Clippings Wednesday, December 2, 2015 Braves.com

Miller's value rises as free-agent aces cash in

By Mark Bowman / MLB.com | @mlbbowman | December 1st, 2015

ATLANTA -- Now that the recent signings of David Price, Jordan Zimmermann and J.A. Happ have provided us the annual reminder that free-agent pitchers are quite expensive, teams looking to significantly impact their rotation have been given further reason to ask the Braves about potential trades for 25-year-old ace Shelby Miller.

When Price, 30, agreed to a record-setting seven-year, $217 million contract with the Red Sox on Tuesday evening, Miller certainly became more attractive to those teams that would like to gain quality value without breaking the bank.

But the same could have been said when Zimmermann gained his five-year, $110 million deal with the Tigers, or when the Blue Jays were willing to give Happ $36 million over the next three seasons. Miller, under club control until after the 2018 season, will make somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 million in 2016 and somewhere between $22-30 million over the next three seasons. Even at the optimistic high end of that projection, his $10 million average annual value would look much more attractive than those gained by Price ($31 million), Zimmermann ($22 million) and Happ ($12 million).

Happ likely gained his unexpected payday based on the 1.85 ERA he posted in 11 starts for the Pirates after the Mariners dealt him at the Trade Deadline. The 33-year-old southpaw had produced a 4.68 ERA in 20 starts with the Mariners and has a 4.12 career ERA over 171 starts.

While Happ has certainly never been mentioned in the same category as Miller, Price and 29-year-old Zimmermann have gained their lofty salaries based on what they have done during these formative/prime years that Miller is about to enter.

Miller has produced a 3.24 ERA through the first 96 starts of his career. At the same stage of their respective careers, Price had a 3.37 ERA and Zimmermann had a 3.25 mark.

While all ERAs might not be created equal, these numbers at least provide the Braves reason to once again question what kind of potential value they could be parting with at a time when it remains rather affordable.

There are two ways for the Braves to look at Miller, who earned his first All-Star selection and legitimized himself as a front-line starting pitcher while producing a 3.02 ERA over 33 starts this year.

The Braves could recognize the value of keeping a proven asset who is a bargain in today's market if he builds upon what he did this year. Miller and Julio Teheran provide Atlanta a pair of rotation anchors who have already experienced some of those growing pains that will be felt by the highly regarded pitching prospects the Braves plan to place in their rotation over the next few years.

Or, while recognizing the significant demand for Miller, who has already drawn interest from at least 15 teams, the Braves could attempt to cash in with a significant return that could address their glaring offensive needs and also potentially fill the resulting void in their rotation.

Jorge Soler (Cubs), Corey Seager (Dodgers) and A.J. Pollock (D-backs) are among the players the Braves have requested in return when approached about potential deals for Miller. This indicates they are only placing themselves in this market in the event that they end up with a significant offer they can't refuse.

Initially, the Braves talked to the D-backs about a straight swap of Pollock and Miller. But after recognizing that they needed to get a Major League- ready pitcher back, they discussed placing their potential closer, Arodys Vizcaino, in the deal in attempt to land Arizona's third-best prospect, Aaron Blair, a right-hander multiple scouts feel is ready to pitch in the big leagues.

Braves face tender deadline with Minor, others

Club expected to allow left-hander to become free agent, offer contracts to four

By Mark Bowman / MLB.com | @mlbbowman | December 1st, 2015

ATLANTA -- The Braves certainly do not want to spend a second straight year lamenting a hefty gamble placed on Mike Minor's left shoulder. But that does not mean they have completely ruled out the possibility that Minor could remain in Atlanta for at least one more season.

While there might be some uncertainty surrounding Minor's future, it's seemingly certain he will be non-tendered before the Braves are required to offer a contract to each of their arbitration-eligible candidates before Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. ET.

