I want to say that we've gone the entire year month to this point and not one single Atlanta Braves prospect has appeared on the Baseball America Prospect Hot Sheet (unless Tommy Hanson was on there). It's at least been a long time since I've seen a Braves prospect [UPDATE: not named Hanson, Heyward, or Medlen] on there, until now. Here is what BA says about Randall Delgado:
Team: low Class A Rome (South Atlantic)
Age: 19
Why He's Here: 1-0, 0.00, 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 10 SO
The Scoop: The majority of Latin American players come from the Dominican Republic or Venezuela, but the Braves are among the most active teams scouting in Panama and Colombia. The Braves spent $600,000 last year on catcher Christian Bethancourt, while Delgado, a fellow Panamanian, is garnering scouts' attention higher up the ladder with low Class A Rome. Delgado's ERA is up there at 4.91 through 51 1/3 innings, but the projectable righthander also has struck out 56 batters with a fastball that can get into the low-90s. His control needs work, but with Tommy Hanson in the big leagues and Jeff Locke now in the Pirates system, Delgado is one of the best minor league arms the Braves have.
Delgado jumped on the scene last year at Danville as he out-pitched Julio Teheran (at the same age), and just about everyone else, including college pitchers.
We'll be redoing the Talking Chop Braves Top Prospect list over the All-Star break, but in thinking about it and the performances of many of our prospects so far this season, it's going to be interesting as no one has really stood out or made any significant improvement. If I had to list the top-5 guys right now it might be worth putting Delgado in there, he's at least in the top-10.
BA also listed Freddie Freeman "in the team photo:"
1B Freddie Freeman (Braves) struggled in April, but since then the 2007 second-round pick has hit .343 in May and June. Now, Freeman is riding a seven-game hitting streak for high Class A Myrtle Beach and has hit safely in 13 of his last 14 games. For an 18-year-old, Freeman has an advanced bat and stayed hot last week, hitting .458 with two home runs...
This is not meant to start a "prospectbation" thread where everyone throws out their top-whatever, lets save that until the All-Star break once all the draft picks have signed and the short-season leagues have begun, but start thinking about it now.
0 recs | 22 comments
Tommy Hanson, April 17th
Tommy Hanson, May 1st
Kris Medlen & Tommy Hanson, May 8th
Jayson Heyward & Kris Medlen, May 15th
Tommy Hanson, May 22nd
Tommy Hanson & Jason Heyward, May 29th
You were close though. Guess the 20 second rule doesn’t apply to our fearless leader.
Smoltz's Beard - June 19, 2009
You beat me to it!
cbwilk - June 19, 2009
Okay
But beyond those three guys… I was right.
gondeee - June 19, 2009
Perhaps my expectation is to see someone up there every week (not named Hanson, Medlen, or Heyward, but them too). There has also been a lack of Braves on Kevin Goldstein’s prospect updates.
gondeee - June 19, 2009
Just giving you a hard time. I knew the angle you were going for, but it’s hard to convey your feelings when you’re on your 6th highball of the day.
Smoltz's Beard - June 19, 2009
We really haven’t had anybody breaking out this year in the minors. If anything, we’ve had a lot of guys underperforming.
cbwilk - June 19, 2009
We need to STOP trading our prospects
Im a lil worried to look at our top prospects list at the ASB. Outside of Freeman, Heyward and maybe C. Johnson, do we have any other players who have a better chance than not of making the big club and make a decent contribution? Maybe Teerahan, Delgado or the Vandy kid might have a shot, but what are they at best? A #3 starter?
For essentialy:
Mark Kotsay (decent CF for 1/2 a year)
Kotchman (a decent hitting, great fielding 1B)
Javy Vazquez (a good, not great pitcher)
Stephen Marek (uhhh, maybe a decent 6th inning pitcher one day?)
McLouth (a real good, gold glove centerfielder)
We’ve lost:
Salty
Tyler Flowers
Gorkys Hernandez
Nefatili Feliz
Joey Devine
Matt Harrison
Elvis Andrus
Brent Lillibridge
Charlie Morton
Jeff Locke
EIGHT, i repeat, EIGHT of those guys were on BA’s/MiLB.com/Espn top 100 prospects in the past 2-3 years.
Not to mention another prospect or two in the Tex and Vazquez deals i can’t remember.
STOP dealing our young kids. Unless we can strike a deal involving our current ML talent (im looking at you Jeff Francoeur, KJ, Vazquez, Gonzo, etc.) that improves our club, i think Franky Wren should sit still for a while.
Scott Coleman - June 19, 2009
You forgot a year’s worth of Mark Teixeira and Ron Mahay, who’s compensation pick netted us Brett DeVall.
