I would put it at 30% Heyward plays more than 90 games for the 2016 Braves.

Why

Freddie's 24, Jason's 25, Andrelton's 25, Julio's 23. They're ALREADY All-Stars or borderline All-Stars. All of them are on the up-slope of their careers, and all but Jason are locked up long-term.

I don't know how good the Nats will be for how long, or how much the Mets or the Fish will improve with their young talent. Philly's a dumpster fire with a long, inevitable, and painful tear-down/rebuild coming. So I see us at least competing in the East for the foreseeable future.

I think if the organization decided that they had to pick between Jason and Justin, they'll choose Jason.

I just hope that since we're stuck with BJ for a while, that will leverage Justin into staying here.

Catcher is such a unique position, I don't think they'll do anything with Bethancourt or Gattis. I like Laird is okay, and Doumit's a switch-hitting emergency catcher, which is why he's still in the league.

I think Doumit gets released in the offseason and they promote Bethancourt. I'm worried Gattis might have injury problems going forward.

I don't know Laird's contract situation, but you can never have too many catchers.

Especially younger, cost-controlled catchers, and we have 2 of them.

Yankees, Red Sox

I know all this. We were also supposed to compete for the East this year and we didn't. We are less than the sum of our parts, and it's frustrating.

We're definitely trading Gattis in the winter. At least we better. Bethancourt every day and sign some cheap veteran back up because Laird's deal is up after this year.

So what if he have 4 players that look like they could max out at allstars.

Everyone else blows. Fire sale.

Were on a nice 58-64 stretch.

Probably should trade Gattis in the offseason. Bleh. Offense will suffer..but then again hopefully BJ will be gone and Andrelton has nowhere to go but up in terms of offensive productin. We'll see, I guess.

Peraza needs to get his ass up here and slot in the leadoff spot, also.

Why are we so eager to get rid of Gattis?

Gattis belongs in the AL. Maybe we can get a 2B for him if not a top reliever or prospects.

Loss tonight feels like the end of the road; miserable rangers team we take a lead deep into the game with and lose. Gonna be 3 gb of wildcard and multiple teams to pass now. Time to look toward football and forget about the braves.

I wonder how hot Fredi Gonzalez's seat is getting

I think our hitting coach should get a $10/yr 20yr extension.

wow one run @ Rangers?

How is Ryan Doumit pinch hitting in the 5-hole? It's like some kind of sick joke.

The only explanation I can come up with is that Fredi is an arch-reactionary who views all baseball stats, including batting average, as new-fangled sabermetric garbage that he doesn't care about.

Lock thread until next March 30th.

+1

Hope Fredi is gone. Hated seeing the Nats clinch at the Ted tonight.

Is this the worst Braves lineup in 20yrs?

Don't lock thread, need discussion in offseason when they release BJ and trade Gattis.

Another great start for Alex Wood tonight.

...even though it was basically against Washington's AAA lineup.

Have to hit better than the Mendoza line as a team in September, though.

So where are we getting the lineup fixes?

BJ's been discussed enough ITT. We have Chris Johnson for 3 more years, and I guess we're getting close to replacement level production from 2B, which could be improved. They were saying on the Fan that they're grooming 2B for Jose Peraza, which I don't know much about.

Chris Johnson for 3 more years really really sucks. I hate that guy.

See ya Wren. Really hope Fredi is next.

Thank goodness, 7yrs, 1 divisional crown, no playoff wins...numerous bad contracts and a million tommy john injuries, guy had to go.

Fredi needs to go next.

Give the hitting coach a raise he is obviously too good an instructor.

Who do we think could replace Wren?

They might be thinking of Dayton Moore, gm of the Royals. He came up in the front office of our organization and then the Royals promoted him to the top. I always kinda thought his moves were questionable. And for the talent they developed, I see a track record of guys like Billy Butler, Eric Hosmer, and Luke Hochevar, who were each supposed to be The Next Big Thing and sucked at the major league level (among many others). So I don't think I want him.

And I don't think Royals fans would give him a passing grade for his tenure.