We finish up the positional reviews this week by rounding out the infield. Then we head straight into the Braves top-25 prospects next week.
This week's schedule:
Tuesday: Yunel Escobar, Alex Gonzalez
Wednesday: Braves Top-4 Minor League Shortstop Prospects
Thursday: Chipper Jones
Friday: Braves Top-3 Minor League Third Base Prospects
Saturday: Around The NL East
Remember to get your top-25 Braves prospects ready to go, because next Friday we ask the readers of Talking Chop to submit their own.
0 recs | 41 comments
So how much Major League experience
does it take to shed the “prospect” label again?
TBuzz - November 29, 2010 via mobile
So we submit how we think the brave’s top 25 prospects should be ranked?
iamthesgt - November 29, 2010 via mobile
Yep
gondeee takes all of the lists and compiles them into a community-wide list.
Doghnut - November 29, 2010
It's pretty damn cool.
And yes, iamthesgt, you just rank them in order of 1-25. For example,
1. Teheran
2. Freeman
3. Minor
4. Delgado
and so on. The first 15 or so should be easy — or at least they should be if you read cb’s and matt’s work — and if you get stuck on the last few, you can always check out something like John Sickel’s or Baseball America’s lists for help.
Scott Coleman - November 29, 2010
Can
One of the TC gurus do a nice stat-breakdown of Escobar and Sea Bass after the trade? I’m dying to know who got the better end of that deal.
HansonManCrush - November 29, 2010 via mobile
I know this...
the hair salons in Atlanta sure didn’t make out on the deal!
TBuzz - November 29, 2010 via mobile
The Blue Jays got one of the best young shortstops in the game, we got a shortstop that has the same career BB % as Jeff Francoeur.
Windu - November 29, 2010
and obviously this one stat means we lost.
Doghnut - November 29, 2010
well its one of many stats that mean we lost. But yeah, that is the general idea, horrible trade.
Windu - November 29, 2010
Since the Braves soured on him, and had pretty much, apparently, given up on him, I’d say the Braves won, simply because they got rid of a major head-ache.
MO'toole - November 30, 2010
Here is my in-depth review:
Gonzalez: .240/.291/.386, 83OPS+, 17 doubles, 6HRs, 38RBI, 5.1UZR, 4.2UZR150
Escobar: .275/.340/.356, 91OPS+, 7 doubles, 4HRs, 16RBI, 4.3UZR, 4.2UZR150
Basically, both guys sucked, and it’s astonishing how bad Esco’s power was even in a hitters paradise in Toronto. It’s also comical that Gonzo’s .291OBP was actually a little worse than his career numbers.
It’s basically a wash. Neither hit and both were very solid in the field. Now what happens in 2011 and beyond is another story, but my guess is neither team comes out big in the trade.
Scott Coleman - November 29, 2010
0 HR out of the SS position before the trade...
6 HR out of the SS position after the trade. Also, Bobby Cox never had to bench Gonzo for dogging it. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
TBuzz - November 29, 2010
I just....
don’t buy into this assessment.
AvoidTheDolphin - November 29, 2010
Probably because it's a silly one.
Scott Coleman - November 29, 2010 via mobile
ask Fredi Gonzalez...
about the value of keeping around a player who doesn’t hustle…
TBuzz - November 29, 2010
There’s quite a bit of difference between Hanley Ramirez and Yunel Escobar.
Scott Coleman - November 29, 2010
Yes, Ramirez is a much better player. If Yunel was that good I don’t doubt his ego would become that unbearable too.
cbwilk - November 29, 2010
But he’s not and never will be, so it’s not really fair to compare the two.
Scott Coleman - November 30, 2010 via mobile
But it is. One was traded away because of his attitude, the other got his manager fired because of his attitude. They both have some problems.
cbwilk - November 30, 2010
I think they were talking about looking at home run totals as a valid way to gauge whether or not the trade was good. That’s a horrible way of judging things. Looking at OPS or defensive value would be much better. At the end of the day, Gonzalez was better with the Braves in 2010 than Escobar was with the Braves, and he wasn’t a clubhouse distraction, which was the most important thing.
cbwilk - November 29, 2010
If you read the earlier thread...
someone mentioned an obscure stat as a way of measuring that we got the raw end of the Esky deal.
Whoosh!
