From the esteemed Kevin Goldstein over at Baseball Prospectus:
Five-Star Prospects
1. Jason Heyward, OF
2. Tommy Hanson, RHP
Four-Star Prospects
3. Jordan Schafer, CF
4. Gorkys Hernandez, CF
5. Freddie Freeman, 1B
Three-Star Prospects
6. Julio Teheran, RHP
7. Cole Rohrbough, LHP
8. Tyler Flowers, C
9. Randall Delgado, RHP
10. Brandon Hicks, SS
Two-Star Prospects
11. Kris Medlen, RHPJust Missed: John Gilmore, 3B; Craig Kimbrell, RHP; Jeff Locke, LHP
A lot of great prospects up there. It's nice to see we have two five-star guys, and there's Randall Delgado again.
The real kicker is what Goldstein says in his summary:
The Braves have a solid core of young talent, but for the most part it's not going to help this team get any better in 2009. The Braves are a solid long-term play, but a trade of top prospects for Jake Peavy would be a mistake, simply guaranteeing a solid run at mediocrity, as opposed to having the patience to wait out a possible return to National League East glory at the beginning of the next decade.
It's no wonder Mr. Goldstein is a friend of the blog.
0 recs | 38 comments
Peavy doesn't want Escobar involved in deal...
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2008/nov/06/padres-peavy-throws-curveball/?padres
very interesting…
KingCongroy - November 7, 2008
Maybe I should make a site rule that says, “no bitching.”
gondeee - November 7, 2008
not that it's a democracy, but...
…you’d have my vote. Not just because of this, but a few other instances too.
VegasAces - November 7, 2008
then it passes… Talking Chop site rule, “no bitching!”
gondeee - November 7, 2008
What did I do this time? LOL
scstrato - November 7, 2008
Then you’d have no users.
royhobbs - November 7, 2008
Fair point… perhaps no non-baseball related bitching.
gondeee - November 7, 2008
What are we bitching about?
buzzdeadwax - November 7, 2008
The six or seven deleted comments from about 20 minutes ago.
royhobbs - November 7, 2008
I can’t believe I missed it. Then again, maybe it’s a good thing it got deleted before I got here.
scstrato - November 7, 2008
Braves have a great system, which will hopefully only get better with the high draft choice in the upcoming draft. I’d hate to see a lot of these guys traded off, either. At this point, the Braves need to build from within and make a few good FA acquisitions.
drdonkeypunch - November 7, 2008
word!
gondeee - November 7, 2008
+2
RainDelay - November 7, 2008
Agreed
None of these prospects is knocking down the door – even Hanson, Schaefer, and Medlen would profit by a full season at AAA. There’s no rush to trade a player before he loses top prospect status.
buzzdeadwax - November 7, 2008
What's the alternative?
I appreciate the general concept of not trading top prospects. Seems to me that’s exactly the course Wren is taking. The only ones on that list being prominently discussed are one of Schafer/Hernandez (how many CF prospects do we need?), and maybe Locke and/or Rohrbough (though surprisingly, haven’t seen Cole’s name mentioned much).
The alternative is to keep all these guys (on the outside chance that all of them become solid major leaguers), and either overpay for overpriced older/injury proned pitchers (Lowe, Burnett, etc, and that’s assuming they’d agree to come to ATL); or to do nothing for ’09 and probably 2010, and “wait til the year after the year after next year.”
Heyward, Hanson, Teheran and probably Freeman are off the table. We’re trying to sign Tazawa (who would be like a 1st round pick), and we have the No. 7 pick in the draft.
I don’t think we’re in danger of depleting the system too badly.
MikeinAtlanta - November 7, 2008
Love me some Baseball Prospectus.
Smoltz's Beard - November 7, 2008
gtfo noob
royhobbs - November 7, 2008
that’s deserved.
Smoltz's Beard - November 7, 2008
Yeah Seriously
Where ya been?
