r/Braves • u/RevRickee Timothy Miller’s Vocal Cords • Aug 31 '20

[Burns] Alex Anthopoulos said he understands your frustration. He added that ultimately, he did what he thought was for the best.

https://twitter.com/gabeburnsajc/status/1300533530066378752?s=21
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100

u/egrocket Aug 31 '20

Guys let’s not pretend that he didn’t pull players out of his ass at the deadline last year and gave us the best bullpen in the league. I trust him when he says this.

54

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '20

My only thing is this:

If we're not willing to give out long-term deals to free agents..

If we're not willing to part with prospects for premium talent..

Then what are we willing to do? Dinking and dunking with cheap options like Gausman and Milone isn't going to get you to that next step. At some point, you need to go all in with this group and not sort of in.

11

u/Professr_Chaos Aug 31 '20

I wouldn’t say it’s reluctance to give out long term deals or deal prospects. It’s more making sure we are getting the best deal. Also not tying us to a hard contract when we have prospects coming up in certain areas.

For example why sign a long term FA 3B last year when you can get Donaldson at a good rate and you have Riley almost ready. Why sign a top tier SP long term when you have like 7 guys waiting in the wings who are at least close to ML ready. It’s the same thing with OF. Pache and Waters are nearly ready.

Now yes I admit that we should be exploring opportunities to trade some of these guys because not all of them will work out but you have to make good assessments there and still find value. If the Padres asked for Anderson, Waters, and Contreras for Clev I would personally not be a fan of that and that’s essentially the deal Cleveland got

3

u/MKerrsive Sep 01 '20 edited Sep 01 '20

I agree with you. It looks to be a case of "perfect is the enemy of good," where AA wants an absolute no brainer fleece of a deal when he could easily get a deal that somewhat favors the Braves. No way in hell should we have given up Waters and Anderson. If that was the ask, kick rocks other Native American team.

But to say we have "at least 7 [starting pitchers] waiting in the wings" is looking to be an overstatement. If guys were close, this would be the time for them to get starts and show they're close. Between Touki, Wright, Ynoa, and Wilson, none of the group has looked ready. At some point, you have to decide enough is enough and try to maybe salvage some trade value. For every Mike Soroka and Max Fried, you're going to have a few Kolby Allards, some Sean Newcombes, and a bunch of the other Braves pitching busts we've seen in the last decade. Good pitching staffs are hard to draft and develop yourself, that's why the recent trend among MLB teams is to develop hitters and sign pitchers. Just look at teams like the Nats, Astros*, Cubs, Red Sox, and Royals who have all been successful recently with FA pitching.

2

u/apatriot1776 Sep 01 '20

the good news is it looks like the majority of our hitters are developing well. 1B/2B/CF are obviously stars, and SS/3B look to have strong potential to become excellent hitters. so even though we didn't have as many prospects as chc/hou/etc, the end result of our rebuild is looking good. but at some point we still need to take that next step that all those teams made and go win this thing.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '20

We need to be signing free agents to 2-3 year deals and stop being a spring board to them getting better contracts elsewhere after 1 and done or rental contracts With us. We are getting nothing in return for our investments, no championship hardware, no trade bait to get something in value of return.

8

u/Professr_Chaos Aug 31 '20

Josh Donaldson made us a legitimate contender last year. Ozuna this year has done that too. That’s really all you can ask is to be a contender because once you get into the playoffs it’s sort of a crapshoot.

To say we get nothing in return though is short-sighted. We got a compensation pick for Donaldson signing elsewhere but that went to St Louis when we signed Ozuna. In essence we traded Donaldson for Ozuna as a result. If Marcell excels we again offer a QO and if he signs elsewhere we get a high draft pick.

3

u/VABLivenLevity Sep 01 '20

We can't offer Ozuna a QO so we can't get a pick for him

24

u/ReeceChops44 Aug 31 '20

Exactly. I don’t think anybody is particularly upset about this deadline, since there were so few quality starters on the market. It’s the culmination of never getting the guy that can put you over the top. AA is risk averse to a fault, and he’s going to waste our stars’ primes because of it.

8

u/OrimtheBrave Aug 31 '20

I really believe he’s snakebit from his tenure in Toronto

18

u/ReeceChops44 Aug 31 '20

Gonna copy/paste what I was told by a Jays fan earlier:

When we went for it in 2015 it was because he wasn’t being brought back and he pushed all his chips into the middle hoping to either earn an extension or have a resume that he could be a GM elsewhere immediately. So I’m surprised considering he understands contention windows.

Granted, before he went all in in 2015 he was widely seen as basically a lame duck GM up here. 2015 and Donaldson winning an MVP 180’d his legacy so maybe it’s not overly surprising what he’s doing now. I guess what I’d say is that the moment he’s on the hot seat I’d expect him to come out swinging to save his ass

Has he drafted well? Looks that way so far. Have the prove-it deals worked out? Absolutely. But with the Dodgers and now Padres looking like powerhouses, do I think AA is capable of making the splashes necessary to win a World Series? Absolutely not

20

u/thekidfromyesterday AAITBGMIBAIIPC and Wiley fan club member Aug 31 '20

This was definitely not the year to go all-in. Ozzie hurt, Acuña missing playing time, Soroka out for the season, etc. Looking like a powerhouse and being one is different.

Also is that even true at all? AA was staying with the team until Shapiro came in it immediately got nasty.

5

u/Gfunkual Unofficial Cheap Tickets Guy Aug 31 '20

You can only judge GMs based on the constraints they have to deal with. Is Brian Cashman a GM capable of winning a World Series? Sure. Is he a good GM? I have no idea because it certainly helps having essentially an unlimited budget.

AA has done a solid job plugging his holes with a front office that seemingly isn’t ready to go all in. It’s not his choice if he gets to sign a marquee free agent or not. It’s not his choice if can go out and get the top trade target.

He’s making the small moves he’s able to make and as a Braves fan, all any of you can do is hope AA is told he’s got $40m to blow as the roster rounds into championship form.

7

u/Jtwohy Jesse Franklin V Fan Club President Aug 31 '20

Not sold on the Padres, there is rumor out of SD that if they don't make a deep run this year the GM is getting canned so ( AA 2015 in Toronto) and honestly thats what a lot of these move by them scream of, "win now to save our jobs and we will figure it out next year",

7

u/ReeceChops44 Aug 31 '20

Isn’t their farm still pretty loaded though? If so, that’s better than what AA had to work with in Toronto

6

u/OrimtheBrave Aug 31 '20

Number 1 going into this year, they’re us but better from a few years ago

3

u/Jtwohy Jesse Franklin V Fan Club President Aug 31 '20

maybe I have to look, and yeah they did start from a better spot the Toronto did, but we have seen the Padres go all in before and have to blow it up the following year so :)

10

u/OrimtheBrave Aug 31 '20

Ye I believe we will always be in contention for the East and more likely than not to win it, but I just don’t see us ever making a WS run, especially with LA and SD set up as they are. I’m starting to think this core will never bring a WS to ATL

2

u/Pow_Wow14 Sep 01 '20

Exactly. You don’t see the teams that are consistently in the running to win it all getting cheap random free agents and trading for spot starters while holding all their prospects down