Atlanta Braves filling gaps on the final day of 2019 mock Winter meetings
The final day of the Atlanta Braves’ participation in FanSided’s Winter Meetings simulation passed quietly for most teams, but your Braves made several key simulated acquisitions.
Your Atlanta Braves fearless imitation GM found himself almost alone on the last day of the mock Winter Meetings. Most of my early messages went unanswered. I spent much of the day attempting to wake up the Cubs sim-GMs to make a deal, but they ignored me and in my view, made a mistake in doing so.
[ ed. note: Usual disclaimer – which must be emphasized since Anthopoulos is trying to keep pace with Fred’s moves in real life – is that every Braves transaction discussed here is the result of a mock exercise conducted among FanSided’s 30 MLB team sites. He’s right, though – it did seem like some of the faux-GMs took early flights home. ]
I contacted Oakland in my efforts to replenish the farm system after trading away seven pitchers and eventually agreed to send Rule 5 eligible A+ ball pitcher Odalvi Javier to the Athletics for RHP Jharel Cotton.
The Dodgers selected Cotton in the 28th round of the 2011 draft and traded him to the Athletics as part of the package for Josh Reddick and Rich Hill in August 2017. At the beginning of the 2017 season, Baseball America ranked him the #84 prospect in MLB. Their post-2016 scouting report ($$) describes his tools thusly:
Cotton led the Pacific Coast League with 155 strikeouts, a 1.08 WHIP and .214 opponent average . . .best weapon is his double-plus 77 mph changeup, which has screwball action . . . the 92-93 mph pitch can touch 96. He also throws two-seamers and cutters that give hitters different looks, and they all come out of the same release point. His delivery is not something pitching coaches would teach, but it works for him, and his athleticism belies his 5-foot-11 frame. . . (also mixes in a slider and curveball.
The 2017 season saw Cotton bounce back and forth between AAA and Oakland, where the AL West wasn’t kind to him. In spring training ahead of the 2018 season, Cotton suffered a sprained UCL and eventually had TJ surgery. He returned – perhaps too quickly – in May of 2019 but struggled with control.
I channeled my inner Alex Anthopoulos when I simulated the acquisition of Cotton. He’s the type of under the radar, bounce back candidate the Atlanta Braves’ GM signed acquired frequently in the past. Cotton gets a 40-man roster spot and starts his simulated Braves career in Gwinnett.
Shortly after I began negotiating with Oakland in the simulation, the Chicago Cubs actually acquired Cotton – in real life – for cash considerations.
A fifth who pitches better than that
Early Saturday afternoon, I simulated the signing of Jordan Lyles to a one year $2M contract.
Lyles always possessed good stuff but ended up in bad locations. In 2018 the Brewers acquired him at the deadline and in a very small sample size, dropped his ERA a full run and showed the ability to get batters out in relief.
Related Story. The day before. light
He joined the Pirates this season and won eight of his first nine starts, throwing 53 1/3 innings, striking out 58, walking 17, and pitching to a 2.70 ERA and 1.088 WHIP. Then he went into a horrible slump losing his six of his next eight starts. He left the other two games with the teams tied having given up three-run sin one game and one run in the other.
At the deadline, the Brewers once again traded for Lyles, a move David Justice ranked as the second-best deadline move of 2019, ahead of the Astros’ trade for Zack Greinke. Brewers GM David Stearns told Robert Murray of The Athletic ($$) why traded for Lyles.
“We viewed his recent performance in Pittsburgh as not representative of who he really was. We thought he was pitching meaningfully better than that and was having some really poor fortune.”
Stearns’ evaluators were right. After arriving in Milwaukee, Lyles became the Brewers’ best starter, posting a 2.45 ERA in his starts. He has a 2.35 ERA, 1.107 WHIP in 58 2/3 innings, striking out 56 and walking 22. The Brewers were 10-1 in his starts The loss he and the Brewers suffered came in the form of a 1-0 shutout by Mike Minor. Lyles gave up three hits in seven innings while Minor gave up four hits in eight.
Lyles told The Athletic’s Murray, the reason for his success was sitting behind the plate. When Jordan Lyles was asked about his second-half resurgence, he smiled and pointed to the other side of the Brewers clubhouse. “That man right there,” Lyles said. That man, of course, is Yasmani Grandal
Lyles went on to say, the game calling and pitch framing of Grandal gave him confidence.
“It takes more pressure off me trying to call my own game, making sure the catcher is putting down the right fingers the whole game. I can . . .sit back and see what he’s putting down and go from there. Mentally, that has been a big help.
The simulated pairing of Lyles with our newest catcher Roberto Perez looks like a recipe for success and is another move typical of the current actual Atlanta Braves GM.
Atlanta Braves simulate adding a RH power bat
As Saturday vanished into history, I agreed to a simulated trade of Ender Inciarte and Corbin Clouse to the Blue Jays in exchange for outfielder Teoscar Hernandez and Kendall Williams.
According to his Baseball America scouting report ($$), The Astros plucked Hernandez from the Dominican Republic in 2011, and he shot through their farm system, only to regress badly in 2015 because he couldn’t hit a breaking pitch. Everyone passed on him as a Rule 5 selection in 2015, and he spent the Winter learning to pick up spin.
. . . in 2016, when he slashed his strikeout rate from 25 percent to 17 percent. Hernandez went from being an easy out to an above-average hitter because (of his) two-strike approach . . takes or spoils tough, two-strike pitches he chased in the past . . . (it cost him some power) but he still has above-average power to go with his much-improved hit tool . . . an above-average defender in center field and plus in the corners with an above-average arm. . .
In 2017 the Astros traded him to the Blue Jays for Francisco Liriano.
Since arriving in Toronto, Hernandez’s batted .238/.304/.482/.786 and hit 20+ homers when given ~ 450 PA. He strikes out more than I like, but I feel Kevin Seitzer can help him improve. He’s better in a corner outfield spot than in center, but Eric Young and others will work on his defense.
Hernandez is still pre-arb and under team control through 2023. His RH power bat adds a facet previously lacking to the Atlanta Braves’ simulated bench and means the lineup remains strong when one of the corner outfielders needs a day off.
That’s a wrap
The end of the mock Winter Meetings meant no more official moves were possible. We were unable to do things I’d have liked to do to improve the roster and depth. Chris Devenski seems a good candidate for a minor league deal with an invite to spring training to provide depth for the bullpen.
Chris Owings or Phil Gosselin could do the same for shortstop, and with Inciarte gone having Juan Lagares at Gwinnett would make things more comfortable until Cristian Pache is ready.
Next. New math confuses me. dark
I know I promised a post on how I ground the Atlanta Braves’ sausage over the last ten days. There’s too much information there for this post, so I’ll try to get that ready for tomorrow.