MLB
Brave October
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
It’s been half a decade, but the Braves are going to the playoffs again.
It is an exciting and frankly unexpected development in the Braves franchise in 2018, coming at least one but probably two years before the earliest anyone could have expected a division title.
Let’s take a quick look back at how they managed to end up on the top of the heap and briefly look ahead to the playoffs.
So, the Braves weren’t expected to make the playoffs in 2018. They weren’t really expected to compete for a spot.
So, does that mean that they lucked into a division title? Is their spot on top a fluke? Not at all.
Players like Ozzie Albies and Ronald Acuna, Jr. took steps as players, Freddie Freeman and Nick Markakis stayed consistent and stayed healthy and the starting rotation, anchored by Mike Foltynewicz and Anibal Sanchez of all people, put in enough quality innings to help out a fairly poor bullpen.
This team is talented enough to belong where they are, make no mistake. To give credit where it’s due, it certainly didn’t hurt that both the New York Mets and the Washington Nationals, the two teams people actually thought would be at the top of the heap in 2018, were busts from nearly Opening Day.
The Mets in particular were lost causes early on but people kept expecting the favorite Nationals to wake up and make a run, at which point the Braves and Phillies would fall back to their natural places in the middle of the pack.
But that never happened and the NL East has been all about Atlanta and Philadelphia throughout the year.
So yes, Atlanta took advantage of a top spot that was vacated by the Nats, but the team they fielded still deserves to pop champagne, at least once.
On that note, let’s look ahead to what the playoffs might look like for Atlanta.
At this point it’s pretty clear that Chicago will have the best record in the NL, which means that they’ll take on the winner of the Wild Card Game, leaving the NL West Champs to face the Braves.
That’s clearly going to be either the Los Angeles Dodgers or the Colorado Rockies. Both teams offer big challenges and the Braves played neither particularly well, going 2-5 against each club in 2018, including an ugly four game sweep at Suntrust Park at the hands of Colorado in August.
There may be a psychological benefit to playing a smaller market team like the Rockies to start off the playoffs but there would also be a measure of sweet revenge if the Braves could face Los Angeles, the team that knocked them out in the first round in 2013 (though only Freeman and Julio Teheran remain on the roster from that season).
Either way, it will be a huge challenge for the Braves to win their first playoff series since 2001. Whatever happens, Atlanta should be proud of what they accomplished this season – not just that they won the NL East, but that they DESERVED to win the NL East.
They hit, pitched, caught and had the kind of no-quit, gritty attitude that hasn’t been seen in Atlanta since the scrappy and resilient team that led Bobby Cox back to the playoffs one last time in 2010.
They’ve been incredibly fun to watch play and now we’ll get to watch them play just a little bit longer.
Acuna Matata
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Braves fans were already chomping at the bit for Ronald Acuna, Jr. to be awarded the NL Rookie of the Year award all the way back in February. As the league’s top prospect, he seemed a safe bet for the award.
A late debut wouldn’t make much of a difference but missing nearly a month to injury and a good, but not stellar initial run in the lineup threatened to derail those plans. Not to mention the emergence of Juan Soto as a legit contender for the award.
Acuna’s return and subsequent move to the leadoff spot has put him firmly in the running once again. The two young phenoms’ numbers are incredibly similar and it looks to be a tight race for the trophy.
But I think Acuna could aim a little higher. As in, Ronald Acuna, Jr.: National League Most Valuable Player.
ROTY tends to be handed to whichever player puts up better pure numbers. The MVP award tends to fluctuate on that point, sometimes going to players with higher slash lines, sometimes going to players who lead a team to the postseason.
What the appropriate criteria should be is a debate for another time. What tends to be the case when an MVP is awarded to a player on a last place team is that their numbers are so gaudy or historical that they are worthy of merit (A-Rod’s MVP while he was on last-place Texas Rangers team, for example).
The NL features no such player in 2018. No one has run away with the award and in fact there could be as many as five or six players worthy of the trophy come season’s end. And one of them, arguably the most deserving, is Ronald Acuna.
Since taking over the leadoff spot in the batting order, Acuna has been on an incredible tear and has been a huge part of solidifying the Braves’ spot at the top of the NL East.
The Braves briefly dropped out of first place over the summer but Acuna heated up and has been the sparkplug that has the Braves on the cusp on an NL East Title.
He’s hovering around .300 and could very reasonably reach 30 homeruns by the time the season comes to a close. He will have barely played in over 100 games.
