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Previewing the 2017 Atlanta Barves

Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

Let's start this off with a story. The year is 2014, and a National League team is coming off of two seasons of over 90 wins. After playing out a disappointing year that saw them miss the playoffs and finish under .500 they decide to start trading off many of their veteran players (save for a very talented first baseman) to kick off a rebuilding project that would see the team lose over 90 games the next two seasons. Throughout the rebuild they would build up a stable of young, talented pitching prospects while picking up a top infield prospect along the way. While the pitching prospects have potential to be good in the future, they get pretty roughed up in their limited major league action, forcing the team to sign a couple veteran free agents to bridge the gap until the young guys are ready for their next run of success. Stop me if you've heard this one before.

The Atlanta Braves are entering year 3 of a rebuild that has left plenty of excitement and a lot of questions. First of all, they are ripping off taxpayers moving into a shiny new stadium 20 minutes North in Cobb County. To go along with that shiny new toy, they have a couple of shiny position players that left Braves fans all hot and bothered. Dansby Swanson and Ender Inciarte joined the Braves prior to the 2016 season in a trade that sent Shelby Miller to Arizona in an absolute fleecing of the Diamondbacks. I know that is old news, but when something that one-sided happens you need to mention it every chance you get.

Unfortunately, there are still a lot of questions left to answer, especially with the young pitchers. While a lot of them were able to get major league experience in 2016, they were absolutely shelled. It forced them to sign the two oldest free agent pitchers on the market in R.A. Dickey and Bartolo Colon to hopefully give the younger guys some time to develop. Just as they added some veterans to the rotation, they are also veteran-laden in the field. Brandon Phillips, Matt Kemp, and Nick Markakis are all 30-somethings that will be cogs in the lineup for most of 2017. While the Atlanta Braves might still be rebuilding, they certainly are not young.

Let's preview the 2017 Braves:

Pitching

Juio Tehran enters 2017 once again as the anchor to the rotation. He improved in 2016, tossing a 3.21 ERA over 30 starts while also increasing his strikeout rate from 7.7 to 8.0 per 9 innings and decreasing his walk rate from 3.3 to 2.0 walks per 9 innings. He leads a rotation that got quite a bit older over the off-season. After spending all of 2016 watching their young pitchers get mashed all over the diamond, the Braves front office decided to make some moves on some veteran starters to take some of the load off of the youngsters. 43-year-old beast Bartolo Colon joins the Braves after spending the last three seasons with the New York Mets. Colon comes off another solid season in New York, where he put up a 3.43 ERA in 191.2 innings over 33 starts. While his strikeout totals decreased and his walks increased, he gave up fewer hits and fewer runs than he had in the last three years. At this point, he is doing pretty much everything you can ask out of a 43-year-old. R.A. Dickey joins Colon as the Elder Statesman of the rotation. He comes off a 2016 performance that was one of his worst in recent memory. He walked more batters, gave up more hits, and allowed more home runs per 9 innings than he had in his entire career. The 41-year-old knuckleballer will hope to improve on that performance if he wants to stick in the rotation.

The last starting pitcher the Braves added in the off-season was Jaime Garcia, whom they acquired from the Cardinals after sending three prospects to St. Louis. Garcia is coming off somewhat of a fluky year. A pitcher that generates a ton of groundballs, he saw his GB% drop from 62% to 58% and his BABIP make a huge jump from .267 to .305. 2016 was also the healthiest he had been in a long time, making 30 starts for the first time since 2011. Rounding out the rotation will most likely be Mike Foltynewicz. He recovered from a Thoracic Outlet issue and joined the rotation in May of last season. While he struggled with control in the beginning of the season, he settled down and pitched better as the season went on. Matt Wisler and Aaron Blair could also get looks in the rotation as the season progresses.

In the bullpen, Adonys Vizcaino is one of the Braves best relievers. If he can stay healthy, he is a great late-inning option for the Braves. He will share these late-inning duties with Jim Johnson. Chaz Roe, Jose Ramirez, and Ian Krol will all get plenty of time as middle relief options.

Projected Rotation:
Julio Tehran
Bartolo Colon
Jaime Garcia
Mike Foltynewicz
R.A. Dickey

Offense

As Julio Tehran is the anchor of the rotation, Freddie Freeman is the anchor of the lineup. One of the best first-basemen in the game, he bounced back from a disappointing 2015 to have one of the best seasons of his career. In 2016, Freeman went nuts, hitting .302/.400/.569 with 34 home runs, 91 RBI, and 89 walks. He was worth 6.5 bWAR, the highest of his career, and put up a career-best 157 OPS+. Across the diamond, Dansby Swanson is the other guy that have Braves fans excited about the future. After getting fast-tracked through the minors last season, he was called up for the final month of 2016 and had a very solid debut, hitting .302/.361/.442 over 38 games. While the sample size was small, he showed in that short time that he was ready for the show both in the field and at the plate.

Swanson will team up with our old friend Brandon Phillips. After new signee Sean Rodriguez was injured in a car accident, the Braves were left with a hole at second base. Phillips career with the Reds came to an end after he was traded last week to his hometown team for a couple of guys (seriously, that's all they were. Don't make me look up the names.) Phillips is aging and losing range at second but will still make the highlight plays that have put him on Sportscenter throughout his career. He still swings at everything and doesn't walk, but will put the ball in play a lot. Over in the hot corner, Atlanta will go with Adonis Garcia. Garcia is similar to Phillips in that he doesn't walk, strikes out a lot, but will put the ball in play. While he isn't much to write home about on defense, he plays the position well enough to serve as a bridge until one of the Braves many young infield prospects are ready for the call-up. To round up the infield, Tyler Flowers will be behind the dish. He is coming off the best season of his career at the plate, hitting .270/.357/.420 in 2016.

Ender Inciarte will man center field and bat lead-off for the Braves in 2017. Always a terrific defender, he rebounded from injuries and a disappointing first half to go on a tear in the second half, where he hit .341/.396/.440 over that span. While he doesn't hit for much power, he showed great plate discipline in 2016, walking 45 times and striking out only 68 times, allowing him to become a very capable lead-off man for the Braves. Matt Kemp is an outfielder based on the fact that it is written on the lineup card every day and he stands in a patch of grass, but that's about as far as it goes. The mounting injuries over the years have taken a toll on his defense but he can still mash some dingers. He was another Brave that had a solid second half, hitting .280/.336/.519 with 12 bombs in the month and a half that he spent in Atlanta. Lastly, Nick Markakis will patrol right field. Although he increased his homer total from 3 to 13 in 2016, he still had a down year at the plate. He hit .269/.346/.397 but saw his strikeout total jump from 83 in 2015 to 101 in 2016.

Projected lineup:
1. Ender Inciarte, CF
2. Adonis Garcia, 3B
3. Freddie Freeman, 1B
4. Matt Kemp, LF
5. Mick Markakis, RF
6. Dansby Swanson, SS
7. Brandon Phillips, 2B
8. Tyler Flowers, C

2017 Outlook

The Braves aren't quite ready to compete,and especially with the talent of the Mets and Nationals in their division they'll probably have another losing season. But with Freeman as the cornerstone of the lineup, Swanson as the future, and the defense of Inciarte, that alone will give Braves fans plenty to cheer for in 2016. When you combine those three with the power of Matt Kemp and the occasional defensive gem from Brandon Phillips, you might have a pretty entertaining team down in Atlanta.

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