The John Hart Plan

Apr 6, 2015; Miami, FL, USA; Atlanta Braves center fielder

(right) talks with Braves hitting coach

(left) before a game against Miami Marlins at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Change the dynamic of the major league roster ✔

The John Hart plan started with the need to add quality players who would provide leadership for the young core he expects to be there soon; Nick Markakis, Jonny Gomes, A.J. Pierzynski

The Braves needed to stop being a swing and hope ball club and return to being a good hitting ball club. The first step was to reduce the number of strikeouts in the lineup; Kevin Seitzer

Roster flexibility was hindered by horrible contracts. To gain leverage he needed to clear payroll. He did that for this year and the future better than anyone expected.

Rebuild the farm system (75%)

After promoting Jason Heyward, Freddie Freeman and Andrelton Simmons the farm system almost devoid out of everyday prospects near major league ready. Even the Braves vaunted pitching pipeline wasn’t flowing well. The compressed timeline meant he had to to make some concessions to the normal rebuild process.

The John Hart plan includes pursuing the best players in the upcoming draft but those players won’t be ready for 2017 and the Braves can’t wait on the process of drafting and developing players to come to fruition. While we have one or two players close it isn’t enough.

Even the most well built major league roster requires depth to cover injuries and unforeseen incidents. So while scouts started to build their draft books Hart ask them to multitask and find teams that wanted to win now who had excess players they might trade under the right inducement. .

Getting talented players to strengthen the core pipeline in time for 2016 meant trades and free agent (mostly minor league free agent) signings. The currency he had available were major league players who were projected to be too expensive to keep and who could be packaged to meet another team’s needs.

Pitching and Defense

There’s a sign in the Braves clubhouse is a key part of the John Hart plan; pitching and defense wins. Pitching is first because quality pitching is considerably harder to come by particularly in the compressed time frame available.  Hart decided that he could find high upside pitching that teams might be willing to move because the players were recovering from TJ surgery and because they were a year away wouldn’t have an impact in that team’s win now season. We’ve see those arms arrive.

He also had scouts look for at players who were blocked by other more highly regarded players – Mallex Smith was blocked by Hunter Renfro in San Diego – were under valued by their team – Jace Peterson – or were too far away to help now – Rio Ruiz for Kyle Kubitza.   He also had them look for fallen out of  favor with the team, ran out of team control time, whose progress had been hindered by injury or were underperforming and need a change of scenery. The latter group are more experienced and able to fill in quickly but are also not likely to be long term additions.

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