Out of this World?

First off I’m going to apologise for last week, both the quantity and quality of my writing was barely acceptable for the seventh grade let alone someone aspiring to be a sports writer. If you read it you will know what I mean if not I will briefly recap what I did: completely disrespect the Braves legendary third baseman as well as the team’s brand new free agent slugger. So yeah, not a great week on my behalf. So now I’m going to try and right some of last week’s wrongs with a sparkling endorsement of the insanely exciting outfield the Braves will be trotting out in 2011.

Let’s start in left where, no don’t adjust your glasses/tv/computer, that’s Martin Prado the Braves All-Star second baseman and batting king. Prado started 2009 as a utility back-up who could play any of the infield positions perhaps with the exception of shortstop, after struggles by incumbent second baseman Kelly Johnson that included a career worse .224 average with career lows in homers, RBI’s and walks. Just as Kelly was reducing each of his at bats to nervous breakdowns for Braves fans Martin Prado broke out of the dugout and into an everyday player with a sensational .307 average and very impressive .822 OPS. This convinced the Braves front office enough that Prado deserved to be an everyday player leading to Johnson being non-tendered and Martin being awarded the second base job. This all from a dirt poor Venezuelan who nobody expected to get into the majors let alone become an everyday player for Bobby Cox and the Atlanta Braves. Whilst this alone sounds like some Hollywood script it simply doesn’t include the best bit. Like ending the Departed before everyone got shot. With the competition for the job now residing safely in the Arizona desert Prado caught fire early and stayed hot right up until his hip pointed towards an early end to his season. While not quite as impressive season as 2009 Prado still posted another .307 average with career highs in home runs and RBI’s while proving to be the team’s spark plug moving into the lead-off spot early in the season as the Braves and former lead-off man Nate McLouth slumped in April. In the first month of 2010 while the rest of his team scuffled around, seemingly finding offence as rare as a rain out in Atlanta in April, Prado hit anything and everything fishing the month with a remarkable .357 average with a .422 on base percentage. He was hitting .333 at the end of June and was really denied a run at the batting title and most hits by injuries that resulted in sub .260 months in both July and September. One of the more touching Prado stories of 2010 occurred around the All-Star when Prado finally managed to fly his mother into Atlanta and then to Los Angeles giving her the opportunity to see him play Major League Baseball for the very first time. When the Braves acquired slugging second baseman Dan Uggla from the Florida Marlins fans immediately began wondering what the new arrival meant for Martin, in fact Martin wondered what this meant for him. Apparently having been told that Prado played the outfield a couple of times in summer league Frank Wren decided this would work well for the Braves, apparently someone miscalculated how many times Prado appeared in left field with the move causing Martin some worried he had somehow disappointed the organisation with his play at second. His concerns show as much about Martin as they do about the organisation, here the Braves have one of the hardest working players in the game who was concerned that he had let the team down and was being moved because of it. Stories have already emerged from Dark Star about how hard Martin has worked to perfect left field in Spring Training and, according to reports; he is well on his way to doing it. Prado is set to have a long and successful career hopefully all of it with the Braves, now he only needs two things to become the star he should be; a lucrative multi-year contract and a nickname.

The Braves will be counting on the man Prado replaced in the lead off to play center field and hit a lot better than he did in 2010. Nate McLouth came off 2009 having been an All-Star and rewarded with the kind of contract that Prado now deserves, unfortunately for whatever reason it should have been McLouth paying the Braves for the opportunity to play, it certainly looked at times that Nate had at least changed his last name to Cox. It all started with struggles in Spring Training when it seemed to take McLouth longer to get a hit than it did for the leaves to grow back in Piedmont Park. Nate carried his difficulties into April with his hitting going in exactly the opposite direction the Prado’s with McLouth hitting just .175 in the season’s first month before hitting .181 in May. It took the Braves 19 at bats in June to decide that 2010 wasn’t going to be McLouth’s year sending him up the road to Gwinnett to try and hit some balls unfortunately for the Braves Nate only hit at a .234 clip at AAA before getting recalled in mid-July not for anything he did but more because the other options included Melky Cabrera. Whilst struggling upon his recall in July McLouth he had better fortune during the stretch run in September hitting a very respectable .275 going into the postseason including 3 homers, two of which proved key in a couple of crucial wins. The offseason saw McLouth work hard on his hitting as well as his hair highlighting and hopes are that McLouth at least returns to 2009 form when he hit .256/.352/.436 as well as belting 20 home runs. Should Nate return to that kind of form the Braves will at least feel content with him in the line-up, should he struggle again he may not get until June this time.