To that point, his OPS would be tied for best in the National League, except he doesn’t have enough at-bats to qualify.
So regardless of slash line, counting stats (RBIs is a notable deficiency), or impact on a team’s postseason aspirations, Ronald Acuna, Jr. has an incredibly strong case for National League Rookie of the Year AND Most Valuable Player.
There’s precedent too: Ichiro pulled off the trick in 2001, so writers are willing to throw votes at a rookie (Ichiro’s standing as a true rookie was, of course, debatable).
Will it happen? If Acuna can get and stay over .300 and reach 30 home runs for a playoff team, it might convince a few voters.
Standing in his way, ironically, would be his teammates. Freddie Freeman was considered the frontrunner for the MVP for most of the season but his production lately hasn’t been up to MVP level. If Freddie finds another gear to close out the season, it might actually be tougher for either of the Braves stars to win. A split vote would be more likely.
But whatever happens, Atlanta has seen something truly special in 2018 and he’s only 20. So, regardless of whether or not he wins this year, Acuna needs to buy himself a trophy case sometime soon. A big one.
That’s My Guy
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Babe Ruth. Ted Williams. Nolan Ryan. Chipper Jones. Frank Robinson. Rod Carew.
Do any of those names feel out of place with the rest? None should. They are all, as of July 29th, Hall of Famers. First ballot Hall of Famers, in fact – and all deserving. But seeing Chipper’s name among those legend is a bit surreal.
And to reiterate my point, he absolutely deserves it. Anyone who watched him play knew he was a Hall of Famer years before he hung up his cleats for good. It’s no surprise that he was voted in, or that he was voted in first ballot, or that he got as high as 97% of the vote on that first ballot. The guy was as all-time great, and everyone knew it.
You’ve seen the numbers. You’ve seen the resume. Top ten in this, top ten in this, top ten in this. The numbers he put up in his 19 years as a big leaguer were getting him in.
Plus, he was one of the few (one of the last?) players to retire having played their entire career with one team.
Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter are going to follow him in 2019 and 2020. Chipper was a lifelong Brave and that was just as special as his numbers.
I wonder if watching him play every night for all those years is what makes his induction so strange. Hall of Famers are to be revered and while I have always admired and respected and even been in awe of Chipper’s talent, he never had that ‘legendary’ aura to me.
Maybe it’s because I got to see him interviewed on Braves Live every few days, or because Fox Sports South won’t stop replaying that episode of Driven about him, or maybe even because he laughed at a stupid joke I made when he signed my baseball bat a decade ago; he was a consistent part of my life for years and so it’s surreal to see his name among those greats. He’s just our Chipper, after all.
I wonder as well if kids who just recently started watching baseball will see him go in and it seem completely normal. They’ve heard about how great he was, they can look up his stellar numbers and agree with the consensus that he belongs in the hallowed grounds of the Hall. Anyone who started watching baseball in 2013 and anyone who watches baseball from now on will just think of Chipper Jones as a legendary ballplayer, a Hall of Famer who rightfully went in on his first shot. And they’re right. He is those things.
He’s also our guy, our family member getting a prestigious award. Everyone claps and applauds for the accomplishment because everyone claps and applauds for the accomplishments because they dictate that he is deserving. I will clap and applaud for the guy I spent so much of my time with for more than a decade because I saw him earn it.
Maybe what I’m trying to get at here is that I’m actually proud of him. I’m not proud of Derek Jeter, even though I think he’s one of the great shortstops of all time and will deserve his probably record-breaking vote percentage. Why would I be? He isn’t my guy the way Chipper is.
And Chipper definitely is, more than Maddux or Glavine or Smoltz was, even more than Bobby, I think. Being that, being my guy, being our guy, makes this surreal, and strange and absolutely deserved, and absolutely wonderful.
Congrats Chipper. We knew you could do it.
Braves Run Over?
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
For any Braves fans out there, who haven’t been kicking around the Earth for the same 32 years that I have, this season has to be a strange and exciting one.
You grew up rooting for a juggernaut of a team that was a threat to win it all throughout the 90’s. There were also some truly bad stretches of play where Braves hats were traded out for the fan’s college football team of choice by the Fourth of July. And there were a few years mixed in where Atlanta was expected to be thoroughly average and did just that.
But this is something new. Many preseason predictions had the Braves as a young team still squarely in the middle of a rebuild. While they weren’t expected to lose 100 games, they were overwhelmingly picked to finish third or worse in the National League East.
