After an outstanding 2008 for Myrtle Beach, Ernesto Mejia missed the majority of 2009.

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The list of Six-Year Minor League Free Agents has been released and the Braves have 12 players on that list:

Pitchers: RH Bobby Brownlie, RH Jerome Gamble, LH Mariano Gomez, RH Moises Hernandez, RH Lance Niekro, LH Juan Perez

Catchers: Jose Camarena, Alvin Colina

Infielders: 2B/SS Chris Burke, SS/3B Kody Kirkland, 1B Ernesto Mejia, 3B Antonio Perez

In addition to these players, RHP Jorge Campillo, RHP Buddy Carlyle, RHP Vladimir Nunez, and OF Reid Gorecki were previously announced as Minor League free agents after being removed from the Braves' 40-man roster.

Brownlie was one of the top amateur talents when he was drafted in the first round by the Cubs in 2002 but his career has been sidetracked by a series of injuries. He joined Gwinnett in the middle of the season and had a fairly effective run as a swingman, going 5-2 with a 4.13 ERA and 1.35 WHIP in 56.2 innings. If the Braves find they need more depth at the upper level he could be re-signed.

Like Brownlie, Gamble has missed large parts of him Minor League career to injuries, but he's been effective playing for Mississippi and Gwinnett the last two seasons. He spent the majority of 2009 with Mississippi, mostly as a reliever, going 2-1 with a 3.05 ERA and 1.28 WHIP in 44.1 innings. Gamble is a good influence on younger players, so it's possible he could return.

More analysis after the jump...

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More photos » by Tony Gutierrez - AP

Andruw never misses a meal.

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At the end of the 2006 season, Andruw Jones had just completed his second consecutive 40+ homerun 125+ RBI season at only 29-years of age, and he looked like he might have finally become the powerful force in the middle of the Braves order... but would he remain there for the rest of his career? He was likely to demand a huge contract of many years with many zeros behind some pretty big numbers when he became a free agent a year later.

At the end of the 2006 season, Vernon Wells had just posted another 30 homer 100+ RBI season, and at 27-years of age he looked like the next coming of the great outfielders of our era. He was a year away from free agency, and like Jones, was also sure to demand a huge contract of many years with many zeros behind some pretty big numbers.

This is where two roads diverged in a wood, and each team took a different path. The Braves chose to ride out the rest of Andruw's contract, and seeing his performance decline, opted to let him walk away via free agency. The Blue Jays chose to sign their young star to a huge ball-busting contract of 7-years and $126 million. A contract that was so ridiculously back-loaded that the Jays are still on the hook for $105 million over the next 5 years.

Sometimes its the moves that a team doesn't make which determines their fate for years to come. Had the Braves signed Jones to a similar contract, we'd be talking about who has baseball's worse contract, Atlanta or Toronto. As it is, the winner is clearly Toronto and the money yet owed to the pedestrian Vernon Wells.

MLBTR has a great look back at the Wells contract and what the baseball pundits said about that contract at the time. That piece got me thinking about the choice we made versus the choice that Toronto made. This is why we very rarely see the Braves commit so many years and so much money to any one player.

That also got me thinking about this article by Ken Rosenthal, in which he thinks the Tigers should trade Miguel Cabrera. Miggy has an equally monstrous amount of money left on his deal, and if it weren't for that I would say let's make a play for him. But I just can't see the Braves ponying up $20 million a year for a guy (not after they got burned by the Mike Hampton trade). If the price were right though, say Vazquez, Freeman, and another prospect (not named Heyward), and the Tigers could pick up some of the tab, then I'd have to seriously think the Braves would make a run at Cabrera, assuming of course that he's available. Even with the monster contract. Okay, now I'm rosterbating, and drooling a bit.

More photos » by Morry Gash - AP

Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Tommy Hanson finishes third in the 2009 NL Rookie of the Year voting.

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Atlanta Braves rookie starting pitcher Tommy Hanson missed his chance to win the National League Rookie of the Year Award. Hanson was beaten out by Florida's Chris Coghlan, who won the ward, and Philadelphia's J.A. Happ, who finished second.

The highly touted Hanson lived up to everyone's expectations once he reached the majors in 2009. He went 11-and-4 with a 2.89 ERA in 21 starts -- but it was not enough of a dominating performance to convince voters he deserved the award over the other contenders. His chances were likely hurt by only pitching part of the year in the major leagues.

Interesting that Hanson won the SBN voting a week ago, conducted by bloggers. It seems as though the writers went with raw stats over any other factor in determining the awards once again this year.

This week we will finish up all of the 2009 Player Reviews and the top prospects by position. The bullpen is the last area of the team to discuss and we'll continue with the format that we've been using all off-season, starting with the major league guys, then moving on to the minor leaguers.

Tuesday:  Braves 2009 Season in Review:  Rafael Soriano
Wednesday:  Braves 2009 Season in Review:  Mike Gonzalez
Thursday:  Braves 2009 Season in Review:  Middle Relief (we'll deal with the rest of the relievers in this post, or couple of posts)
Friday:  Braves Top-10 minor league minor league relievers 6-10
Saturday:  Braves Top-10 minor league minor league relievers 1-5
Sunday:  Minor league relief pitchers round table post

During the Thanksgiving week we'll present the overall top-25 prospects, 5 per day, and then at the end we'll give you the TC reader a chance to submit your own top-25.

More photos » by Gregory Smith - AP

Atlanta Braves hitter Brian McCann winning his third Silver Slugger award was just one of the highlights from this past week.

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Here's a look at the major stories in the world of the Atlanta Braves for the week ending on November 15th:

  In the Press...

• Brian McCann won his third Sliver Slugger Award.
• The Braves officially named Dave Wallace minor league pitching coordinator. They also named Garey Ingram hitting coach at double-A Mississippi.
• The Braves signed a minor league shortstop as organizational depth.
• After a couple of weeks of talking about it, and a week after it was signed, the Tim Hudson contract extension was officially announced.

At Talking Chop...

• The SBN Awards were released, and Tommy Hanson won the SBN NL Rookie of the Year. Let's see if he can win the real thing this week.
• CB presented the top-10 Braves right-handed starting pitching prospects in two parts, here and here.
• Matt presented the top-10 Braves left-handed starting pitching prospects in two parts, here and here.
• I think the Braves should sign Billy Wagner, simply because his agent is named Bean Stringfellow.
• The bloggers at Talking Chop had round tables on right-handed and left-handed minor league starters.
• Take the Braves out of the running for these free agents.
• The Atlanta Braves Fan Confidence continued to climb.

Notable FanPosts and FanShots...

• royhobbs has a great review of the Brain McCann charity softball game.
• tenesseejed1 shared some pictures of his trip to the AFL.
• mvhsbball has a nice and nostalgic post about "Your first memory of the Atlanta Braves."

There is a certain resiliency to the Braves, and their fans certainly feel the same way. After an exciting, then disappointing finish to the regular season, the Atlanta Braves Fan Confidence Rating has climbed in each off-season sampling. The last in-season poll had the FCP at 64, then a climb to 70, then 72, and finally this week it reached 76 -- the highest the poll has been at any point since it was begun at the beginning of last season.

The signing of Tim Hudson certainly could have played a role in this turnaround, as the Braves and their fans now know that they will have the talented pitcher around for three to four more years, and that they also have the rotation flexibility to go out and trade one of their spare starting pitchers to fill other needs on the team.

The next poll will go up on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.