One thousand words on the Braves outfield and I still haven’t mentioned the Kid, that’s right, that one. Whether it is more myth than man that has arrived at Disney this year is yet to be determined, what with the protective tents in the executive parking lot and the SI cover, it is undeniable that a lot more is expected from year two of Planet Heyward. After all the hype there was some expectation that Jason Heyward may in fact hit for a higher average than Ted Williams, hit more homers than Barry Bonds and at some point in the season actually fly. It turned out that actually J-Hey was a pretty normal rookie, hitting .277 with a hugely impressive .393 on base percentage while still having the power to hit 18 homers with a .456 slugging percentage. When he injured his thumb sliding into third base at Turner Field against the Diamondbacks on May 14, a month he still managed to hit .337 with 4 long balls. It was a horrid June that really damaged Heyward’s rookie numbers when his thumb pain was at its worst, his line for June looked something like this .181/.287/.245. Given such a difficult injury and natural rookie struggles Jason’s first year in the majors should be considered a success despite the hype, just think of the Heyward highlights of 2010 beginning with the Opening Day home run off of Carlos Zambrano. According to FanGraphs Heyward should hit somewhere between .286 and .295 with 15-24 home runs and another ridiculous OBP. As fans we should remember he is still only 21 years-old and still has plenty to learn about being a Major Leaguer, likely this year Jason won’t have the same pressure to perform that he did last year, especially given the new arrivals at second and first base. Maybe the opportunity to actually relax and have some fun could yield results better than any graphs could predict.

Whilst the organisation is putting a lot of stock in these three to perform they have loaded up some very interesting back-ups. Personally I have developed a bit of a fan-crush on Matt Young and can’t understand why the Braves aren’t given the diminutive Center fielder/second baseman more of a look in. Despite being 28-years-old and 5’8 tall Young has been improving during his five years in the Minors, his average has been good throughout his minor league career with averages of .312 in 2005, .274 in 2006, a disappointing .269 in 2007, .289 in 2008, .284 in 2009 and a career best .300 last year in his first full year at AAA. Young also has incredible speed both on defence and on the base paths where he has stolen 158 bases in his five minor league seasons. There is also former super-Prospect Jordan Schafer still waiting to find out if he might realise his enormous potential that he briefly flashed when he earned the starting center field job at the start of 2009. The organisation also added former Cardinal Joe Mather who could, if healthy, morph into a less powerful version of Eric Hinske which would make Mather a steal for the price tag the Frank Wren managed to put on him.

The outfield has the potential to be one of the best in the league if not the whole of baseball; it should also be one of the more exciting and potentially frustrating. Whatever happens we all could be in for a fun ride.

One More Time

As has been the case since 1995 third base is the position least open to debate when the Braves finally break camp and head to Washington for opening day. However this year will be slightly different to any other that Chipper Jones has started at the hot corner for his one and only organisation. The last time we Braves fans saw Chipper he was being helped off the Minute Maid field in Houston after practically destroying his left knee making an incredible defensive play. Thanks to the emergence of guys like Brian McCann, Jason Heyward and Martin Prado as well as the acquisition of Dan Uggla the importance of Chipper to the Braves has somewhat lessened. While it is almost preordained that Jones will hit in the third hole the pressure on him to produce the eye popping numbers that he has produced since his debut in 1993 but that doesn’t mean that Braves don’t need some of the old Chipper. Whether it is a psychological thing or simply just the way karma is the Braves do tend to go as Chipper goes, in April when Chipper hit just .230 the Braves were 9-14 although he still posted a .390 OBP, whereas in May Jones hit .265 and posted a beastly .410 on base percentage Atlanta went 20-8 a stretch that redefined the Braves season. Despite seemingly growing roots in the third spot in Bobby Cox’s line-up card Chipper made some comments that suggested he would be willing to give someone else a shot batting third, statements that seem to show Chippers thirst for one more championships now outweighs his desire to be the main man in the line-up.

Last year also represented the completion of Chipper’s transformation from power hitter to something much better rounded. Chipper became much more of an on base percentage player in the season he broke the Braves all time walk record, posting a .381 mark that would have ranked joint eleventh in the National League, a position that would have been greatly helped had he lasted through August, a month he was on base .471% of the time. The impact of a healthy Chipper in the line-up, regardless of where he is hitting, is the assistance he gives to other hitters both on and off the field. When Jones is on one of his torrid on base tears it gives McCann and now Dan Uggla the opportunity to hit with at least Chip on base and, in turn, their presence should result in Jones seeing the kind of pitches he used to deliver directly to the center field bleachers.

