Notes From Braves Minor League Camp
by cbwilk on Mar 13, 2010 11:32 PM EST
in Minor League News
46 comments
Today was my first of two days at the Braves Spring Training complex in Orlando and I spent the whole day at my favorite place in the world, the backfields that comprise the Minor League complex. It was kind of an odd day because the players were getting their physicals in the morning and didn't start their workout until around 1 pm, which is usually about when they're wrapping things up. Also, about half of the Minor Leaugers don't report until tomorrow, which is the first day of full squad workouts, so the fields were much more sparsely filled than I'm used to seeing them in Spring Training. The workout was pretty light, consisting of a few rounds of BP and some PFP, although apparently the pitchers got worked out pretty hard by the strength and conditioning coordinator, so there wasn't much to really comment on, but I'll pass along what was interesting. At least what I can remember of what was interesting.
Today was the first day that Edward Salcedo worked out with the team, possibly the first day he's been in the United States after signing the largest contract the Braves have ever given an international player. I was very surprised to find that Salcedo is fluent in English; you almost never meet a young man just over from the Domincan Republic who can speak more than a few words of English and I kind of embarrassed myself by greeting him in halting Spanglish. Fortunately Salcedo appears to be a Braves kind of player, otherwise known as an outstanding human being, and he didn't give me a hard time about it. He took all his grounders at shortstop, which is where he'll play, and looked very smooth out there in the little bit of infield practice I saw him take. It was hard to take too much out of his one round of BP, but he did have a bunt that would have been an easy single, seems to be able to smoke the ball up the middle, and has a fair amount of easy pop off his bat.
All the pitchers I talked to who were hurt and missed all of last season, including lefties Steve Kent, Brett DeVall, and Chad Rodgers and righty Dustin Evans, said they were 100 percent and throwing well. This could always be a bit of what royhobbs calls ITBSOHL, but I trust these guys enough to believe that they'll all be ready to go when the season starts, which is great news because each of those four is a legitimate prospect.
I actually got to talk to Jordan Schafer a little when he came over to visit the trainer's room. It doesn't sound like his wrist has healed in the way he'd hoped it would, but he's doing everything he can to help it get better, including making sure that he follows his doctors' advice to the letter. As always, Jordan's determination and positive attitude are blatantly impressive, so I'm really looking forward to seeing him healthy again.
As I said, there was only a bit of a workout and it wasn't that long, so there wasn't much else that really stood out. So, basically, nobody looked bad at routine drills, which is a good thing. Oh, and Kyle Rose is crazy fast. Like insanely fast. Hopefully I'll get to see some more in depth action tomorrow with the full squad workout. And since I know you all love pictures of our Braves, especially our new Braves, here's a shot of Arodys Vizcaino:
CB Wilkins is the author of the baseball novel Four-A.
0 recs |
46 comments
|
Email
Print
Comments
Cool
I didn’t know who the pitcher was right away,plus it looks good to have Salcedo in our uniform and not any other,I hope this kid lives up to the hype.Really looking forward to him being the next great prospect for our infield.
DeVall
I seen in the post that DeVall was throwing,is he reaaly healthy because I read in a few different clips that he was headed for TJ surgery.I kind of forgot about him with all the talk about Heyward,Freeman,Minor and the rest of them.I really hope he’s good to go that would be just another bullet in the chamber for our minor league system which is stacked with prospects.
The stuff about DeVall needing TJ was going around late last season and a little in the offseason, but he didn’t need it and he told me personally his arm feels great and he’s throwing just like normal and everything feels great. So, at least for now, there’s nothing to worry about with Brett’s arm.
I wrote a novel, it's about baseball, you should buy it: https://www.createspace.com/3407939
www.dropoutproductions.com
Minor League camp
is so awesome. Last week I got to see Vizcaino and Teheran throw bp (Vizcaino was extremely impressive. I was surprised how much shorter he is than Teheran though. They seemed to be friends, were together a lot which is kinda neat because of their similarity as prospects). Saw Rohrbough do a little long toss. And got to see Milligan, RSF, Bethancourt, among many others take bp. It’s such a cool atmosphere. Except for the incredibly obnoxious agent that was having a very loud conversation on his cell phone next to the relatively quiet fields. Kinda completed the whole scene though. At one point it kinda felt like I was at a complex in another country because pretty much every player on the field was Latin. It was really cool.