The Braves are expected to tender a contract to each of their other four arbitration-eligible players -- Shelby Miller, Chris Withrow, Pedro Ciriaco and Arodys Vizcaino. Miller will likely gain a contract worth approximately $5 million as he experiences the arbitration process for the first time. The other three players will likely get salaries that are valued at $1 million or slightly below.

If the Braves were to tender a contract to Minor, they would be required to pay him at least 80 percent of the $5.6 million salary he was awarded when he won his arbitration case in February. So instead of making this $4.48 million guarantee, they will likely allow the 27-year-old southpaw to become a free agent.

Minor has not been able to throw off a mound on a regular basis since undergoing surgery in May to repair a slightly torn labrum. He was shut down in early November to allow him to regain some flexibility in his left shoulder.

Whatever transpires over the next few weeks, Minor will likely end up with a one-year, incentive-laden deal or a two-year deal that provides what would essentially be a rehab salary for the 2016 season.

Minor battled shoulder discomfort as he compiled a 4.77 ERA during a frustrating 2014 season. Still, the success he had in 2013 put him in position to win the arbitration case, which was staged just two weeks before he experienced the shoulder discomfort that led to the season-ending surgery that was performed two months later.

Minor has been a member of the Braves' organization since being selected with the No. 7 pick in the 2009 Draft. After enduring some growing pains, he started to live up to expectations midway through the 2012 season.

Cliff Lee and Clayton Kershaw were the only qualified left-handed starting pitchers to post a better ERA than Minor (2.90) from July 1, 2012, through the end of the 2013 season.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Lucas Sims excited about his and Braves’ future

By David O’Brien

Had a couple of notes from the recently completely Arizona Fall League that I meant to post in a blog a week or two ago, but trades and things happen when you cover the Braves. Stuff can fall through the cracks, man.

Anyway, here’s some of that material that’s relevant going forward, from up-and-coming starting pitcher Lucas Sims and reliever Daniel Winkler.

First up, Sims.

Sims, a 21-year-old right-hander from Brookwood High in Atlanta’s northern ‘burbs, ended the 2014 season as Baseball America’s top-rated prospect, but saw that status slip after the team acquired multiple pitching prospects in a rash of trades and draft picks and after Sims struggled early in the 2015 season.

But the Braves’ former first-round draft pick (2012) came back strong after a DL stint for a hip injury sustained in the Class-A ’ bus crash in May. Sims built on his second-half success at Double-A Mississippi (3.21 ERA in nine starts, 56 strikeouts and one homer allowed in 47 2/3 innings) by taking his performance up another notch in the prospect-laden Arizona Fall League.

Pitching for the Peoria Javelinas, Sims posted a 2.12 ERA in six games (five starts), fifth-lowest in the AFL among pitchers who made at least four starts. He had 17 strikeouts in 17 innings and issued only three walks, the latter stat particularly encouraging after he walked 54 in 92 2/3 innings during the minor league season.

Sims was selected to start the AFL all-star game, and in his last four games for Peoria he allowed six hits, one run and one walk with 13 strikeouts in 12 innings. I was out there to see his best outing of the fall on Nov. 2, when Sims created a bit of a buzz among many radar-gun-wielding scouts in the stands during a three-inning stint in which he struck out four, allowed no walks or hits, and threw 26 strikes in 36 pitches while sitting at 94-96 mph with his fastball and topping out at 97-98 (at least one scout said he clocked a 98).

That fastball velo was a couple of ticks above Sims’ velocity in the past, and it came in a game in which he he had pinpoint control and also displayed a curveball that’s all but unhittable when he’s throwing it as well as he did that day.

Two days before that outing, I talked to Sims about his season and fall-league experience to that point. I used a lot of that in this story about Sims that I wrote after returning, and some more of it in this story about the harrowing bus crash and how it affected him and others from the Carolina team who also played for Peoria in the AFL.

But there were a few other quotes from Sims that I thought most of you would appreciate, since there’s a good chance we’ll be writing about Sims again during and a reasonable expectation that he could make his major league debut during the 2016 season.

