Atlanta Braves’ new priorities: scouting, defense,… and winning.

A-listers got a private Q&A with Alex Anthopoulos on Thursday.  A few answers should get the attention of all Braves’ fans.

Special thanks to Stacy (@SlmSolo on twitter) for semi-live-tweeting the session on Thursday as Atlanta Braves‘ GM Alex Anthopoulos answered the questions of ticket-buyers along with CEO Terry McGwirk.

There’s a lot of good information posted about this event on her timeline, but I’m going to focus on just a few points:

Scouting

Think that might just be a passing comment?  Guess again:  here’s a line from AA’s Wikipedia page (emphasis added):

"Anthopoulos was also instrumental in doubling the size of the Blue Jays’ scouting department, growing it to 54 scouts in various positions. The 2010 draft, the first with Anthopoulos in charge, resulted in a highly successful draft with a number of players picked eventually enjoying significant playing careers in the majors, including Aaron Sanchez and Noah Syndergaard."

That other comment about using International monies for trading?  Yeah, I think he probably had something already in mind since Jim Johnson was shipped along with that $1.2m voucher to Anaheim later that same day.

Defense

This is a case of GM speak and there are thick lines to read between here.

Let’s look quickly at Defensive Runs Saved (DRS)… it’s a stat that still has some… curiosity… around it, but it’s a good way to distinguish how good one player is relative to others in fielding their positions.

It is pretty simple:  a positive value suggests that opponents do not score as often against that defender; a negative value suggests a player worse than average and is giving runs away.

A 162 game full-time player plays 1458 innings; more for extra innings.

Matt Kemp played 851.2.  He had the 3rd-worst DRS in all of baseball.  The only worse players – taking the innings played into account – were Denard Span and Jose Reyes.

But… he was injured a lot!  Bad hammies…. bad hips.

Okay…  In 2016 he was 14th worst (-12).  Counting only the 465.2 innings played in Atlanta.  -18 for the full year (1293 innings).  He’s been posting negative DRS numbers for the last 8 seasons straight.

Those aren’t the only bad numbers on defense for the Braves, but Kemp’s stands out like a sore thumb.  Tyler Flowers sported a -9 was tied for second worst in the majors among catchers (-9) in 745 innings.  Notably, Brian McCann was worst overall at -12.

Now Flowers was re-upped because of his offensive production numbers as he and stable-mate Kurt Suzuki formed a formidable tandem at the plate.  Kemp…has a big contract.

So what does AA have in mind here?

It’s unclear whether the catching situation should or could be changed easily.  But should no deal be possible to move Kemp to the American League, it sounds to me like the stroke of a pen might be made to make the defense instantly better – despite a nearly $40 million write-off.

Winning

That first tweet sounded like an artful dodge of a loaded question, but it’s the second part that should get everyone’s attention.

In short, forget about who we lost.  Look at what we’ve got and let’s start winning with that.

How is that going to happen? 

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Roll back to December 15, 2009 (the week just after Winter Meetings that year).  This was just 2 months after Anthopoulos took the helm of the Blue Jays.  On that day, he traded away one of the best pitchers in baseball in Roy Halladay – for prospects.

Aside from Halladay departing Toronto – where he was a fan favorite – this deal was quite complex, involving moving pieces from Seattle, Oakland, and Philadelphia.

While AA had been with the Blue Jays for multiple years prior to being elevated to the GM role (and thus knew their squad very well already), the takeaway here is that he certainly wasn’t afraid of the Big Deal, nor was he afraid to ruffle a feather or two.

That deal was more about prospects.  It sounds like the next Braves deals are not heading in that direction.

Next: Team Building with FanSided's Editors

But they will be targeted toward making this team win.  That much is clear.

It’s Go time.