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.