Reading Bill James’ predictions for Chippers season should make any Braves fan pretty happy. If you are to believe the father of sabermetrics then the Braves will have Jones on the field for 119 games (not a bard mark for a 39-year-old0 will post an impressive .288 average and an astounding .401 OBP and .481 slugging percentage. Should Chipper put up the numbers that James seems to indicate he could then, in a year that may well be the last of Chippers legendary career, he could have gone a long way to adding some extra jewellery to his collection.

Stuck in the Middle

The middle infield has been the area most focused on by the Braves organisation and the media thanks almost exclusively to the acquisition of slugging second baseman Dan Uggla from the Florida Marlins. The lack of power has been an issue for the Braves since 2006, the last time they team had someone hit more than 30 home runs when Andruw Jones hit 41. Of all the possible situations for the Braves landing Uggla was somewhat of a coup given Dan’s familiarity with the division and also with his new teammates. Coming off the back of the best year of his career the Braves stole Uggla from their NL East rivals the Marlins trading away Omar Infante, after the utilityman’s breakout year, and lefty reliever Michael Dunn in exchange for a player who has hit less than thirty homers in only one of his five big league seasons. Uggla has a career 22.1 WARP after posting a 5.3 mark last year along with a line of .287/.369/.508 as well as a career high 33 home runs. Shortly after arriving in Atlanta Uggla was rewarded with a five year contract extension at about $12 million a year, hardly chump change but, if Uggla continues his power and continued improvement in other categories, will be in line with his market value. With the arrival of Dan that Braves finally a powerful right hand bat to go slap bang in the middle of their predominately left handed line-up. In nine games at Turner Field in 2010 Uggla hit at a .343 clip with a .629 slugging percentage, .378 OBP and 3 home runs. Despite some question marks around his defensive abilities the new Braves manager and former Marlins boss Fredi Gonzalez believes most of his issues with the glove stem from Uggla trying to do too much which whilst not being a huge positive isn’t exactly going to hurt the team long term.

Uggla will be joined in the middle of the infield by former Blue Jay Alex Gonzalez who arrived in Atlanta on July 14^th as a replacement for the formerly mercurial latterly immature Yunel Escobar. Gonzalez arrived on a tear having hit 17 home runs with the super charged Jays and an above career average of .259, unfortunately for the Braves this pace didn’t play out that well for either the team or Gonzo who hit only .240 in a Braves uniform with only 6 home runs in 72 games. I certainly never had much confidence in Alex whenever he got to the plate but, reviewing his numbers and the way he played in the eyeball test, he was certainly not the disaster area he seemed at times. While Gonzalez may not provide the same pop at Uggla or the average of former middle infielders Prado and Infante, he will provide the security and dependability that the Braves need to anchor the bottom of the order. Given he will be hitting near rookie first baseman Freddie Freeman and Vegas style gamble Nate McLouth it will be important for Gonzalez to simple be reliable and play the solid defence he showed last year.

With the two acquisitions over the past year the Braves built one of the more reliable middle infields in the division with potential for fireworks. Hopefully we will all be able to sit back and enjoy the show.

Going Up in Flames?

I will admit that I don’t know the intricacies of the Atlanta Spirit ownership and especially their dreadful ownership of the Atlanta Thrashers but I know that, as an Atlanta sports fan, it affects me and all others who claim Atlanta as their spiritual sporting home. While almost everyone sees the Thrashers as Atlanta’s fourth child, and to a large population they are the ugliest of the clan, there is a small percentage within the metropolis that is the most passionate fan base in the city outside of college football. Whether this stems from the lack that the franchise has had (one play-off appearance since the Thrashers inception in 1999) or from the genuine lack of hockey culture that 90 degree summers produce it seems that the Atlanta Spirit is beginning to push against the diminutive but dedicated fans that have propped up a badly managed and badly funded team since day one.

Two things help to make a franchise successful in Atlanta, 1.) An owner not just dedicated to the team but also to the area and 2.) A recognisable star that is as committed to the team as the fans are. It also helps to be a football team. For the purpose of this exercise I will ignore the Falcons simply because football would work anywhere (maybe even L.A who knows?). The Braves and Hawks both arrived in Atlanta in the late sixties and have been helped massively by the fact that, at one point in each team’s history, they have been owned by Atlanta’s most successful entrepreneur Ted Turner. Ted is the type of individual who especially during his time in charge of the teams wanted to make the teams successful for HIS city. As far as star power goes both franchises have had the major stars for significant periods of their history, the Braves arrived with Hank Aaron and his chase for 715, the eighties were the domain of Dale Murphy and if you’re reading this blog you shouldn’t need reminding of what the nineties were. The Hawks had Dominique Wilkins for twelve years that spanned the eighties and early nineties, Steve Smith was a fan favourite towards the end of the 90’s and now have the Smith-Horford-Johnson trio.

