Braves

  Next on the list is our home grown first baseman, Freddie Freeman. Freeman struggled during the first month of the 2011 season, but after he adjusted to the league (just like he did in practically every league) he never looked back. He performed better than most people expected and would have won the NL Rookie of the Year Award if it wasn’t for teammate Craig Kimbrel. You have to hate saves… Anyways, a slash line of .282/.346/.448 with 21 homeruns, 76 RBI, and 67 runs is pretty impressive for a rookie. If I remember correctly, Freeman wasn’t predicted to [...]

I hate the format that everyone seems to go by when doing player projections. C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS etc. It gets boring, and I would hate for you guys to get bored. So let’s start it off with center field to keep things fresh. Like Ben Duronio says, centerfield is going to be the biggest difference in production from 2011 to 2012. I agree with him on the subject and a lot of people forget that we had Michael Bourn for less than half of the season last year. Nate McLouth and Jordan Schafer were the guys who manned [...]

Zeke Spruill is the first pitcher we are hitting on the top ten list, coming in at number 8. Spruill is a guy most people haven’t heard of (thanks Teheran, Vizcaino, Minor, Beachy, and Gilmartin) and a player unlike most of the other pitching prospects the Braves are known for. Height- 6’4” Weight- 184 Bats- Switch Throws- Right Age- 22 Most of the Braves top pitching prospects are known for their high ceilings as major league pitchers. Teheran is supposed to be the Braves ace of the future, Delgado has been predicted as a good #2 guy, and Vizcaino has [...]

Context is Important Everything requires context if it is to be understood. In an interview with the AJC last Wednesday, Braves CEO Terry McGuirk provided much needed context to the present and future payroll situation.  In doing so he confirmed what I wrote the day before; the Braves have no money to spare -  there is no payroll flexibility. While this was the most revealing interview we’ve had from the Braves front office it still requires some use of my diplomatic translator to clear away the fog of diplomat speak.

After finishing up my bullpen piece, its only natural to follow with a breakdown of the Braves’ bench this coming season. For the most part we know who is going to be there, and while I agree with most of the players there is one I disagree with and a spot that seems to be open at the time. Obviously that spot will be won during spring training but it could be a number of players, and I couldn’t tell you who it is going to be. We will start with the locks to keep it simple. Definitely going to [...]

Arguably one of the better parts of 2011 for the Braves was the bullpen. Craig Kimbrel, Jonny Venters, and Eric O’Flaherty formed the best trio in the big leagues last year earning a not-so-stellar nickname in the process. Kimbrel won the rookie-of-the-year award, O’Flaherty had the lowest reliever ERA, and Venters racked up 85 innings, good for first in major league baseball for relief pitchers. In fact, all three of the bullpen aces had a pretty large workload because of a shallow pen, and young pitchers not going very deep into games (Brandon Beachy being the main culprit). Venters had [...]

I feel like I haven’t talked about Jason Heyward as much as I probably should have. I was constantly reading about his woes, and shoulder issues, and change of pace at the plate, etc. on other sites so I figured you guys had enough of that too. But with Spring Training on the horizon it’s probably a good idea to take a look at what was wrong with Jason Heyward last year and what could hold him back in the future. The first topic will be a bit briefer than the second because no one really knows why Jason Heyward [...]

As we rapidly approach February and the start of spring training the Braves still haven’t made any trade or free-agent moves, while our NL East rivals have massively improved this offseason. Miami leads the way, but Washington has made substantial improvements and the Phillies are as strong as ever, it doesn’t look good does it? But maybe it isn’t all doom and gloom. Coming into the offseason, I and I’m sure every other Braves fan had high hopes that we would be acquiring a new power hitting outfielder through trades. This never happened, but it meant that we didn’t dispose [...]

I did my scouting report on Terdoslavich a while a go, so I am just going to link to it for this. I would do more, but since there has been no baseball between now and when I wrote the first report on him I figured not much of it would change. Look forward to next Wednesday’s report on Zeke Spruill however, he is one of the less covered prospects in the Braves system. It should be a pretty interesting read if you’re trying to get into the Braves minor leagues and prospects. Here is the Joey Terdoslavich scouting report. [...]

  Standing Pat Into Spring I’ve been unable to post for a while  so here’s an update on the Braves roster during my absence. Jack Wilson signed to backup Tyler Pastornicky  All arbitration eligible players signed