Atlanta Braves: Gwinnett Braves Roster Review
Last week, minor league baseball had their opening day on Thursday. Tomahawk Take will bring you the rosters for each full-season league the Braves currently have a team in. The 2014-2015 offseason brought a lot of new faces to the minor league system, so it’s good to know where you can find them all!
Our schedule:
Tuesday: Rome Braves roster review
Wednesday: Carolina Mudcats roster review
Thursday: Mississippi Braves roster review
Friday: Gwinnett Braves roster review
Gwinnett Braves Coaching Staff
Manager – Brian Snitker
Hitting Coach – John Moses
Pitching Coach – Marty Reed
Coach – Billy Nicholson
Gwinnett Braves Roster – Catchers
The catching roster in Gwinnett is populated with a trio of your traditional AAAA-type catchers. Guys with enough bat to stay on the field, but not enough to push their average glove onto the major league field or guys with excellent defense that can’t hit a lick typify the AAAA catcher. The G-Braves have 2 of the former and one of the latter. Jose Yepez returns for his third season in Gwinnett, and at 33, his major league prospects are likely eroding fast, but he provides enough bat and a veteran presence. Matt Kennelly has always had that label on his bat as solid “for a catcher”, which has allowed him to move up the ladder slowly, but he’ll need to take a step forward with his glove to have a major league career as a backup. Braeden Schlehuber has never had any questions about his glove, which may be good enough to give him a 3-5 year run as a backup catcher in the majors given the right opportunity, but his bat is quite questionable. Regardless, the trio’s professionalism and experience weighs very positive when working with the young, talented staff.
Gwinnett Braves Roster – Infielders
The jewel of the entire offense is 2B Jose Peraza (TT #1, MLB.com #1), who is regarded as a top 50 overall prospect in the game. Peraza is a natural shortstop, but due to a certain defensive stud already in Atlanta, he began taking reps at second base last season and leapfrogged to AA quickly. He doesn’t turn 21 until the end of April. He’ll bat at the top of the lineup until he’s ready to move up to Atlanta. The remainder of the infield features a group of experienced players shooting for one chance in the big leagues. Shortstop Elmer Reyes and 3B Pedro Ciriaco will likely utilize their versatility and gloves to get to Atlanta in September, if not before. Barrett Kleinknecht and Sean Kazmar are local guys (South Carolina and Georgia, respectively) who are likely not quite major league guys, but they’re solid and bring experience to the club. Adonis Garcia is an interesting piece who came over from Cuba in 2012 and joined the Braves system this season. He’s transitioning to first base and has shown a very live bat so far this season. While he is 30, his late start in the pro game may give him the chance to have a late-blooming major league career.
Gwinnett Braves Roster – Outfielders
This group is very interesting, to say the least. You have a former #1 pick of the Braves in Mycal Jones. You have two former elite prospects in Joe Benson (TT #27) and Cedric Hunter. You have a prototypical speed and defense guy in Eury Perez. Lastly, you have the steady constant of Todd Cunningham. In this writer’s opinion, any of these short of Jones should see some time before September in Atlanta, but it will all depend on the opportunity on the big club for them.
Gwinnett Braves Roster – Pitchers
This may be the best position grouping of any in the Braves minor league system. The rotation is headed up by new acquisition Matt Wisler (MLB.com #2), who came to Atlanta in the Craig Kimbrel deal. Wisler has a very good sinker/slider combination that reminds me a lot of Brandon Webb pre-injury. The rotation is still stacked behind that with Michael Foltynewicz (TT #4, MLB.com #3), who could emerge as an elite starting prospect if he can harness his control, or may end up a high-end closer instead. Manny Banuelos (TT #6, MLB.com #11) slots in third in the rotation, but if he shows he’s back to form after two years of dealing with post-TJ surgery issues, he could be to Atlanta quickly. Williams Perez and former Yankee Chien-Ming Wang fill out the rotation, but expect that some of the young arms in Mississippi and below could push for those spots by the end of the season. The bullpen will likely be a point of flux this season with guys like Sugar Ray Marimon already moved to the major league team and Ian Thomas has already been moved into the Gwinnett bullpen after starting in Mississippi. Arodys Vizcaino (TT #14, MLB.com #15) will provide bullpen help after he returns from a PED suspension.
My plug to watch your favorite team’s minor league players
I am not being paid for this comment by any means, and please don’t take this as an advertisement by Tomahawk Take. I would like to encourage all the readers of the site to consider the idea of subscribing to milb.tv this year. Those of you who subscribe to mlb.tv will know the quality production done as part of mlb.tv. The availability is awesome, and you can watch as many minor league games as you’d like in a day for $49.99 per year. You can utilize the same site you check for all your minor league news and box scores to subscribe, milb.com.