Atlanta Braves Morning Chop – Prospects, Fantasy, Stadium
Peraza leads 6 Braves prospects in ESPN’s Top 100
Jose Peraza. Photo Credit: Alan Carpenter, TomahawkTake.com
Keith Law has not spoken highly of the Braves’ farm system in recent years, but the ESPN.com baseball writer/scouting analyst gives the organization plenty of credit after a series of offseason trades that brought a bevy of prospects to buttress its foundation of young talent.
Law had the Braves’ farm sixth out of 30 major league organizations in his rankings that came out Wednesday, and on Thursday he placed six Braves prospects in his annual Top 100 list, tied for the most prospects from any team and the most the organization has had in a long time.
This comes less than two weeks after Baseball America’s editor-in-chief John Manuel told me the Braves raised their farm system from 29th in BA’s view at the beginning of the offseason to a possible top-10 position in the publication’s upcoming rankings.
Manuel gave me his revised top-20 Braves prospect rankings, and five of his top 10 and 11 of 20 were players acquired in offseason trades, including all seven total prospects the Braves got from San Diego and Houston in the respective trades for Justin Upton and Evan Gattis.
[ Ed. note: Law’s rankings:
Peraza (24), Foltynewicz (47), Albies (66), Jenkins (82), Ruiz (93), Fried (100).
Note that this time last year, Keith Law only had 3 Braves in that top 100 – and 2 fell out of the rankings this year (Lucas Sims, Christian Bethancourt). Overall, 10 of the Braves top 12 have been in Law’s top 100 at some point, giving the organization a 6th ranking overall in baseball (from a bottom-5 ranking just 1 year ago). ]
2015 Fantasy Outlooks: Atlanta Braves
SCOTT WHITE – SENIOR FANTASY WRITER / CBSSPORTS.COM
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This should be a short one.
There isn’t much left, not after the Braves made the uncharacteristic decision to gut their roster this offseason, trading away three of their four best hitters in Justin Upton, Jason Heyward and Evan Gattis, mostly for young pitchers. What little remains of a team that won 94-plus games two of the last three years is liable to lose 94 games this year.
And really, they’re only working with the remains. Of all the players the Braves acquired in those three trades, the only surefire contributor for 2015 is starting pitcher Shelby Miller, who certainly has upside and may have turned the corner with a 2.96 ERA over his final 12 starts last year, but who wasn’t much better than departed free agents Ervin Santana and Aaron Harang overall.
Of course, the Braves still have ace Julio Teheran, and Alex Wood also demonstrated frontline potential with a 2.43 ERA, 1.06 WHIP and 8.6 strikeouts per nine innings in 17 starts after moving to the starting rotation for good in late June. Mike Minor has been a frontline starter himself, and the hope is he rebounds from the shoulder injury that compromised him both physically and mechanically last year. Newly acquired prospects Mike Foltynewicz and Manny Banuelos will compete with bottom feeders David Hale and Wandy Rodriguez for the final spot in the rotation.
But they could all be aces and still lose 15 games apiece with the lineup the Braves have assembled. As bad as they were offensively last year, ranking second-to-last in runs scored, they’re down to two hitters who had an OPS above .700 last year — and one of them, headline free agent signing Nick Markakis, just had back surgery. Even if he makes a full recovery, it’s not far fetched to say B.J. Upton, heretofore the glaring hole in the Braves lineup, is now its third-best contributor.
…
The Braves do still have the game’s best closer in Craig Kimbrel, but here’s betting he’ll need to save two-thirds of their wins to reach 40 for the fifth straight year.
Stadium News
We're "goin' vertical!" These concrete columns will support the left field stands of #SunTrustPark pic.twitter.com/aGzm8W54V5
— Truist Park (@TruistPark) January 29, 2015
Columns are going up – concrete is being poured. There’s actual stadium building going on!
Ga. Supreme Court to hear Braves stadium case
COBB COUNTY, Ga. — The Supreme Court of Georgia will hear an appeal next week from three Cobb County residents who oppose funding plans for the new Braves stadium.
T. Tucker Hobgood, Richard Pellegrino and Larry Savage said the Cobb-Marietta Coliseum and Exhibit Hall Authority should have worked to get taxpayer approval before issuing up to $397 million in bonds to pay the public share of the stadium construction.
A Cobb County Superior Court judge validated the bonds after a July 2014 bench trial. Hobgood, Savage and Pellegrino then appealed to the state’s high court.
The three argued the agreement in which the authority issues the bonds and Cobb County pays for them violates the Georgia Constitution. They said the stadium project is an improper use of public tax money for a private facility, and the Braves reap all the benefits of the agreement.