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Liberty finally let go of some cash.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/26916522/will-dallas-keuchel-make-braves-nl-east-favorites (https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/26916522/will-dallas-keuchel-make-braves-nl-east-favorites)

Went to see a game with my son a few weeks ago....we really like the new stadium. He and I have now watched games together at all of the stadiums, it was a great day.     :powert:     :patriot:

Keuchel agreed to a one year deal, rolling the dice that he'll have a good year and the Braves will want to resign him paying big bucks. 

Kimbrel wanted a 3 year deal from the get go.  The Braves were willing to go two years, but not three. 

Like Kimbrel better myself, but it made more sense to go with the one year deal and see what happens. 

A good start, but this pitching staff is by no means fixed. They still need at least two bullpen arms (including a closer), and probably another starter. A good GM could make a blockbuster deal with the Giants for all three (Will Smith, Sam Dyson, Madison Bumgarner). Dyson and Bum are both under contract through next season, and Smith is in his final year. So the cost shouldn't be unreasonably high.

But I don't trust this front office to do anything more. :banghead:

Well it's a start. The pitching staff will keep them from being super successful unless they add a couple more arms.

Yep.  And while the organization is loaded with prosition prospects, we've pretty much seen up at one time or another the top pitching prospects in the system.  It's very top loaded right now with pitchng.  Not a lot of quality arms at High A or below.

And the Braves draft strategy on pitching was a bit different this year.  Normally they go heavy on high school pitchers over college pitches, but this year it looks like 14 of the 18 pitchers they drafted are college pitchers.  Most likely looking for pitching that has an opportunity to advancethrough the system a little quicker. 

Also, going to be interesting to see where they start the first round draft pick catcher from Baylor.  On Wednesday they sent a catcher from AA to AAA, and they sent William Contreras from high A Florida to AA.  They have an opening still at high A, so they will likely either start him at high A Florida or send one of the catchers (3 on the Rome roster) from low A Rome to high A Florida and start him in Rome.  Wherever he goes, he's the guy.  That slot is worth just under $5 million, so he'll play immediately. 

There are still a few at AA or higher that we haven't seen- Ian Anderson, Joey Wentz, Kyle Muller, Patrick Weigel. But after that, the pickins get pretty slim. And if they make a big deadline deal, they'll probably have to part with 3-4 of these young arms. It's well past time to identify who they want to roll with and start shopping the rest. A 3 man postseason rotation of Bumgarner, Soroka, and Keuchel would be pretty hard to handle- but they have to get there first.