I'm all for signing up to compete heavily for titles in 16 and 17, before the face of the team changes drastically.

I also think Gordon and Zobrist can be productive enough on the back end of deals to make things work.

I'd also be fine with extending Cain by 2-3 years, and Perez by 2-3, and using some of the payroll room that way. It's good to reward your own guys if you get a few more years of control out of it.

I want at least one veteran bat, to help protect against recession from Moustakas or Hosmer, and otherwise think they can puzzle piece things together (second bat, SP, etc).

That they're showing so much interest in CF types like Bradley does make me think, as I mentioned earlier today, that they may be eyeing a move of Cain to RF sooner rather than later.

It's nice having a strong core that gives you so many options.

Totally agree. The best part is that Moose and Hosmer should be much more likely to improve than regress.

Losing Simmons is going to be a huge PR blow for the Braves, but they've built a great collection of pitching prospects. Basically what the Cubs did with position players with Bryant, Soler, Russell, etc, etc... that's what the Braves are with pitching.

They've already got Teheran and Shelby Miller at the big league level, with Matt Wisler, Foltynewicz, Max Fried, Lucas Sims, Touki Toussaint, Kolby Allard, Mike Soroka, Manny Banuelos, Tyrell Jenkins, and now Sean Newcomb and Chris Ellis. They could field an entire pitching staff of prospects most teams fans would be chatting up as future frontline guys.

Be interesting to see how his postseason success affects his future contract.

I'd say he'd be in line for a Freddie Freeman type contract at this point... but he is also building a great reputation as a playoff performer. And he'll be a better HR guy in another ballpark.

I'm not as big on selling out the next two years as everyone else. Obviously we are going to go for it, and should... but I think Cuthbert and Mondesi are going to be good players. Bubba has a shot. Ventura and Perez are signed long term. Zimmer and Almonte have great potential. They're never going to retain all these current guys, but with a few smart signings this team can be competitive well into 2020... with a new TV contract to boot. They have a lot of incentive to keep this team competitive for the TV contract.

Kind of a small disagreement--They had some up and down years after 1985, sometimes they were contenders, sometimes they weren't, sometimes they were around .500.
The SUCK---truly SUCK years---historic SUCK was 1996-2013, other than the blip in 2003.
Just sayin...

We didn't suck in 2013, either.

Not sure if anyone has already mentioned it yet, but Kendrys Morales won the silver slugger award at AL DH

No one would have wanted to see us that year either, had we made the playoffs.

We were on fire to end the season

All star break on actually

That's right, I meant 2012.

Braves are shedding payroll to pay for the new stadium and should have a rebuild started pretty good by the time it opens.

It's only one more year. I think that's why a lot of Braves fans are ticked. They were building for 2017, feels like this trade pushes it back a bit more. They might be more competitive in two years but probably not ready to hit the big time unless some of these young pitchers take off next year.

Getting to that new Braves stadium is going to be America's greatest traffic nightmare.

Scott Boras

?