The Thrashers never had the Ted Turner owner who powered the franchise to better, they never had a superstar who genuinely cared about the well fare of the team and, most importantly, never gave the fans hope of having one. If Thrashers fans wanted a potential warning about the way the franchise might be going they had no further to look than the city itself. Six years after the Braves arrived in Atlanta from Milwaukee and four years after the Hawks arrived from St Louis a little team on skates arrived as a pair of NHL expansion teams. For eight years in the 1970’s the city of Atlanta had a hockey team in the Flames, one that made the play-offs in six of their first eight seasons and produced a steady stream of talented young players including goaltender Dan Bouchard. However much like we are seeing now, as soon as the costs got a little steep the ownership refused to commit time and/or money to a promising young franchise, instead they sold the Flames for $16 million, a then-NHL record. Guess what happened next...the Flames went to Canada. Does this sound familiar? It seemed like only minutes after announcing the five year contract signed by Dustin Byfuglien, one of those potential franchise making players, that Atlanta Spirit basically stuck the For Sale sign on the outside of Phillips Arena. The city of Atlanta simply cannot allow this hockey franchise to desert the city for the snowier climes of Winnipeg, the Thrashers need a Ted Turner in a world that doesn’t have many Ted Turner’s left. Surely dreaming isn’t a bad thing to do though.

A First

The Braves official depth chart at first base looks like this:

· Freddie Freeman

· Martin Prado

· Joe Mather

To be honest I'm not particularly inclined to spend any time on a Monday afternoon when I’m not working to discuss the possibility of Martin or Mather playing first, if that happens consider the Braves season somewhere between the toilet and the sewer. The only two likely to get major playing at first base are rookie Freeman and Eric Hinske. Now Eric’s main role on the team is to come off the bench and kill middle relievers, he just made $1.5 million for doing it, so I won’t even really consider him too much in the first base BBB. Going down to Orlando the Braves have basically put the house on Freddie Freeman being major league ready and major league productive for the next ten years. After the uncertainty of Troy Glaus’ steel knees playing their first season at first base last year Frank Wren and the organisation have gone in a the complete opposite direction for 2011.

For those of you who haven’t been introduced to Freddie Freeman yet he is a 20 year-old, 6-5’, 220 pound hitting machine out of Fountain Valley, California. Drafted by the Braves in the second round of the 2007 draft from El Modena High School and has been one of the organisations top prospects ever since. He formed a close friendship with Rookie of the Year runner up Jason Heyward during their respective time in the minors, destroyed Triple-A pitching last year to the tune of a .319 average and .898 ops while being one of the youngest players in the league. He made his big league debut on September 10^th and, despite hitting only .167 in 20 games, provided one of the late season highlights with his home run off NL Cy Young winner Roy Halladay. He has also used the off season to become one of the Braves tweeters and is more than happy to display his nimble fingers at @FreddieFreeman. Nice to meet you.

Freeman began 2009 as the Braves fifth best prospect and split the season between Class-A advanced and Double-A ball, playing 70 games at Myrtle Beach and 41 in Mississippi. He hit.302 at A-ball level before struggling a little at the more advanced AA hitting only .248 with a .308 on base percentage and .342 slugging. Despite the slight disappointment in Pearl, MS he still managed to be ranked as the fourth best prospect in the Braves organisation going into last season behind Jason Heyward, Julio Teheran and Arodys Vizcaino, hardly an insult to young Freddie. He was given a full season at Triple-A after attending his first full big league camp starting as the Gwinnett Braves first baseman and, as mentioned, being one of the youngest players in the International League. Freeman proceeded to post the third best batting average at the AAA level, the fourth best OPS that included the fourth best slugging percentage and seventh best OBP. He also collected 18 home runs and an International League All-Star nomination and collecting the league’s Rookie of the Year award. Whilst not being roommate Jason Heyward’s gaudy minor league numbers it was hardly like Freeman struggled.

