There were more than a few keyboards and mice with worn out ‘refresh’ buttons as we waited for the Atlanta Braves to “do something” this week. The podcast discusses what they did.
You’ve already seen the highlights: the Atlanta Braves added three more outfielders along with a back-end bullpen arm… and given some of the prices paid by other clubs for what they did… we’re giving Alex Anthopoulos props for a solid trade deadline season.
Let you think that we’re just being “homers” for saying so, this sentiment is 180 degrees different from our views from last year when the Braves failed to land any help for a patchwork pitching staff.
The Braves have been plagued with a set of streaky bench players that simply haven’t been doing very much to help out in late inning situations. So while we were shouting “Bullpen!” a lot, the Braves were rightly thinking “Bench!”.
Consider these numbers over the past 30 days:
- HEREDIA: .172 (102 plate appearances)
- SMITH: .158 (42)
- SANDOVAL: .000 (14)
- LUCROY: .200 (9)
- INCIARTE: .200 (6)
- ARCIA: .220 (55)
- VOGT: .212 (35)
- CONTRERAS: .000 (10)
As of today, all of these have been addressed… or are about to be.
Heredia has lost his center field slot to Joc Pederson. Kevan Smith will likely be DFA’d once Travis d’Arnaud completes his (in progress) rehab games.
Sandoval, Lucroy, and Inciarte have been released.
Arcia — with Sean Newcomb — has been optioned back to Gwinnett to join Contreras, who’s already there. And Stephen Vogt… capable as he has been… will slide to the backup catching role with the return of d’Arnaud this coming week.
RHP Richard Rodríguez and OF Jorge Soler have reported to Atlanta and will be active for tonight’s game. To make room on the active roster, the #Braves optioned INF/OF Orlando Arcia and LHP Sean Newcomb to Triple-A Gwinnett.
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) July 31, 2021
Thus the Atlanta Braves will have a new-look lineup tonight, thanks to the events of this week with an outfield of Duvall (hitting 5th), Pederson in CF (leading off), and Jorge Soler in RF (hitting 6th).
Heckuva a job by Alex Anthopoulos and his staff… I didn’t really think he could pull off this much change at one trade deadline.
The Atlanta Braves have a real shot at the NL East
So that’s the leadoff to our discussions in this week’s podcast, which you can hear using the player below, or via this direct download link, or from the usual services from which you normally procure your podcasts.
The team won’t be perfect for the rest of the season — we saw that much last night, of course — but they now have a fighting chance.
With the rest of the NL East’s changes this week… we still like their chances. Expect a real dogfight all the way to the end!