Show #186: Braves Break Streak, Front Office Makes Moves
Pastornicky sent down. The start of the Andrelton Simmons era. Medlen to join the rotation. The return of Jose Constanza.
173 Responses to “Show #186: Braves Break Streak, Front Office Makes Moves”
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Pages: « 1 2 3 [4] 5 6 7 » Show All
June 6th, 2012 at 10:37 pm
Can’t help you there my friend, was listening on the radio.
June 6th, 2012 at 11:00 pm
I love the Harden beards in the Thunder crowd. That’s great!
June 6th, 2012 at 11:01 pm
@77 – yes. It’s pretty funny.
June 7th, 2012 at 3:22 am
Well, I couldn’t recommend Men In Black 3 any less. Can’t believe I missed a great Delgado game and Bama’s 4th National Championship of the year for that.
Finally joined the hip universe and bought some Black Keys. I know they’re trendy or whatever, but I really dig it so far.
June 7th, 2012 at 7:37 am
I thought Venters looked good. Spotted his pitches well. He had a couple of breaking balls that never had a chance, but he looked better to me.
June 7th, 2012 at 9:06 am
Non-baseball link (warning, a little blue):
Pretty funny clip about smart phones and shooting video. With bonus George Lucas bashing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Bt9zSfinwFA
June 7th, 2012 at 10:11 am
@40
I think the “sterod area” skewed the expectation of what aging players can do and thus skewed the salaries they are offered. It is just now starting (and I stress STARTING) to come back to earth. Unfortunately, it looks like the trend is that you have to pay 10 years worth of salary to obtain 5 – 6 years of the level of play ( if you are lucky) you are paying for and just live with the last 4 -5 years of sub-level play.
June 7th, 2012 at 10:16 am
@63
It is nice to see him stop walking the first batter.
He had so few “clean” (no walks, no hits) appearences last year in his saves. Good to see a few now. Kimbrel flirted with putting Reyes on, but Reyes fouled off ball four @ 3-2 before he struck out on the next pitch.
June 7th, 2012 at 10:21 am
I believe that “the shift” may be the best thing to ever happen to McCann. He has started to try not to just bee a pull hitter anymore.
If he is successful (and last night’s game does give hope), it can only be good for the team.
I think he had really gotten “locked into” being a pull hitter.
June 7th, 2012 at 10:38 am
http://t.co/gen4zaQY
It’s sad how happy this article makes me. The last place part more than the injuries.
June 7th, 2012 at 10:41 am
@84 – Agreed. Imagine what this offense can do if McCann stays consistent.
June 7th, 2012 at 10:45 am
Mark @82, I’m not so sure about that. I think more teams realize aging patterns of players, so teams give smaller contracts to some free agents, although teams are still going to give huge contracts to the great free agents. Plus some teams may overvalue certain free agents and still hand out somewhat ludicrous contracts.
Also, I think it’s easier to know how to value players these days, with everyone having access to more information and easier processing of information. We now have a better sense of what a win is worth in the free agent market and teams can use that as a starting point in negotiations and in their own budget.
But I don’t know that the steroid era inflated contracts. Sure PEDs, along with better nutrition and fitness, may have allowed some players to stick around longer but, if everyone had access to PEDs and better nutrition and fitness, the aging patterns of players wouldn’t change and didn’t seem to during that era. A player in his 20s had the same access to PEDs as a player in his 30s, so the way players age didn’t change drastically, at least that’s the idea and, from what I understand, the data seems to support that.
Also, I think with free agency in general teams realize they pay for the first several productive years and realize there is likely to be a decline in later years. Most teams probably accept this because they realize it’s about the only way to get certain players. Another thing that comes in to play is that if a free agent signing works out and leads to more wins, no one cares about the later years of overpaying for less production and, if a free agent signing doesn’t work out, the bad contracts become another GM’s problem.
June 7th, 2012 at 12:06 pm
Any word on Freeman floating around out there? All I’ve heard is contusion.
