2018 Atlanta Braves Preview Part 1 - Starting pitching

Is this the most boring offseason of all time? Yes, well I guess unless your a Yankees or a Brewers fan. God forbid your one of the 16 Marlins fans in the world, if you are just know I feel for you. But alas Winter is releasing it's cruel grasp on the world and we are only 2 weeks out from Pitchers and Catchers reporting! Of course that immediately starts the all too long Spring Training schedule but hey at least there's no WBC this year so it'll be 5 painful weeks until Opening Day instead of 6!

The Braves are loaded with young major league ready talent and that should keep the veteran retreads to a minimum this year. Gone are the Adonis Garcias, Erick Aybars, Bartolo Colons and Jonny Gomes' of the world. Enter Ozzie Albies, Luiz Gohara, Ronald Acuna (maybe not just yet, but soon) and Max Fried amongst other top prospects ready to showcase their talents in the Show.

With so many free agents still standing in the unemployment line and the Braves payroll hovering right around $100 million one or two signings could drastically change this outlook but I believe FanGraphs' ZIPs projections had Atlanta as a 79 win team. Not bad but not going to catch the Nats either. Let's take  a look at who will lead us to a glorious 80-ish win season! Playing the Marlins, Phillies and Mets 57 times should help!

ROTATION

Julio Teheran - The Braves ace and former top prospect has suffered something akin to prospect fatigue at the big league level. Braves fans are a fickle bunch and if they see the words "Number One Prospect" they expect superstar or bust and while a superstar Julio is not he's a 2 x All Star who recently passed Steve Avery in career bWAR. I know, I know Avery had shoulder issues and never got a chance to live up to his potential but the point is Teheran is better than Braves fans would have you believe despite the fact he'll probably never be a true ace. For his contract however a number 2/3 pitcher is just fine. The guy has a career 3.59 ERA (shoot me) and is going to give you a solid start every 5 days.



Mike Foltynewicz - Another former top prospect Folty as he's known around these parts was actually the Braves most valuable pitcher last season recording 1.8 fWAR. Steamer has him projected at 1.6 this year which seems about right, the guy has all the talent in the world as he runs it up to the upper 90s with ease he just has to put it all together. Everyone and their mother wants to ship him to the bullpen to be the "closer" but he's most valuable as a starter and that's where he'll stay for the time being. This will be his fourth season with the Braves, his 3rd as a full time starter so maybe he can turn the corner.

Brandon McCarthy - He would've been the Braves best pitcher last year if he were on the team producing 2.4 fWAR. He came over in the MASH unit trade with Kazmir for Kemp and others and should slot in the 2nd or 3rd slot in the rotation.

Sean Newcomb - A cold weather arm from Baaaahston, Newk will be entering his 2nd MLB season and seems to have a leg up on the competition for a rotation spot having spun exactly 100 inning last year. Like Folty he has all the stuff in the world but will strike out the side one inning then walk the bases loaded the next. Frustrating stuff but the fact is the guy has only pitched 450 professional innings and like I said was a cold weather arm. Which is why the Braves are still so high on him, I ran into now MLB pitching coach Chuck Hernandez in 2016 when he was the Braves roving minor league pitching coordinator at a backfield game in Lakeland and he was nice enough to answer a bunch of my stupid questions and we chatted for about 5 or 10 minutes about all the studs the Braves had in the minors at the time, out of all them he seemed most excited about Newcomb because of the raw potential. I am really high on the kid and am looking forward to what he does with a full season at the big league level.


This is where it gets tricky.. Luiz Gohara seems to have the inside track for the 5th starter spot after coming up late last year and showing off his ridiculous stuff, he was the hardest throwing LH SP in the major leagues last season after all but he's just 21 and has a stable of horses right on his tail for that very same spot.

Luiz Gohara - CC Sabathia Jr. makes 99 look easy as can be, and while he "only" has 2 pitches from talking to him after his Florida State League debut last season he actually throws 3 different versions of his slider according to the man himself. A hard slider, a softer version of it and a slurvy version depending on the batter and situation. The guy has barely over a 100 innings above A ball and could probably benefit from some time in Triple A if he were to struggle in Spring but he has as much raw talent as pitcher in the system and clearly has the stuff to put away big league hitters.

Max Fried - Now 2 full seasons removed from his Tommy John surgery, Fried had a rough start to 2017 in Double A but silenced all the doubters once he made his major league debut and looked great in doing so with 26 solid innings. He then went to the Arizona Fall League and absolutely dominated there, so he'll be coming into Spring Training with all the confidence in the world. While my money's on Touki Toussaint, Fried is not far behind for best curveball in the system and his fastball seems to have returned all of it's velocity. Unfortunately he suffered a few hiccups due to blisters last season so hopefully those don't pop up again.

