Ernesto Mejia named Rookie of the Year.

by armymen on Jan 9, 2010 9:57 PM EST

I’ll start by quoting Gondee: "With the Braves set at first base in the minors, he's not much of a loss. It would be interesting to see if the Royals can actually graduate any of our ex-prospects to the majors". Personally, I think we made a big mistake letting Mejia go. He had a breakout year in 2008, but an injury didn’t allow him to keep showing his potential. Freddie Freeman is not a sure thing, and I wouldn’t count on our 30 year old prospect, Barbaro Cañizares. (Mejia just turned 25) The Venezuelan winter league`s regular season is over. Here are some of Mejía’s numbers. And the rest of the Braves players that played in the this league. Ernesto Mejía had a 292 avg, with a 355 obp, a 557 slg, to go a long with 14 homers, 14 doubles, 41 runs batted in, in 212 at bats. Martin prado: 271, 286 obp, 3 doubles, 2 sb in 48 at bats. Barbaro canizares had a 286 avg, 295 obp, and 3 doubles in just 35 at bats. Gregor Blanco : 304 avg, 465 obp, 10 stolen bases in 168 at bats J.C Boscán 225, 255 obp, 3 home runs in 89 at bats. José Ortegano had a 4.12 era, 3 wins, 1 loss, 24/13 k/bb in 43.2 innings. By the way, Ortegano just pitched six innings (in the semi finals).Allowing one run, and striking out 3. He looks really good as a starter here in Venezuela.

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Not so sure that I agree with Ernesto Mejia being a major loss, but certainly was surprised to see the numbers of Gregor Blanco. An OBP of what?!

So, I went and looked it and here is Blanco’s full stat line playing CF for the Tiburones de La Guaira club:

47 G 168 AB 35 R 51 H 7 2B 3 3B 1 HR 23 RBI 67 TB 49 BB 33 K 9 SB 8 CS .464 OBP .399 SLG .304 AVG .863 OPS

Even crazier, however, was Matt Young’s production for Mayos de Navojoa in the Mexican winter ball league:

66 G 241 AB 54 R 76 H 18 2B 4 3B 8 HR 32 RBI126 TB 45 BB 35 K 21 S 8 CS .435 OBP .523 SLG .315 AVG .958 OPS

by fandave on Jan 10, 2010 8:10 AM EST reply actions

Also, happened across this interesting article re former Brave C Brayan Pena, who if I recall correctly was Yunel’s very close friend.

by fandave on Jan 10, 2010 8:20 AM EST up reply actions

LOL...

The one best friend that anyone could have.

Advance apologies if the contents of this sports-based post offended you. I'm just aiming to educate the masses. My law professor says they're asses.

by MichaelProcton on Jan 15, 2010 2:35 AM EST up reply actions

Nice to see Matt Young doing his thing all over the world.

by JKowalek on Jan 10, 2010 8:21 PM EST up reply actions

its his walks

he always was one to take a walk. His only problem is he got caught trying to steal all the time

by drumzalicious on Jan 11, 2010 2:14 AM EST up reply actions

Matt (I got guns like Garvey) Young

I met him when the Braves had their “best of” minor league players day at a September game…..he has huge fore arms that I am sure helped him to these number…he will be one of our top 25 prospects next year..by my thinking!

by bravestatoo on Jan 12, 2010 12:24 AM EST up reply actions

Not a lot of 28 year old top prospects out there…

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by cbwilk on Jan 12, 2010 1:12 AM EST up reply actions

Wasn’t Canizares let go by the Braves?

i need a clever signature

by heap16 on Jan 10, 2010 11:04 AM EST via mobile reply actions

No, I don’t think so. He’s still listed on the Gwinnett roster.

by fandave on Jan 10, 2010 11:41 AM EST up reply actions

Canizares was a minor league free agent...

…and we resigned him, IIRC.

by cavebird on Jan 10, 2010 12:51 PM EST up reply actions

i think he was removed from the 40 man and cleared waivers and outrighted to Gwinnett.