TBuzz - November 29, 2010
There’s no whoosh. I don’t recognize your user name and you only have 25 comments. As far as I knew you thought HR were a valid way to measure things.
cbwilk - November 30, 2010
No...
Yunel was an attitude problem who got most of his RBIs with the Braves this year on opening day. I think it’s pretty obvious he wasn’t a Bobby Cox player…and if idiot fan who loves Esky so much read between the lines they’d realize he isn’t a Fredi Gonzalez player either…
TBuzz - November 30, 2010
Who are you replying to?
cbwilk - November 30, 2010
(not you)
referring to someone earlier in the thread dude…
TBuzz - November 30, 2010
How about this...
Let’s discuss what the Braves plan to do at SS in 2012…
TBuzz - November 30, 2010
That’s impossible to say. Who knows what players in the system will develop. It could be that Tyler Pastornicky has a great 2011 and looks ready, and, while it seems less likely, guys like Brandon Hicks and Diory Hernandez could all of the sudden become short term solutions. I don’t know who’s going to be available as a free agent then, but as far as I know there won’t be any elite players available, which is fine considering the Braves rarely sign elite players. With the farm system they could go out and acquire just about any reasonably priced SS for 2012. So who knows?
cbwilk - November 30, 2010
Plus Lipka and Salcedo are 3-4 years away if they even stay as positional SS’s I’m guessing…
Whoever it is, would be nice to see them get AB’s in 2011. I recall a HR Diory had against the Mets that helped to start a streak.
TBuzz - November 30, 2010
If you think Diory is the answer to our SS problems you’re a bigger idiot than most people who post here in the off-season are.
And I don’t mean everyone who posts in the off-season, I mean the fans who seem to come out of the woodwork after the seasons over and feel they know everything.
MO'toole - November 30, 2010
First of all...
I didn’t say that. So whatever issues you have going on in your life, take care of them before logging in here.
Second of all, unlike most of those “woodwork” posters you mention…I actually understand that FW can’t just “make it happen”. There’s salary concerns, arbitration-eligibility, protecting players, etc…
So no Justin Upton for Brandon Beachy talk coming from me…capish?
TBuzz - November 30, 2010
Dude, STFUnSTFD, I have no issues, you’re the one mentioning Diory, all I did was call em like I sees em.
MO'toole - November 30, 2010
I said I recall Diory having a key hit at a crucial time. How that’s an endorsement of anything other than giving him a look in ST or more ABs with the big club…I don’t know.
Saying someone is an idiot (and your subsequent reply after that) instead of just saying “I disagree” is something you need to work out between you and your anger management counselor.
Just be respectful dude…
TBuzz - November 30, 2010 via mobile
Dude, I respect no one unless they earn it, and so far, there’s only maybe 3 posters on this forum that I feel warrant respect, and you damn sure aren’t one of them.
As for the counselor comment, flog off, I don’t need any kind of friggin counseling, and making assumptions like that makes you like the king of all jack wads in my opinion. If you don’t like said opinion, boo friggin hoo.
MO'toole - November 30, 2010
Fight on Keyboard Warrior…Fight on
TBuzz - November 30, 2010
OOoOOOOOOOOo you called me a keyboard warrior, woohooo must make me special or something, right????
Douche.
MO'toole - December 1, 2010
While we're trying to act tough and say mean things...
I wouldn’t be sad if you relapsed.
You’ve proven yourself to be, at least in print, far worse than my societal standard anyway, so I’m fairly apathetic to what might happen to you.
So go idolize Josh Hamilton and shove more drugs up your face.
And while you’re at it, keep up those feelings of goodwill to your fellow man and positive vibes, brah.
-C
cthabeerman - December 1, 2010
Please try to use the reply button, it makes the conversations easier to follow.
cbwilk - November 30, 2010
gotcha
TBuzz - November 30, 2010
i’d rather have yunel any day of the week, that was a bad trade. Yunel will bounce back this year hopefully and the braves will shake their heads on that trade.
farreasy - November 30, 2010
When you’re manager says he can’t coach a team with Yunel on it, you get RID of him, period, end of story. No matter how much we want to bitch and moan about it, he’s gone, get the fuck over it people, jesus fucking christ.
MO'toole - November 30, 2010
That is IF you support your manager over the players....
if not, see Fredi, Florida.
Mr. Sanchez - December 1, 2010
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