FanPost

The season is almost here, rosterbate quickly to be ready when games begin!



Cause we could all use a good practice round before the real thing. And it'll be here soon. Sure, there's nothing left to dream about in terms of the 2017 opening day crew, unless you dream about Angel Pagan. And if you do, I feel bad for you.

But we can still dream about some things. Like summer trades. And for the Braves, they could go either way, or both ways if things get frisky. We've got options to sell come May, June, and July. We've got assets to help buy in May, June, and July for pieces where the price is right. And we've got a team that could compete now, but should really get going in 2018 to make a particular type of piece of strong interest to the front office (high end talent with control for multiple seasons going forward).

The main questions for the lineup are long term options at C, 3B, and in the OF corners. At least that is provided Freddie Freeman, Ozzie Albies, Dansby Swanson, and Ender Inciarte stay healthy and playing at a high level. And assuming that Kurt Suzuki, Anthony Recker, Tyler Flowers, Adonis Garcia, Rio Ruiz, Matt Kemp, and Nick Markakis don't.

The rotation looks strong going forward with Teheran and Folty soon to be supplemented by Max Fried, maybe Sean Newcomb, possibly Matt Wisler or Aaron Blair, and then hopefully Allard or Soroka or Toussaint, etc. With a bullpen that has a ton of flame-throwing options getting stockpiled for future rosterbation needs with Jackson and Lindgren and Mintberry Crunch and Clouse and Webb and Johnson-Mullinsmonster and you get the picture. Not to mention Cabrera, Krol, Rodriguez, and Vizcaino in the current bullpen with a couple years of control left too.

But then you can never have too much pitching, at least not if you're the Braves GM. So we could look for more pieces there in the draft and upcoming trades, to go along with potential trade targets at C, 3B, and the OF corners.

As for possible trade bait, well there are pieces from arguably the best and almost universally agreed deepest farm system in baseball. Or there's the long game of adding more prospects to the current young core already mentioned, and trading vets away.

We can dream of a contender wanting Nick Markakis cause he's not that expensive compared to some (although certainly more than others), and his numbers that have hovered .270 or better in average, and around .350 or better OBP, combined with Gold Glove Finalist!!! caliber defense in RF may get someone wanting him. Or Matt Kemp continuing his strong slugging in the cleanup spot behind Freeman to entice an AL team he's worth it as their DH (we are rosterbating here so why not?).

Or of Kurt Suzuki, Brandon Phillips, or Chase D'Arnaud playing well enough in the first half that we can snag a nice couple of pitching prospects off the Mets for package of 1 + the inevitable Kelly Johnson.

Then there's arms in the always interesting mid season pitching market (remember, Jason Grilli got us something we let go after a week before excelling for the Blue Jays, while we picked up Lucas Harrell and Dario Alvarez off waivers after the season already started before flipping them for potential long term slugger Travis Demeritte). Jim Johnson may or may not become an option to deal, while RA Dickey, Bartolo Colon, and Jaime Garcia all are considered trade bait for a team possibly needing mid season rotation reinforcements. Then there's possible Collmenter pitching well enough to bring something back (you laugh, but Bud Norris and Lucas Harrell are still real people). Or a team thinking Mauricio Cabrera's 100+ heat and save experience makes him worth more than certain fans. Or a team really, really, really needing a lefty and thus willing to pay whatever Coppy demands for Krol, or Paco, or EOF, or Kevin Chapman or Jesse Biddle or some random waiver wire pick up in mid May that's somehow got a 1.83 ERA with 11.2 K/9 for us between then and July 27th like Luis Avilan or Jeff Locke.

I'm rambling, aren't I? Well, I guess I need to stop rambling and let you ladies and gents get to rosterbating proper in a nice sound silence. Cause that's the way to go, isn't it. Oh yeah, the rambling...

This FanPost does not express the views or opinions of Battery Power.