The mother-ship, Baseball Nation, has posted their list of the top-10 worst swings of the 2011 season. Five Atlanta Braves players are represented. Thankfully, three of them are Braves pitchers who are making opposing batters look foolish. One I wanted to highlight is relief pitcher Anthony Varvaro. We'll be talking more about all the Braves bullpen options throughout spring training, but this is a good opportunity to highlight a reliever who is on the 40-man roster and who has a very good chance of breaking camp with the big club.

Here is the number-4 worst swing of the 2011 season, Anthony Varvaro against Michael Morse of the Washington Nationals:

I'm going to go with that being a change-up, though it could also be some kind of overhand curve ball. Either way it's a nasty pitch if Varvaro can command it with regularity. This is a window into why the Braves really like this kid for the pen. Not only does he have a mid-90s fastball, but with off-speed stuff like this, he's got two strikeout pitches.

Varvaro is a guy the Braves claimed off waivers from Seattle prior to last year, and we should all know by now how successful the Braves have been with former Seattle relievers. So he's got that working in his favor. Of the relievers the Braves called up from Gwinnett last year, Varvaro arguably had the most success, though he seemed to benefit from good defense behind him.

Tommy Hanson makes an appearance on the top-10 list while making Jose Reyes look stupid (hope that happens a lot this year). Chipper Jones and Freddie Freeman check-swing their way into the top-3, but Tim Hudson grabs the number-1 spot with his fairly awesome swing attempt on a pitch-out:

See the rest of the GIFs at Baseball Nation.

(FYI, if the constant repetitive movement of the GIFs bothers you, just hit the Esc key and it will stop the moving GIFs.)

After the Braves selected him in the 6th round of the 2010 draft out of Long Beach State University, Joe Terdoslavich had a nice debut, hitting .302 with a .766 OPS, 19 doubles, and 34 RBI in 70 games between Rookie level Danville and Low Rome, splitting time between first and third base. He shifted over to first base full time in 2011, and had a great season for High A Lynchburg, hitting .286 with a .867 OPS, 20 homers, 82 RBI, and he broke a 65 year old Carolina League record by clubbing out 52 doubles.

As excited as the Braves are about Terdoslavich's future, there are some real question marks surrounding him, mostly on the defensive side of things. He was a third baseman in college, but struggled there with Danville and Rome, committing 10 errors in just 36 games. He struggled at first for those squads as well, committing 11 errors in 33 games, though it was his first time playing the position. He was more steady with Lynchburg in 2011, committing 10 errors in 106 games, though that's still a high total for a first baseman. Terdoslavich has hard hands and has trouble with fluidity and flexibility when it comes to fielding. Despite his troubles, the Braves are going to move him back to third base in 2012, mainly because they feel his bat will allow him to move quickly through the organization and Freddie Freeman has already established himself as Atlanta's first baseman.

While he doesn't have any chance of leaving Spring Training with a Major League roster spot, it should still be a fruitful experience for Terdoslavich, who will work closely with infield coach Terry Pendleton, who played 1785 games at the hot corner in the Majors after moving there from second base. He'll also benefit from playing alongside Chipper Jones, who has played 1889 game at third base after converting from shortstop. Even veteran Jack Wilson, who only has 4 games of third base to his credit, should be able to help with his vast knowledge of the best ways to field a baseball.

How important a part of Atlanta's 2013 Terdoslavich is will be determined by how well he can handle third base with Mississippi in 2012, because while there are some things he can work on with his offensive game, striking out less and taking more walks, there's a good chance his powerful bat will translate well at the higher levels.

In reading all of the prospect lists and reviews last week one particular statement caught my eye, and hasn't escaped my mind since then. Interestingly, this statement wasn't about an Atlanta Braves prospect, it was about Brandon Beachy. Strangely, this curmudgeonly view of a young Braves player didn't come from Keith Law, it came from Kevin Goldstein's post. Here was his line about Beachy, found in the Top-10 Talents 25 and Under section of his Braves prospect post (sub. req.):

The general industry thought on Beachy is that he's good but not as good as his 2011 season, and regression is a good assumption.

My gut told me not to agree with that, and my memory told me that the opposite seemed to be true. So I thought I'd poke around my memory and Baseball Reference and see what I could find that would support the opposite of that statement.