Me: How’s your velocity now compared to when you were drafted, and what have you learned about the relative importance of pitch velocity?

Sims “It’s about right where I want it, anywhere low- to mid-90s. But the biggest thing is executing certain counts. The further you go up, you start seeing that the more white of the plate you hit, the harder it’s probably going to get hit. So the biggest thing really is locating quality pitches, changing speeds and changing eye levels. That’s been the biggest part, trying to learn how to fine-tune that.”

Your performance in the second half, do you think that made a statement, reminded people that you’re still a top prospect even if the Braves added a bunch of others in the past year and you were kind of overshadowed?

“It was a lot of guys, yeah.” (He smiled, left it at that.)

Who’ve you met among the prospects the Braves added?

“I got to know (Max) Fried; I knew him in high school a little bit, we went to some events. He’s pretty good. He’s coming back from his surgery, seems like he’s doing well. I got to meet (Tyrell) Jenkins. He’s a funny guy, great character, great ballplayer, too. And some of the younger guys that I got to see in instructs (instructional league).”

With all the young pitching they’ve added, is it exciting to think you could be part of a deep and strong rotation in the future?

“It’s something that, growing up in Atlanta, you’ve always seen. That’s what Atlanta does; we bring up pitchers. I’m just trying to do my part, learn what I can, put my work in, and try to carry on the long stream of quality pitching that Atlanta’s had.”

What are some of your memories of watching the Braves as a kid from Atlanta?

“Oh, man, I remember a lot of them. I got to really remember it towards the end of Smoltz’s career, middle to end. Watching him, Glavine, Maddux, just watching how they went about their business and just take command of the entire ballgame. It’s fun to watch them. I’ll still pull up YouTube videos, or whatever I can find, to just watch what it was like. You kind of put yourself in that perspective – I can be that guy one day. That’s the dream you have.”

Have the Braves made it clear as an organization that that’s the plan they’re getting back to, pitching as the foundation, and the “Braves Way,” all that?

“Yeah, that’s been a big part of what they’ve been telling us, the Braves Way. There’s a specific way things are done, and it’s something they take a lot of pride in. It’s just something that’s great to be a part of.”

So there is something tangible to the Braves Way?

“Yeah, it’s clear, they really instill it early — Rookie ball, low-A. And then by the point of where you start getting up a littler higher – Double-A, Triple-A, majors – it’s expected of you to basically just be a professional. That sums it up – be a professional.”

Are you excited about the changes they’re making, going forward with the new ballpark, where the franchise is right now, all that?

“I really am. I think we’ve got a great front office. I think we’ve got unbelievable player development. I wouldn’t be who I am today without a lot of those guys, not just as a baseball player but teaching us what it really is like to be a professional.”

• And here’s some stuff from a conversation I had in Arizona with Winkler, the 25-year-old righty who was a pick by the Braves from the Rockies a year ago. He made his major league debut in September after recovering from Tommy John elbow surgery, and Winkler was sent to Arizona to get some innings. He’ll need to spend the first couple of months of the 2015 season on the major league roster or be offered back to the Rockies.

Me: After pitching in the big leagues, are you getting anything out of this experience in AFL? Winkler: “Yeah, absolutely. I’m kind of starting to find myself a little bit more. I was talking to my wife the other day about how I just want to get back to the mindset that I had before I got hurt. (Winkler had a 1.41 ERA and 71 strikeouts in 70 innings for the Rockies’ Double-A affiliate in 2014 before he blew out his elbow). Just the confidence, the mindset. It’s just been different.”

Strange year for you, since you debuted directly in majors after Tommy John surgery as a Rule 5 guy, after the minor league season was completed?

“Absolutely (strange). It’s just getting back to that mindset and knowing that I can compete, do it here and up there in the big leagues.”

