Someone in the media finally gets it about the Braves' Jason Heyward
by gondeee on Feb 10, 2010 12:23 PM EST
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PrintEveryone seems to be trying to sell short on baseball's top prospect, Jason Heyward. There has been a timid approach to him being the Atlanta Braves starting right fielder all off-season, and that chorus has grown in recent weeks as spring training approaches. While we will have to wait and see what the team does, at least one main stream media journalist gets it, and echos what I've been saying all off-season. Here is Ken Rosenthal:
Jason Heyward is more than the top prospect in baseball.
He's the player who could transform the Braves from a modest threat into a World Series contender. [...]
Teams routinely delay the promotions of top prospects until the cutoff date passes for them to qualify for an extra year of arbitration, usually around May 15. The Braves did just that with Hanson. But they had four starting pitchers ahead of him.
Their need for Heyward is more urgent.
We took the last-minute-veteran-outfielder-stopgap approach last year, and it didn't work. I can't seem to scream it loud enough, but this Heyward kid needs to start the year in the majors. Perhaps we'll see more MSM writers echo the thoughts of Rosenthal. Of course, the only opinion that likely counts is that of number-6.
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:)
that quote about Heyward making us World Series contenders made my day.
Remember folks, I'm almost always wrong.
My sig was too long...
by Scott Coleman on Feb 10, 2010 12:30 PM EST via mobile reply actions
It made mine as well.
I needed a pick-me-up after I pulled out Honey Nut Cheerios this morning only to scoop them into my mouth to found out they weren’t Honey Nut…
by UGARedcoat13 on Feb 10, 2010 12:40 PM EST up reply actions
haha
i needed a pick-up after watching the Saints victory parade last night. barf.
Remember folks, I'm almost always wrong.
My sig was too long...
by Scott Coleman on Feb 10, 2010 12:46 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
Don't be a hater...
…we deserved it. Would Indy have gotten 800,000 to turn out for a victory parade? Would the Colts’s players have thrown beads? We know how to party here like nowhere else. ;)
eh
it should have been Farve in the Super Bowl but we wont talk about that
by drumzalicious on Feb 10, 2010 1:32 PM EST up reply actions
Farve's road to the Super Bowl had the same problem that Manning had in the Super Bowl.
Completing passes to Tracy Porter.
...
The Falcons could have had him…
"Hey Fat Kid...the monster is right behind you! RUNNNN!!" -The Host
by bwellnjonesco on Feb 10, 2010 2:01 PM EST up reply actions
How many showed up to the Yankee parade?
more than 800,000 I can tell you
"Batting second and playing shortstop-he's Cuban. Yeah, his name's Pablo...no, eh, Yunel Escobar, sorry"
Assuming it was...
…that isn’t too surprising since there were probably that many people working along the parade route, and New York City has approximately 20 times the population of New Orleans (and that’s being conservative; if you add metropolitan areas it is probably more like 50-100 times).
Two extra months of Heyward now, cost us a year later. Not to mention that with Super 2 status we’ll be paying him big money sooner, thus cutting down on our ability to fill other positions of need around him.
eh, by the time Heyward is ready to hit arbitration or get a new deal, Chipper, DLowe, KK and Huddy will all likely be gone. so we’ll have some money to spend anyways.
Remember folks, I'm almost always wrong.
My sig was too long...
by Scott Coleman on Feb 10, 2010 12:49 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
Too bad he grew up a Yankee fan or we’d definitely be counting on a hometown discount.
by Bobby Cocks on Feb 10, 2010 12:51 PM EST up reply actions
He said he was just a Jeter fan. Ask Minka, you can be a fan of Jeter and not particulary care about the Yankees, or baseball in general.
"Hey Fat Kid...the monster is right behind you! RUNNNN!!" -The Host
by bwellnjonesco on Feb 10, 2010 12:53 PM EST up reply actions
A good point, but still, Atlanta actually is his hometown (basically), so it’s got more importance to him than it would for a guy who just happened to play in Atlanta for the early part of his career.
I wrote a novel, it's about baseball, you should buy it: https://www.createspace.com/3407939
www.dropoutproductions.com
Agreed...
