<img alt="Los Angeles Dodgers v Atlanta Braves" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/n7-eEEBjZreOk-BhqwpengnIuN8=/47x0:1967x1280/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73589297/2172034166.0.jpg">
Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
You asked, I answered. First off, I’d like to thank everybody who asked questions and sent them in. It really means a lot that y’all continue to come to the website and that you stay engaged with this place, at that. It’s something I don’t take for granted at all and also it’s fun for me since these were really good questions and I could honestly yap about the Braves all day. If you don’t see your question answered here, don’t worry — I might get to it in the future, so keep an eye out for that (or you can just ask again the next time we do one of these. It’s your choice!). So let’s not waste any more time and hop right into it.
The injuries to the everyday players this year have really showed how depleted this system is in position prospects. With the rash of injuries this year, no team could handle this amount of injuries. Do you see a possible change in the direction for the draft? Maybe even for 1 year? To go heavy in the position player for a draft or so? Is there anyway to be more prepared for this level of depletion due to injuries?
You’re definitely right about the fact that no team could really deal with this level of injuries to their team. While good ol’ fashioned underperformance has certainly played a role in hampering the Atlanta Braves’ Postseason chances this season, it sure doesn’t help that nearly every star player that the Braves have (and they certainly have a constellation of stars in their employ) has either suffered a serious injury, underperformed, or had a horrid combination of both. Still, the injuries were just a killer and it’s to the point where I’ve honestly been vacillating in-between being happy that they even make it into the Postseason and simply being happy that they even managed a winning record here in 2024.
As far as a change in direction for the draft goes, I don’t see that coming. With the crapshoot that is the MLB Draft, you’re very much thinking long-term (outside of the first few rounds of picks) with whoever you pick with the goal of making sure that they are one day major-league ready, whether they’re a pitcher or not. I think in this particular case, it was just a matter of timing — the Braves may have been internally ready for a situation like this at any point in the recent past but at the same time, they’re also paying the price (that any team would gladly pay) for sustained success. In order to help keep this current window open for the big league team as long as possible, they’ve decided that using prospects via trade is a way to make sure the big league team is as strong as possible.
I think the only way to really future-proof yourself against it is to focus more on development when it comes to position players within the organization. The Dodgers are a great example of this, as they’ve been at or near the top of the baseball mountain for a good long while now while also continuously having one of the best farm systems in all of baseball. They can do it all in terms of player development but over the years, it’s been pretty clear that the Braves are just really good at pitcher development and okay when it comes to position player development. So that’s less of an issue of draft strategy and more of an issue of development, in my opinion. I’m sure Garrett and the rest of the minor league crew have a ton of opinions on this so maybe they’d be open to giving their take if you want to hit him or anybody else up about it, as well.
How much of this season can we reasonably flush and try going into next season healthy? Like a lot of this has to be injury problems, I just don’t know how much to put on the offensive approach and how much is just they’re down 6-7 key pieces at any given time.
Is there any chance that they have a rethink of the offensive philosophy? It kind of seems like other teams have figured it out about pitching to the hitters.
Do we think the Braves fire Kevin Seitzer considering how poorly the offense has been performing? I know we have been unlucky, but you can’t exactly fix being unlucky.
I’m bunching these three questions together since I feel like they’re sort of getting at the same thing. As I mentioned earlier, underperformance has been the main killer of this team here in 2024 outside of the injuries and it’s the main reason why you can’t simply chalk this season up to bad luck or the baseball gods simply saying “Nope” to whatever illusions of grandeur that the Braves had when it came to being serious World Series contenders this season. A lot of the guys who the Braves absolutely needed to get the job done just haven’t been able to make it happen on a consistent basis and that’s cost this team dearly this season.
With that being said, I do think it’s worth taking a quick look at what each individual player has done when compared to his career numbers. Sean Murphy having a 79 wRC+ (going into Sunday) after sitting in the 120 range for the past two reasons is absurd, even if coming back from an oblique injury is always tricky. Matt Olson may have been due to come down to Earth from his career year but it’s also crazy that he’s had to scratch and claw to get to triple digits in wRC+ this season. It’s also hard to believe that Michael Harris II won’t eventually figure out a way to adjust in the future in order to make sure that his season at the plate ends up being the outlier that it currently is. Jarred Kelenic and Orlando Arcia are essentially performing as their career numbers would suggest and there’s a reason why Arcia signed the contract that he did. Ozzie Albies has just been snakebitten all season and his numbers are pretty similar to what you’d see from him in an injury-plagued season.