That's Cool
Man I would love to see our minor league prospects in action someday.I love to see these young men go through their developement and make it big in the bigs.At this point and time all I can do is rely on sports sites and fans like we have here to get the 411 on Braves prospects.
If we can develope Teheran and Vizcaino can you imagine our rotation in the bigs,not to mention Minor looks like he will get their pretty quickly.I read on a blog on ajc.com that Minor’s fastball was in the 93-94 range this spring training.I read he was working on his secondary pitches this off-season.
if Minor
hits 93-94 consistently, there will be A LOT of people on talkingchop who’ll be eating crow for all the @#$# talked about him being picked.
if he does that, he’s AT WORST a #3 starter in the bigs.
by apoxonbothyourhouses on Mar 14, 2010 7:50 AM EDT up reply actions
I will be the first to admit I was wrong about Minor if he pans out but
I still wanted a higher upside guy with the #7 pick and Matzek was there for the taking.
It is done and over. Please let it go and let’s see how Minor actually does, you know, in reality.
The fact is your (and everyone else’s) take on a potential draft choice’s “upside” is pretty much pure speculation.
I was reading SI’s article on Matt Wieters last night. Included in it was the fact that he fell to the 5th overall pick of the 2007 draft and the team with the 4th pick (I forget who it was, maybe Seattle) went for a LH pitcher out of Clemson who has not done well at all, so far, in the minors. Undoubtedly, however, the consensus was that guy had huge “upside.”
The Braves’ braintrust liked Minor. A lot. And, soon enough, he will be in our ML rotation and we will see how he does.
Obviously I the draft is ove and done with and I support whoever they take but
I’ve seen Minor on several occasions and I wasn’t impressed. I’m glad that he’s doing well so far and I hope that he continues to do well but that still doesn’t make up for the fact that the Braves went the cheap route by taking Minor.
Oh and it was Daniel Moskos and the Pirates were the team that drafted him and they have had some terrible drafts.
I do not know (and seriously doubt that you do either), but would tend to believe that taking everything into account, the Braves very simply evaluated Minor as being the best choice.
The issue of cost to sign would (I suspect) have been a secondary consideration, and certainly not the determinative issue as you apparently believe.
Awesome
Thanks for the pictures and report. This is the best piece of reporting from spring training I’ve read all year, I’m much more interested in what goes on during MiLB ST than MLB ST.
Beyond the Box Score / Capitol Avenue Club / shwitter: @CapitolAvenue
+1
I enjoy reading about our Minor League players more than I do about the Big club in ST. Awesome write up CB can’t wait to hear from you tomorrow when all the guys are in camp. Oh and I heard that Vizcaino has been impressing everyone in camp and may start in MB which would be awesome for him and his development but horrible for me the fan not getting a chance to see him in Rome.
+1
I want to see Vizcaino, Teheran, Bethancourt, and Salcedo all on the Rome team in person.
Beyond the Box Score / Capitol Avenue Club / shwitter: @CapitolAvenue
The thougt of seeing all of those guys in Rome
Is making me so ready for this upcoming season.
You’ll see them. They’re all working out with the Rome roster. Vizcaino is going there.
I wrote a novel, it's about baseball, you should buy it: https://www.createspace.com/3407939
www.dropoutproductions.com
Add folks like Hefflinger, RSF...
Jones, maybe Milligan for a couple months, among others. The rosters of Rome and Myrtle could be stacked.
anyone else having problems with TC being formatted funny tonight?
its not displaying properly…none of the sbn blogs are
"If I have asthma, they won't let me scuba. And if I can’t scuba, then what’s this all been about?? What am I working toward??"
Yeah, I almost didn’t make this post, but I finally found the ‘new story’ button and that page wasn’t screwed up. Hope it gets fixed soon, this is hard to read.
I wrote a novel, it's about baseball, you should buy it: https://www.createspace.com/3407939
www.dropoutproductions.com
I have to use Chrome
…without ad block shudder
"If I have asthma, they won't let me scuba. And if I can’t scuba, then what’s this all been about?? What am I working toward??"
I noticed
The problems directly being correlated with the recent upgrade to firefox 3.6. TC still works fine in IE7 and 8.
