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 14th 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.
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