Braves Aquire Justin Upton!!!

[NBA_Starter]

At least to start. If BMac shows signs of his former self, then he can earn the spot.

I can agree with this.

[BRAVE KID]

?

B-mac has to leave no doubt that he is actually healthy then I'd be okay with the idea of him hitting cleanup to start it off.

[BRAVE KID]

At least to start. If BMac shows signs of his former self, then he can earn the spot.

So if both he and Freeman are raking at Spring...and he goes with B-mac to begin the season...bad move?

[GLASSMAN]

B-mac has to leave no doubt that he is actually healthy then I'd be okay with the idea of him hitting cleanup to start it off.

Tunneled in on leave. My bad. Agree with you.

[Bravo95]

Fredi just needs to be somewhat open-minded about this group of players. He shouldn't rely so heavily on the same guys all the time, much like his bullpen management. If you, as a leader, just give more guys a chance to prove their worth in bigger roles, often times they'll run through a wall for you. Can't play the same lineup games he did in previous years, keeping Dan at cleanup when he sucked and keeping Jason at 7th when he was playing well. Like uga said, if Mac earns the spot, it's all his. But it's really about the big picture.

[NBA_Starter]

Trusting Fredi is not easy

[GoBraves]

The important question no one is asking is this. Now that we have both Upton brothers, what is the plural for Upton? do we call them "Uptons" or is the correct term "Upti"?

[GLASSMAN]

Fredi just needs to be somewhat open-minded about this group of players. He shouldn't rely so heavily on the same guys all the time, much like his bullpen management. If you, as a leader, just give more guys a chance to prove their worth in bigger roles, often times they'll run through a wall for you. Can't play the same lineup games he did in previous years, keeping Dan at cleanup when he sucked and keeping Jason at 7th when he was playing well. Like uga said, if Mac earns the spot, it's all his. But it's really about the big picture.

Agree with the premise but this squad is light years ahead of any overall squad that we've fielded in several years. Choices will be easier to make when the level of talent is as consistent as this team should be.

[ugafan]

So if both he and Freeman are raking at Spring...and he goes with B-mac to begin the season...bad move?

1. Everybody rakes in ST
and
2. isn't McCann out until a couple weeks into the season anyways?

[Thibs34]

Im not sure if anyone has mentioned this but do we make this trade if Dumpster decides to come to the Braves? We no longer have Delgado if he would have accepted. You could say in a round about way that he made the best decision that any Braves fan could ask for. As a result, we have our #4 starter, one of the best bench players in the game, and a potential MVP in LF. We should pay Dempster for not being on our team.

[westside]

^^...lol. Dempster is Golden in my book.

[iamaj]

I wanted Maholm over Dempster before the veto.

With Mac rehabbing I doubt he can do much in ST. Maybe Freeman gets cleanup to start the season. If he starts off red hot, maybe that forces Fredi to leave him there.

[BRAVE KID]

1. Everybody rakes in ST
and
2. isn't McCann out until a couple weeks into the season anyways?

A). Not exactly. Pure example..Jason Heyward last year. .227/.272/.413 .685 OPS in 75 AB (3rd most AB's on the team). Of course it didn't translate to the regular season (well had a meh April and a awful May but overall good)...but not everyone rakes in Spring.

B). He may be..but I thought there were talks about him being ready come opening day.

If he's not ready, then it's all good. I love me Freeman..believe he'll do the job just fine.

[beldugo]

Im not sure if anyone has mentioned this but do we make this trade if Dumpster decides to come to the Braves? We no longer have Delgado if he would have accepted. You could say in a round about way that he made the best decision that any Braves fan could ask for. As a result, we have our #4 starter, one of the best bench players in the game, and a potential MVP in LF. We should pay Dempster for not being on our team.

That means we have Arodys Vizcaino which we could have dealt in the Upton trade, Prado-Vizcaino-Ahmed-Spruill-Drury would also have gotten us Upton in my opinion.

[ugafan]

A). Not exactly. Pure example..Jason Heyward last year. .227/.272/.413 .685 OPS in 75 AB (3rd most AB's on the team). Of course it didn't translate to the regular season (well had a meh April and a awful May but overall good)...but not everyone rakes in Spring.

Let me re-phrase that then, spring training performance has little to no correlation to regular season performance

B). He may be..but I thought there were talks about him being ready come opening day.

If he's not ready, then it's all good. I love me Freeman..believe he'll do the job just fine.

Even if he's ready by opening day he won't have gotten reps in ST. I don't think there's much of a chance at all that Mac plays in ST. Coming off injury and not playing in ST I don't think he should start in the middle of our lineup.