Lucas Sims - Drafted all the way back in the stone ages - 2012 when men were men by God! Anyways Sims is a starter for now but has been pegged by several publications as destined for the bullpen. After 6 seasons as a full time starter though I doubt the Braves ship him out there just yet especially after he showed flashes last year in the bigs but then again with the guys listed before him and Soroka, Allard, Wright and a whole bunch more on the way it would not surprise me if he didn't head out to left field.


OK I was going to blaze through this tonight but it's midnight so I will make this a 3 parter instead with Position players tomorrow and bullpen whenever the hell I feel like it.



PS- Aaron Blair and Matt Wisler also still exist...

Back Down South Pt. 1 of 2

I hate going out of town, but sometimes my job requires it. This past week I found myself back in Fort Lauderdale doing some work at the port, luckily I have family down there so I usually have something to do besides stare at the wall in my hotel room. Also there is a great card store close by, though he moved since the last time I was down there nearly 2 years ago Scott's Sports Cards is my favorite card shop/vendor I've stumbled across. Scott is a super nice guy with totally fair prices and isn't as greedy as most card vendors seem to be, if you ever find yourself in South Florida I highly recommend checking his store out though it's a small warehouse space now instead of his old storefront in a shopping plaza. Here's the address - 10128 N.W. 53rd Street. Sunrise, FL 33351.

Anyways I walked in looking for 2017 Topps because after buying over 200 cards via retail I got sick after only pulling 2 Braves... that's 1%... Grabbed these three Dansby rookies plus a full team set with multiples of most of them for other folks and a couple other inserts for about 5 bucks.

 2 more of the inserts I grabbed, big fan of both of these designs. Love the simplicity of the Father's Day one and being a big fan of Topps Fire I also dig the 5 Tool inserts.

Not big on cards of TV personalities but it's John Smoltz. Thick Museum Club inserts for a quarter? Huge fan especially of Maddux.

This guy has so many cards I found this super thick Bowman TV insert in between the boxes, I interviewed Touki during the offseason for Talking Chop and he's a super nice kid from South Florida  - Coral Springs where my family lives to be exact, was cool to talk to a super talented kid in my favorite team's farm system about eating at Cherry Smash ice cream. Wish him the best of luck this year in High A where i'll probably be able to catch some of his starts since the Braves moved their High A affiliate about an hour or so from my house.

There were boxes and boxes of autographs, relics, serial numbered cards etc. On this trip though I got there only an hour or so before closing time so I skimmed the top of the boxes for the thickest cards like this Inception auto of Travis Demeritte, which was less than half the price of online.

I've already got this Inception Auto of Max Fried but grabbed another copy because for these prices... why not? This kid is going to be a stud. Should start in AA and if he picks up where he left off in 2016 he won't be there long.

The other guy in the Alex Jackson trade that went down the day before Thanksgiving, further proof that Braves General Manager John Coppolella never sleeps. Pike is a lefty from nearby (to me) Polk County who has struggled by the numbers in the minors so far but has also been in mostly hitter friendly leagues. Excited to see what he can do with a change of scenery hopefully to the massive Trustmark Park in Mississippi of the Southern League (AA)

Thanks Yankees, the strikeout factory is going to miss the 2017 season but this kid has massive upside if he can return from TJS. Plus it's a 1st Bowman refractor for less than a cup of coffee, hard to pass up.

Closing it out with my guy Folty. 2017 will be his year, mark my words. Come back and tell me I'm wrong in October but I don't think I will be. Thanks for reading, I ended up going back the next day and grabbing more cards but I'll make that another post. 

More Stadium Club plus a new LCS

Picked up another rack pack of Stadium Club at Target yesterday because I have a problem:

I really like how the black & white cards look, I may not go for a whole set build but will probably at least try to get all the B&W cards in the set.

The great photos keep coming, I love "live ball" shots of either the ball out of the pitchers hand or off the hitter's bat like in this shot of Big Mac. Just got done watching Inning 11 of Ken Burns' Baseball and it was depressing watching McGwire's testament to Congress.

My first couple of Braves out of the way. Julio and Ron Gant

Miggy insert here. I have to say the rack packs are a better way to complete the base set since they only come with 1 insert to 11 base cards at least in my experience.

Went into a card shop over in Lakeland I had never been to before and a guy was opening packs of Stadium Club out of a hobby box, was chatting with him and he threw me this Freeman base card, he got six packs and pulled both autos out of the box a Chris Sale (Lakeland boy) and a Piazza /25

He grabbed a single pack of 2015 Prizm and gave me both these Freemans out of the pack, he pulled another auto - David Justice. Guy had the hot hand.

Being a little low on funds I was browsing singles/dollar bins and came up with this Max Fried auto from 2013 Bowman Inception for 5 bucks. Will definitely be going back to the store in the future though.