His big season in Gwinnett lead to Freeman being named the second best prospect behind only Julio Teheran this time, he was also named by MLB.com as number 17 on their 50 best prospects list. FanGraphs has, as with everyone else this, released their projections for Freddie in 2011, the good people over there believe that Freeman will hit .274, post a .340 on base percentage and slug .424 with 15 home runs in 134 games. If you’re looking for a more authoritative projection look no further than Bill James himself, the father of sabermetrics believes our rookie will hit better and further but walk less, James’ line for Freeman looks like this .282/.335/.446. He also predicts Freeman will go deep 16 times.

Like Heyward last year the first base job is Freeman’s to lose and while not being as widely touted as the Georgia native right fielder Freeman is still a very exciting prospect. He doesn’t fit the mould of the prototypical power hitting first baseman (one of the reasons the Braves have a second baseman capable of hitting 40 home runs) but his swing is as smooth as any first baseman out there. He also is an incredibly gifted defensive player and an individual that projects to be a great teammate, not just for this year but for the next decade.

Big Braves Blog Part 1

Here we go again, pitchers and catchers are all making their way down to Orlando and prepare to become, at least for a month, as much a part of the Disney world as Mickey Mouse (insert Nate McLouth/Kenshin Kawakami jokes here). With the beginning of spring training upon us I’m breaking out the formula of last year’s Big Braves Blog where I break down each position and who the Braves have filling it. This year, after concluding my whistle stop tour around the Braves depth chart, I’m going to fire out my first ever ‘No Trade List’ of which there will be more coming very soon. Anyway I thought this year I’d start in a crouched position and see what the Braves have behind the plate.

Does Atlanta have the best catcher in baseball? If you ask any fan inside Turner Field on any given game day you will probably be given a large majority yes. If the question is does Atlanta have the best catcher in the National League that positive response will become only more resounding. Do the Braves have the best Catcher tandem in the game? Erm anybody see any doubt in anybody? I should hope not. Last year the team went into Spring Training with Brian McCann returning as a four time All-Star and, after struggling through some issues with his eyes, still managed to post a .281 batting average and 21 home runs in a season that he also had a 3.7 WARP. McCann was projected to post a .298 average, .370 On Base Percentage and would be valued at 5.4 WARP. He didn’t exactly hit those heights mostly through more vision problems that seemed to be cured by, of all things, drinking more water. Brian ended up with a relatively anaemic .269 average but still managed an immense .375 on base percentage. He hit 21 home runs and still put up a 5.3 WAR while getting exactly 100 plate appearances less than he was projected to get. Just think of all the money Mac could have saved on those specially made Oakley’s could surely have gone towards something better, maybe reinforcing the mantelpiece that McCann uses to house his awards. Even though he struggled McCann still added two more pieces of hardware; a fourth silver slugger award (third consecutive) and an All-Star game MVP, he was named to his fifth straight All-Star game and knocked in all three National League runs in their 3-1 win. A huge problem for Brian in his game resulted from him tensing up and as Chipper, Prado and Heyward began getting hurt Mac took the burden of the team’s offence solely on himself and lost the discipline that had been so impressive throughout the year. By September this is how McCann’s at-bat generally ended in a math formula; breaking ball+gigantic hack=strikeout. Despite this Brian still hit a robust .429 in the play-offs with a .438 on base percentage and a huge .714 slugging percentage. Basically over the course of four games against the best pitching staff in the postseason Brian McCann destroyed them, this includes being one of only two Braves to hit Tim Lincecum in game one of the NLDS. Should McCann stay healthy for an entire season (and continue to drink lots of water) he has every chance to produce close to a .300 batting average and has a shot at a .400 OBP, this will be in part thanks to the increased protection McCann will get when surrounded by a healthy Chipper Jones and a slugging Dan Uggla.

That answers the best catcher in the National League part of the equation but what about the best Catcher tandem in the game? Well how about your back-up posting a higher average, on base percentage and slugging percentage than your starter. Well that’s exactly what the Braves got from David Ross. Having been hailed for his work backing up Brian McCann in 2009 David Ross took a step forward both on and off the field in 2010. With McCann taking chunks of the season out due to his eye injuries it gave Bobby Cox great piece of mind knowing that when McCann needed a day off it would David Ross coming in to the spot and not a Clint Sammons sized black hole. Ross hit .289, posted a .392 on base and .479 slugging and was second only to the Reds Ryan Hanigan in WAR amongst back up catchers, and Ross came to the plate almost 100 times less. Now being in his second year with the team David took a much larger leadership role and evolved into one of the clubhouse leaders alongside Tim Hudson. Ross may see even less game time in 2011 if Brian McCann stays healthy but his importance to the team will not diminish at the same time as his plate appearances. All Braves fans by now know how good David is, what a pleasure it must be for Fredi Gonzalez to only just be finding out.