Meanwhile, the remaining regulars (Austin Riley, Marcell Ozuna, Travis d’Arnaud) have performed about as expected or in the case of Ozuna, vastly overperformed. Considering everything that’s happened and how volatile the production has been this season, it’s very difficult to see the Braves laying this all at the feet of Kevin Seitzer. The truth of the matter is that this would have had to have been an absolutely dreadful season at the plate for Seitzer to get fired and even still, it would’ve been shocking considering how much this organization has valued stability over recent years. I do think that they’ll have to figure out a way to adjust but I think that this is an opportunity that these guys and Seitzer have earned over the years. Plus ultimately a pitching/hitting coach doesn’t matter too much in the grand scheme of things — after all, the Braves are going to end up having the top pitching staff in baseball this season and they’ve done so with Rick Kranitz being gone since July.
We won the season series against the Phillies but is it realistic to believe we can beat them in playoffs if given the opportunity?
It’s actually kind of funny — the past couple of seasons I didn’t really look forward to seeing the Phillies in the Postseason since it was very apparent that they were a horrible matchup for the Braves. This season, I feel like it’s the reverse where the Braves would be a bad matchup for the Phillies and it’s solely due to the strength of pitching. You absolutely have to have good pitching if you’re going to beat the Phillies in October and with the way Atlanta’s pitching staff has performed this season (especially against Philadephia) and with the way that Snitker manages his pitching staff in Postseason situations, I feel like they’d be set up for success.
I think the key to victory in that type of series would be the same as it has been for the Braves here in the regular season. If the pitching comes to play and the games are kept low-scoring, then I would certainly like their chances. If it turned into a slugfest, they’d probably have no chance (this weekend’s work against the Dodgers, aside). It definitely wouldn’t be a pipe dream to believe in the Braves if they got another shot at Philadelphia in the playoffs, though! That’s a huge “if” considering how the bracket is currently looking and also considering that Atlanta’s chances of getting in are still up in the air. I wouldn’t mind seeing it again, though.
What are the odds Riley, Albies, and Lopez all make it back to the team during the postseason, we start to rake again, and romp through the playoffs en route to a World Series victory as if this season was all just a bad dream?
Full disclosure: This question also included an absolutely insane example of how we’re all living in a simulation and compared it to a possible simulation/timeline where the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Carolina Panthers in a game despite all types of wacky stuff happening to Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift (???) and Andy Reid. This doesn’t have anything to do with the answer, I just wanted to mention it. Anyways, it could certainly happen. Stranger things have happened! The Braves won a World Series after losing their best player mid-season and only winning 88 regular season games. The six-seed in the NL has won the Pennant in each of the past two seasons. The Cubs won the World Series in 2016. Anything can happen, which is why it’s still so important that the Braves figure out a way to survive and make it into October. Once you get into that tournament and those short series, anything can happen.
With Reynaldo López on the IL, what is the likelihood that the Braves bring up postseason hero Ian Anderson for the final weeks of the season? I don’t want to see any more of Bryce Elder this year.
Well, the good news is that I feel like the chances of seeing Anderson are a lot higher now than they were maybe earlier on in the season. If this pitching staff was ever in a serious pinch, I think we would’ve seen him back up by now — even if he hasn’t exactly been tearing it up with Gwinnett this season and his walk rate even in Triple-A (11.2 percent) is still way too high. With that being said, he’s made some solid starts recently and it’s to the point where it wouldn’t really be a huge shock if he did end up making a sensational return as a spot starter.
Still, the Braves definitely have a decent amount of options. They can go full-send and throw their starters on four days rest, which would buy them some time until September 20 and the only reason why I think that’s a possibility is that they’ve been so cognizant of trying to rest the starters over the course of this season that with the season on the line, it might be time to empty the tank in order to make sure you get into October. What I think is more likely is that they’ll call someone up. It could be Ian Anderson or it could be AJ Smith-Shawver, it could be any one of the starters in Triple-A, really — it could even be Bryce Elder! I know it’s not what you want to hear when it comes to that last name in particular but you may as well brace yourself for that being a possibility!
What would it take for the Braves to re-sign Max Fried? And do you see that as a likely outcome?
I’m going to be completely honest here, I think that ship has sailed and I figured as much when we didn’t get any news of an extension during the offseason. The Braves under Alex Anthopoulos usually like to get this type of thing done well in advance before it’s time for free agency and I can’t remember the last time this team got into a real bidding war so I’d say that it’s pretty unlikely that Fried will be pitching for the Braves in 2025.
