Wednesday, January 21, 2009
the Braves have two top ten prospects, according to Keith Law
Keith Law's Top 100 Prospects list is up over at ESPN's site, and as always it's pretty damn interesting. The Braves have two of the top ten, OF Jason Heyward at #3, and RHP Tommy Hanson at #9. Lower down the list sees #65 1B Freddie Freeman, #67 OF Jordan Schafer, #88 OF Gorkys Hernandez, and #97 LHP Jeff Locke.
Law ranks the Braves' farm system as the 4th best, but they easily could've been higher; the Rangers are the top of the list, in part because of the Mark Teixeira trade, which brought them #4 RHP Neftali Feliz. I was cautiously optimistic about that trade, but there's no way to not consider it an absolute failure now. Tex was gone a year later, whereas Feliz is now one of the top pitching prospects in baseball, and Saltalamacchia and Elvis Andrus will most likely both be starting for Texas. Granted Andrus and Salty would still be blocked in Atlanta, by Yunel Escobar and McCann respectively, but you gotta think Atlanta could've gotten something of more long-term value had they not shot for the moon with Teixeira. Texas also has #77 C Max Ramirez, who Atlanta traded to Cleveland for Bob Wickman in 2006, and was then sent to Texas last year for Kenny Lofton. And the final ex-Brave to make the top 100 is another catcher, #51 C Tyler Flowers, who was just sent to the White Sox last month for Javier Vazquez. I can't fault either of those deals, no matter how horribly Wickman ended his Braves tenure, but that Texieira trade is historically awful.
Anyway, I hope Heyward, Hanson, Freeman, and the rest pan out for Atlanta.
Keith Law's Top 100 Prospects list is up over at ESPN's site, and as always it's pretty damn interesting. The Braves have two of the top ten, OF Jason Heyward at #3, and RHP Tommy Hanson at #9. Lower down the list sees #65 1B Freddie Freeman, #67 OF Jordan Schafer, #88 OF Gorkys Hernandez, and #97 LHP Jeff Locke.
Law ranks the Braves' farm system as the 4th best, but they easily could've been higher; the Rangers are the top of the list, in part because of the Mark Teixeira trade, which brought them #4 RHP Neftali Feliz. I was cautiously optimistic about that trade, but there's no way to not consider it an absolute failure now. Tex was gone a year later, whereas Feliz is now one of the top pitching prospects in baseball, and Saltalamacchia and Elvis Andrus will most likely both be starting for Texas. Granted Andrus and Salty would still be blocked in Atlanta, by Yunel Escobar and McCann respectively, but you gotta think Atlanta could've gotten something of more long-term value had they not shot for the moon with Teixeira. Texas also has #77 C Max Ramirez, who Atlanta traded to Cleveland for Bob Wickman in 2006, and was then sent to Texas last year for Kenny Lofton. And the final ex-Brave to make the top 100 is another catcher, #51 C Tyler Flowers, who was just sent to the White Sox last month for Javier Vazquez. I can't fault either of those deals, no matter how horribly Wickman ended his Braves tenure, but that Texieira trade is historically awful.
Anyway, I hope Heyward, Hanson, Freeman, and the rest pan out for Atlanta.