The positives of him starting the year in Atlanta outweigh the negatives, or any positives he mite gain from a month or two at AAA. I just don’t see him struggling like Schafer did out of the gate. I also believe Schafers injury was used as an excuse a bit too much.
Much easier, all-mighty Megatron, then attacking the real threat...The Autobots moonbase!!
by Brave Neander on Feb 10, 2010 12:55 PM EST up reply actions
. I also believe Schafers injury was used as an excuse a bit too much.
would like to demonstrate ur ability to hit ML pitching with a franctured hand/wrist…cause Id like to see it
Heyward,Hanson,and Shaffer r ready now!! Why do you think they havent signed the "right handed bat"?
by fatazfoot on Jan 7, 2009 8:59 PM EST
Yeah, but in those years we’ll have to start paying JJ, Hanson, Mac, Escobar, and the like as well. And I’m sure that there will be other free agents that we’ll need to pick up as well to replace some of the players lost.
And if Heyward is the player that everyone seems to think he’ll be, we could be talking about a guy who could demand the richest contract in baseball history once he hits free agency.
Maybe they will do something by then about the ridiculousness of professional sports contracts by then. I mean the economy is only gonna get worse (think Francouer).
"Hey Fat Kid...the monster is right behind you! RUNNNN!!" -The Host
by bwellnjonesco on Feb 10, 2010 2:07 PM EST up reply actions
If Heyward starts the season in Atlanta...
…he would not be a Super 2 down the road. He’d just be a three. He would only ever be a Super 2 if we brought him up in the middle of April or early May or something like that.
This made my day.
This is the Braves year to finally get back in the playoffs – not a bad time to be a little more aggressive. Super Two this, arbitration that, but Heyward could be the difference between making the playoffs this year and rosterbating in early October.
"Sometimes I wonder what'd it be like to be outside and not hear the birds chirping...I think it'd be kind of nice."
by alligatorimpersonator on Feb 10, 2010 1:03 PM EST reply actions
Yes! I’ve been rosterbating way too much the past few seasons…
"Hey Fat Kid...the monster is right behind you! RUNNNN!!" -The Host
by bwellnjonesco on Feb 10, 2010 2:08 PM EST up reply actions
I’d rather drive a rusty nail through bigjoe’s dick
Shouldn't Reid Gorecki get a shot in RF before that Heyward kid everybody talks about?
I'll second that
I don’t want that guy even on a minor league deal. I was sarcastically referring to a fanpost from yesterday. I have to work on the sarcasm in print skills.
Might wanna ask BigJoe about that one first.
"Baseball is the only major sport that appears backwards in a mirror." ~George Carlin
by FineHamAbounds on Feb 11, 2010 12:28 AM EST up reply actions
Still think Heyward won't make the team out of camp
I still think that no matter what the fans and the press say, money is the number 1 thing for the Braves now and Heyward will not join the team until after the arbitration cut off date this year. I also don’t see the Braves as being a playoff team even if he does play the whole year here.
agreed
put the kid in there and lets see for ourselves as he grows up as a player and benefits from the guys on the roster with the experience. Dont expect the world series from him right out of spring training>but rather expect him to be a solid -learning-on-the-job contributor, hopefully with these expectations he will be a unbelievably pleasant surprise. He will get better throughout the season if we dont put all the crazy pressure on him to be the next pujols. but with that said he needs to be in there learning from the Billy Chapels’, rather than the Crash Davis’.
A bird in the hand...
is worth paying Heyward a little more later. Besides, who says we can’t give him a multi-year deal a’la Brian McCann or Evan Longoria (OK maybe wait like, more than a week to make the offer, but whatever).
"Baseball is the only major sport that appears backwards in a mirror." ~George Carlin
by FineHamAbounds on Feb 11, 2010 12:27 AM EST reply actions
i agree
if we start him off the bat and this season and we do win the world series, it will be worth paying him more sooner
by carolinabrave89 on Feb 14, 2010 1:03 PM EST up reply actions
Can't wait to see JH in spring training
Last spring, Heyward had not yet fully registered on my radar, and when I saw him bat at Disney I was stunned. He consistently crushed the ball. He was a tad shaky in the outfield, but man what a stick. I think he will win a starting job this spring — with the coaches, the fans, and the media — and all talk of starting him in Gwinnett will be moot.
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