As far as what it would take, I’d imagine that it would take giving him whatever the fair market deal would be for starter heading into his age-31 season who is still putting up very solid numbers on the mound. As much as it’s seemed like Fried has dropped off, he’s still been putting up an 83 ERA-, an 88 FIP- and an 83 xFIP- heading into Monday’s start. He’s going to be a very attractive player on the free agency market and assuming the market doesn’t completely dry up on him then I’d imagine that the price might be too high for the Braves since they have shown that they’d rather trade for players and then extend them instead of getting into an aforementioned bidding war.
If this season ends without playoff berth (which would make 3 straight seasons of no postseason success), does Alex look to do a soft reset this offseason? Maybe some movement on the coaching staff, replace Arcia at SS, fully move on from a few familiar faces (Jackson, Chavez (age), Morton (age), Duvall), etc.
To be honest, I could see it coming even if they do get into the Postseason. I don’t think we’re going to see many changes with the coaching staff but I do think that we’ll see the Braves look at figuring out a way to upgrade at both SS and LF. I understand that that’s much easier said that done — especially considering that they aren’t exactly flush with a ton of talented prospects in order to make a splashy move. Still, with the way Alex Anthopoulos operates then it really wouldn’t be too shocking at all to see him figure out a way to make it happen in order to give the Braves what they need in order to refresh themselves at the margins of their big league roster. He’s got a track record and this would be a good time to trust him and let him cook if they do decide to refresh things.
Is there a way for me to trade a piece of my soul for a World Series victory?
I’m not going to tell you this from personal experience but I will share a related anecdote from an unnamed fan (who may or may not be the author of this post) who was given assurances that both his favorite MLB and college baseball teams would win their respective World Series back in 2021. However, the price ended up being extremely expensive, as his hated rivals ended up winning the College World Series the very next season and his divisional rivals ended up knocking his team out of the Playoffs for the next two consecutive seasons and is well on their way to being the team to break the streak of divisional titles. Is it worth it, friend? Is it really and truly worth it? I’ll let you be the judge of that but at the same time, that unnamed fan absolutely wouldn’t recommend it! Just take it as/if it comes and leave it at that.
<img alt="Los Angeles Dodgers v Atlanta Braves" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/n7-eEEBjZreOk-BhqwpengnIuN8=/47x0:1967x1280/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73589297/2172034166.0.jpg">
Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
You asked, I answered. First off, I’d like to thank everybody who asked questions and sent them in. It really means a lot that y’all continue to come to the website and that you stay engaged with this place, at that. It’s something I don’t take for granted at all and also it’s fun for me since these were really good questions and I could honestly yap about the Braves all day. If you don’t see your question answered here, don’t worry — I might get to it in the future, so keep an eye out for that (or you can just ask again the next time we do one of these. It’s your choice!). So let’s not waste any more time and hop right into it.
The injuries to the everyday players this year have really showed how depleted this system is in position prospects. With the rash of injuries this year, no team could handle this amount of injuries. Do you see a possible change in the direction for the draft? Maybe even for 1 year? To go heavy in the position player for a draft or so? Is there anyway to be more prepared for this level of depletion due to injuries?
You’re definitely right about the fact that no team could really deal with this level of injuries to their team. While good ol’ fashioned underperformance has certainly played a role in hampering the Atlanta Braves’ Postseason chances this season, it sure doesn’t help that nearly every star player that the Braves have (and they certainly have a constellation of stars in their employ) has either suffered a serious injury, underperformed, or had a horrid combination of both. Still, the injuries were just a killer and it’s to the point where I’ve honestly been vacillating in-between being happy that they even make it into the Postseason and simply being happy that they even managed a winning record here in 2024.
As far as a change in direction for the draft goes, I don’t see that coming. With the crapshoot that is the MLB Draft, you’re very much thinking long-term (outside of the first few rounds of picks) with whoever you pick with the goal of making sure that they are one day major-league ready, whether they’re a pitcher or not. I think in this particular case, it was just a matter of timing — the Braves may have been internally ready for a situation like this at any point in the recent past but at the same time, they’re also paying the price (that any team would gladly pay) for sustained success. In order to help keep this current window open for the big league team as long as possible, they’ve decided that using prospects via trade is a way to make sure the big league team is as strong as possible.