Next time I’ll see who will be standing at first base for the Braves, young Freddie Freeman, and any other options the Braves may have/need.

Here is the link to an article from Talking Chop article that helped me an awful lot with the McCann/Ross case: http://www.talkingchop.com/2011/1/31/1963557/braves-rewind-2010-fan-projections-for-braves-catchers

Is the Cupboard that Bare?

A few days ago the Atlanta Hawks were sitting nicely in fourth spot in the Eastern Conference and looked to have sorted any questions about the team’s ability especially with last week’s 3-0 record. The Thrashers were, although not as comfortable as in weeks previous, sitting in a play-off spot and even looking primed for a run at the Southeast Division with some solid defensive play and explosive offense. As we head into the second half of February and with trade deadlines approaching the Hawks got blown out by a distinctly average Philadelphia 76ers at home and the Thrashers will no longer be going to the postseason as things stand. The current situation has both teams looking to upgrade before the respective leagues pass their deadlines but both could find it pretty difficult.

The Hawks could do with improving their center position to allow Al Horford to return to his favoured position of small forward, there is an almost constant need to upgrade the point guard position and, beyond Jamal Crawford, the bench continues to look relatively weak. It is impossible however to imagine all three being strengthened and, because of the nature of the market, it is unlikely they will be unable to even improve two. By improving these positions it’s important to remember that the Hawks hope to become a championship quality team, not just to improve their wins totals. But looking over the Hawks roster, and it’s a difficult thing to do at times, I and hopefully anyone else would see how weak a trade position the Hawks are in. If the team hoped to acquire a championship ready piece, for example an Andrew Bynum or Glen Davis, it would require Atlanta to give up either Josh Smith or Al Horford both of whom are key pieces to how this team has got to the position it is in now. Should they go for a piece on the level below Bynum and Davis they are looking at a deal like the one I heard on a podcast the other day, Jamal Crawford heading to the Grizzlies in exchange for OJ Mayo and Hasheem Thabeet, according to realgm.com this would give the Hawks 2.5 extra rebounds a game but they would lose 2.3 points per game and 1.4 assists. This would add two 23-year-old guys to an already young core but it is unlikely that Memphis would be willing to give up two building block pieces for a one year rental. What desperation trade ideas like that, and the inability to gain any top end players in without using the teams core talent, prove is that there are no trade chips for the Hawks to work with, Larry Drew’s lack of minutes for guys like Jeff Teague and Jordan Crawford have actually decreased both their worth to the team and their trade value and Joe Johnson’s contract means there is no chance of a blockbuster trade that would set the franchise up for years.

The Thrashers are in a very similar position in that their best trade chops are either the reason behind the team’s success or potentially the beginning of the next Thrashers generation. Drafting guys like Alexander Burmistrov and Zach Bogosian should be viewed as positive steps to making the Thrashers good for the next ten years; players like this should be viewed as untouchable by any organisation in any sport. I am aware that Zach has had his struggles this year but, as proved by birdwatchersanonymous.com a few days ago, he has actually been quietly effective and is still just 20-years-old and skating against most other team’s top lines. If you make players like Zach, Burmi, Evander Kane and Bryan Little off limits due to a combination of their youth and talent that leaves more veteran guys. This bracket includes Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd, Tobias Enstrom and Rich Peverley, who have formed the core of what Craig Ramsay has been able to accomplish so far in 2010/11. Of those Buff has to be off limits to any trade that doesn’t include names like Crosby, that’s how important he is to this team, the others form the emotional heart of a team that had lacked one for so long. That leaves individuals like Jim Slater and Chris Thorburn as the only viable options that Rick Dudley has to play with and none of the remaining names on the Thrashers roster would bring in players that make the difference in a play-off run.

The disappointment about both of these Atlanta teams is they are both visibly on the cusp of better times but are handicapped in making the step to the next level. What we can hope is that Rick Dudley or Rick Sund can produce some general management magic unseen since John Shuerholz stole Greg Maddux from out of the Yankees pockets.

Why the Braves should get Young

One teams loss is, in this case, will most definitely be another team’s gain and it could, if our own Frank Wren moved a little bit of heaven and some more of earth, be the Braves gain. This is simply a pipe dream as far the Braves team goes but I’m surprised the subject hasn’t been breached yet. Michael Young is very keen to remove himself from Texas after the disappointing way in which they have treated him, I always envisioned Young-related problems when the Rangers started stockpiling infield talent, I just never thought it would happen this soon.

