re: Braves draft RHP Ian Anderson #3 overall

Braves Draft Tracker

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Kevin Maitan

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Some scouts saying he could have an offensive impact of a Juan Gonzalez. Wow! Not bad at all!

If it weren't for the 95 World Series win, we'd be Cleveland

I believe on July 2nd they can sign him to a deal. Hopefully no one goes full douchebag and offers him crazy money before then to sway him. He can sign with whoever he wants to so it's really all about the $$ and how comfortable he feels with the organization.

14. Don't cheat us.

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What happened to the kid from mercer? Had like 30 homers in 60+ games.

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against sub-par competition and his price tag was slot value. The pitcher we got was willing to sign underslot allowing us to get 1st round talent at picks 40 and 44. Nothing against Kyle Lewis because he's a toolsy player but his swing is very flawed. If he gets that fixed he may become a great player but I like getting 3 1st round talents over 1 personally.

Indians had some solid runs in the 90s as well and the Cavs have been dominant lately with lebron. Point being that both have all of these smaller accomplishments to fall back on but thank god Atlanta has the 95 title or else...

I did not see Lewis as a top 10 guy. Like you said, he feasted against very bad competition in the Southern League, but he also had over a 16% K rate, and thats against pitchers that wont even sniff the low level of the minor leagues. What will happen once he actually hits against good pitching? Its all a product of his atrocious swing. It has too many moving parts, and its all about timing, and he's shown that his timing is way off against descent breaking balls. There's a reason he slipped out of the top 10.

I personally loved the draft. We got a pitcher that was a top 10 prospect. Another that was a top 15 prospect. Another that was a top 25 prospect, and we finished with a guy that was the player of the year in the Pac 12. Now he probably wont stay as a catcher, but he has an advanced approach, and will probably find a home in left field(actually reminds me of Marcus Giles).

You dont draft for need in the MLB draft. The Braves took the guys that were at the top of their board, and I trust Coppy and Kiley. Both are great scouting guys. Dont bitch about hitting. That is coming. First, we will have the best international player in probably over a decade signing with us on July 2nd. He's been compared to Miguel Cabrera, Juan Gonzalez, and Chipper Jones. All damn good players. Besides him, we are getting at least three to four more guys from the international signing period that are in the top 20 prospects. Abrahan Gutierrez, a catcher is #17 on Baseball America. Ynior Severino, a shortstop, is #18, Yenci Pena, a third baseman, is #21. Livan Soto, a shortstop, is #23. We are also favored to sign a pitcher as well, and are in the running for more guys.

If those guys are too far away for you, then consider this. Our team salary was 112 mil in 2014, when we were still trying to win. We have been slashing that like crazy the last couple of years to get bad salaries off our books so we can go into Sun Trust, and spend money. Right now, Cots has our salary for this year at 86 million, with a huge chunk of that being gone with the contracts we bought(Swisher/Bourn), and our one year vet signings. The front office already said the payroll was going to grow with Sun Trust, because of the new revenue. So if it was 112 just a couple of years ago, where will it be in 2018, when we are in a new park? Plus, if you havent noticed, but the 2018 free agent class could be the best of all time. Carlos Gonzalez(OF, Colorado), JD Martine(OF, Detroit), Lorenzo Cain(OF, Kansas CIty), Dexter Fowler(OF, Chicago), Mike Moustakas(3B, Kansas City), Todd Frazier(3B, Chicago), Eric Hosmer(1B, Kansas City). Not enough big names? How about Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Andrew McCutchen, Josh DOnaldson, AJ Pollock, Nelson Cruz, Daniel Murphy, Charlie Backmon, Brian Dozier. Also, Jason Heyward and Michael Brantley can opt out of their contracts. Will all these guys be available? Hell no, but some of them will.

Yall realize that the front office knows that hitting is lacking in the system right? They realize that Freddie Freeman, Ender Inceriate, Dansby Swanson, and Ozzie Albies cant be the whole team. Thats why they are holding off on giving big, bad contracts to average players like Frank Wren did. They are going to sign guys in the big free agency period, and they can even find a guy or maybe two through trades since we have a ton of freakin pitchers.

This team is all time awful, but the front office knows what they are doing. Guys with abilities like BJ Upton, Dan Uggla, and Chris Johnson arent being given awful contracts because we have needs. We are doing the long play. The team will get young guys ready this year. We will have more young guys come up next year that will be better than what we have now. Will we win 90 games in 2017? Nope, but we will be better, and closer to .500. I know we havent seen the young guys in the second half of the season yet, but I wouldnt bet out a 75-80 win team next year. The Phillies did exactly that after a bad team last year. The 2018 will come, and we will have 40-50 million dollars to spend, and we will get at least one guy to be that big time hitter to pair with our young stars, and Freddie.

There is a big picture here. Its coming. Its going to take another year or so, but its going to be worth it.

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14. Don't cheat us.

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14? I odn't know why I thought it was 13.

Should have had at least 2 more WS Championships in that time.

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Should have had at least 2 more WS Championships in that time.

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Unfortunatly the Yankees had a better team at the time otherwise we would have won a few.