I think the only way to really future-proof yourself against it is to focus more on development when it comes to position players within the organization. The Dodgers are a great example of this, as they’ve been at or near the top of the baseball mountain for a good long while now while also continuously having one of the best farm systems in all of baseball. They can do it all in terms of player development but over the years, it’s been pretty clear that the Braves are just really good at pitcher development and okay when it comes to position player development. So that’s less of an issue of draft strategy and more of an issue of development, in my opinion. I’m sure Garrett and the rest of the minor league crew have a ton of opinions on this so maybe they’d be open to giving their take if you want to hit him or anybody else up about it, as well.
How much of this season can we reasonably flush and try going into next season healthy? Like a lot of this has to be injury problems, I just don’t know how much to put on the offensive approach and how much is just they’re down 6-7 key pieces at any given time.
Is there any chance that they have a rethink of the offensive philosophy? It kind of seems like other teams have figured it out about pitching to the hitters.
Do we think the Braves fire Kevin Seitzer considering how poorly the offense has been performing? I know we have been unlucky, but you can’t exactly fix being unlucky.
I’m bunching these three questions together since I feel like they’re sort of getting at the same thing. As I mentioned earlier, underperformance has been the main killer of this team here in 2024 outside of the injuries and it’s the main reason why you can’t simply chalk this season up to bad luck or the baseball gods simply saying “Nope” to whatever illusions of grandeur that the Braves had when it came to being serious World Series contenders this season. A lot of the guys who the Braves absolutely needed to get the job done just haven’t been able to make it happen on a consistent basis and that’s cost this team dearly this season.
With that being said, I do think it’s worth taking a quick look at what each individual player has done when compared to his career numbers. Sean Murphy having a 79 wRC+ (going into Sunday) after sitting in the 120 range for the past two reasons is absurd, even if coming back from an oblique injury is always tricky. Matt Olson may have been due to come down to Earth from his career year but it’s also crazy that he’s had to scratch and claw to get to triple digits in wRC+ this season. It’s also hard to believe that Michael Harris II won’t eventually figure out a way to adjust in the future in order to make sure that his season at the plate ends up being the outlier that it currently is. Jarred Kelenic and Orlando Arcia are essentially performing as their career numbers would suggest and there’s a reason why Arcia signed the contract that he did. Ozzie Albies has just been snakebitten all season and his numbers are pretty similar to what you’d see from him in an injury-plagued season.
Meanwhile, the remaining regulars (Austin Riley, Marcell Ozuna, Travis d’Arnaud) have performed about as expected or in the case of Ozuna, vastly overperformed. Considering everything that’s happened and how volatile the production has been this season, it’s very difficult to see the Braves laying this all at the feet of Kevin Seitzer. The truth of the matter is that this would have had to have been an absolutely dreadful season at the plate for Seitzer to get fired and even still, it would’ve been shocking considering how much this organization has valued stability over recent years. I do think that they’ll have to figure out a way to adjust but I think that this is an opportunity that these guys and Seitzer have earned over the years. Plus ultimately a pitching/hitting coach doesn’t matter too much in the grand scheme of things — after all, the Braves are going to end up having the top pitching staff in baseball this season and they’ve done so with Rick Kranitz being gone since July.
We won the season series against the Phillies but is it realistic to believe we can beat them in playoffs if given the opportunity?
It’s actually kind of funny — the past couple of seasons I didn’t really look forward to seeing the Phillies in the Postseason since it was very apparent that they were a horrible matchup for the Braves. This season, I feel like it’s the reverse where the Braves would be a bad matchup for the Phillies and it’s solely due to the strength of pitching. You absolutely have to have good pitching if you’re going to beat the Phillies in October and with the way Atlanta’s pitching staff has performed this season (especially against Philadephia) and with the way that Snitker manages his pitching staff in Postseason situations, I feel like they’d be set up for success.
I think the key to victory in that type of series would be the same as it has been for the Braves here in the regular season. If the pitching comes to play and the games are kept low-scoring, then I would certainly like their chances. If it turned into a slugfest, they’d probably have no chance (this weekend’s work against the Dodgers, aside). It definitely wouldn’t be a pipe dream to believe in the Braves if they got another shot at Philadelphia in the playoffs, though! That’s a huge “if” considering how the bracket is currently looking and also considering that Atlanta’s chances of getting in are still up in the air. I wouldn’t mind seeing it again, though.
What are the odds Riley, Albies, and Lopez all make it back to the team during the postseason, we start to rake again, and romp through the playoffs en route to a World Series victory as if this season was all just a bad dream?
