The Braves' Jason Heyward makes the 2009 Futures Game Roster

by gondeee on Jun 25, 2009 12:54 PM EDT in Braves Minor League News

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.

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Perez?

Maybe they picked the wrong guy. He has a pretty generic Hispanic name, I suppose.

Remember, kids...don't ever let facts get in the way of your argument.

by MichaelProcton on Jun 25, 2009 12:56 PM EDT reply actions

I’m starting to think that. Bowman doesn’t mention him in his article, saying only Heyward was selected from the Braves organization.

by gondeee on Jun 25, 2009 1:28 PM EDT up reply actions

Flowers is tearing it up!

.433 OBP with a .281 AVG…WTF

A man walks into a meat shoppe and goes to the counter. The cashier asks, "Thinking about buying some meat?". The man replied, "No, I'm going to buy meat, I was thinking about punanny."

by bwellnjonesco on Jun 25, 2009 1:02 PM EDT reply actions

Yeah, but what were we gonna do with him?

I’d say we netted about as good a haul for him as we could have.

Remember, kids...don't ever let facts get in the way of your argument.

by MichaelProcton on Jun 25, 2009 2:09 PM EDT up reply actions

still think

the 30% strikeouts are gonna be a fairly big problem in the future

by was385 on Jun 25, 2009 7:13 PM EDT up reply actions

Is Feliz’s future as a starter or reliever?

If Dunn walks 30 fewer times, he'll drive in 15 more runs. This is thanks to the scientifically proven formula: RBI = (this is nonsense) (I made it all up).

Here's a stat: Wins as manager: Dusty Baker, 1,162; Bill James, 0.

by TradeAndruw on Jun 25, 2009 1:32 PM EDT reply actions

He just got moved to the pen

But he will probably start next year.

by blitzerlover on Jun 25, 2009 2:03 PM EDT up reply actions

Dude, My dream came true....

Lol, the reason be is because I actually found out a few weeks ago I am going to Futures game, and was hoping and praying heyward would be in the game, and thankfully he is. I could not get tickets to the AS game itself, so I was happy as hell to get it to the Futures game…..And btw, Gammons and others has more than on one occasion referred to Feliz as a bit of a tweener, and I have heard that he could be the next Mariano Rivera as a comparable more than anyone else. When I say the next Rivera, I mean dominance wise and not arsenal wise, as I think Feliz has more of a pure fastball. I say they try him as a starter, but he ultimately becomes the next in the line of Rivera and K-Rod. Plus, his stuff seems to be quite effective in one to two inning opportunities, but he may have too much stuff to not be a starter.

by bravesbeast1985 on Jun 25, 2009 1:36 PM EDT reply actions