Brandon Beachy faced the Phillies in his first big league start in 2010. He faced them again in his third big league start. Then again in his fifth big league start in 2011, and three other times last year. In 28 big league starts, Beachy has faced the Phillies six times. If that above statement about regression carried any weight, then the Phillies should be getting the better of Brandon since they've seen him more than any other team. But his starts against them tell a different story.

It's hard to analyze his 2010 starts, since they were emergency starts at the end of the year, after Beachy had pretty much been shut down for the season. Still, he improved from his Major League debut to his third game. He faced more batters, lowered his walks, raised his strikeout total, improved his Game Score from 45 to 47, and seemed a better pitcher. At the very least he didn't regress while facing the same team twice in a span of two weeks (in the pressure cooker of a pennant race).

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Last week, I professed my love for Topps Series 1. A few days ago, my set arrived in the mail. There are few things I enjoy more than slipping cards into pages to place in a binder. It’s an ideal opportunity to inspect each card. I say again, I love the 330 cards that comprise 2012 Topps Series 1. That said, you might find it strange that I purchased the set rather than opened a box and attempted to build a set in the more traditional fashion.

I’ve mentioned before that opening wax is a high. If money were no object, I would purchase and open everything Topps puts out. My money is limited though so I have to be choosy how I spend it. When I got back into card collecting in 2005, I opened a box of each series of the main Topps sets. I’d then complete those sets using eBay or by trading with other collector’s that I’ve met online. This is my preferred method of set building, especially for the Topps base set. It’s also something I don’t do anymore.

Topps has begun to cram more and more items into the base set product in attempt to drive up popularity. I can only assume that the thought is that the traditional set builders are in for the long haul, and the gimmicks are to try and attract high end collectors and outsiders into the hobby. If you check out the sell sheet for any base Topps product, the emphasis is not on the cards in the base set. Topps is selling the inserts. Topps is selling the squirrel cards. Topps is selling the short prints and the autographs. To those people who buy numerous cases looking to make money off the big hits, the base set cards are an irritant. Often, they dump them for cost on eBay.

One thing you’ll hear a lot of collector’s talk about, incessantly in some cases, is the “integrity of the base set”. The idea is that since the Squirrel card is a variation of Skip Schumaker’s regular card, it is a part of the set. All of the other short printed variations are as well. These collector’s would not care if these cards were included as inserts. They only care that the base set has been, in their opinion, compromised. It is now impossible for most collectors to complete. I don’t totally disagree, but I still want to collect and I still want to collect the flagship Topps product. Topps has gone whole hog down the gimmick path, and I don’t see any going back now. This is what base Topps is now, and we can either accept it, or we can stop collecting.

The real question is this: are gimmicks good for the hobby? The squirrel card has attracted a lot of press and along with the publicity for the Albert Pujols and Jose Reyes short print cards, has no doubt led many people to purchase cards that might not have before. The thing is, these gimmicks are short prints. This means, these guys probably didn’t get one of the chase cards. The question is, are these individuals enchanted enough by the base cards to keep collecting, or are they turned off at not getting hit? This shouldn’t be about getting people to buy a box of this year’s baseball cards. It should be about turning people into collectors and getting them to want to buy boxes every time a new series comes out. Only time will tell if Topps has succeeded.

There’s no doubt that I feel robbed of the chance to build a set in the more traditional fashion. The gimmicks do, after all, drive up the price of a box of baseball cards to a point where I just don’t see the purchase as worth it. Still, I’m going to take the glass is half full approach. I was able to pick up the 330 cards that comprise the main set for just fifteen dollars shipped on eBay. Checking eBay right now, there are numerous auctions closing in the ten dollar range for the complete set. These cards may not matter to the case breakers, but they matter to me. I’m happy to use their foolishness for my collection’s personal gain.

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Recently, I went to a Chinese restaurant, and as is the norm at most of these establishment, fortune cookies are handed out with the bill:

Don't let statistics do a number on you.

Now that's quite an odd fortune to receive inside of a slightly vanilla flavored, folded up wafer. Not only does it not pertain to some can of corn advice on my love life or career, the whole "in bed" postface game does not work with this fortune (seriously, keeping any sort of statistic involving sexual exploits is kind of creepy, unless you're Wilt Chamberlain), but it seemed ironically humorous that a baseball nerd like me is the one who ends up with a fortune like this.

