biggentleben
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Everything posted by biggentleben
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Yep, I'm definitely going to be watching more Angels games now. He's one of the rare players who makes the game worth the price of admission with his glove, no matter what he does elsewhere.
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Sickels has a penchant for it because he tends to like to ensure any guy that will some day end up in the majors has made an appearance in his books, so he often will discuss a guy with a reliever future or fourth outfielder future rather than a low-A guy with high-end tools. On a more national level, you're seeing that be more of a focus of team-centered blogs. I wrote up a top 100 list, and I've found teams having a lot more top 50 type of lists. That's usually where you end up going for the under-the-radar guys. Heck, even on my top 100, I probably had a half dozen or more guys that I didn't include that will have a major league career as I don't value guys who are already minor league relievers very highly, so guys who end up relievers or bench guys likely won't even make it on a lot of lists. One of the best parts of the work I get to do is "discovering" a guy before he is noticed by even the fans that pay attention to the minors for the team. That said, those guys very, very infrequently make it, and for every guy I've spotted like Williams Perez and Ryan Weber, there are guys like Jake Brigham, Greg Ross, and Gus Schlosser.
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Yeah, my argument had nearly nothing to do with his list, as out of sorts as it was. My biggest issue was his evaluation, which didn't match up at all with anything I'd seen in hours upon hours of watching the same guys he was talking about. It felt as if the pitching write ups were done from a stat sheet and not from actually seeing the guy pitch.
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He's also come up to the majors and had initial struggles. Granted, I'm not saying that makes him a flop, but there's also bloom that's come off the rose with Buxton as well as Fernandez. He's a valuable player for sure, but prospects don't have quite the pull you'd think when there's a more "certain" player coming in return.
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Did it make a difference in Minnesota with Ventura?
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The Big 10 and Big 12 discussed that when I was in school, but it never materialized.
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I think Buxton would be a big centerpiece for a deal for Fernandez, but he wouldn't get it done 1-for-1, and I have a feeling Twins fans are too wrapped up in Buxton to accept such a move.
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Don't disagree at all there. I did attempt to reach out to him and offer any assistance next time he's looking into the Atlanta system.
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There's a difference between different and off base. A number of the comments, specifically on Gant and Weber didn't jive with what you saw from either, ever. I watched probably 50-75 innings of each over the course of the year, especially with Weber, and his comments simply didn't jive with what I saw. Then you have his stammered attempt at an explanation for why Allard and Riley weren't on the list, and he discussed how he was going on his own viewing and standards, which makes no sense in his write ups on Povse and Cabrera, especially this season, as both had lost seasons this year. I wrote up a top 100 for the Braves system and spent hundreds of hours watching video on players in the system after the season after watching 7-10 games per week during the season. There are guys who I had in my top 20 that didn't make even his honorable mentions list, and he had guys outside of my top 100 list mentioned in his write up. I think it did put a lot of egg on the face of Fangraphs. Farnsworth is an excellent analyst of hitting mechanics, and I'd read anything he wrote on that aspect, but it became pretty obvious in a pitching-heavy system that he was a bit out of his element.
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Mike, I did see you ventured into the craziness that was Fangraphs' attempt at a Braves list today. Farnsworth certainly had a contrarian list, to say the least. I don't agree with a lot of his takes, frankly, based on a lot of views of the players mentioned, but that's why we all enjoy prospects, I suppose.
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Those trades also allowed them payroll flexibility that they flexed in acquiring Touki Toussaint by taking on Bronson Arroyo's salary. They were also very active in acquiring draft picks last year and already have one extra for 2016 as well. As the minor league writer for a site that covers the Braves, it made my job a lot more fun as there was very, very little to dream on in the system prior to last offseason, but the major league club was certainly handled in an odd manner. Why not trot out BJ/Melvin/whateverhewantstobecallednow Upton in CF while you rebuild and get an even more substantial haul for Kimbrel if you move him? Why pull the trigger on the Padres deal when you reportedly walked away from multiple deals due to not including a major league middle infielder?! Perhaps most confusing, what is with all of the pitching?!
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That's the biggest issue. If they'd have been honest from the get-go, this isn't an issue at all. There are now some rumors with legs that the team could be sold to a private investor rather than corporate ownership, which could be a very good thing, but any fan with any amount of foresight at all saw that the limited payroll wasn't going to allow for keeping the 2013 team together much longer, so when the slump happened in 2014, it made sense to rebuild - just don't sell the fans on a re-tool and then tear it all apart.
