Our top prospect, outfielder Jason Heyward, was selected to play in the 2009 Futures Game. Heyward was selected despite missing time due to injury; he has sat out almost two-thirds of the games this year at Myrtle Beach, and did not play in the Carolina League All-Star game despite making the roster. Heyward is hitting .288/.364/.526 this year with 8 homeruns.

Another Braves farmhand was also selected to play for the World Team. Gwinnett Braves left handed reliever Juan Perez is a surprise selection. Surprising because he's not young (in baseball terms) at 30 years old, and he's played in the majors with Pittsburgh in parts of the 2006 and 2007 season. This season Perez has a 2.45 ERA, a .173 BAA, and has 33 strikeouts in 29.1 IP despite surrendering 4 homeruns.

[2:30pm Correction, maybe:]  Baseball America's original link said Juan Perez (or maybe Luis, I can't remember). I clicked on the link for that player, and it brought up our Juan Perez, though the main link now says Luis Perez -- no such player on Gwinnett's roster, and the link still goes to Juan Perez. If they mean Luis "Valdez," then that would make more sense, as he is only 25 and the closer for the G-Braves, and has racked up 41 saves the last two years. Still, it's an interesting pick, since he's not that young and was released by the Pirates as a minor leaguer. (There are a lot of ex-Pirates in our minor league system.) Of course, they may acutally mean Luis Perez, who is a left-handed pitcher in the Blue Jays organization. My thought is that's who it's supposed to be, so ratchet our selections for the Futures Game back to one, Jason Heyward.

Former Braves prospect Neftali Feliz was also selected for the World Team roster, and catcher Tyler Flowers was selected for the U.S. Team. Flowers is hitting .281/.433/.522 with 10 homeruns for the double-A Birmingham Barons in the White Sox organization. Feliz has a 3.86 ERA and a .258 BAA at triple-A for the Rangers organization.