I’ve encountered plenty of Braves fans who aren’t sure what to think. Sure, they’re excited, but it’s hard to look at some teams like the Yankees, Red Sox and Astros with a lineup full of superstars and not wonder if the other shoe is set to drop.
Braves fans in the 25-35 age group spent the first half of their lives knowing that the regular season was a formality leading up to another division championship. Following that long run, there were a few lean years that everyone saw coming.
A bounce back from that saw an improved lineup from 2010-13 that was expected to contend and did, making a wild card game and two division series while winning another division title.
Then came another swoon that was expected to only be showing the first signs of a turnaround in 2018. Instead, the Braves are on pace for 90 wins.
Only time will tell in that matter, but I’m here to tell you to enjoy it, because these surprise seasons are the best of all.
If you’re around my age and a Braves fan, the only comparable season to 2018 that you might remember is 1991.
It’s my reference point as one of my first concrete memories of watching a game was seeing Kirby Puckett hit his Game 6 home run. Sorry for the cheap shot, but that really is the first baseball memory I can put into context.
I’m sure that the summer of ‘91 was spent with a lot of Braves fans not quite sure if they should allow themselves to get wrapped up in a run that always feels like it could stop at any moment.
Don’t do that. Lean in. It will be a summer to remember. And if not. Well, there’s always next year.
Mortgage The Farm
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
A few weeks back I wrote an article assessing the merits of two potential trade targets for the Atlanta Braves: Cole Hamels and Mike Moustakas.
I went over what they might bring to the team, the kinds of packages the Braves might send over in return for these two particular players and whether or not I thought such a trade would be worth it for Alex Anthopolous to make (to sum up: I did not think so).
I wrote about these two because they were the two names bandied about that actually made sense that Atlanta could possibly go out and get them. You know who I did not mention in that article? Manny Machado.
Machado, who is in a walk year and who is having arguably the best year of his already stellar career for the Baltimore Orioles.
I didn’t bring him up because trading for the guy didn’t seem particularly feasible. The price would be too high for a two-month rental.
But now, as June has turned to July and the trade deadline fast approaches, Machado – who is almost certainly going to be traded somewhere – is being linked to a number teams.
One of those teams in the Atlanta Braves.
Now no one is sure what kind of return Baltimore is expecting, but Machado is a fortunes-changing talent, even for just two months, so the asking price is sure to be high.
I ask you – is there anything the Braves could conceivably give up for Machado that the Orioles would accept that would also be worth trading away for two months of an elite talent?
I say two months because the argument that getting a player to play in your city helps sell your city to that player is nonsense. The notion that Machado would come to Atlanta and sign an extension is fantasy.
Machado, for some stupid reason, seems to be second fiddle to Bryce Harper for the coming offseason (Machado has a higher career batting average, three seasons of 30+ homeruns to Bryce’s one, two Gold Gloves to Bryce’s zero, and is having a much better 2018); but he’s going to make ungodly sums of money next year and for years to come.
There is not a snowball’s chance in hell that he doesn’t reach free agency. And then what? Are the Braves going to get into a bidding war? Of course not. They will have money to play with during this offseason, but not that kind of money.
There is very little chance Machado is playing with a tomahawk on his chest come Opening Day 2019, so whatever the Braves hypothetically give up to get him in 2018 will be for less than half a season’s worth of Manny.
In a vacuum I would, of course, love to see Manny in the Braves lineup, but there would be a cost to make that happen. And the Orioles will want too much.
I know the Braves have incredible depth in pitching, but any of their top 10 pitching prospects are worth hanging onto for something more sustainable. Is trading away five more years of what Max Fried could be equitable to two months of what we know Manny Machado is? I just don’t think so.
Full Schedule
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Despite dropping a big one in their homestand against the Baltimore Orioles and the Cincinnati Reds, the Braves have maintained a steady lead in the NL East over the Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Nationals.
It’s a bit a miracle, to be quite frank, because the baseball gods should have made Atlanta pay for losing consecutive series against two last place teams. One of which, the O’s, is the worst team in all of baseball (and outside of Kansas City, it’s not even close).
But the Braves escaped from that abysmal stretch pretty much unscathed and have been plenty appreciative thus far on their current road trip, putting up big numbers in the first two games against St. Louis.
It’s a good sign that the Bravos can still beat good teams, because July is going to be a hell of test for Atlanta. Arguably this is a month that can prove that the Braves are for real or humble them in a big way.
