Playoff Roster

We have tons of time until Thursday morning when playoff rosters are official, so lets make predictions. I'm bored and like thinking things through on here. We can do them based off how we think it SHOULD happen or based off how we think it WILL happen.

Locks:
Position players (12):
Yasmani, Barnes, Bellinger, Enrique, Machado, Turner, Joc, Muncy, Puig, Freese, Kemp, Taylor

Pitchers (12):
Kershaw, Ryu, Buehler, hill

Jansen, Maeda, Ferguson, Alexander, Baez, Wood

I'm guessing they'll go 8 man bullpen, so 13 position players.... So, I see it as 1 open position player and 2 open bullpen spots

For the position player, I could see it making sense to go with Dozier but, the Braves roster makes him a bit useless. The Braves starters are all gonna be right handed which means the bench will basically always be Barnes, Freese, Kemp, and Taylor. I don't see the need for another right handed 2B, especially one who'd be behind all those guys in the depth chart. They should probably go with either a left handed hitter or pinch runner which is basically down to Verdugo, Toles, Locastro, or Utley? Locastro is the best pinch running option, Verdugo is the best pinch hitting option, Toles is the best combination of speed/offense... I lean towards Toles I think

As for pitching, right now I have 3 RHP and 3 LHP... I think Stripling should be there, although he's been shaky lately... and then the last spot is basically if they want a LOOGY (Rosscup) or a better right handed option (Floro, Madson?)... I'll predict they go with Rosscup even though he isn't very good.

 

I go with Toles also tbh. He has the best combo of contact/speed/power/defense that can be useful. I think Verdugo is a better hitter but we don’t necessarily need just a hitter

I’m wary of Stripling also. I also thought Floro was a slam dunk but he’s hardly been used these last few weeks and we might need lefties more than righties for Freeman/Markakis

 

love utley
but he can't be on the roster
freese should be a no brainer
pen is interesting
locks probably alexander, ferguson, baez, maeda, kenley
after that it's a bit of a crapshoot, but id go with floro and probably urias and venditte
i don't trust fields, yimi or (tbh) strip
madson has been meh at best
rosscup, also meh
and wood... idk

 

and probably against popular opinion
i'd take verdugo over toles
racist

 

locastro might be useful in a big spot, but tbt [otherwise] a waste of a roster spot
unless it's him over logan dozier

 

I did think about that but Barnes isn’t good enough for that this year... he might get a start against a lefty starter but the Braves only have 1 and he’d MAYBE go game 4. Barnes wouldn’t be in top 3 options off the bench so the only way you burn Barnes is as a pinch runner, and might be better to go with other guys who can do more than that.

 

fuck barnes
he's fucken terrible
would have been cut long ago if he wasn't a catcher
and the fact that he remains higher on the depth scale than farmer suggests the team doesn't value farmer much as a receiver

 

give dozier his walking papers...

 

Not my preference but I'm almost certain Dozier's HR a few days ago buys him a spot. Big if, but if he gets hot, that improves our roster incrementally.

I'm eternally grateful for Strip's early season heroics, but in what situation can you bring him in in the playoffs? I guess if we're down 10 but is that worth a spot? I'd rather it go to Urias.