I get why people have dubbed the A's as a minor league affiliate of Atlanta. While it's still early to claim a complete and utter failure on the A's part for obtaining nothing for Olson and Murphy, I also feel like Oakland has been victimized by the Braves since the 2000's.
While the Mark Kotsay trade didn't really work out very well for either side, Joey D wasn't a particularly big acquisition outside of a hot start for them. Then, of course, there was that little Tim Hudson fleecing. I'm still not sure what Beane was thinking. I mean, Dan Meyer...sure. Good start to a package, but Juan Cruz and Chuck Thomas? I know hindsight is 20/20 and all that, but even I thought that was a steal back then and that's coming from a guy who was a huge homer at the time who blindly thought any Braves player was the hottest ish. Even I knew we were selling high on Cruz and Thomas.
Back on topic of what the Braves gave up in the Olson/Murphy deals, the guy I am most concerned about is Contreras. However, I also supported the idea of trading him. While I did have concerns about him maintaining that offensive profile (.344 BABIP in '22 and slightly high K% at 27.7) my huge concern was his defensive abilities and the fact that despite being hot with the bat in the second half they opted for d'Arnaud for every single playoff game as well as the big Mets series, if I recall correctly (like they went with Arcia over Grissom at 2B for defensive reasons and how they're currently going with Lopez over Grissom again). I'm glad to see Contreras picking things up on defense and making himself a formidable catcher, even cutting down on the K's and having that fall back in line with his minor league history. Obviously the A's like Langeliers and they also had Tyler Soderstrom, but I can't understand why they wouldn't have wanted Contreras over Ruiz. I know this isn't OOTP and you can't play these guys at stupid places like I had Jarrod Saltalamacchia playing 2B for my iteration of the Braves, but the Braves have shown this season that you can fit two very good catchers on the roster and get them at least semi-regular ABs between catcher and DH duties. They could easily have found a way to get Langeliers, Contreras and Soderstrom regular ABs between catcher, DH and 1B with Soderstrom. Or at the very least, developed all three and them flip one for more than Ruiz later. I get that Ruiz is fast...but I think they just saw an 80 grade in a category and went all Al Davis style on it and wanted it so bad and didn't care that the other tools weren't strong.
I get why people have dubbed the A's as a minor league affiliate of Atlanta. While it's still early to claim a complete and utter failure on the A's part for obtaining nothing for Olson and Murphy, I also feel like Oakland has been victimized by the Braves since the 2000's.
While the Mark Kotsay trade didn't really work out very well for either side, Joey D wasn't a particularly big acquisition outside of a hot start for them. Then, of course, there was that little Tim Hudson fleecing. I'm still not sure what Beane was thinking. I mean, Dan Meyer...sure. Good start to a package, but Juan Cruz and Chuck Thomas? I know hindsight is 20/20 and all that, but even I thought that was a steal back then and that's coming from a guy who was a huge homer at the time who blindly thought any Braves player was the hottest ish. Even I knew we were selling high on Cruz and Thomas.
Back on topic of what the Braves gave up in the Olson/Murphy deals, the guy I am most concerned about is Contreras. However, I also supported the idea of trading him. While I did have concerns about him maintaining that offensive profile (.344 BABIP in '22 and slightly high K% at 27.7) my huge concern was his defensive abilities and the fact that despite being hot with the bat in the second half they opted for d'Arnaud for every single playoff game as well as the big Mets series, if I recall correctly (like they went with Arcia over Grissom at 2B for defensive reasons and how they're currently going with Lopez over Grissom again). I'm glad to see Contreras picking things up on defense and making himself a formidable catcher, even cutting down on the K's and having that fall back in line with his minor league history. Obviously the A's like Langeliers and they also had Tyler Soderstrom, but I can't understand why they wouldn't have wanted Contreras over Ruiz. I know this isn't OOTP and you can't play these guys at stupid places like I had Jarrod Saltalamacchia playing 2B for my iteration of the Braves, but the Braves have shown this season that you can fit two very good catchers on the roster and get them at least semi-regular ABs between catcher and DH duties. They could easily have found a way to get Langeliers, Contreras and Soderstrom regular ABs between catcher, DH and 1B with Soderstrom. Or at the very least, developed all three and them flip one for more than Ruiz later. I get that Ruiz is fast...but I think they just saw an 80 grade in a category and went all Al Davis style on it and wanted it so bad and didn't care that the other tools weren't strong.