"Matt Diaz is a baseball player."-Joe Simpson

by 10-4 on Jan 10, 2010 1:43 PM EST up reply actions

heres hoping Blanco brings some of that stick to Atlanta this year.

by adc62 on Jan 10, 2010 5:05 PM EST reply actions

I wouldn’t bet against Blanco getting one more shot sometime somewhere in the majors, but would be pretty surprised if it was this year in Atlanta. Right now, he’s blocked by Nate, Melkie, and Jordan Schafer. Even if an opening somehow developed, Matt Young would be likely get the 1st shot at it.

by fandave on Jan 10, 2010 10:39 PM EST up reply actions

Look, if Mejia ends up being any good, if he even ends up playing in the Majors, it’s a testament to his personal work ethic an not a knock on the Braves FO. The guy was a 24 year old Minor League free agent who’d barely played out of A ball and who had missed most of this past season. Even in 08 when he had a great year, his OPB skills weren’t that great and he was at least a year if not two years older than you like a true prospect to be at that level. Add on the fact that he’s a complete defensive liability with negative speed, and you can see why the Braves weren’t going to kill themselves to bring him back. I love Ernie, he’s a fantastic person, and I really hope he succeeds, but if you’re going to bet on someone, he might not be the guy.
And anyway, what year do you think he’s gonna be ROY? 2012? Seems to me like at best he could start out at AA for the Royals (thought I’ll make a dollar bet he starts out at Wilmington for them) and even if he’s amazing, the Royals are smart enough to know the Texas league favors hitters. And, if he works his way up, he’s got the maze of 1B/DH types that KC always collects to work through. Is he really gonna jump over Eric Hosmer, Billy Butler, Kila Kaaihue, and whatever other big hit/no glove guys they have? It’s a bold prediction my friend, but one that just doesn’t have enough substance behind it.
If I were you, I’d be more concerned about another new Royal, Edgar Osuna.

I wrote a novel, it's about baseball, you should buy it: https://www.createspace.com/3407939
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by cbwilk on Jan 10, 2010 6:45 PM EST reply actions

Mejia already won ROY

For the VWL.

He was just named ROY as well as MVP in Venezuela.

I think that’s what the post references.

by parish on Jan 10, 2010 8:39 PM EST up reply actions

Ah. Well, it would maybe be good to actually state that somewhere in the midst of all the rambling.

I wrote a novel, it's about baseball, you should buy it: https://www.createspace.com/3407939
www.dropoutproductions.com

by cbwilk on Jan 10, 2010 11:47 PM EST up reply actions

Not gonna be the ROY in MLB

I think we should have kept him though. It is very unlikely that he will be as good as Freddie, but surely Mejia will have some value worth retaining.

It’s not like we are overflowing with position prospects.

by parish on Jan 10, 2010 11:56 PM EST up reply actions

I don’t disagree either, but how far do you go. He’s a Minor League free agent. The Royals have a DH, which suits him, and while they do have Eric Hosmer, Ernie hasn’t played right next to him so he doesn’t know how good he is. Seems to me like What Dayton Moore really does is both overpay the former Braves and sell the best points to them.

I wrote a novel, it's about baseball, you should buy it: https://www.createspace.com/3407939
www.dropoutproductions.com

by cbwilk on Jan 11, 2010 1:22 AM EST up reply actions

Not only do they have Hosmer, but they’ve got Butler in the majors, and the decaying corpse of Kala Ka’aihue in Omaha, who is essentially young Mejia with patience.

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by bigjoe on Jan 14, 2010 4:31 PM EST up reply actions

eh

his defense and slowness are prob the reason why he is going to an AL team instead of staying with us. We dont have a position for guys like that except the bench. Also please do not underestimate Freeman. The guy is 20 and has some monster power. Dont believe me? check out this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dwtspB3H_A

let me know if you see that land anytime soon

by drumzalicious on Jan 11, 2010 2:35 AM EST reply actions