Atlanta Braves vs. New York Mets – Box Score – June 17, 2016 – ESPN
The six Top-30 July 2nd prospects, per Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com, who are projected to sign with the Braves:
1. Kevin Maitan (SS/3B)
18. Abrahan Gutierrez (C)
19. Yunior Severino (2B/SS)
21. Yenci Pena (3B)
24. Livan Soto (2B/SS)
26. Juan Contreras (RHP)
It’s fun to read about these guys and dream a little. And, from a Ben Badler (Baseball America) story, this is what one scout had to say about Maitan, the most fun of them about which to dream:
“Nobody is a can’t miss,†said one scout, “but it’s hard to see him missing. And he got better as I saw him more and more. It’s tough to bet against the bat. I saw him hit a ton in games. The approach is really sound. He can discern a ball from a strike. He’s going to strike out a bit because of the swing plane, but I think he’s going to hit and hit for power.â€
These also aren’t the only guys the Braves will sign and may not even be the only guys on this Top-30 list the Braves will sign. Gonna be interesting to follow.
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John Gant was rather impressive tonight, giving the Braves 6.2 innings and allowing only two doubles, two walks, and one run while striking out five against the organization that drafted him and then traded him away last year. Freddie Freeman (2-for-4) continues to be on fire, and Ender Inciarte has played like a major-leaguer for at least a week now. Hunter “Found Money” Cervenka got a huge, bases-loaded K (against a righty!) in the 7th.
IWOTM, of course, but the Braves looked mostly-competent again. If they’re not careful, they’re going to jeopardize their ability to take Jeren Kendall or Kyle Wright at the top of next year’s draft.
Let’s sweep these bums.
Nice one and thanks for the recap. Currently travelling with a lot of time on my hands reading through other braves blogs, I am very very thankful for Braves Journal. I appreciate especially the regular recappers and posters very much. Thank you. Oh, and no coincidence that the Braves have done well with the resurgence of Freddie. Been fun to watch.
As hard as we had tried
we had not yet won a game on an illegal slide.
For the Mets, chant nunc dimittis
they’d showed us what a perfect, funk submit is.
Aware of Maitan of course, but I did not realize we were in on so many top 30 guys. Thanks Stu.
Welcome to Braves Journal.
And notice the emphasis on bats.
@38 previous thread..
Chief
Great stuff, you should do this more often, say one every week! Seriously, i know the feeling, have the same situation myself from time to time with dialogs that feel as though they’re written in numbers. But it’s all good, we are a diverse bunch, which is our strength.
Thank you, Stu. Miracle Braves redux: look out, Mets and Nats. The A train is rolling.
first thoughts on the top 6 names, as a group..wow
Kevin M…is it Maytan or Mytan?
Livan Soto…quick study, Livan Lern
WELL DONE BAKU*
…if your interest in sports embraces the unusual, the new, the baroque even check out the European Gran Prix this weekend from Azerbijahn, NBCSN.
The unique features include 200mph straits on a road circuit through the new and the old town where the latter sweeps by 12th Century castles trackside, passed on narrow corkscrew alleys. Just hope no one gets hurt but the visual contrasts are very special.
* actual signage above the track.
Yeah, Chief put in a good one. Keep at it. You’ll get it.
We go for a season high on win streak tonight, right? This is our only three game win streak that wasn’t against the Marlins?
The comp everyone uses for Maitlan is “a young Miggy Cabrera.”
@11
When two people on here are in the successful process of ‘mending fences’ in a mutually pleasant way what purpose is then served by your sarcastic interference?
If we sign Maitan, it’s arguable that our position player prospect outlook will be more promising than all that pitching.
I apologize, Mr. blazon. It was just for grins. It won’t happen again.
If we sign all of the players we’re linked to, then we better start making some trades.
@16 thank you.
@2
Our traveling man
we know he’ll call in whenever he can
underground or in the space shuttle
exotic locations disarming our jealous rebuttal.
If we sign all these 16 year olds then we may see one of them play for us in the majors in 4 or 5 years. May. You guys need to seriously recalibrate perspectives.
The last can’t miss Latin American top prospect the Braves signed as a teenager was Julio Teheran, and that worked out extraordinarily well. It’s actually uncanny to go back and look at some of his scouting reports from when he was a high school freshman in Colombia:
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/julio-teheran-from-prospect-fatigue-to-potential-ace/
Sometimes these guys are who we think they are. You better believe I’m dreaming on Maitan.
@20…
‘who we think they are’
On such a premise are our lifelong hopes in sport, and business, and marriage built.
If you could only succeed in one, which?
Marriage. But then, I’m single.
Braves Journal, The House That Mac Built
Waiting For Maitan…
@19
Trade from the tiers. Trade some high-minors, mid-minors guys, low-minors guys. If you want to keep all 9 pitching prospects in double-A and higher, you’re nuts. If there could be a blockbuster to get Braun and LuCroy, then I’d back the truck up. Everyone at the top of the prospect charts but Swanson, Mallex and Albies (and maybe even Mallex and Albies) is available. Blair, Newcomb, Folty, Ellis, I don’t care. If we’re getting an outfielder back, Peterson and/or Davidson can go. There is so much pitching right now that if the Pads got Upton and Northcraft for Fried, Peterson, Peterson, and Mallex, then man, get on the phone. We got Tim Hudson, in an era where pitching was more scarce, for Meyer, Cruz, and Chuckie Thomas (who is basically Chase d’Arnaud, Flash in the Pan Extraordinaire).
Shoot, look at the situation with Gattis. He has depreciated in value. He’s a year older, he can’t play catcher, and he’s closer to FA. Folty, Thurman and Ruiz got that deal done for the Atros, and all three of those guys have appreciated in value. I’d turn around and make a comparable trade for Gattis right now backing out some talent on our end.
