Think about all the guys they've called upon this year so far from their system.

Now think about, despite all these call-ups, how many intriguing prospects they still have at various levels.

They're far and away the best team at maximizing the potential of their talent base. Atlanta runs a system based on merit . . .if you can hit or pitch, you're going to get your shot.

In a day or so, Gressinger was DFA to make room for Eddie Perez to come off the DL to be an emergency catcher last night...Soe possibilities...Minor, Coenen, James???, RP with Bernero Starting)

I wonder is Estrada and Perez are going to the DL. You don't call up McCann to be a backup (Or a starter for that matter) for 4-5 days. If Estrada does come back in the middle of the Oakland series, then why call up McCann instead of a backup catcher.

Schuerholtz is the most underappreciated GM in the game.  People seem to question their draft picks and their acquisitions (eg. Hampton), but nobody does it better.  This is obviously also thanks to geniuses Cox and Mazzone.  They may find a way to win it again this year, and even if they don't they should remain competitive for at least the next five or six years.  Amazing. I'm looking foward to seeing some of these young guys (especially Marte) this weekend and I'm a HUGE Huddy fan, so I'll stay tuned into TBS.

Huddy don't get to pitch against the A's...I would have liked to see it.

Beane is avery good GM, but Scherholz deserves to be a Hall of Famer. And yes, he would be able to win with that payroll, just look at the Braves farm system. A good friend of mine joked that these guys are being sent up to make room for the guys they just took in the draft, lol :).

has done an excellent job with his payroll, Schuerholtz has to be given credit for winning his division year after year after year.  He's won with the three aces, won with none of them (in the rotation), and lost free agent after free agent (including J.D. Drew, who was acquired in quite a trade).  The Braves constantly get the best of other teams in trades (remember when people thought they didn't get nearly enough in the Millwood for Estrada trade?), though I do believe much of the credit belongs to Bobby Cox and Leo Mazzone, who continue to coax career years out of their players.  I'm not sure how much of that is Schuerholtz, but he certainly deserves a great deal of the credit.

really really excels in player development. i'm usually not a big fan of the guys they draft but man can they churn out prospects. for whatever reason, if you take two identical draft prospects, one picked by atlanta and another picked by... just about any other organization, the atlanta player will develop better. they have produced superstars (glavine, chipper, maybe andruw, steve avery for a while), stars (millwood, justice, giles), useful players (furcal, betemit, laroche, etc.), trade bait (marquis, meyer, nieves/elliott/moore, doyle alexander) ... it's just been an amazingly fruitful system. we'll have to see where marte and mccann fit into this spectrum. i think marte will be a superstar and mccann somewhere between useful and star, though he certainly has potential. davies, i dunno... he's a pitcher, meaning i'm just guessing. he'll probably be good for a while, then sign with some other team and suck. :)

Lets say that Leo Mazzone declared himself a free agent one offseason. If you were the GM of your favorite team, how much would you be willing to shell out for him?