http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/prospects/watch/y2012/index.jsp

Braves come in at numbers 4, 36, 42, 65,and 91. Pretty good showing considering the young guys already on the squad. I took the time to place the Braves players' analysis in the post but I'd recommend scanning through the prospects. The setup is quite user friendly.

4. Julio Teheran:

Statistically speaking: His FIP (fielding independent pitching) of 3.06 was a bit higher than his actual ERA of 2.55, meaning Teheran had some good fortune in 2011. That’s not bad by any means and his .288 BABIP (batting average on balls in play) was lower than the .300 average for pitchers. His hits-per-nine-innings rate of 7.7 was right in line with his career average as well.

Scouting report: With three pitches that grade as above-average or better, there’s good reason the Braves are excited about Teheran. With a clean delivery, he delivers fastballs in the mid-90s, and though he still looks like he could add some strength, durability and maintaining velocity have not been issues. To complement his fastball, Teheran also throws a curve and changeup, both above-average to plus, and he commands all three of his pitches well. The Braves were willing to push Teheran aggressively, then call him up at such a young age last year because of his outstanding poise on the mound. He’s not one to be fazed by taking his lumps at the highest level.

Upside potential: Pitching at or near the top of a Major League rotation soon and for a long time to come.

Other 4 after the jump...

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Ladies and Gentlemen, your Atlanta Braves!
Chipper: 14 million
Uggla: 13.2 million
McCann: 11.667 million
Hudson: 9 million
Diaz: 2.125 million
Ross: 1.625 million
Hinske: 1.5 million
Wilson: 1 million
Prado: 4.75 million
Jurrjens: 5.5
O’Flaherty: 2.5
Bourn: 6.85
*Lowe: 10 million

Total: 83.717 million for 12 guys

Signing 13 more at an average of 500k (thx, Bronn for reminding me about the Major League minimum increase) brings the total to approx. 90.5 million.

There should still be some money available. If there really is a payroll increase from last year's 94 million (after trades and partial salaries to both Diaz and Bourn), then there should be at least 4 million to spend. I expect the Braves to try and low-ball an offer to Cody Ross to finish the offseason. We still have no backup CF.

OK, can we all pretend that September 2011 did not happen and that we're still extremely satisfied with the core of our teams?  Now to business...

We seem to match up in needs for both teams.  You guys need a SP.  We need a SS and backup OF.  What do you guys think are fair deals?  My Braves' tinted glasses was pondering this trade scenario which is, self-admittedly, probably a bit homerish:  Reddick and Lowrie for Jurrjens. 

What in the Red Sox fan's eye, would be a fair trade scenario to meet both teams need?   Thanks!

Many are pondering the ever popular Rosterbation scheme of swapping our crap for someone's else's crap.  We've seen it with McLouth and Kawakami basically every offseason they were  Braves.  We've seen it with Derek Lowe after '09 (not in '10's offseason because he pitched above his head for a frickin' month making almost all believe he's back to form).  Well, this offseason, we once again are fantasizing Derek Lowe's departure by taking on a bad contract.  Here is an extensive list of all players deemed under poor contracts (which, in their minds, are actually quite good contracts).

*Some on the list might not be considered poor contracts per se' , but are players coming off a horribly bad year and are owed lots of money. Some numbers might be a bit off so feel free to comment in the thread if so.

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My favorite player on the team is still Martin Prado. At the first of the year, Chipper said that he knew Martin wouldn’t have trouble being a capable, even good left fielder, but he thought that Martin might have a mental adjustment to make. From my understanding, Martin has a lot of energy and at 2b, was involved in almost every defensive play (somehow). Anyone think that this mental adjustment might have made it’s way over to the plate?

I have a different theory…
Martin is a perfectionist, but more than this, he is a "team player" aka "coach pleaser". He has taken the role of a #2 hitter and has simply put “productive outs” as his main goal instead of actual production (as I’m sure this was the advice given to him in the #2 spot). His HR and BB rates are about the same, but his singles and doubles are down about 25%. More striking is his strikeout rate. Martin has always been a hard guy to K but this year he’s only striking out 9% of his plate appearances compared to 13% last year.

His numbers in the 2-hole this year match the theory:
261 plate appearances .243 BA and only 4HR, but, get this…only 12 strikeouts (striking out only 4 1/2% of the time)

Compared to his leadoff numbers:
245 plate appearances .283 batting average 7HR and 28 strikeouts(11 1/2%)

His walk rates in both spots are about the same, but Martin Prado has done exactly what he was told to do in the #2 spot: put the ball in play (231 times out of 243 chances {95.5%})

I ask you this…Which Prado do you want in your lineup?

In the postgame interview, Mather told DOB that he worked on shortening his swing.  Just watching his ABs last night, it seemed as though his swings were much more compact.  Previously, there was a hitch before he started his swing which obviously made it difficult to catch up with a Major League fastball.  Hopefully, his hot start is legit and the shorter, more compact swing is here to say.  Here are the links...

http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=15059733&c_id=atl

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=12732013

The other rosterbation thread is dead as a doornail and a recent Fanpost has TC'ers rosterbating over Jesus Montero.  We all know the story with our SP logjam.  Currently, we have 5 SP at the Major League Level pitching lights out, 3 at AAA pitching lights out, and Randall Delgado pitching very well at AA.  Oberholtzer and Hoover are also pitching well, and we have another SP candidate available come August (Medlen). There is obviously a surplus of SP talent  that will need to be addressed soon.  So, my question is, what Top Prospect, or SP, of ours would you swap for another organization's Top Prospect?  Here is a link to 2011's Top Prospects.

http://www.scoutingbook.com/prospects/1-20

It's quite apparent that the Braves are in need of a RH power bat off the bench.  It also seems apparent that there's a big, gaping hole (being filled by the one-dimensional Brandon Hicks) where Omar Infante's flexibility off the bench used to be.  Even though our RH 'pen options have looked shaky of late, I still think it's too early to even think about looking for bullpen help when we have this at Gwinnett:

Stephen Marek:  8.1 IP 5h 0bb  13k  0.60whip 0.00era

Juan Abreu: 8.1 IP  6h  4bb  6k  1.20whip  0.00 era

There are other promising numbers for Gwinnett's 'pen including the Assman's (Proctor) 12Ks in 8.0 IP accompanied with a 2.25 era, but his track record over the past few years should trump any early success he's having in AAA. So, back to the need at hand...that RH power bat.

Here are some RH power bats playing on teams that probably will be selling by All-Star break or getting rid of surplus.

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Things to rosterbate to:

1. We still need a RH bench bat. 

2. Sherrill and Linebrink are looking no better than they did in Spring.  Linebrink's replacement could easily come from within.  On Sherrill's replacement,  there's not much organizational depth in LH relief.

3.  Kenshin Kawakami is still a Brave and there are teams (Orioles) who are still looking for SP depth. How 'bout a bad contract/change of scenery trade that both teams could benefit from?

Kenshin Kawakami and George Sherrill for Jake Fox and Mike Gonzalez?

Get it done, Wren!