Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: Vizzy, Visions, Visitations

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At Least We Have a Plan

ESPN’s Jayson Stark is concerned about the state of the National League, and wrote about his concerns in a piece for ESPN.com this week. Naturally, the Braves are in the discussion.

More from Tomahawk Take

Mentioned: fangraphs’ projected records for the “also-ran” teams in the NL. It’s not pretty.

Phillies — 66-96
Braves — 67-95
Brewers — 71-91
Reds — 73-89
Padres — 73-89
Rockies — 75-87

Stark points out that this would be the first season ever in which the six worst teams in baseball all came from one league (since the American League became a thing in 1901).

John Hart was quoted as saying “I only count eight or nine teams that have a chance in our league. So it’s a good time to be one of those clubs.”

Obviously, he doesn’t feel that the Braves are one of them for 2016.

The good news? Of the 4 clubs that are obviously rebuilding (Braves, Phillies, Reds, Brewers… I guess the Rockies aren’t quite there yet), Stark quoted an American League exec as saying this about Atlanta:

"“I don’t think they’re tanking. I think they have a clear strategy. They want to be good when they open their new park. It’s been done before. Out of all of these, that’s the one that’s most understandable.”"

Hart, for his part, says this about all that:

"“We’re going in trying to win,” Hart said, “but we have a bigger vision. … We know what we’ve got to do to get better. So if we have to bite the bullet for a period of time, that’s just what we have to do to have a six-, or eight-, or 10-year run. … You’re looking at it from an overview. I’m now looking at it from a club perspective. And from our perspective, we had to make a clear direction change. You never want to be in no-man’s-land. That’s a bad place to be in our game right now.”"

Next: One Arb. Down... 1 to Go

Still kinda sorta hoping that a jolt out of the blue happens and a Cespedes-like signing happens within the next two weeks or so. *Sigh*

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