens/ tommy hansen and a prospect for mike moustakos/ alex gordon and go after bj or justin upton.