Why? Because of who they are playing. The best records in the National League belong to the Milwaukee Brewers, the Atlanta Braves, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Chicago Cubs, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Washington Nationals.
Beginning with the current series against St. Louis and excluding Atlanta itself because, duh, the Braves play every one of those teams except for Chicago and Philadelphia.
Not that missing the Cubs is much of a relief, because instead of that club the Braves are traveling to the Bronx for a three-game set against the Yankees, who have a significantly better record than anyone in the entire National League anyway.
There’s a two-game set against Toronto in the mix as well, but even they managed a split against Atlanta earlier in the season.
So, when I tell you that July is an important month, you can take that to the bank. The Braves have to win these series. Especially, because the Nationals play Miami EIGHT times during the month in addition to a six-game road trip against Pittsburgh and the Mets.
Plus, Philadelphia gets treated to series against those same Reds and Orioles that Atlanta should have stomped. The Phillies get a home series versus the Padres and play the Marlins and Pirates as well.
This would be the time, if I were a writer for a publication in Pennsylvania, I would suggest that Philly needs to take advantage of the schedule discrepancy and put pressure on Atlanta. Especially, considering that the Phillies and Braves won’t play each other until two of the last three series of the season.
On the flip side, that is what makes it so important that the Braves come out of this month not having lost any ground to the teams below them, Philadelphia in particular.
Just as they won’t be able to control their own fate if they are behind, so too will the Braves lack the ability to widen the standings (or worse, make a comeback) in head-to-head matchups until the campaign is almost over.
Atlanta will play Washington in one series per month for the rest of the year, including in July. I would argue it’s actually more important that they keep Washington down by playing well during these dog days of summer.
The Nationals still feel like a sleeping dragon. If they manage to climb to the top of the standings and subsequently start playing at the level at which they are capable, they will be very difficult to unseat as division leaders.
Make no mistake, this is going to be a very tough month for Atlanta and me saying ‘they need to play well’ seems obvious and easy.
However, come October, this may prove to be the most important month of the season for the National League East.
Bullpen Needs Horses
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Sam Freeman came in with a 5-3 lead to start the seventh inning Wednesday and gave up a leadoff walk and a pair of two-out singles, all those runners eventually scored and sent the Reds to a series-clinching win at SunTrust Park.
This all of a sudden is becoming a recurring theme for the Atlanta Braves. The starter gives you 6-7 quality innings and the bullpen comes in to blow it.
The Nationals went out and got Kelvin Herrera from the Royals and looked poised to make a run now in the NL East with that starting pitching they have.
Sam Freeman had a 2.94 ERA through May. Since then he has an 8.16 ERA with 13 earned runs and 6 walks allowed in 14-1/3 innings. The Braves are 4-11 in those games and he got three of the losses.
It appears I am piling on Sam Freeman, but the entire bullpen is struggling right now. The Braves still lead the NL East going into July so what will they do to address the issue?
Doing nothing is not an option at this point. Freddie Freeman is having an MVP season, Ozzie Albies is having a ROY season and the rotation is providing quality start after quality start. Braves have lost back to back series against the Orioles the worst team in baseball and the last place Reds who are hot currently but still in last place.
Look at these ERA’s over the past 7 appearances by these bullpen members:
Dan Winker: 8.10
Sam Freeman: 10.57
Peter Moylan: 12.46
This Braves team is good enough to contend but has to get better production out of the middle relievers. Yes, I know pitching staffs struggle from time to time but this is becoming a trend that needs to be addressed.
So, what do the Braves do before the deadline for bullpen help? Arodys Vizcaino is on the DL and he worries me every time he pitches. With no true closer available the woes of the bullpen are magnified.
I was in San Diego last week and caught a Padres game while in town. San Diego is in last place but has one of the best bullpens in baseball. Braves need arms in the pen. Why not call the Padres and ask for Craig Stammen, Kirby Yates or both?
How about Joe Jimenez from the Tigers? Jimenez has 43 strikeouts in 38 innings this year for the Tigers who are not going anywhere fast. The Tigers also have Shane Greene, who is their closer currently, but could step in as a setup or middle relief man in Atlanta.
Yates has a 0.82 ERA in 33 games for the Padres this year. Stammen has a 2.65 ERA in 34 games this year in San Diego.
