moonslav59

The Braves lost the WC series 2-0 to SDP, without Sale.

I can't disagree, and if the plan was to spend and trade for pitching, Bloom failed at that, too, mostly. He did get Whitlock via Rule 5, traded scraps for Pivetta and did sing Wacha, Strahm, Jansen and Martin, but the list of failures was 3-4 times longer. I will add that we heard the same thing about DD's farm building, while he was trading away many of the higher ranked everyday players, but we ended up getting some value from the Houck's, Crawford's and Bello's of his underrated farm pitching staffs. I kinda feel like guys like Dobbins may end up redeeming some of Bloom's legacy on pitching. Key word: "some." Others, like Early, Valera, Paez, Monegro, Guerrero, Mullins, Uberstine, Reyes and others will do what some of DD's hidden gems ended up doing. Brez may end up getting more of the credit for "developing them." IMO< we turned the corner on farm pitching. We've spent more on signing bonuses on drafted and IFA pitchers, since Brez took over. We drafted more pitching, and Brez has been trading for young pitchers, too. I'm not just talking about Crochet, either: he traded for Sandlin, Fitts, Weissert, Fajardo, Holobetz, Judice and J Bello. (I'm probably forgetting some, and he's just been here 2 years!_

I'm not hearing many glowing accounts of how he impacted other teammates play. Not hearing many "We will miss him," either. After Manny was shown the door, we did hear some grumblings, but I'm not sure how long it took for them to come out. It does nobody any good to talk badly about Devers, now. I get how hearing nothing is not evidence he was a bad influence on our younger players, but I sure hear a lot about what great influences guys like Bregman are from players' mouths. How can watching your star player dogging it not be a bad influence in the clubhouse? How can reading how your star player is upset being "asked to play e very position," when everyone knows he was only asked to play 1B- something very common for ex-3Bmen NOT be a negative influence on the clubhouse- spoken or unspoken?

I'm fine with people being optimistic or throwing more blame on Devers than Brez and the FO, but trying to minimize his influence on our offense or overhyping his "slump" since Bregman got hurt is unnecessary at best and revisionist history at worst. Besides, that so-called slump saw him hit .739 (still above the league OPS) over just a small 21 game sample size. We don't need to knock down what Devers did for our offense to have hope we can still compete. We need tor recognize it and do something about it. Pretending it is not a factor and criticizing the very thing Devers was great at is just what Brez & Co wants fans to feel and do. We lost our best bat over the last 7-8 years. There is no sugarcoating that fact. I'm fine with thinking maybe the kids and some vets can and will step it up: just don't downsize what Devers meant to our offense.

It's only been 12 games, but he's hit .912 over the past 2 weeks, so I think he's got some slack on his leash. .794 last 84 PAs and 21 games. I'm not sure he can even hit .700 the rest of the way, but to me, with the league OPS at .714, I'm thinking .650 to .675 is sustainable, as long as his D stays plus.

I can see this point, and I do feel like the rest of 2025, for sure. He is getting older, and showed some regression on D, earlier this season. Maybe it was just shaking off the cobwebs, and he'll continue doing a fabulous job on D at SS for the remainder of his time, here, but he could decline by enough to warrant a swap with Mayer, who should get better, over time. The thing about Story is, I doubt he bitches and moans about it, if it ends up happening. I also think Cora is not the guy to want to move a vet off position, as we have seen, recently- up close and personal.

Very well said, as always. I'm wondering how he will enact those feelings, once he becomes our GM.

Yes. He's been better than Campbell, at the major league level is all we were saying. 2025 and career. Better bat, better glove and better running. Nobody said he should be our FT 2Bman forever- just that he looks like a better option than Campbell, for now. The added point about Campbell needing to play FT just solidifies the point. I'd rather have Romy at 2B, but he's needed at 1B. Also, Romy's numbers vs RHPs are no better than DHam's, so he'd just platoon, there if we could. Oue 2B situation sucks, once again. We are talking about choosing who sucks the least, and not who has the better looking extended future.

As a fan, what's wrong with showing some love to a player who had a nice game? Nobody was using that one game as an argument that DHam was a good or even decent everyday player. The fact is, he's done better than Campbell over the last two months- better OPS, better defense- better baserunning. Campbell did great for the two weeks before that. I'll still bet on Campbell to end up being the better player. I've not heard a single person say otherwise or even hint at it. We made our point, and the next game DHam helped us win. We brought it up in joyous fashion with may a little too much "'in your face" pizazz, but one has to be able to see that as doing exactly what TYPM does with nearly every post.

I fully understand that the $12M paid to Hicks over 2026 and 2017 was to lessen the cost of Devers by a slight amount. I can understand people thinking he is a total salary dump-type player, barely worth mim wage. When looking at his recent tow year numbers, there is nothing that gives evidence otherwise. That being said, I have so little faith in Kelly and to a lesser extent Guerrero and others used in our 7-8 pen slots, that I do have some hope he could do well in those slots. I'm not sure it's "more faith," but having another option gives me some hope. I have more faith in Harrison.