This is kind of the step you would have taken first, if not a Rule 5 guy that returned straight to big leagues?

“Yeah. Most of these guys are probably going to be big leaguers. Facing great competition who — they might be Mike Trouts or Kris Bryants (someday). So it’s great competition. Great thing just to get my feet wet and go into the offseason ready to make the team next year.”

You did it in reverse after your return from rehab, pitching first in the majors and then at this (AFL) level against minor leaguers.

“Yeah. And I’d rather have it no other way.”

What you did in majors, you think you’ll benefit, from knowing what to expect now as you go forward? “Yeah, absolutely. I kind of feel like I got my feet wet. I feel like I can pitch there. And just the lifestyle – the clubhouse, the coaches, what to expect. The bright lights aren’t as bright if you’ve done it a couple of times.”

You have a house you’re renting in Arizona with (pitchers Lucas) Sims and (Andrew) Thurman and (catcher Joseph) Odom, who were all teammates last year in the minors at Carolina.

“We’ve got a nice little house. North Scottsdale. It’s cool. I’m probably the oldest guy here, but it’s cool, the clubhouse feel, just getting back into baseball.”

So your wife is here with you during the fall league. I guess you’ve at least got the master bedroom at the house?

“Yeah, we’re paying for the majority of (the rent).” (Laughs.)

But you don’t have to buy the minor leaguers dinner every night, I hope?

“No, don’t have to do that. Lucas has got more money than all of us. So does Thurman, so….”

Good point. Lucas was a bonus baby. First-round pick. Speaking of Sims, what do you think after seeing him out here in the AFL?

“I had never really saw him throw before. But he’s a big kid, he’s very mature for his age. I’ve noticed that he learns fast, too. I think he’s going to be the real deal. Comes out throwing 96 (miles per hour), good breaking ball. He’s got a strong lower half. So I think he’s going to be solid.”

Fox Sports

The Braves and the 'New Stadium Effect'

Zachary Levine

In recent decades, it has become as much a part of opening a new ballpark as shopping the naming rights, draining the taxpayers or finding D-listers to tear down the days on your countdown clock.

As the Braves close out Turner Field this year in preparation to open their new suburban home, thus putting an end to baseball's longest building drought since the 1980s, they have brought about the familiar conversations of "building to the stadium."

Not to the dimensions or the wind patterns or anything like that. Just to the simple fact that they are building a new stadium.

It's a trope we've heard versions of for years, although not always in this form, and not always with this much advance notice.

The last stadium to open was the postmodernist Marlins Park, where the home team took a very modernist (let's call it 1990s) approach to building. The frequent roster builders and demolishers went on a last-minute shopping spree, signing Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Heath Bell as the expensive furnishings adorning their new home. Another memorable example was the Phillies' move to Citizens Bank Park in 2004, for which the preparations peaked the first week of December, 16 months out. Both local and national reports at the time described the Phillies as "aggressive" in building to their new stadium opening when they gave Jim Thome as six-year deal as the centerpiece of their buildup just after Thanksgiving one offseason out.

The Braves, as we've seen, are doing it very differently -- not trying to spend their way toward the ribbon cutting, but trying to age into it with the minor leagues' deepest crop of pitching prospects as part of a fast rising system that should be seeing its first significant contributions come Opening Day 2017. (Or maybe the Super Two deadline). The Braves are looking to enter their new stadium with the excitement of the 2015 Cubs or Astros, perhaps with the pitcher-heavy balance of the 2015 Mets, rather than the 2015 Dodgers approach that some others have taken.

It is, like in many cases, a blueprint that's existed just as much in media accounts of the pre-relocation patterns as it has in actual quotes or stated visions of the future. That's understandable. In a lot of ways, this is just business as usual, whether a team is closer to Year 1 in its home like the Braves, Year 10 like the Astros or Year 100 like the Cubs.