Obviously, my grasp of advanced statistics and Sabermetrics isn't as sharp compared some of you other nerds, but I can't help but feel that it's not so much of advice as much as it is a reminder; that stats are great tools and fascinating numbers sometimes, but they certainly don't dictate the future. It's interesting and sometimes fun to examine and pore over the numbers, but sometimes it's interesting to simply watch and enjoy the sights and sounds of the game, too.

This time next week, every catcher and pitcher, and some hard-working position players in the NL East will be in Florida. Almost there. Welcome back to the basement.

Can't win at everything; Anibal Sanchez defeats Marlins in arbitration - Fish Stripes
In his victory over the team, Anibal Sanchez will make $8M instead of $6.9M the Marlins had offered. This also pretty much ensures that the Marlins are content to let him test the free agent waters going into 2013. Fish Stripes examines the scenario with the two other times that the Marlins let promising pitchers walk, and maybe it's something to consider with Sanchez's future health, and the fact that the Marlins have ridden him pretty hard over the last two seasons, making Verducci-theory-believers cringe.

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After Keith Law got me to flail my arms around yesterday in curfuddled disagreement, Marc Hulet of FanGraphs puts the Braves prospects universe back into order with a sane (and boring, I guess, but that's good) list.

1. Julio Teheran, RHP
2. Arodys Vizcaino, RHP
3. Randall Delgado, RHP
4. Tyler Pastornicky, SS
5. Sean Gilmartin, LHP
6. Andrelton Simmons, SS
7. Christian Bethancourt, C
8. Edward Salcedo, SS
9. Zeke Spruill, RHP
10. Brandon Drury, 3B
11. J.R. Graham, RHP
12. Matt Lipka, OF
13. J.J. Hoover, RHP
14. Carlos Perez, LHP
15. Joe Terdoslavich, 1B
    Sleeper: Navery Moore, RHP

Good writeups on the site, and a good list. I guess for the record I should tell you what my top-25 Braves prospects look like. I put my list together in late October last year, so no AFL performances were considered (and I'm not sure I would have put too much weight on them anyway). My top-25 after the jump (so you can bash me if you'd like). Note that the official Talking Chop top-25 is an average of my rankings, CB's, and Matt's.

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A couple of weeks into the 2011 season, the Braves plucked Stefan Gartrell off waivers from the White Sox and he rewarded them by providing Gwinnett with a consistent, powerful cleanup hitter, putting up a .260 average and .834 OPS while clubbing out 28 doubles, and setting single season Gwinnett records with 25 homers and 91 RBI. He was originally drafted by the White Sox out of San Fransisco University in the 31st round of the 2006 draft and showed consistent pop at every level before busting out in AA in 2009 by hitting .285 with a .892 OPS, 20 doubles, 19 homers and 70 RBI for Birmingham.

In the last two plus years at AAA, Gartrell has posted a slash line of .259/.325/.475/.800, walking in 7.5% of his plate appearances, and striking out in 24.5% of his plate appearances. He just turned 28 years old, so he's essentially the hitter he's going to be, a slugger who's going to strike out a lot if given a chance in the Majors. He has a strong, powerful frame, standing 6'3" and weighing in at 230. Like most sluggers, Gartrell can succumb to getting fooled and taking huge whiffs, but he's shown himself capable of hitting enough at AAA to remain productive. In the outfield, he plays almost exclusively in right field, though is just as capable of playing left, but is at best an average defender. His bulk makes him slow to the ball, but he makes up for it by positioning himself well and reading the ball off the bat quickly. He does have an above average, accurate arm.

If Gartrell is going to get a chance in Atlanta, it's likely to come off the bench, and for the moment Matt Diaz is the team's right handed hitting corner outfielder off the pine. It's likely the team's last bench spot will go to a speedy outfielder who can play center field, like Jose Constanza or Luis Durango, so there's little chance Gartell is going to break camp on Atlanta's roster. Still, after a year in the organization they know his value, and he can further showcase his skills during Spring Training, so that if an injury or two arises during the year, he could provide a nice power bat off Atlanta's bench.