Hot prospects and old favorites.
By Fred Owens
With a hoard of reporters of every ilk descending on the Braves camp every piece of information is sent to the cloud far too often. I counted 24 tweets and retweets that today is BMac’s 27th birthday. I hope he enjoyed all the good wishes I am sure he heard today. Freeman and Heyward are perhaps the biggest attention getters in camp. He broke out some brand new red spikes that had even his close friend Heyward giving him a good natured ribbing. Paraphrasing Will Smith (Men in Black) he told J-Hey that on him they looked good. Lots of experts thing Freeman looks good enough to be the 21st rated prospect in the majors this year. Heyward continues to be more mature than his years and takes all the press attention in stride though I imagine he’s glad Freeman is soaking some of it up as well. His legendary batting practice demolition of cars continued in spite of the Braves erecting tents to protect the cars parked just beyond the way. Someone parked their van outside of the tents and J-Hey dented his roof for him.
Chipper’s knee felt better today allowing him to take part in some team warm-ups and drills. He’ll take it slowly so as not to damage it again I’m sure. We won’t know anything for certain until games start and we see how he reacts to actually playing. His partner on the left side of the diamond Alex Gonzales arrived in camp today so the whole gang is officially here. I’ll be watching for news of his knees as well. We’re short of experienced infield backup plans and need AGon to stay healthy and productive. The competition for those backup slots includes Brooks Conrad (2nd and 3rd) and Joe Mather (1st, 3rd and outfield) and Diory Herenandez (SS). Conrad is out of options so not making the team out of camp would expose him to waivers. Of course considering the bad PR he got during last year’s playoffs many teams would ignore his availability. Mather hasn’t played enough infield to be my first choice there. Hernandez seems to always be on the cusp of the big leagues without successfully making the jump. I’m looking for positive reports on him this year to give me the warm fuzzy feeling I need.
Everyone is talking about how well Jordan Shafer is hitting this year and what good shape he’s in. Shafer took Jonny Venters deep in BO and rattled line drives off the wall facing Teheran and Delgado. He’s fully fit for the first time in two years and full of confidence too. While I am sure Frank Wren would like Nate McLouth to be the starting center fielder so all that money won’t be completely wasted, a healthy Shafer on top of his game could give him second thoughts. McLouth has looked good in his workouts as well and I’m sure he gets the first shot. Time and actual game performance will tell of course and Chipper’s health may also be a factor. If Prado is forced to play a lot of third both Shafer and McLouth may be starters.
As usual Braves pitching prospects continue to impress. The latest to start tongues wagging is LH Brett Olberholtzer whose stuff during side sessions raised some eyebrows. Last year Olberholtzer had 126 Ks with only 23 walks in 135 inn in A ball; he’s certainly someone to watch for the future. Meanwhile Julio Teheran, Randall Delgado and Arodys Vizcaino are considered the second, 52nd and 63 ranked prospects in the majors for this season. Left Mike Minor, favorite for this year’s 5th starter role is considered the 28th ranked prospect while closer in waiting Craig Kimbrel is ranked 87th. If there are 20 better prospects than Freeman and 86 better than Kimbrel who’ll be in the bigs this year, I REALLY want to see those guys.