It makes sense as a story -- use the buzz to fill those seats from the very start and make that money. But as actual strategy, it's not that it doesn't work — just that it works in a slightly different way, as the recent numbers show.

Backing up a few more years, in 1999, the opened their new ballpark in midseason, coming back from a 12-game road trip followed by the All-Star break to find Safeco Field ready for play. Since then, there have been 14 new stadiums opened, each opening at the start of the season, providing good baselines for the year-to-year bump in attendance associated with an intra-city move.

The 14 teams from the 2000 Tigers, Giants and Astros to the 2012 Marlins averaged a 20 percent jump in attendance, but that's hardly a uniform prognosis for what's going to happen just by opening the doors. To start, three of the 14 teams actually saw a drop in attendance. The 2005 Cardinals were selling out routinely, so moving into the slightly smaller Busch Stadium threequel took attendance down 3 percent despite coming off a 100-win season. Ditto the 2009 Yankees, who like those Cardinals would win a World Series in their inaugural season at the new park, and whose attendance dropped 13 percent in a much smaller venue. And the biggest drop belonged to the 2009 Mets, who had blown a couple of shots in a row at the NL East crown and moved to a smaller venue and also suffered the consequences of the economic downturn to drop a rather stunning 22 percent.

If you were one of the teams that went up, though, you went considerably up. The 2000 Tigers moved into their new ballpark off a 69-92 season and still went up 20 percent. A year later, the Brewers ditched County Stadium for Miller Park in the midst of a terrible run and saw the largest increase of any of the teams — a 79 percent bump under their new retractable roof, which is the largest of the crop.

There is essentially zero correlation between the bump you get in the first year at a new stadium and the previous year's record.

And then, not surprisingly, all 11 teams that went up went back down again, and that's where you see a much more pronounced trend taking shape.

Building for a new ballpark isn't about boosting your attendance ahead of Year 1; unless you're selling out every game today or the economy crashes, that will happen anyway. Novelty, it seems, can overcome a lot of things, even a Willie Harris-Lastings Milledge-Austin Kearns outfield.

In the same way that attendance generally lags behind performance, what building for a new ballpark does is prevent the hangover in Year 2. It will be 2018 by the time we see what the Braves have really accomplished in building -- either actively or coincidentally -- for their new park.

Attendance in Atlanta has spent the better part of the last two decades being very predictable. The Braves were a top-two or three team in the National League for much of their mid-1990s run but began steadily dropping around the turn of the century. They spent most of the 2000s firmly in the middle -- they spent every year from 2002-2013 between 7th and 10th in the National League -- before their second big drop began a couple years ago with much less lag than usual with the team's plummeting performance.

There is little reason to believe the Braves won't be down again this year as a longshot to be competitive even in the poor National League East. Come 2017, their fans will brave the major highway intersection where SunTrust Park will reside in suburban Cobb County.

Whether the new area fits better with the fan demographics in metro Atlanta, it will produce the desired boost. And then the stable of pitching prospects has to carry the Braves for the next year or 20 -- which seems to be the approximate lifespan of ballparks for this franchise.

New York Post

How Braves have baseball’s alphas by throat on Shelby Miller

By Joel Sherman

The Red Sox’s signing of David Price removed an ace from the marketplace at a time when multiple clubs were looking for a top-of-the-rotation figure.

Zack Greinke remains in free agency, and there just might be a financial tug-of-war between the heated rival Dodgers and Giants. But that will leave the loser of that duel – or maybe both teams, should Greinke go elsewhere – plus several others still looking for its pitching leading man.

That is why Shelby Miller is being mentioned so prominently. Half the teams in the majors have called the Braves, and the Cubs, Diamondbacks, Dodgers and Giants are particularly interested.

Jordan Zimmermann, a good pitcher who might be beginning his fade, just signed for $22 million per year with the Tigers (five years, $110 million). Miller will earn roughly that amount, probably a bit more, via arbitration over the next three years combined – his ages 25-to-27 seasons before free agency. His salary and age make him attractive.