VegasAces - November 7, 2008
I wish I had some great story complete with pics ala Hobbs, but I don’t. Self-medicating myself for the most part. I’ve been lurking for a while, but decided it was time to lace my boots up again. Good to be back.
Smoltz's Beard - November 7, 2008
Goes without saying, good to have you back.
VegasAces - November 8, 2008
lol
Good to see you back.
royhobbs - November 8, 2008
Notice Hicks at #10
IF, and I do mean if, we trade Escobar to whoever and we’re in some sort of rebuilding mode (maybe not contend until 2010), then perhaps Hicks becomes the heir to Yunel. I know he strikes out a ton, and if you put that at the ML level, he’d get creamed, but geez – give him next year at AA, and then maybe he’s ready for Atlanta. His defense is supposed to be above average – well above, if I remember right – so he couldn’t be much worse than Lillibridge. That assumes he cuts down on the Ks at AA. I guess we’ll see. I suppose, though, that if we’re looking to 2010, then Peavy would not be on the team, and Escobar would have had to be traded somewhere else.
Just thinking out loud here….
And for the record, I’ve said all along that I think Hicks Chipper’s replacement at 3rd…..
secondbass - November 7, 2008
should say “Hicks will be Chipper’s replacement at 3rd”
secondbass - November 7, 2008
i compeltely agree… with Hick’s frame it seems he could add some size and become even more of a power hitter… so long as he can cut down on the Ks. he seems to have good OBP skills.
Swo12bv - November 7, 2008
kimbrel and redmond got hosed.
bigjoe - November 7, 2008
gotta love talkin' some chop!
“gondee” deletes my thread, plagiarizes it, then deletes the comment i make bringing that to light. LOVE IT!
son.of.sourman - November 7, 2008
And yet you keep coming back
Seriously though, I love how deep our system is. We can talk about getting Peavy and let’s say we actually land the guy, but where does that really put us? Probably the playoffs, but not a contender for the World Series.
I’m fine with being mediocre for a few years till our young prospect studs make their way to the bigs. We can be the next Rays. Just have to be patient…but that’s a hard thing to do in today’s market where you have to win now.
Sparhawk - November 7, 2008
How can you plagiarize a link to an article?
TradeAndruw - November 8, 2008
The Randall Delgado thing is funny to me. I saw him pitch and yeah, he’s OK, but I don’t think he’s one of the top prospects in the organization. He definitely shouldn’t be put ahead of our top picks this year, Duvall, Stovall, and Spruill, if based solely on the fact that he only played a level ahead of them at a couple of years older.
To me, this is a case of these guys (Goldstein and Sickles) trying to one-up anyone making prospect lists. They’re trying to make a leap with somebody, hoping that the guy proves them right next year. It’s a good move, since really nobody will remember if the guy doesn’t pan out and if he does they can go, “I was on this guy back in 08 when he had just pitched at Danville”.
cbwilk - November 8, 2008
+1
Completely agree with the second paragraph. With all the competition out there, I could easily see that happening, if for no other reason than it happens in tons of other arenas as well.
VegasAces - November 8, 2008
Surprised that Flowers isn't higher
and I still can’t get over that BP knocked him for having a “bad body”. Oh how far things have come since those oversimplified Moneyball days…
BraveBronco0121 - November 8, 2008
poor Jeremy Brown…
Smoltz's Beard - November 8, 2008
I like Mr. Goldstein!
BravesFan - November 8, 2008
if someone (HINT: royhobbs) gets me a BA subscription so i can get an early preview of the PROSPECT RANKINGS, i will love you forever. AND i will send you one of my 5 free tomahawks.
bigjoe - November 8, 2008
Get a (better?) job.
royhobbs - November 8, 2008
i’m a student. i work a shitty part time job where i deal with people who have high school educations. HOOK ME UP WITH AN INTERNSHIP BROTHERRRRRRRRRR
bigjoe - November 8, 2008
I also have like 13 tomahawks.
royhobbs - November 8, 2008
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