I wouldn’t trade any pitching until we’ve established the 5 or 6 that we definitely want/need to keep. That’s going to be the hardest part of this whole plan.
But why? There will always be free agent 4th and 5th starters available. I’m not saying they’re always going to be able to get an Ervin Santana on a pillow deal or lucky with Harang, but it’s not like we need to have the entire rotation making peanuts. If they are truly going to get into the $120M+ arena on payroll with the new stadium, you don’t need to have all 5 be homegrown.
When you say 5 or 6, meaning a swing starter/depth, then I think we will always have that going forward in a Gant or Bills or whatever. But if you feel comfortable that 4 pitchers will come out of Teheran, Blair, Folty, Newcomb, Ellis, Sims, or Jenkins, then go ahead and get your 5th from the FA market, trade some of these guys, and get back in business. The payroll becomes even less of an issue if you’ve got Swanson, Albies, and Mallex up the middle for peanuts too. Add in a cheap bullpen with 4 or 5 young guys, and you have to spend the money somewhere.
I don’t feel comfortable that anything comes of Blair, Newcomb, Ellis, Sims, Jenkins. And we’re surely going to trade Teheran. There’s a big age gap between the pitching that’s near major league ready and the prospects we’re stockpiling in the low minors. It’s this second wave of pitching that I think is more likely to arrive around the same time we have some homegrown bats ready.
Ball Four.
Arriving in America in the mid seventies and having had my first taste of Braves baseball i lucked out a second time. Jim Bouton’s was my first baseball book. I couldn’t believe how hilariously irreverent it was, plus i learned a lot. He is still around, just. The Yankees seem unable to know what to do with him every OT game. Bless him.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/sporting-scene/watching-the-old-timers-day-game-with-jim-bouton-who-wasnt-invited?intcid=mod-latest
Trading a bunch of prospects for expensive, declining players this season is a good way to make sure krussell’s 10 year rebuild comes to fruition. We aren’t competing this year or next year even with Braun and Lucroy.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t trade pitching prospects–we have to, though not necessarily this year. We just need to trade it for stuff that overlaps with our window of competition.
You trade Julio for Austin Meadows or some version of him, promote him with Dansby and Albies as they show they’re ready. You have a hole at 2 of C, 3B or OF (depending on the hole you filled with what you got back for Julio) but you do your best to find a passable player at those spots. You run out Wisler, Blair, Folty (ManBan?) Gant, maybe Jenkins, maybe Whalen and you hope they swim. You come in 3rd, maybe you competw for the wildcard, and you kill more time for Newcomb, Ellis, Fried and Sims, along with maybe Ruiz and maybe Peterson and who knows who else. If those guys succeed, you improve to competing for the division.
As these guys get expensive in arbitration, Allard, Soroka, Toussaint, and the kids drafted this year start breaking through, along with Maitan, Riley maybe Herbert, along with whoever you probably traded Wisler and Folty for. At this point you have a perennially strong team.
It’s a system. That’s why they call it a system. We have a system now that is again capable of feeding itself. That’s what the rebuild had been about. Nobody thinks we’re building the 16 year old 1927 Yankees and we’re going to bring them all through together. The idea was to get more talent at each level so it sustains itself, and that’s where we’re getting.
I seem to recall some articles that suggested that the Braves had the inside track with Maitan because he was a Braves fan — that he followed them and considered them “his team.” Not sure how large a dose of salt is needed but it is worth remembering that being a team where players want to go is a serious organizational asset.
For all of Bobby Cox’s in game idiocy, and there was a LOT, he was a manager that players, including good players, liked to play for, and that reputation of the Braves having a good clubhouse vibe spread through the league.
Remember, Greg Maddux chose the Braves over a lot of other teams in part because he liked the cut of their jib and where the organization was going. Don’t know how much it was Bobby Cox, but who knows. The Patriots in the past capitalized on the same thing — getting players to come, stay or take less $ because the atmosphere was fun, positive, and they were winning.
Happy players are not sufficient to win games, but it’s probably a plus.
One hopes Maitan has been unable to see a lot of the past two years, and will still come.
Has there ever been a game with no comments here? TC has 170.
Francoeur
still not quite sure.
Francouer seem to be a pleasant enough fellow, whose presence on this particular Braves team I have found to be tolerable.
Just let us beat this team. We can lose the rest.
Markakis needs to go somewhere else. Delenda est.
Inciarte just gave a clinic on baserunning.
Impressive baserunning by Inciarte.
Andrelton Simmons did more little things that I loved than anybody in my memory; it’s nice to have a guy like Inciarte, who is at least above average in that area.
@38 – Mallex and Ender fall into that category for me; I like them both.
I find it hard to believe we’re winning this game. It was all Matz and no Blair for so long. And then. 3 more outs.
I’m pretty done with Markakis. I don’t necessarily think it’s a skills erosion.
We did not play like the worst team in baseball tonight. Great work by Inciarte.
amazin’…how did we do that?
Give credit to Aybad for that clutch relay throw.
One drawback to winning a lot of games is that you no longer have the luxury of using Vizcaino in the 9th inning every time you are ahead by 4 runs. You have to start to think about the possibility that you might be ahead in a closer game tomorrow. That will take some getting used to though, and admittedly, may in fact be unsustainable.
@45
Agreed. We probably could have gotten by without using him two days ago, which would have made him available, but it would have been impossible for Snitker to predict we’d win four straight.
Helluva game from Inciarte.
I wanna hear wailing & gnashing of teeth on Monday, so let’s sweep these bums.
44 — We should start calling him Aybad.
Recapped.
6-4 in our last 10. I could get used to this.