Surprise Welcomes Seven Braves Prospects

by gondeee on Aug 30, 2011 6:24 PM EDT in Braves Minor League News

The Arizona Fall League announced their rosters today, and seven Atlanta Braves prospects will be members of the Surprise Saguaros, including 2011 first round draft pick, pitcher Sean Gilmartin. Three other pitchers will join Gilmartin, relievers Billy Bullock and J.J. Hoover, and starter Erik Cordier.

Top catching prospect Christian Bethancourt highlights the Braves positional prospects in the league, which also includes second baseman Phil Gosselin and center fielder Todd Cunningham. All three of these players are currently teammates at high-A Lynchburg. Bullock is in double-A Mississippi, Hoover and Cordier are in triple-A, while Gilmartin is just starting out his professional career at low-A Rome.

Hoover's inclusion on the AFL roster lessens the likelihood that he will receive a late season call-up to the Majors by the Braves, though his numbers in relief at Gwinnett are outstanding: in 10.2 innings, just 3 hits, 4 walks, 0 runs, and a whopping 22 strikeouts.

For Bullock and Cordier this raises their stock, as both have struggled through parts of this season. Cordier sports an ERA over 5.00, while Bullock has an ERA of 4.53 (though he does have just a .193 opponents batting average). Both pitchers will need to work on controlling their free passes.

Cunningham will be making up for lost time due to injuries this season, while Gosselin will try to fine-tune his overall game. He stands out as a surprising choice for a winter league, but it reinforces the confidence the organization must have in him.

Bethancourt got the mid-season call from Rome to Lynchburg, but his plate discipline at both stops was atrocious. There is still plenty of time for him to develop, as he turns 20 this Friday.

Looks like a good group going to 'Zona. I'm sure there will be a few more players who will probably end up in various winter leagues in Latin America.

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Comments

They must have changed the rules about only allowing 1 A ball player per team, unless the Braves are going to promote a bunch of those guys this week to skirt that rule.

Either way, that’s a great group heading out there, looking forward to seeing what they do. And remember, Freddie got called up last year and he still went out to the AFL.

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by cbwilk on Aug 30, 2011 6:41 PM EDT reply actions

CB, Gilmartin’s going to pitch a lot of innings in 2011 if you add what he’s going to throw in the AFL. How do they count a pitcher’s innings…by a rolling 12 months?

by TBuzz on Aug 30, 2011 9:38 PM EDT up reply actions

He pitched 98 innings as a freshman, 111.2 as a sophmore, and 120.1 as a junior. He had nearly 2 months off, and now has 17.2 innings as a pro. Even if he made 2 more starts at best he’d throw another 10 innings. He’s only likely to get 12 or 15 innings out in Arizona, so if we take the high estimates he’d end up with 162.2 innings this year, a 32% increase over what he threw last year. I know they say to only raise a guy 30 innings or so a year, but the two month layoff and the consideration that a bunch of those innings were college innings, which, while they are stressful, are nothing compared to Minor League innings, mean he’s probably going to be Ok. Frankly, I don’t see much purpose in drafting a college guy if you’re not going to push him.

I wrote a novel, it's about baseball, you should buy it:
http://www.amazon.com/Four-C-B-Wilkins/dp/1449578454/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257720610&sr=1-1
www.dropoutproductions.com

by cbwilk on Aug 31, 2011 12:04 AM EDT up reply actions

Question

How do rosters for these teams work? Are the players chosen by the Braves or the AFL teams?

"He knows where he's throwing. If he didn't, there'd be dead bodies strewn all over Idaho." - Washington Senators scout on Walter Johnson

by Doghnut on Aug 30, 2011 9:08 PM EDT reply actions

The different organizations will pick the players they want to send, and they’ll work with the other organizations to make sure they can get a spot on the team for the guys they want. For instance, the Braves are sending Bethancourt, so they obviously want him to play a lot, most of the games, at the very least half of the games. They have to work out with the other teams that send players to the Saguaros to be able to make that happen. I’m not 100% sure of how they do that, I’ve heard they basically have each team put in what they want, a starting catcher, starting second baseman, etc., and then go from there.

I wrote a novel, it's about baseball, you should buy it:
http://www.amazon.com/Four-C-B-Wilkins/dp/1449578454/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257720610&sr=1-1
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by cbwilk on Aug 30, 2011 11:54 PM EDT up reply actions

Each ML team designates who they send. Last year six players were assigned per team. This year up to seven players per team because there is an additional AFL team.

by Braves11 on Aug 30, 2011 11:57 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions