Colon would be solid if the Braves were looking for a hired gun to make a WS run. They aren't. They are in the process of building a franchise. You do that with young players like Kimbril, Freeman, Simmons, and Hayward.
You don't do that with Markakis, Dickey, Kemp, Colon and Pierzynski. Might as well hire Bobby Cox for 1 year and pay him 15.8 million.
I agree in part. Maybe one too many elder statesmen. But having watched this team the entire season and how they morphed from a laughing stock to a team no one wanted to see coming by years' end, I finally saw a method to the madness. This team is loaded with young talent, most of whom are making the minimum. ($508K) They have their leadoff hitter of the future and one of the better center fielders in the game win Ender Inciarte. (26) You wouldn't even list Simmons above if you watched the development of Dansby Swanson at short. This kid (22) isn't far behind Simmons in the field and he'll damn sure wind up a better hitter.
They're set at 3rd with Adonis Garcia and the pitching staff has more live arms than I've ever seen on a Braves staff.
Not better pitchers. Just better arms. And that's where you need a couple of veterans like Dickey and Colon while the others develop. Do you realize the senior member of the starting staff (The permanent starters) is Julio Tehran at 26 years old? Everyone marveled at Chapman bringing it up there at 102 in the W.S. 23 year old, Mauricio Cabrera, for the Braves rarely threw a pitch under 100 m.p.h. Like so many others, he's making the league minimum.
I have no problem with Markakis. Outside of Freeman, he was the most steady guy on the field. His average fell off at the very end to .270 but he had 13 HR's and 89 RBI's and played a solid right for 158 games. The thing about Kimbrel, Hayward and Simmons (They were never letting go of Freddie) is the Braves knew they were going to have to tear it down and rebuild. These guys were looking at long term astronomical contracts and let's face it, Hayward was the picture of inconsistency and Simmons just wasn't very good overall at the plate. Kimbrel was just going to command too much money long term.
Not sure why Pryznimnskzi is still on payroll because they found their every day catcher in Tyler Flowers, who is also 10X the hitter AJ is right now. And their back up, Anthony Recker, played well too. My take is that you need this experience while developing a young nucleus of players. They may be paying them too much but that's easily offset by all the minimum contract guys on the roster. They'll move each older guy out as the younger guys take over.
Needless to say, I started getting excited again about the future of this franchise.
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