Full disclosure: This question also included an absolutely insane example of how we’re all living in a simulation and compared it to a possible simulation/timeline where the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Carolina Panthers in a game despite all types of wacky stuff happening to Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift (???) and Andy Reid. This doesn’t have anything to do with the answer, I just wanted to mention it. Anyways, it could certainly happen. Stranger things have happened! The Braves won a World Series after losing their best player mid-season and only winning 88 regular season games. The six-seed in the NL has won the Pennant in each of the past two seasons. The Cubs won the World Series in 2016. Anything can happen, which is why it’s still so important that the Braves figure out a way to survive and make it into October. Once you get into that tournament and those short series, anything can happen.
With Reynaldo López on the IL, what is the likelihood that the Braves bring up postseason hero Ian Anderson for the final weeks of the season? I don’t want to see any more of Bryce Elder this year.
Well, the good news is that I feel like the chances of seeing Anderson are a lot higher now than they were maybe earlier on in the season. If this pitching staff was ever in a serious pinch, I think we would’ve seen him back up by now — even if he hasn’t exactly been tearing it up with Gwinnett this season and his walk rate even in Triple-A (11.2 percent) is still way too high. With that being said, he’s made some solid starts recently and it’s to the point where it wouldn’t really be a huge shock if he did end up making a sensational return as a spot starter.
Still, the Braves definitely have a decent amount of options. They can go full-send and throw their starters on four days rest, which would buy them some time until September 20 and the only reason why I think that’s a possibility is that they’ve been so cognizant of trying to rest the starters over the course of this season that with the season on the line, it might be time to empty the tank in order to make sure you get into October. What I think is more likely is that they’ll call someone up. It could be Ian Anderson or it could be AJ Smith-Shawver, it could be any one of the starters in Triple-A, really — it could even be Bryce Elder! I know it’s not what you want to hear when it comes to that last name in particular but you may as well brace yourself for that being a possibility!
What would it take for the Braves to re-sign Max Fried? And do you see that as a likely outcome?
I’m going to be completely honest here, I think that ship has sailed and I figured as much when we didn’t get any news of an extension during the offseason. The Braves under Alex Anthopoulos usually like to get this type of thing done well in advance before it’s time for free agency and I can’t remember the last time this team got into a real bidding war so I’d say that it’s pretty unlikely that Fried will be pitching for the Braves in 2025.
As far as what it would take, I’d imagine that it would take giving him whatever the fair market deal would be for starter heading into his age-31 season who is still putting up very solid numbers on the mound. As much as it’s seemed like Fried has dropped off, he’s still been putting up an 83 ERA-, an 88 FIP- and an 83 xFIP- heading into Monday’s start. He’s going to be a very attractive player on the free agency market and assuming the market doesn’t completely dry up on him then I’d imagine that the price might be too high for the Braves since they have shown that they’d rather trade for players and then extend them instead of getting into an aforementioned bidding war.
If this season ends without playoff berth (which would make 3 straight seasons of no postseason success), does Alex look to do a soft reset this offseason? Maybe some movement on the coaching staff, replace Arcia at SS, fully move on from a few familiar faces (Jackson, Chavez (age), Morton (age), Duvall), etc.
To be honest, I could see it coming even if they do get into the Postseason. I don’t think we’re going to see many changes with the coaching staff but I do think that we’ll see the Braves look at figuring out a way to upgrade at both SS and LF. I understand that that’s much easier said that done — especially considering that they aren’t exactly flush with a ton of talented prospects in order to make a splashy move. Still, with the way Alex Anthopoulos operates then it really wouldn’t be too shocking at all to see him figure out a way to make it happen in order to give the Braves what they need in order to refresh themselves at the margins of their big league roster. He’s got a track record and this would be a good time to trust him and let him cook if they do decide to refresh things.
Is there a way for me to trade a piece of my soul for a World Series victory?
I’m not going to tell you this from personal experience but I will share a related anecdote from an unnamed fan (who may or may not be the author of this post) who was given assurances that both his favorite MLB and college baseball teams would win their respective World Series back in 2021. However, the price ended up being extremely expensive, as his hated rivals ended up winning the College World Series the very next season and his divisional rivals ended up knocking his team out of the Playoffs for the next two consecutive seasons and is well on their way to being the team to break the streak of divisional titles. Is it worth it, friend? Is it really and truly worth it? I’ll let you be the judge of that but at the same time, that unnamed fan absolutely wouldn’t recommend it! Just take it as/if it comes and leave it at that.
Link to original article