These are all options for the Braves to pursue. Not to pursue bullpen options to match what Washington did with Herrera would infuriate the Braves fan base after such a great start to 2018.
Braves front office please go out and get some pitching help for the stretch run. Don’t waste this great start.
Braves Pitching The Draft
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The MLB draft is never as hyped up as the NBA or NFL drafts, and that’s somewhat fair because baseball has such an extensive minor league system that it is exceptionally rare that player makes the jump directly from the draft to a Major League roster.
There’s also far fewer safe bets in baseball. Top prospects often never go on to be All-Stars in baseball. It’s much more of a crap shoot. That being said, it is always interesting to see how teams draft, both on the level of individual players and on a macro level of what they were looking to do in a broad sense.
Despite the heavy penalties MLB slapped the Atlanta Braves with at the end of 2017, new GM Alex Antholopoulos had the task of drafting a new crop of talent to add to his already stocked pool last week.
Granted, most of the penalties involved were directed at the Braves’ ability to target international prospects (as that’s where former GM John Coppollela spent most of his illicit energies), but the Braves still lost their third round pick this year.
Those penalties did add a new wrinkle, however, as Atlanta needed to replace the 13 international prospects they had to release into the wild.
So, as to not lose years off of the farm system’s development, the Braves drafted 34 college players out of 39 total picks. Only Carter Stewart in the first round and Victor Vodnik in the 14th came out of high school before the last three rounds, where the final three were selected.
As a top 10 draft pick, all eyes will be on Stewart as he moves through the minors in the coming months and years. He is just the kind of player the Braves have coveted as of late, a prep school hurler with high upside.
Stewart’s prize possession is a nasty curveball, possibly the best in the entire draft class. He also has a fastball that sits in the low 90s, though he’s been clocked as high as 98.
At 6’ 6” and only 18 years old he has room to add muscle and apparently that process has already begun, as he has followed my lead and added on 30 pounds since last August.
He likely sealed the deal as the Braves’ choice with an 18-strikeout no-hitter earlier this year.
There were also some fortunate draft picks by the rest of MLB, leaving a player like right-handed pitcher Tristan Beck available in the fourth round, especially after they had to skip the previous one.
They also adhered to the time honored ideal that there is no such thing as too much pitching. They picked up 22 pitchers in the draft, including five lefties, alongside four outfielders, 9 infielders, and 4 catchers.
That might frustrate some folks, and I can understand why. The Braves are going to need position players in the near future (and right now at third base) and they could have filled those gaps with college batters who will be ready for the majors much sooner.
A third baseman (or someone who could be moved for a third baseman) would have solved an immediate need in Atlanta and before too long the Braves will need to look to replace the likes of Nick Markakis, Tyler Flowers and Kurt Suzuki. However, Atlanta stayed true to their beliefs and picked up pitching in droves.
The last bit of business the Braves completed was a heartfelt one. In the 40th round the Braves drafted Mick Mangan, son of Braves groundskeeper Ed Mangan. Don’t sleep on this pick just because it was a nice gesture. The Dodgers once drafted somebody’s son as a favor in the last round too and Mike Piazza is in the Hall of Fame.
Restocking The Pond
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
There has been more than plenty of hullabaloo about Derek Jeter’s teardown of the Miami Marlins in an attempt to shed money and begin a rebuilding process akin to the one the Royals and Cubs have had recent success with.
During the offseason, the Marlins shipped off the contracts of all their major players except for J.T. Realmuto, who begrudgingly remains a Marlin as of this writing. That was step one. Step two is fast approaching and it’s one the Marlins need to nail if they’re to keep whatever is left of their fanbase buying into Jeter’s vision for the future.
The Marlins will be picking 13th when the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft kicks off on Monday. They will have a fair few good options at that point, including one local prospect that may be a likely choice.
That prospect is Triston Casas out of Plantation, Florida’s American Heritage School. Caas is a first baseman/third baseman who may possess the rawest power out of any high school player on the board.
Casas hit to the tune of .446 his junior year and .387 his senior year, with 28 of his 52 hits combined those seasons going for extra bases.
Plus, there’s the added PR bonus of having a kid in your own backyard as your number one draft pick; it should provide some investment by the Miami community.
There’s also Mason Denaburg, a right-handed pitcher from Merritt Island High School on Merritt Island, Florida. He can touch the upper 90s with potential to develop a mean secondary pitch or two, though he was dealing with injuries during his senior year.
