Baseball Prospectus Releases their Top-11 Braves Prospects for 2009
by gondeee on Nov 7, 2008 12:55 PM EST
in Braves Prospect Reviews
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PrintFrom the esteemed Kevin Goldstein over at Baseball Prospectus:
Five-Star Prospects
1. Jason Heyward, OF
2. Tommy Hanson, RHP
Four-Star Prospects
3. Jordan Schafer, CF
4. Gorkys Hernandez, CF
5. Freddie Freeman, 1B
Three-Star Prospects
6. Julio Teheran, RHP
7. Cole Rohrbough, LHP
8. Tyler Flowers, C
9. Randall Delgado, RHP
10. Brandon Hicks, SS
Two-Star Prospects
11. Kris Medlen, RHPJust Missed: John Gilmore, 3B; Craig Kimbrell, RHP; Jeff Locke, LHP
A lot of great prospects up there. It's nice to see we have two five-star guys, and there's Randall Delgado again.
The real kicker is what Goldstein says in his summary:
The Braves have a solid core of young talent, but for the most part it's not going to help this team get any better in 2009. The Braves are a solid long-term play, but a trade of top prospects for Jake Peavy would be a mistake, simply guaranteeing a solid run at mediocrity, as opposed to having the patience to wait out a possible return to National League East glory at the beginning of the next decade.
It's no wonder Mr. Goldstein is a friend of the blog.
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not that it's a democracy, but...
…you’d have my vote. Not just because of this, but a few other instances too.
Braves have a great system, which will hopefully only get better with the high draft choice in the upcoming draft. I’d hate to see a lot of these guys traded off, either. At this point, the Braves need to build from within and make a few good FA acquisitions.
Agreed
None of these prospects is knocking down the door – even Hanson, Schaefer, and Medlen would profit by a full season at AAA. There’s no rush to trade a player before he loses top prospect status.
What's the alternative?
I appreciate the general concept of not trading top prospects. Seems to me that’s exactly the course Wren is taking. The only ones on that list being prominently discussed are one of Schafer/Hernandez (how many CF prospects do we need?), and maybe Locke and/or Rohrbough (though surprisingly, haven’t seen Cole’s name mentioned much).
The alternative is to keep all these guys (on the outside chance that all of them become solid major leaguers), and either overpay for overpriced older/injury proned pitchers (Lowe, Burnett, etc, and that’s assuming they’d agree to come to ATL); or to do nothing for ’09 and probably 2010, and “wait til the year after the year after next year.”
Heyward, Hanson, Teheran and probably Freeman are off the table. We’re trying to sign Tazawa (who would be like a 1st round pick), and we have the No. 7 pick in the draft.
I don’t think we’re in danger of depleting the system too badly.
Love me some Baseball Prospectus.
I guess I should be one to talk.
There's nights that I can't even walk.
There's days I couldn't give a fuck.
And in between is where I'm stuck.
that’s deserved.
I guess I should be one to talk.
There's nights that I can't even walk.
There's days I couldn't give a fuck.
And in between is where I'm stuck.
by Smoltz's Beard on Nov 7, 2008 6:23 PM EST up reply actions
I wish I had some great story complete with pics ala Hobbs, but I don’t. Self-medicating myself for the most part. I’ve been lurking for a while, but decided it was time to lace my boots up again. Good to be back.
I guess I should be one to talk.
There's nights that I can't even walk.
There's days I couldn't give a fuck.
And in between is where I'm stuck.
by Smoltz's Beard on Nov 7, 2008 9:20 PM EST up reply actions
Notice Hicks at #10
IF, and I do mean if, we trade Escobar to whoever and we’re in some sort of rebuilding mode (maybe not contend until 2010), then perhaps Hicks becomes the heir to Yunel. I know he strikes out a ton, and if you put that at the ML level, he’d get creamed, but geez – give him next year at AA, and then maybe he’s ready for Atlanta. His defense is supposed to be above average – well above, if I remember right – so he couldn’t be much worse than Lillibridge. That assumes he cuts down on the Ks at AA. I guess we’ll see. I suppose, though, that if we’re looking to 2010, then Peavy would not be on the team, and Escobar would have had to be traded somewhere else.
Just thinking out loud here….
And for the record, I’ve said all along that I think Hicks Chipper’s replacement at 3rd…..
gotta love talkin' some chop!
“gondee” deletes my thread, plagiarizes it, then deletes the comment i make bringing that to light. LOVE IT!
And yet you keep coming back
Seriously though, I love how deep our system is. We can talk about getting Peavy and let’s say we actually land the guy, but where does that really put us? Probably the playoffs, but not a contender for the World Series.
I’m fine with being mediocre for a few years till our young prospect studs make their way to the bigs. We can be the next Rays. Just have to be patient…but that’s a hard thing to do in today’s market where you have to win now.
The Randall Delgado thing is funny to me. I saw him pitch and yeah, he’s OK, but I don’t think he’s one of the top prospects in the organization. He definitely shouldn’t be put ahead of our top picks this year, Duvall, Stovall, and Spruill, if based solely on the fact that he only played a level ahead of them at a couple of years older.
To me, this is a case of these guys (Goldstein and Sickles) trying to one-up anyone making prospect lists. They’re trying to make a leap with somebody, hoping that the guy proves them right next year. It’s a good move, since really nobody will remember if the guy doesn’t pan out and if he does they can go, “I was on this guy back in 08 when he had just pitched at Danville”.
Surprised that Flowers isn't higher
and I still can’t get over that BP knocked him for having a “bad body”. Oh how far things have come since those oversimplified Moneyball days…
poor Jeremy Brown…
I guess I should be one to talk.
There's nights that I can't even walk.
There's days I couldn't give a fuck.
And in between is where I'm stuck.
by Smoltz's Beard on Nov 8, 2008 11:20 AM EST up reply actions
if someone (HINT: royhobbs) gets me a BA subscription so i can get an early preview of the PROSPECT RANKINGS, i will love you forever. AND i will send you one of my 5 free tomahawks.
Following the Braves...one long hard drink at a time.
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