The Atlanta Braves are working quietly behind the scenes to fix roster shortfalls as other teams make maneuvers for their championship run.
At least that’s the message given to the press as the Atlanta Braves remain quiet – at least in public – with only five days remaining until the non-waiver trade deadline.
The Alex Anthopoulos front office mirrors the John Schuerholz’ method of making trades; no one hears about them until they are done. Like a duck gliding gracefully across a lake, everything appears calm on the surface but beneath the surface, he’s paddling like the devil and no one knows.
That’s hard on fans and even harder on writers paid to tell us what they don’t know. As a result, they talk to a man who knows a man who said something reliable once and we get the same rumors we heard last winter. It’s up to us to decide if they have a clue and whether we like what they said.
For instance, Alan told us that the Braves were scouting starters as well as relievers. We know the Braves had Scouts at the Detroit Texas game and last Friday at the Rays-Marlins game. Everyone knew the Braves were in on Nathan Eovaldi. Then this morning the Red Sox traded a B pitching prospect for the Rays’ hard-throwing right-hander.
Rumors persist about players that don’t appear to improve the Braves much, if at all. The less energetic keep parroting the Braves need for a third-baseman even though Johan Camargo provides better numbers than most players suggested to replace him. Lets clear that rumor up to start.
Braves not discussing Moose
I say this without much hope it’s true, but perhaps – maybe – please tell me it’s true, that the Mike Moustakas rumor is finally dead. I say that because a writer admitted on Twitter the Braves were interested.
On July 15 Jerry Crasnick tweeted that the Red Sox and Braves were both interested in Moustakas. Since then we’ve heard as many as nine teams were talking to KC about him. Of course, that had to include the Braves; or not.
Earlier today Crasnick repeated that Moustakas-Atlanta Braves rumor. Then this afternoon he finally said the finally killed it . . . I hope.
I checked further on this. The #Braves interest in Moustakas is minimal at best. They're happy with Camargo at 3B, and the deadline focus remains pitching. There's also the question of how Moustakas would adapt to a bench role. Barring an injury in Atlanta, there's no fit. https://t.co/s7ou8XFmNO
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) July 25, 2018
Thank you for that Mr. Crasnick, sir. You’re a gentleman and a scholar.
Baltimore and the Atlanta Braves take 2. no 3, make it 4 …I give up
With Manny Machado firmly ensconced in LA I’d hoped the silly rumors that Baltimore and the Braves were cooking up something big had passed. Nope. Writers must write, so two days ago MASN’s Rob Kubatko gave us this gem.
Have heard #brewers asked about Schoop and Gausman. #yankees have checked on Gausman. #braves have expressed interest in Schoop, Gausman and Bundy #orioles
— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) July 22, 2018
The Braves need a starter or two and Kevin Gausman takes the ball every fifth day but his peripherals say his traditional stats aren’t fibbing. His ERA (4.54), FIP (4.58), SIERA (4.11) and DRA (4.22) all paint him as a back of the rotation guy.
He’s controllable and maybe he’d get a half-run bump downward in ERA after a move to the NL, but he’s not a huge upgrade and I’d hope for better from our GM. Dylan Bundy’s numbers are worse; I’ll pass. The most off the wall suggestion in his post came in the form of Braves interest in Jonathan Schoop.
The Baltimore second sacker posted 2.2 fWAR in 2016 and 3.8 fWAR in 2017 on a pretty bad team. However, in Atlanta Ozzie Albies owns second base so why would The Atlanta Braves be interested?