This might be a riskier pick since three or their last four first-round draft choices were pitchers who have been bitten by the injury bug after their signings. Adding a fourth to that list would do the Marlins’ front office no favors in the eyes of the public.
There are older prospects that could be considered for Miami at 13. Alec Bohm, a third baseman out of Wichita State; Jonathan India at Florida also at the hot corner; and South Alabama outfielder Jack Swaggerty all could be big-league ready much sooner than the aforementioned teens.
Bohm, for example, knocked out 16 home runs and drove in 55 while hitting .339 this season. India’s average and power numbers are even bigger. They are good options for Miami if they want players with a little more polish on them, but maybe a little lower ceiling and without the good optics a local high school player would provide.
The safer bets are those two Floridan high schoolers and if Miami does in fact select either one they would have gone with high school players first for five straight years.
It also means another thing: that whoever they pick, hometown prospect or not, he probably won’t be seen in the Majors for a long while. If this is the way the Marlins choose to go, then that rebuilding process may indeed take the better part of a decade.
Can the Marlins survive such a lengthy process? Or would they be completely abandoned by a fan base that only has a tenuous grip on caring as it is?
It would be a gamble, but Jeter and company need to make a statement with this draft one way or another. Half measures will do no one any good. They’ll need to draft the players they think they can build around for the long term and stick with them.
This draft is either going to be the new beginning for Miami, or the last straw before an MLB game is played with less than 1,000 spectators present.
Upgrade Eligible
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
I haven’t been this excited about Braves baseball in almost a decade. Heading into June, the Braves have to start thinking about a line-up upgrade at third base, starting pitcher and closer by the trading deadline.
The Braves just released Jose Bautista and will play Johan Camargo at third base for now. This move I feel is temporary and is not the long-term solution at the position for the Braves. So, who can the Braves go get at third base at the deadline?
How about Mike Moustakas from the Kansas City Royals? Moustakas tested the free agent market last winter and got a bad deal, coming off a 38-homer season only to settle for a one-year, $6.5 million deal with the team he expected move on from. The Royals won a World Series with Moustakas in 2015 so he knows the postseason grind and could be a calming presence in the locker room in a stretch run for the playoffs. T
he Royals are currently 19-36 and are going nowhere in the AL Central so it is time to rebuild that franchise. Moustakas is hitting .275 and has 11 HR’s and 35 RBI’s in 207 at bats this season. He turns 30 in September so he is in his prime.
The Braves farm system is loaded with talent and you could package Camargo and a young arm in the system to get him. Moustakas bats third in the Royals batting order and he could be plugged in anywhere from 4th to 6th in the Braves order and is a drastic power and production upgrade from Camargo.
I think the Braves can make this deal happen and Moustakas could be the solution for Atlanta at 3rd for the next 3-5 years. Did I fail to mention that Moustakas is a two-time American League All-Star?
Josh Donaldson from Toronto could also be an option at 3rd for Atlanta but I think Moustakas is a better and cheaper option. Donaldson makes $22 million a year and Moustakas makes $6.5 million.
At closer the Braves need help. Kelvin Herrera of the Kansas City Royals is the answer. The best closer sure to be available and his stock is high, with 11 saves and no walks in 19 2/3 innings. A 0.92 ERA with 17 strike outs and only one blown save in 21 appearances in 2018.
Can you really depend on Arodys Vizcaino down the stretch? Herrera is 28 years old. Vizcaíno for Herrera in a straight trade.
Immediate help in the rotation is Cole Hamels, Texas Rangers left handed quality starter. The Rangers are not going to pick up his $20 million option next year, which includes a large $6 million buyout and would love to unload him now.
Hamels, a four-time All-Star and 2008 World Series MVP, is 3-5 with a 3.74 ERA. He also has a postseason pedigree that would be perfect for any contender, especially in the National League.
Hamels could be the spark the rotation if the organization feels like they can win now. The 3.74 ERA on a bad Rangers team makes Hamels attractive at the trade deadline. At 34 years of age and 150 wins and 3.38 career ERA, Hamels still has plenty left in the tank. The Rangers are 12.5 games back and currently in last place behind the World Champion Astros in the AL West. It is time to clean house in Arlington. Braves could give up a couple of minor league prospects for Hamels.
As a fan, you would love to see the Braves address all three areas I have outlined above. If I had to prioritize the three areas of concern they would be:
Third Base/Starting Pitcher
Closer
This Braves team can win now with the right moves at the trading deadline. THIS SEASON!
