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Nemesis21 wrote:...I do hope we get a new pitching coach.

A good sign: The Braves are changing pitching coaches



The team that won its division by eight games and finished fifth among National League clubs in ERA has dumped its pitching coach. That was the big news from a state-of-the-offseason briefing at SunTrust Park on Monday. (Well, that and manager Brian Snitker’s new two-year deal with a club option for a third season, but we all knew that was coming.)

The parting with Chuck Hernandez sends a clear message: We may have gotten good, but we’re not good enough. The decision, general manager Alex Anthopoulos said, “emanated from me. I left it up to Snit entirely. I expressed some things from a directional standpoint. This is more of a directional thing – where we want to take the program, what we’re doing.”

Changing pitching coaches wasn’t an obvious call. Here was Anthopoulos, making what seemed a decent case to keep Hernandez: “If you take a giant step back and look at it, we were fifth in ERA, first in opponent slugging, fourth in runs. Even with the walks, we were fifth (actually sixth) in on-base percentage. So we were top five, top two, in a lot of things, and by design we wanted to stay away from slug.”

And yet, and yet: The Braves were last among NL teams in walks. Snitker said “that never came up” in his discussion with Anthopoulos, but it came up almost nightly over the season’s final month. In an era when few teams are capable of stringing together three consecutive singles and even the eighth-place hitter is swinging for the fences, walks hold massive power. Surely Anthopoulos, a numbers-cruncher of the first rank, saw as much. Surely he believed a staff that walks the ballpark, even if it doesn’t yield many hits, is swimming against the current.

Ergo, the champs of the NL East are looking to replace the most important member of their coaching staff. They are not sticking with what yielded 90 wins. They are looking for more. Good for them.

Nemesis21 wrote:

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ATL Boy wrote:Braves will apparently have an increased payroll and should have around $60 mil to spend this offseason according to Bowman. Should make us players for Bryce Harper.

Nemesis21 wrote:

ATL Boy wrote:Braves will apparently have an increased payroll and should have around $60 mil to spend this offseason according to Bowman. Should make us players for Bryce Harper.

DOB of the Athletic, says it's actually about half that at $30 mill.


I'm sorry, but I don't want Harper or Machado. If we are spending that big, save it for Trout.

Braves open to trade, but what prospect should be on the block?

The Atlanta Braves have said they will have ample room in the payroll to add an expensive free agent, well-compensated trade acquisition or spread the wealth to plug several holes.

Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos has been an aggressive dealer in the trade market.

“We offered up some pretty good young players in deals we couldn’t get done,” Anthopolous told the AJC's Gabriel Burns earlier this month. “We made some bigger name prospects available in trades that got asked about. I think where we hit a snag was the quantity. That’s where we couldn’t get a deal across the goal line.”

The Braves indeed have a wealth of prospects to deal from. But who’s on the block?

ATL Boy wrote:

Nemesis21 wrote:

ATL Boy wrote:Braves will apparently have an increased payroll and should have around $60 mil to spend this offseason according to Bowman. Should make us players for Bryce Harper.

DOB of the Athletic, says it's actually about half that at $30 mill.


I'm sorry, but I don't want Harper or Machado. If we are spending that big, save it for Trout.

Conflicting reports from DOB and Bowman, who says it'll be $60 mil. I'd be more inclined to believe Bowman mostly because I don't see why Liberty Media would look to cut payroll after the season we just had and after the added revenue they got from both television and ticket/merchandise/battery sales they got as a result to making it to the playoffs.

I think Trout has a chance of going down as the GOAT in this sports and would love to have him, but I don't think we'll have a chance at getting him. Tbh I feel like he may go to the Phillies since he's from the Philly area but would rather have him not come to the NL at all, personally. Harper is a big prize we have a chance at even though it'll be difficult and with him as well, I doubt we get him, but I'd like to try. Machado I just don't want at this point.