That is why Atlanta is asking so much in return. One executive familiar with Atlanta’s thinking said of a potential Miller trade: “[The Braves] need to get the right package, but yes, it’s possible.”

Miller was 6-17 last season, but that had more to do with the Braves than his work. The righty had a 3.02 ERA. His availability speaks to a) Atlanta having stockpiled a lot of high-end pitching prospects in its rebuild and b) the rebuild continuing, with the Braves eyeing positional talent, in particular, in order to move Miller.

The Cubs and Dodgers were linked with Price. The Diamondbacks feel they are a good starter, maybe two, away from being a significant contender.

The Cubs, after their $155 million signing of Jon Lester last offseason and with Jake Arrieta two years from free agency, have some hesitation about doing another nine-figure deal, which is perhaps why Price is a Red Sox and why they might not play deeply in the Greinke market. A trade might be more viable.

Marietta Daily Journal

Major road project to address traffic for Suntrust Park

By Ricky Leroux

MARIETTA — A $5.2 million road project in Cumberland aims to reduce traffic at one of the county’s biggest congestion points while also making it easier for fans to get to SunTrust Park.

Commissioner Bob Ott, who represents the area, said the project has been in the works for years because the intersection of Interstate 285, Cobb Parkway and Spring Road has long been identified as a bottleneck for traffic.

“That whole area has been a choke point, and so what these various projects are intended to do is to start separating or parceling out the cars and the traffic depending on where they’re trying to go,” Ott said, though he noted the project has likely been tweaked to account for SunTrust Park and the other developments that have come to the area as a result.

The project calls for an additional right turn lane from the I-285 ramp onto Cobb Parkway that will continue onto Circle 75 Parkway, which runs past SunTrust Park. The new lane would be dedicated solely to get drivers off the I-285 ramp onto Circle 75 Parkway and allow them to bypass both the traffic signal at I-285 and Cobb Parkway and the traffic signal at Cobb Parkway and Circle 75, according to county documents.

An additional northbound through lane will be created by widening Cobb Parkway to the east to replace the lane that will be taken by this dedicated lane.

The project also includes the addition of a third left turn lane from Cobb Parkway onto Spring Road, which aligns with a project the city of Smyrna is working on to widen that section of Spring Road.

Circle 75 Parkway will be reconfigured and widened to accommodate three left turn lanes onto southbound Cobb Parkway.

“You have to look at all the projects together as to how they’re working to address what’s been going on in that intersection,” Ott said.

In January, the county plans to open the project up for construction companies to bid on with work expected to start in February, according to Jim Wilgus, deputy director of the Cobb DOT. The project is expected to be complete in February or March 2017, Wilgus said, just in time for Opening Day at SunTrust Park.

Because the project involves an interstate, the Georgia DOT is also involved and has agreed to help fund construction. In a letter sent to the county in September, Georgia DOT Planning Director Jay Roberts said the state would contribute $4.7 million to the project’s estimated $5.2 million price tag.

The timeline of the project is “critical,” Wilgus said, so to make sure the project stays on schedule, the Cobb DOT asked permission from the Board of Commissioners to take two small pieces of land through condemnation proceedings.

The two parcels, a total of about 538 square feet, are needed to accommodate right-of-way requirements for the road project. The county also seeks to be able to temporarily use an additional 2,891 square feet across the two sites while construction is underway.

“We will end up — probably in both of these we’ll end up settling somewhere after this — but to keep the project moving, we have to be able to get this done,” Wilgus said, adding, “To keep that project moving and on schedule, we are doing condemnation. That does not mean that these two (parcels) will end up in court. They probably won’t, but we do this to keep the project on schedule.”

While the negotiations with the landowners are ongoing, Wilgus said having permission to use condemnation proceedings to take the land gives the Cobb DOT confidence that it will be able to use the land for the construction project if the talks fall through.