Atlanta Braves news: The offseason slowly rolls on

BRAVES NEWS

Newly-stripped prospects could return to Atlanta, but it’s very unlikely

Earlier this week, there was a showcase for the dozen of former Braves prospects who were recently released from the team as a result of the punishment that MLB laid down on the Braves. However, Ben Badler of Baseball America reported that only three prospects showed up for the showcase. That opened up the unlikely possibility that the Braves could potentially re-sign the prospects who were released. David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution explained why it’s unlikely that they’ll return.

The chances of any of the players re-signing with the Braves are slim at best, given that most will want to sign with a team as soon as possible or at least before spring training.

Also, if any of the players remained unsigned after February, it would indicate those players would be viewed as fringe prospects, at best, since it essentially wouldn’t cost anything for other teams to sign them after Jan. 15.

WAR told a weird story about Julio Teheran in 2017

Sam Miller of ESPN wrote a very interesting article that served to highlight how the many faces of WAR told different stories about Julio Teheran and the season he had in 2017. Baseball-Reference, FanGraphs, and Baseball Prospectus all have different methodologies for measuring Wins Above Replacement and the Braves pitcher offered one of the more fascinating examples of how the stat can vary depending on who the player is and exactly what happened for him in a respective season. It’s a fascinating read.

“Help us Acuna, you’re our only hope.”

Speaking of FanGraphs, The Hardball Times section over at FanGraphs turned their attention towards the Braves and their prized prospect, Ronald Acuna. Alex Remington noted that the Braves are banking a lot on Acuna living up to the expectations that have been bestowed upon him after showing signs of monstrous potential during his rise through the minor league system.

Acuna is not the Braves’ only good prospect: they have six other prospects in MLB.com’s top hundred: Allard at 21, Wright at 30, Soroka at 33, Anderson at 50, Gohara at 82 and Wentz at 94. Until recently, they also had Maitan at 38. But these other prospects are not in Acuna’s league. The ease with which he excelled at every single level convinced nearly everyone in the league who scouted him or faced him that he had both the talent and the skill level to hold his own in the big leagues, not soon, but now. Historically, 19-year-olds who have the kind of year that he had have gone on to dominate in the majors not long afterwards. He has loud tools, quiet poise and limitless upside.

Braves offseason questions: How will the team address their third base situation?

Meanwhile here on our site, Scott continued his series of offseason questions, and this time he focused on what figures to be a pretty big question mark for the Braves at the moment and that’s the third base situation. How will the Braves address what’s been a glaring hole for them since 2014?

MLB NEWS

Five teams who Stanton won’t play for

To paraphrase a pro wrestling legend, the Marlins are starting to “work themselves into a shoot” with their efforts to trade Giancarlo Stanton. For starters, ownership has reportedly threatened Stanton with the possibility of being a lone star on a team full of nobodies as they continue to slash payroll. Apparently that was done since Stanton has still made it clear that there are certain teams he will not go to and that will obviously make it a bit harder for Miami to move the power hitter elsewhere.

Why is the hot stove so lukewarm?

While Stanton’s trade saga and Shohei Ohtani’s impending arrival to the states have both progressed at a relatively glacial pace, it’s been popular to blame those two for the lack of movement that we’ve seen from teams this offseason. However, Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports came up with a few reasons as to why Stanton and Ohtani aren’t the ones to blame for the hot stove being anything but lit at the moment.