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2021 Atlanta Braves chasing the Dodgers Thread


EZ$

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Signed Morton & Smyly

Re-signed Ozuna

Soroka coming back

Fried and Anderson battle tested in playoffs and ready to take next step

Bullpen is good and deep, but not exactly dominant. 

Rest of NL East improved, but no reason to think we won’t be battling toe to toe with the Dodgers in the NLCS again this year. 
 

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Panda gets to stick around, Kipnis bounced. 

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Pablo Sandoval has made the Opening Day roster for the Atlanta Braves.

The team made a flurry of moves Saturday to complete its 26-man roster, which included selecting the contract of the 34-year-old Sandoval, who was a non-roster invitee this spring.

The two-time All-Star and 2012 World Series MVP is looking to revive his career in a bench role with the Braves. The switch-hitter earned his spot with a strong spring, hitting .429 with four RBIs in 35 at-bats.

The Braves, who open the season Thursday at Philadelphia, also selected the contracts of two other non-roster players: infielder Ehire Adrianza and reliever Nate Jones.

Infielder Jason Kipnis, a two-time All-Star trying to make the Braves as a non-roster invitee, was released.

In addition, the team outrighted outfielder Abraham Almonte to the alternate training site, designated outfielder Phillip Ervin for assignment and placed pitcher Touki Toussaint on the 60-day injured list with a right shoulder strain.

Sandoval, whose contract will be upgraded to a one-year, $1 million deal, hit .214 in 84 at-bats with the Braves and San Francisco Giants in 2020. He was added to Atlanta's postseason roster, going hitless in four plate appearances as the Braves came within one game of reaching the World Series.

The Braves hope Sandoval can return to the form he showed in 2019, when he hit .268 with 14 homers for the Giants.

Adrianza claimed another opening on Atlanta's bench by hitting .412 in spring training, with two homers and a team-high 12 RBIs through Friday's game.

The versatile 31-year-old Venezuelan, who previously played with San Francisco and Minnesota, will primarily provide depth at shortstop behind Dansby Swanson. Adrianza also has played the other infield positions as well as the outfield during his career.

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Already have more runs in the first 3 innings today than we had the entire first series. 4 runs on 4 solo shots. Not exactly the sign of a clicking offense, but I guess that’s the way baseball is going. 

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5 hours ago, EZ$ said:

Starters suck, bullpen sucks, Acuna bad ass, but rest of lineup sucks, Kung Fu Panda bad ass, but too fat to play the field. 
What a start. 

I gotta believe some of the other bats will come alive soon, but gotdamn Acuna is fun to watch

 

 

 

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34 minutes ago, EZ$ said:

If he starts putting out effort like this 100% of the time, he’ll be MLBs best by far. 

He's obviously not going to keep up this pace all season,, but that contract extension the Braves handed Acuna a couple of years ago is looking like a great gamble early on. After only one season in the majors (albeit a rookie of the year season), they handed him a 10 year $124 million extension. It's actually an 8 year deal with 2 year club options at the end, but those 2 years are a certainty I would think.

He will be making $17mil per year over the last 6 seasons which looks cheap compared to the Tatis deal (12 years, $340 million total, $34 mil per year over the last 6 years). Yeah, Acuna's deal expires when he is 30 years old, but they have him during his prime years at what looks to be really good value. 

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so they're chasing plenty of teams in addition to the dodgers right now, but acuna looks like the best player in baseball, riley is fucking crushing it and freddie is becoming freddie again.  ozzie and dansy also had a nice series against the pirates.  

i am not confident at all in the pitching however.

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This Ozuna thing is really bad news.  It is very hard to just get out of a contract.  If he is not going to play and is costing the team $15-20 mil a year, it's going to be hard to do anything.

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On 6/1/2021 at 1:01 AM, Fastbreak said:

This Ozuna thing is really bad news.  It is very hard to just get out of a contract.  If he is not going to play and is costing the team $15-20 mil a year, it's going to be hard to do anything.

Yup, can’t win with $20M dead money when you already have a tight payroll. If we can’t get out of it, it’s a worse setback than losing all the international money/picks.  You’d be wasting Freddie’s prime and most of Acuna’s (he’ll be gone when he becomes a FA anyway). 
If we get fucked on the contract, I say go the Marlins fire sale route and re-build for 2025. The offers would be insane for Acuna and his very team-friendly contract.  

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Since we’re mentioned in the thread title, figured I could comment here.  Wow, I was in the car, and when I got home Anderson was throwing a no-no in the 5th.  Had a few things to deal with, and turn on the game and it’s still the 5th and 8-1 Dodgers.  

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Goddamnit!

Sucks for the team but how much must it suck for him. Just the inning before I was getting a kick out of how pumped he was when Freddie hit the homer.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2945286-braves-ronald-acuna-jr-carted-off-field-after-suffering-apparent-knee-injury

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absolutely amazed with this team.  thought they had absolutely 0 chance in hell at beating the dodgers.  as it stands, they really should have swept this series.  who knows what happens going forward, but this 3-1 lead, with fried on the bump tomorrow and the next two at home if need be, feels much different than last year's 3-1 lead.  rosario, duval and pederson have been a breath of fresh air this postseason, particularly rosario and pederson.  i think pederson gives this team an edge and attitude that is hard to quantify but is definitely present.  

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