The Braves as it stands will begin the year with Alex Gonzalez standing at shortstop which is something that should make any Braves fan a little nervous. With the rapidly progressing situation in Arlington it got me thinking about the black hole Gonzalez became at the end of 2010 and how much difference it would have made to have been running out at least a serviceable player in his position. Through September and the Phillies series in October Gonzalez batted .220 with 2 homers and 15 RBI’s which just goes to show how much he was helped by the friendly power alley up in Toronto. Anyway Gonzo finished the season with a .250 average but only 6 homers for the Braves in 72 games. If the Braves have any hope of replacing Gonzalez either this year or when he leaves at the end of the season and wanted to do it from within most of the options are yet to turn 20 and none have gone above double-A yet. Those internal options are 2010 draft pick Matt Lipka, the much hyped Edward Salcedo and the other shortstop that arrived from the Blue Jays with Gonzalez, Tyler Pastornicky. All have impressed either in the minors or at the Braves recent rookie training camp but, as I mentioned, none of the three has played at any level above Mississippi and it’s difficult to imagine any starting the year in Gwinnett. Of the three Pastornicky seems to be the most Major League ready simply for being a year more advanced in his career but, at 20, I don’t know if he’s shown enough yet to be a 20-year-old major leaguer. Here’s just a quick break down of what the three did last year:

Edward Salcedo- Signed out of the Dominican Republic in February 2010 after having his age confirmed thanks to some nice sleuth work by Major League Baseball. After delaying his arrival and finishing the Dominican Summer League things looked good for the 18-year-old having hit .297 in the DSL and stealing eight bases in 23 games. Having arrived in Atlanta the 6’3, 195 pounder was quickly sent down to fine tune himself at Class-A Rome where he experienced his first struggled, Rome, Georgia probably not being the easiest place for anyone to adapt let alone an 18-year-old who doesn’t speak English. Salcedo ending up hitting .197 for Rome in 53 games, hitting one home run and only stealing 6 bases in 11 attempts.

Tyler Pastornicky- The speedy shortstop arrived with Alex Gonzalez from the Toronto Blue Jays on July 14^th and was immediately assigned to double-A Mississippi having competed previously at high-A for the Dunedin Blue Jays. Pastornicky quickly established himself there as a stolen base threat stealing 24 in 77 games and only being caught 7 times, he also hit .258 and an impressive .348 o-base-percentage. In Mississippi Tyler ended with a .254 average with 11 stolen bases in only 38 games, showing that despite the slight increase in the difficulty level his number stayed consistent proving that he didn’t struggle with the adjustment even though he was in a new organisation. He also impressed in the Arizona Summer League compiling a .278 average in 15 games.

Matt Lipka- Having begun the year as a senior at McKinney High School in Frisco, Texas Lipka finished 2010 as one of the top prospects in the Braves organisation. After 48 games in the Gold Coast League instructional league Lipka hit .302 in 48 games with 20 stolen bases while being caught only 3 times. He struggles at the end of the year in the four games he played with the Danville Braves hitting only .125 in 4 games but, having completed a year that included a Texas High School football season, High School baseball season and then 50 games in his first professional organisation Lipka can be excused for slowing a bit.

When Spring Training begins in a week Pastornicky will be 21, Salcedo will be 19 and Lipka will still be 18 years-old. At best Tyler is 1 year away from the bigs and, realistically, it will be 2013 before any of these three see any time at the Major League level. And that brings us back to Michael Young.

Young has a partial no trade clause that allows the Rangers to deal him to one of a list of eight teams, the Braves are not on that list but, in various interviews, Young has said he would deal with any proposal on a case-by-case basis. It is about a ninety minute flight from Atlanta to Dallas where Young has his family home, with proximity to his wife and children being one of the most important factors in any landing spot of the 34 year-old. Any trade proposal for Young from the Braves would have to include Gonzalez (from the Braves perspective) and one of Atlanta’s top pitching prospects (from Texas’ perspective). According to Baseball Prospectus six of the Braves top ten prospects are starting pitchers. Of those six the trade would not be beneficial enough to the team for Atlanta to trade either Julio Teheran (number one prospect) or Mike Minor (number three), that leaves Arodys Vizcaino, Brandon Beachy, Randall Delgado and Carlos Perez as potential trade chips. With Tommy Hanson already in the Braves rotation and Teheran and Minor coming through it is unnecessary to keep hold of that many guys who won’t get a chance to crack the Braves rotation, especially with Jair Jurrjens still being young and Kris Medlen returning from Tommy John surgery later this year, the rotation is pretty set.

