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...

Spring Swan Song - Ed Smith Stadium

Decided to hit one more Spring game before the boys head north for the Summer and brought my daughter along with me for Daddy/Daughter time. 

Don't let her stink face fool you she had a good time.  It was pouring down rain the whole way down until right before we got to the stadium the sun came out. 

She got her ball signed by 5 guys including Eddie Perez as shown here. 

Tyler Flowers also came over and signed for both of us.

We headed down to the bullpen to watch Matt Wisler warm up just before game time. Once he headed out to the mound I spotted Daniel Winkler and asked him if he could sign this card for me.

He did as well as my daughters ball, he signed for every kid waiting for him to leave the stadium as well later that night. He pitched a scoreless frame in relief, striking out the side in the eighth. 

Rain sucks but man does it make for some pretty sunsets after. 

We were already out way past get bedtime so I took my daughter down to where the players get on the buses for a few more autographs. I caught McDowell finally, almost asked him to inscribe it with "the other spitter" 

I've already gotten Wisler once this Spring but figured why not get a rookie card signed and I even gave a spare flagship rookie to a little kid that didn't have any to get signed. All told it was a great night at the ballpark and it even waited until we got in the car to begin pouring again.

Card Show to Steinbrenner Field - Roadrunner!

I had a baseball packed day yesterday, Tampa Card Show and a game to go to. I made it to the card show at 9:00 sharp and wanted to make it across town to Steinbrenner Field for Braves batting practice at 11. Which left me with only an hour and a half at the card show...

Mission accomplished,  I'd already been in various Targets this week looking for these bad boys and found a guy who had just busted a box.  He had put all 36 packs back in the wax so it was almost like I busted the box myself but for much cheaper. 

This is the one card I was really looking for and it was tucked in the last pack I looked at.  Ah, sweet relief.

I guess I truly have a cardboard addiction as that Folty was the only new Brave on the checklist and I'd been looking for these like a madman. Nice to see they actually used a different image for Julio's base card though. 

Grabbed this Freeman insert for a buck.

Completed the team set, these 3 are the same image as Series 1 however. All told these plus a couple others I grabbed ran me 6 bucks.  I grabbed a bunch of other stuff in the short time I was there but this was the last box I looked at before realizing it was time for me to go. 

It wasn't until I got in the car that I noticed the huge storm that had planted itself over the entire state of Florida. There was an hour plus rain delay but the tarp did finally come off and the game went on...

Not before this happened though, Ralph Garr popped out of the clubhouse during the delay and signed for the fans braving the rain. 

Including me! Pretty cool to see the Roadrunner unexpectedly like that, I just wish I had brought one of his cards with me.

I may not be the biggest Fredi fan, but it's still cool to get the skipper of your favorite club to sign his card. 

Right before the game started I spotted Jason Hursh heading out to the dugout and called over to him. He came over and signed my card and took off. The Braves drafted him as a starter out of Oklahoma State in the first round of the 2013 Draft. He's been converted to the bullpen partly due to subpar play and partly due to the glut pitching prospects in the system. Hopefully he can help the club out of the pen someday.

All told it was a great day full of baseball despite the rain. Thanks for stopping by. 

Spring Training - Braves vs Pirates Champion Stadium

Went to the Braves Pirates game at Disney today. We showed up early and caught both teams BP.

I got my first 2016 card signed by rotation lock Matt Wisler.

Officially official

Andruw Jones and Dale Murphy watching BP

Adonis Garcia signing for fans. 

John Gant also signed a card I brought and is in fact skinny as a Wednesday newspaper as Ben Ingram said on the radio the other day.

Watched top prospect Josh Bell work on grounders for a while, he was out there whole BP until he hit in the last round.

Rio Ruiz warming up right before the game.

Phil Niekro just before tossing out the first pitch.

Got one more autograph that got smudged right before the game. Hopefully first half Jace from last year reappears. 

Folty right before game time.

Bud Norris to Polanco

Finally top Pirates prospect Tyler Glasnow, Jameson Taillon came on to pitch right after him.

It was a perfect day for baseball and despite paying 30 bucks for Spring tickets it was a good time despite the Braves losing 9-6. I got to see Dansby and Ozzie Albies play together for the first time and it was good to see Markakis get a homer. Thanks for stopping by. 

Spring Training - Ed Smith Stadium with a Hall of Fame Surprise Auto

Ah the joys of living in Florida. I was in Sarasota today so naturally I figured I'd try and catch the Braves BP at Ed Smith Stadium. 

Mission Accomplished,  Spring has sprung folks.  That's Rio Ruiz and Daniel Castro talking ground balls in the Florida sun.

Here's Mallex Smith talking some hacks, he was putting a charge into several balls and impressed me with his power since he's known as a speedster.

He came over and signed my card I brought with me. I told him I was looking forward to seeing him make his MLB debut this year to which he replied "Me too!" He then proceeded to go 4 for 6 with 2 triples in the first inning alone along with a home run to center field. Take that low power grade! 

Here's a (poor) shot of Ruiz, Dansby Swanson & Ozzie Albie heading out for warm up tosses.

Albies also signed a card for me and homered as well.  More Braves should of signed the cards I brought! 

Right before I had to run I noticed a large group of people gathering on the opposite side of the dugout from where I was standing.  I noticed who it was and was able to buy this ball off a guy for 14 dollars.

It was none other that Hall of Famer Bobby Cox!  My day/season/life was made. What a nice guy he signed for quite a while. 

Inscribed it with HOF '14 and everything. This is one of the prizes of my collection now I definitely was not expecting to see the Braves legend there.

Just as I was leaving in disbelief that I had gotten Bobby Cox's autograph I saw Kelly Johnson signing for a few people and got this card signed before (reluctantly) leaving. 

Five Tool Golden Rainbow Cracked Bat Collectors - A Trade Post

I don't usually lump multiple trade packages together, but I've fallen more than a couple behind so I'm going to today...

Bryan from Golden Rainbow Cards saw my questionable decision to collect the 2016 base set and decided to help me out with about 20 needs.

Felix was my favorite of the bunch. I know how much everyone else has posted the base cards recently so I'll show off some of the team set needs Bryan sent along with them. 

A couple Hall of Famers sandwiching a Diamondback Brave Lance Cormier. 

Bob who's NOT a Yankees fan despite my constantly confusing him for The Lost Collector in our emails still decided to send me a bunch of needs from '15 Stadium Club. He writes the Orioles/vintage centric blog Five Tool Collector

Love this shot, celebration cards are cardboard gold and there can never be too many of them in my opinion. 

Pretty cool sunset card for The Captain. 

A great shot of one of the best to ever pick it. These put me over the 2/3 mark.

Finally Julie from A Cracked Bat and I pulled off our first trade recently and I went from having zero 2015 minis to having all the Braves in the blink of an eye.

It's well documented that Update boxes produced a lot of dupes. Julie opened one up and was nice enough to send me all her Braves which will go into multiple PC binders or to Spring with me to be autographed. 

Thanks to Julie, Bob & Bryan for all the great cards, i'll be sending something your way soon.

That's it for today, I'm still a couple trade posts behind so I'll be back with more soon. Caught some Yankees BP Sunday when I went to buy my tickets for the Braves game there in a couple of weeks. I'm going to the game Saturday at Disney. Baseball is here y'all!