Morning Chop: Atlanta Braves News 2/7
Atlanta Braves Link Dump: 2/7
Braves News:
Braves Interested In Extensions For Andrelton Simmons and Julio Teheran
Gold Glove shortstop Andrelton Simmons and hard throwing right-hander Julio Teheran are next on the Braves priority list according to MLB columnist Joel Sherman. The team is interested in keeping their talented youth around for the long haul.
Talking Chop’s Week-long Prospect Rankings Continue
The staff here at Talking Chop continues to rank the top 25 players down on the farm, starting with Gwinnett’s David Hale at No. 10.
The Freddie Freeman Deal: A Market Correction
Dave Cameron of Fangraphs explains why he believes Freddie Freeman was paid as a superstar would when he hasn’t reached that level of stardom yet. There’s no question that the man who gives plenty of hugs has plenty of pop, but can he hit over 30-plus home runs a season?
Rumor Roundup
Atlanta’s Extension Spree
Braves hope to secure extensions for Andrelton Simmons, Julio Teheran
General manager Frank Wren has been busy in recent days, locking up Jason Heyward through his arbitration years and Freddie Freeman to an eight-year, $135 million hitch that represents the largest outlay in franchise history. Joel Sherman of the New York Post believes that Wren isn’t done yet.
The Heyward and Freeman deals bucked the Braves’ file-and-trial philosophy, but the team would now like to lock up two other key homegrown players long before the sides need to exchange arbitration figures. With one year and 125 days of service time, Simmons is at least one year away from arbitration eligibility—this year’s Super Two threshold was 2.122—and Teheran (1.062) is in no danger of heading to a hearing until at least 2016. Still, with a relatively low-revenue television contract hindering the team’s spending, a little cost certainty could go a long way.
Balancing present and future the art of Freeman deal
ATLANTA — Once they had both avoided arbitration by agreeing to multi-year contracts earlier this week, Freddie Freeman and Jason Heyward sent each other congratulatory texts.
Though his two-year, $13.3 million contract pales in comparison to the franchise-record eight-year, $135 million commitment Freeman gained from the Braves, Heyward did not allow jealousy to prevent him from expressing happiness for a close friend with whom he has spent nearly all of his professional career.
“It’s nice to be able share with somebody you have known before you got drafted,” Freeman said. “Being in the same organization and the same team together, it’s something special.”
Freeman and Heyward have been together nearly every step of the way, dating back to 2007, when the Braves selected both in the first two rounds of the First-Year Player Draft. Even in 2010, when Heyward was enjoying a successful rookie season and Freeman was gaining one more year of Minor League seasoning, the two shared a suburban Atlanta residence.
But now that Freeman has signed this megadeal, there is reason to wonder if the Braves will be able to keep the two together once Heyward becomes eligible for free agency after the 2015 season.
Atlanta Braves Need Mike Minor To Prove He’s a No. 1 Starter
s I have mentioned over the past few weeks, the Atlanta Braves have a terrific core of players with guys such as Andrelton Simmons and Evan Gattis. Another piece of the team that is included in that core is Mike Minor.
Minor is one of the most interesting guys on the team in that he has a huge upside, but nobody knows if he can sustain his success. In his three seasons in the major leagues with over 15 starts, 2013 was the only season that he has had an ERA under 4.12 which stood at 3.21. This past season was also the first season that Minor threw over 200 innings and only had two more starts than in 2012.
However, he has never finished a year below .500 in the win/loss column. In 2013, Minor gave up nine less runs than in 2012 in two extra starts and also had a WHIP of 1.090. He also recorded almost 40 more strikeouts than in the previous year. These are statistics that are tell-tale sign that Minor may have turned a corner in his young career.