I trust our scouting department and minor league brass to know who to trade and who to not trade. I’m not going to get into this argument again, other than to say the top 100 prospect lists don’t matter a thing if they can’t produce in the majors. So far, only Harrison and maybe Devine have done anything from your list.
soup du jour - June 19, 2009
my mistake
i did think about the year of Tex, which was great, but i meant to say what we have as of today.
Scott Coleman - June 19, 2009
Elvis Andrus is hitting well enough for a MI rookie...
Particularly given that he’s giving them great defense (his 5.49 RF is 13% better than Tulo in second place among SSs, and it would have led the majors the last two years.) He’ll be a fixture there for years. And Salty’s the #1 catcher for a great offensive team. Maybe they were blocked here, but it’s tough to say they’ll never amount to anything.
MichaelProcton - June 19, 2009
Adam Wainwright?
Yakker - June 19, 2009
ok well Salty and Flowers were blocked in ATL. And for Tex i would have gladly traded him and for Vaz i would have gladly traded Flowers who will more than likely be a DH for Chicago. I like Gorkys im a fan of his ESPECIALLY if he is a CF for a team BUT his K/BB and SB/CS is worrisome for me. He has NO power and he would be a LF for us so that means his value is as a good speedy game changing leadoff guy. So he best get walks and he BEST improve on his SB/CS ratio if he wants to be a regular LF. Now if he becomes a CF for the Pirates or another team then some of that can sly on by since his CF defense is spectacular. Ok i like Feliz but nobody knows how well he will do in the majors, could do good could not, worth it to trade him for Tex. I like Devine and thought his value should have been higher than Kotsay but i mean Bobby never played him im not sure if other GM’s really coveted him and would have given up alot for him, so gettin Kotsay is better than just lettin him rot in AAA or rot on the major league roster and NEVER pitching.
I dont really like Harrison much. If you dont like Reyes then you wont like Harrison. Im just not a fan of Harrison at all. Lillibridge is at best a solid utility guy at best, he is not a big loss at all. Morton is NOT a big loss at all either we had no room for him and we got McLouth for him. Locke could be good he may not be thats still wide open. Im fine with gettin McLouth a sure thing. Ok and then you have Andrus, i like him at the time i didn’t want to see Andrus gone, but we did have infield depth at the time and he would be blocked at SS and 3B for the next 3 or 4 years for sure. Maybe he could move to second and be good there but i really dont know how that would work out i mean im sure he could dont see why not but Braves FO prolly still likes KJ more so i have no idea.
Alright you COULD make the argument well we could have made a trade for a starter instead of Tex. And you know we could have. I remember at best rumors where people were hopin Salty would be traded for Snell. You gotta realize Salty stock was soaring it was as high as it would get with him being an Atlanta Brave. Well that wouldn’t have worked out too good to get Snell. And at least this way we ended up gettin Kotchman(a good starting 1B), Marek, and DeVall(a good young SP prospect). You can ALWAYS second guess trades especially involving prospects thats the way it is but im fine with what has happened. You HAVE to realize that all prospects do not work out. Only guys i see Braves missing is Feliz an Andrus and Gorkys IF he can become a real good leadoff man and can still a crap load of bases. You gotta give up good stuff to get good stuff back. Thats the way it goes.
rockybull - June 19, 2009
Still with all those trades the Braves have a good farm system. Think about the Tim Hudson trade I think the Braves have a good Idea of which prospects wont do well
Heyward is the next crime dog - June 19, 2009
so how does that explain Adam Wainwright, exactly?
MichaelProcton - June 19, 2009
Um
Even a good organization will occasionally—and this might shock you—trade away someone of legitimate value.
sunking1056 - June 19, 2009
JD Drew had an AMAZING year for the Braves too. We got excellent Value for Wainright even if it wasn’t long term.
yondaime4 - June 20, 2009
I would make that Wainwright for Drew deal everytime. We dont make the playoffs that year without Drew he was great for us. I guess some fans on here expect us to only rob teams and never give up nothin good well that just doesn’t happen.
rockybull - June 20, 2009
Didn't say that...
In fact, my disagreement is with the notion that we only trade guys we’re sure or have strong feelings won’t succeed.
MichaelProcton - June 20, 2009
I dont agree with the notion that we only trade guys we’re sure or have strong feelings won’t succeed. The Braves really liked Meyer, Wainwright and guys like that. In JS book IF i remember correctly Braves were really not liken the idea of trading Meyer in that Hudson deal cause they felt he would really be good in the future. And im sure the Braves felt strongly about Wainwright and others also. You gotta give to get.
rockybull - June 20, 2009
Didn’t we get Ray King in that same trade? He was pretty outstanding for the Braves too.
cbwilk - June 20, 2009
Eli Marrero too. Supersub!
bigjoe - June 20, 2009
no we didn’t get King in that deal. We traded Ray King, Marquis, and Wainwright for Drew and Marrero. We got King like a year or two earlier from the Brew Crew.
rockybull - June 20, 2009
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