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So, why isn't this in the "Minnesota Twins Talk" forum?
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The biggest issue was that the farm system was arguably bottom 5-7 in the game at the time and the Braves did not have the payroll to keep together the squad they had constructed. Heck, I'd wager the Twins have larger purse strings than the Braves at this point, likely until Liberty Media sells the team (which isn't rumored or anything, just a pipe dream at this point) or they get out of what was rated as one of the 3 worst TV deals among MLB teams. They've done a tremendous job of rebuilding the farm, and before the Simmons deal, I really had trouble arguing with any deal they made. One of the biggest issues of this whole rebuild is the PR of it. Hart and Schuerholz sold it last off season as a retool, not a rebuild, discussing being ready for the opening of the new stadium in 2017 with a competitive team. Unless there's a sudden influx of cash and tremendous spending coming that no one is seeing right now, there's simply no way that is an accurate projection, and that has really upset a lot of the fanbase.
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Maybin really isn't a huge surprise. In all seriousness, Simmons is the biggest shocker of them all. I wouldn't have been surprised at all to see both Miller and Teheran go this offseason, but Simmons still doesn't make sense to me. The one redeeming thing is that all rumors coming through on both Miller and Teheran include not just bats, but bats that could play in Atlanta in 2016.
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My Braves made a minor deal, sending OF Cameron Maybin to Detroit for LHRP Ian Krol and LHP prospect Gabe Speier. A former Brave and a former Twin were swapped for one another on Friday as the Athletics acquired Liam Hendricks from the Blue Jays for Jesse Chavez. Oakland signed LHSP Rich Hill Seattle traded OF Ramon Flores to Milwaukee for 2B Luis Sardinas Houston traded SS Jon Villar to Milwaukee for P Cy Sneed Angels signed IF Cliff Pennington A ton of guys got DFA'd - notable among them: Danny Hultzen, Fernando Abad, Craig Gentry, AJ Griffin, Josh Rutledge, John Axford, Rex Brothers, Wilin Rosario, JP Arencibia, LJ Hoes, Allen Webster and earlier, but not mentioned here yet, Arizona traded RHSP Jeremy Hellickson to Philadelphia for RHP prospect Sam McWilliams
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And that is how Miller will be valued. Anything less is simply laughable.
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Reading the Shelby Miller and Jose Fernandez threads, I've realized that while I get crap for how high I am on Berrios on general baseball and Braves sites, I may be the low man on him here on TD. Puckett help us if he ever is traded because there is no way the return will be enough around here.
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Interesting in-division trade: Texas trades OF Leonys Martin and RHRP Anthony Bass to Seattle for OF James Jones and RHRP Tom Wilhelmsen
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In the modern game, the difference between leagues on numbers is really not as heavy as it was, so downplaying numbers based on NL or AL is really odd, especially with the abundance of metrics that will easily show ballpark and league adjusted statistics to show the value of a guy.
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My input was requested, so I'll oblige. I'd think it'd require a close-to-the-majors, high-upside guy or major league ready guy to headline the deal. The Braves quite literally just asked the Diamondbacks for A.J. Pollock to headline a deal for Miller. You're basically looking at Berrios, Sano, or Buxton headlining the deal or bust. Miller is the team's best trade chip, and they know it, so they're looking to line up bats for Miller (finally), so I would wager even if Berrios was moved in a Miller deal, it'd require significant bats moving to Atlanta as well along with Berrios. Before you flip your lid too quickly, to gauge Miller's value, Arizona didn't say "hell no" to Pollock for Miller. They said "not yet" right now, and even tried to negotiate beyond just Pollock and Miller to add to the deal before saying no.
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Right now? C'mon now...that's some Twins colored glasses right there. He got crap in run support last year and it showed in his performances later in the year, but Shelby was one of the best pitchers in the entire league all season long - not at the Arrieta, Kershaw, Greinke level, but certainly in the next tier of 10-15 guys.
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The Braves' best prospect is a SS that is as close as Polanco. Polanco would not headline anything of "need" for the Braves.
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Not my high school, but my home town is the home town of one of the original Charlie's Angels, Cheryl Ladd.
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Yep. Any player that has a decade-long NFL career is something to brag about. On top of that, he's the only Vikings linebacker in 35 years who's been an AP All-Pro. Regardless, my high school has been playing football for over 75 years and this is the first football championship. It's a pretty cool deal.