No wonder nobody likes you, Tuttle... everything's a (Pujols) damn debate.
I cleared my cache and everything’s loading fine now
by sunking1056 on Mar 14, 2010 12:48 PM EDT up reply actions
that might make sense then
FF crashed for me today and now it looks fine…tho i dont remember ever upgrading FF…in fact I remember NOT doing that …but whatever
"If I have asthma, they won't let me scuba. And if I can’t scuba, then what’s this all been about?? What am I working toward??"
Take Spanish lessons. No more of this “halting Spanglish” crap.
Seriously though….his fluency in English is pretty interesting. Perhaps it means he was expected to succeed in a career in which he would be speaking english regularly. Maybe he has been raised with the expectation of success in an Anglo-speaking world.
"Now, here's a fellow attempting to ride a bicycle. But he's having some trouble, isn't he? And do you know why? "
~sighs~ "Why?"
"Because he's a Scot!"
by !Vive la Francoeur! on Mar 14, 2010 1:40 AM EST reply actions
Yes, I definitely need to learn. I can basically understand stuff, like I get a lot of native speaker conversations happening right in front of me and I basically get the jist of what they’re saying to each other, but as soon as I need to converse it’s over.
I wrote a novel, it's about baseball, you should buy it: https://www.createspace.com/3407939
www.dropoutproductions.com
Last night, I posted a FanShot on Bowman’s article on Salcedo.
Here is O’Brien’s.
I'm excited about this kid
I think it’s only a matter of time til he slides to third though.
Phuck the Phillies
Fascinating.
Thanks for giving us these updates on the minor leaguers, CB. Keep ’em coming.
I’m glad to see Vizcaino in a Braves uni. Can’t wait to see how he does during the season.
"Yeah, and I have an enchanted jock strap." -- Karl Karlson
Thanks cb...
good stuff and can’t wait for more. Love hearing Devall is healthy, and hope Schafer doesn’t need a second surgery although it sounds like they may end up being the case.
Schafer's wrist
Why are you suggesting there is any possibility of a second surgery?
All CB said is that based on whatever statement JS may have made, “[i]t doesn’t sound like his wrist has healed in the way he’d hoped it would.” This seems like nothing we don’t already know, namely, that the wrist is not yet 100%.
The last substantive news I’ve seen was from Bowman last Monday, 3/9:
… the most important health-related development seemingly came courtesy of Jordan Schafer, who took batting practice in the indoor cages this afternoon and returned to the dugout with a smile on his face.
“That’s the best that I’ve felt in 10 months,” said Schafer, who injured his left hand on during the fourth game of last year’s season and then dealt with frustration and discomfort until the ailment was surgically repaired in September.
Because he was in a cast for an extended period following the surgery, Schafer found himself feeling weak while attempting to swing the bat during the early days of camp. But it now appears there’s at least a chance he’ll be ready to begin the season with Triple-A Gwinnett.
Is there new news that I’ve missed?
Just saying because of how slow it's gone...
and the continued pain. Maybe it’s just slow, but I’m saying it wouldn’t shock me.
the wrist is the most complicated joint in the human body. as such, for there to be a slow, gradual recovery process after surgery and extended immobalization, with some continued minor weakness and minor discomfort that fades away with time, use and strengthening would seem like exactly what should be expected.
but since I’m certainly not an orthopaedic surgeon with special qualifications in wrist and hand surgery, I’m more or less just guessing.
Interesting post.
I’m really looking forward to seeing Salcedo develop into an elite prospect, which I think he will.
The only time the Mets win is in the offseason.
was salcedos bat speed as crazy fast as it looked on video?
Pujols is NOT God.... sure he'll hit .350, hit 50 bombs, and drive in a 125....but then again...so will Heyward..
by lemke2blauser2bream on Mar 14, 2010 4:51 PM EDT reply actions
Not fast enough that I expressly noticed. But he looked good. Definitely not perfect and after he smoked a ball the coach throwing BP would put a little spin on the ball and he’d fub one into the dirt, so he’s definitely got room to grow. But I’m impressed with him. He’s got a great body with a ton of room to grow on it.
I wrote a novel, it's about baseball, you should buy it: https://www.createspace.com/3407939
www.dropoutproductions.com
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2010 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