June 7th, 2012 at 12:28 pm
@87
My point was PEDs tended to make players more productive later in their careers. i.e. it wasn’t totally unexpected to have a 35, 36, 37 year old star to keep playing everyday and still be producing at a high level. Therefore, the expectation was teams would offer a 30 year old player a 5, 6, 7+ high-dollar contract because players in the past had been contributing to the end of those contracts. Not so much now…
June 7th, 2012 at 12:42 pm
@88 – nothing yet on Twitter which is where we’ll hear first.
Also on Freeman – just read DOB’s story about his switch back to contacts and how the glasses don’t work (blind spot created by the nose piece). That is bad news. It’s all well and good to have tears flowing at an indoor stadium, but this may get bad again.
June 7th, 2012 at 12:53 pm
#90, I can’t believe were going through another eye issue with a key middle of the order piece. I’ve never had eye issues myself (knock on wood) but what he’s experiencing sounds extremely uncomfortable.
June 7th, 2012 at 1:02 pm
Mark @89, it would be an interesting topic to look in to. I’m a little skeptical that there were any more players who remained productive in to their late 40′s than in years past and, if there were, that PED’s were the main cause.
I know this is a very crude way to do any sort of research and therefore shouldn’t be taken too seriously , on Fangraphs, I pulled up the over-35 WAR leaders since 1970. While there are a few PED-era players and players who were either known PED users or strongly suspected of using, there are plenty in the top 30 who either didn’t play in that era or who weren’t suspected of using PEDs.
I picked 1970 because I figured that would maybe give us a somewhat equal number of past years in and out of the PED era. But of course those years could be called the Greenies Era.
June 7th, 2012 at 2:11 pm
Freddie’s finger is not broke. Will only miss a few days. So glad about that.
June 7th, 2012 at 2:41 pm
When I read “Freddie” and “finger,” I think of Tom Green.
June 7th, 2012 at 2:55 pm
@94
That is really unfortunate. Want some brain bleach?
June 7th, 2012 at 3:36 pm
@45
I saw J.C. Boscan listed on a “should sell high” prospect list, saying his defense is really good and it is expected that his hitting will develop, but he could turn out to not be a regualr major leaguer. It said Braves should trade him for piece to help this year.
Possibly affected the draft picks? Planning to trade him?
June 7th, 2012 at 3:39 pm
@95
Just to name a few “high profile” folks:
Mark McGuire born 1963
Year_Age_BA__HR
1996_33_.312_52
1997_34_.274_58_(split between As and Cards)
1998_35_.299_70
1999_36_.278_65
2000_37_.305_32
2001_38_.187_29
Barry Bonds born 1964
Year_Age_BA__HR
1997_33_.291_40
1998_34_.303_44
1999_35_.262_34
2000_36_.306_49
2001_37_.328_73
2002_38_.370_46
2003_39_.341_45
2004_40_.362_45
Rafael Palmeiro born 1964
Year_Age_BA__HR
1997_33_.254_38
1998_34_.296_43
1999_35_.324_47
2000_36_.288_39
2001_37_.273_47
2002_38_.273_43
2003_39_.260_38
2004_40_.258_23
2005_41_.266_18
Sammy Sosa born 1968
Year_Age_BA__HR
2001_33_.328_64
2002_34_.288_49
2003_35_.279_40
2004_36_.253_35
2005_37_.221_45
2007_39_.252_21
June 7th, 2012 at 4:29 pm
Plenty of high profile players remain productive in their later years and did before the PED era. I don’t know if these types of players having productive years into their late 30′s, to 40′s in some cases, would have necessarily swayed teams to take chances on signing other, older free agents. Those are the type players who are always going to get fairly big contracts later in their careers, PEDs or no PEDs, seems to me.
June 7th, 2012 at 5:03 pm
@96
Boscan is not a prospect, nor will he ever develop hitting skills.
June 7th, 2012 at 8:02 pm
People should treat Minor like he is throwing a no-hitter at this point. Just stay out of his way.