I have a question for you, Max, and you know I like and respect you: If you think Devers did worse, because Bregman got hurt, why wouldn't you also think Devers' loss will bring down Bregman's numbers, too? (When he returns and no longer had Devers in front of him, and the decent hitter protecting him behind him is now batting second.)

The Deversless lineup still has talent and hope. My position is it got worse and wasn't great before. I like our pitching and D, but don't want to put undo pressure on them to be at their very best, a;most nightly. I think we have some secondary prospects that are blocked and good enough to get us help with the line-up and maybe another decent SP'er, if one has not stepped up in the next 5 weeks.

It's not "hating" on a player to say he "sucks SO FAR." Far tamer than words I've heard about KC's teammate and Red Sox player DHam.

D-E-V-O Like the band.

I don't equate the 80 point drop to no Bregman. Devers hit fine without Bregman for years. It could just have been a mini-slump, and again, it wasn't like he hit even .700 in that time. Bregman's return will help, but our O was not great, even when we had Breg & Devers.

Maybe Murphy has more hope than Houck?

Runs scored since our 10-8 loss to the Rays on June 9th: 3 win 4 win 2 win 4 win 2 win 2 win 0 loss 3 win 7 win 2 loss The wins are great, but let's not sugarcoat the offense, here.

It's interesting how our graduated prospect list has had about two significant players each year since 2021: 2021: Houck (DD) and Whitlock (Bloom via Rule 5) 2022: Duran (DD) and Crawford (DD) 2023: Bello (DD) and Casas (DD) 2024: Rafaela (DD) and Slaten (Brez via trade/Rule 5) 2025: Narvaez (Brez via trade) and Campbell (Bloom) It's strange that Brez & Bloom both have 2 names, but Anthony and Mayer are Bloom guys. (Dobbins & Arias, too.)

Romero homered and went 2-4, today (.828.) Don't look now, but Castro is up to .810. Taylor is 2-3, so far in GRE, but they are losing 11-1. ('boro over 'ville) Musset had 2 hits in SAL's 3-1 win.

Hicks was a dump, but not without hopes. He HAS been pretty bad over the last couple of years.

Agreed, except I don't see Campbell in the OF, unless we make a trade. We already have a logjam that was only cleared a but by the DH position being opened up. I like the IF or Bregman at 3rd, Mayer at SS and Story at 2B. I'm okay with flipping Story and Mayer, as Story's D has returned to plus. The OF looks very set: We can't do much better than Abreu-Ref in RF. Rafaela looks like a lock in CF, now. Duran struggles vs LHPs, but he makes up for that in other ways. Anthony could be the final answer in LF, but he still has to earn that slot. The DH is open for Refsnyder and Duran/Anthony and maybe Romy, if Ref is in the OF. (Yoshida needs to be mentioned, too.) I think we need to find a big bat, but we still need pitching boosted, too.

On another thread, I documented just how bad our 2B position has been since even the 2018 season. Minus D. .663 OPS. A merry-go-round of names. Our only brief repites were about a half season from Story, Kike and kinda-sorta Nunez and Arroyo. Campbell looked like the jinx had been broken, but now he's in AAA. The return of Bregman promises a move to 2B by Story or Mayer, If we trade for a 2B, we'll have a log jam, once Bregman returns, so it looks like that won't happen. Although the Toro/Romy platoon has been doing well at 1B, it looks like 1B and DH look like the immediate slots that could be upgraded via a summer trade. That, and or course, pitching.

It still looks like 2B is our major weak area beyond pitching: C: Narvaez, Wong (Jo Garcia way down the line?) 1B: Toro/Romy w Casas in 2026 (Jordan and Justin Gonzalez/Encarnacion way down the line.) 2B: DHam/Romy (Campbell in AAA and Grissom a big Q) Story, Romero & Cespedes SS: Story and Mayer w Romy/DHam (Arias way down the line) Romero 3B: Bregman and Mayer w Toro/Romy (Romero, Cespedes?) LF: Duran, Refsnyder (Jh Garcia) CF: Rafaela and Duran w Jh Garcia (Bleis way down the line) Yoshida? RF: Abreu/Refsnyder w Rafaela (Nelly Taylor way down the line) DH: Casas in '26 and Yoshida/Refsnyder and Toro/Romy/Duran

I'm fine with that, at least until we see what shakes out with Campbell and the 2025 season. I'm thinking trading an OF'er is more likely. Our 2B position has sucked for 7+ years.

He might, just not with Buehler. I was only speaking to that aspect. Story and a bunch of cash for Ozuna might be the foundation of a trade, but ATL would need a prospect, included.