Any package for Young that looked like Gonzalez+ Beachy doesn’t upset me that much, even adding someone like Perez to the deal wouldn’t cause the Braves too much heart ache. If Wren can put together a deal that looked something like that then, in my opinion, the improvement that Young represents over Gonzalez at shortstop and the potential to actually give the Braves a top of the order bat would outweigh the loss of talent in the minor league system. Add to that the fact that the Braves would have Young under control for three more years he would provide the perfect bridge to one of our three outstanding prospects who, in 2014 should definitely be ready for the Major Leagues. The only downside for Michael Young is the fact that number 10 is, y’know, kindda taken. Given who wears it though I doubt he’d mind.

The Others

Going into Sundays Slo Bowl everybody had heard of Matt Ryan, Roddy White, Tony Gonzalez and John Abraham the Atlanta Falcons fab five that have anchored this Falcons team to three consecutive winning seasons for the first time in franchise history. Despite being the most famous birds in Hawaii they were not the only ones and, for a change, I thought it might say more about these Falcons if we took just a teeny tiny peek at the three other guys that left Hartsfield-Jackson and landed on the big island with the ‘fab five’ (really has Paul McCartney not copyrighted that yet?).

First up and probably the ‘star’ of this little group would have to be third year cornerback Brent Grimes. These three guys don’t exactly provide power names with their alma maters and Grimes is the perfect example of that, he arrived in Atlanta as an undrafted rookie free agent after four impressive years at Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference powerhouse Shippensburg. After his four years as a Red Raider, three of which we All-American years, Grimes bounced around between the Falcons practice squad and NFL Europa before his first full season in the Dome in 2008 recording 34 tackles and 1 interception. The last two years have seen Brent play 16 games in each establishing himself as one of Brian Van Gorder’s more trusted defenders compiling his highest total tackles this year with 87 that included 76 solo tackles. He also picked off 5 passes returning them for a combined 84 yards. Luckily for the Pennsylvania native his last memory of the 2010 season won’t be getting smoked by Aaron Rodgers and the Packers it will be basking in the glow of Pro Bowl sun picking off Peyton Manning.

A bigger presence and one who has certainly helped make Michael Turner the league’s top rusher is the lump who wears 34, Ovie Mughelli (that’s may-HAY-lee according to ESPN). Ovie arrived in Atlanta for the 2007 season after spending four years in Baltimore, where he was a fourth round pick in 2003 out of Wake Forest, the only time you’ll read the name of a division-1 programme in this post. Mughelli was a slow starter in Baltimore playing in only 9 games across his first two full seasons before becoming a Ravens regular in 2005. He posted a career year (all things are relative when you’re a full-back) when he rushed for 50 yards on 12 attempts and 182 yards on 21 receptions that included two receiving touchdowns. His Pro Bowl year was one built as much on the success of Turner as on Ovie’s individual achievements with him collecting 36 yards rushing and 126 receiving as he covered up Michael Turner’s inability to catch anything thrown his way. It probably says more for the Pro Bowl than Mughelli that he scored his first rushing touchdown on Sunday since...(drum roll please)...week 9 of the 2007 season. Well then.

After providing what was maybe the moment of the Falcons season in the Thursday night defeat of Baltimore inside a raucous Dome it was a nice touch that Eric Weems ended up in Hawaii. Weems, who’s college career at the forgotten Florida school Bethune-Cookman began as a wide receiver, has appeared in only 38 games in a receiving role in his career catching only 13 balls for 115 yards, yes they are his career numbers. In his senior year as a Wildcat he added the whole special team’s things to his resume and that is where his value lies for the Falcons. It is because of his skills as a return artist that Weems was maybe the most deserving of these three whooges to play alongside his more illustrious team mates. It was his kickoff return against the Ravens that was for so long the defining moment of the season, one that gave Atlanta their statement victory and seemed to have propelled the team onto something bigger. He also gave the Falcons fans their only highlight of the playoff games against the Packers, taking a Mason Crosby kickoff back for a playoff record 102 yard touchdown return. That strangely is the only thing I remember about that game actually, weird that.

After writing about these three players as Pro Bowlers I just came up with a radical and somewhat crucial question: how on earth did this Falcons team win the NFC number one seed? Suddenly, with a little improvement, things don’t seem so bad!