Atlanta Braves Organization Discussion

I think it’s safe to say that there is an imbalance, but it would be pretty hard not to be imbalanced given the number of top-tier pitchers. If they could match that with hitting, we’d be talking about an all-time great system.

I don’t think this is something that needs to be addressed, at least in any way out of the ordinary. The advantage to a pitching-loaded system vs. an offense-loaded system is that you can always find trades for your pitching, whereas with offensive players, sometimes finding fits with other teams makes it a bit more challenging. (For example, taking two roughly equal prospects/young players, let’s go with Michael Pineda and Dustin Ackley - the Mariners could probably trade Pineda to any of the 29 other teams if they needed to, whereas only teams with a need at 2B would probably be interested in Ackley.)

So in short, I don’t think there’s a real problem here, especially because Atlanta has a good offensive core with McCann, Freeman, Uggla, Heyward and perhaps an extended Bourn. Perhaps they’ll need to trade one or two of those pitching prospects for a big LF or 3B bat at some point, but that shouldn’t be a big challenge, as long as they’re willing to part with young talent.

I don’t expect much of a problem for these guys going forward. They’ve got the depth to trade for a bunch of talented young hitters and still put a top notch rotation on the field.

Jurrjens, Hanson, Hudson, Lowe, Minor, Beachy, Medlen, Teheran, Vizcaino, and Delgado is as good of deep as anyone in the game.

On the offensive side; Drury, Salcedo, and Simmons are all very intriguing.

is damaged goods. Hard to pawn him off on someone with his partial tear and get anything resembling value in return..

There’s definitely an imbalance. It’s not near as bad when you consider that the system just graduated Heyward and Freeman, and they still have McCann and Prado under control for several years.

It could be a problem, but it’s too early to say.

The Braves may be able to extend Bourn, plug Prado back in at 3B when Chipper retires, get by with Alex Gonzalez or other stopgaps at SS until Pastornicky/Simmons/etc. can take over, and trade a pair of pitching prospects for a LF and still have pitching left.

On the flip side, Bourn could walk, the SS prospects could never arrive, Prado could never fully recover from his down year, and half the pitching prospects could flop after the Braves trade the wrong ones.

I worry more about whether the Braves are maintaining the proper management and scouting personnel after the semi-retirements of JS and Cox and years of defections in the scouting department. If the management, development, and scouts are there, the Braves will navigate this just fine.

I see that in Harper and Stanton. Heyward shows no emotion and that is the big concern with me. Also goes half speed it seems. Harper went all out when I saw him.

definitely an imbalance here. When ranking farm systems, you like to have a good balance of pitching and offensive prospects. Offensively the Braves lack quite a bit at this point.

That being said, the top end talent and depth of their major and upper minor league arms is so deep that they can go out and get a 3B to replace Jones, or a couple outfielders should they choose.

Their system to me has taken a little bit of a hit losing Clemens and Oberholzer, as well as Perez not having as good a year as expected. Their main bat in Lipka wasn’t all that good, though a guy I really like Andrelton Simmons had a good year.

a distinction when talking about offensive prospects vs. pitching prospects. Atlanta has two of the youngest offensive players in the big leagues, Freeman and Heyward, both only 21 years old and both very solid contributors at the big league level. After that the minor league system has alot of YOUNG offensive talent - Simmons (22), LaStella (22), Terdoslavich (22), Salcedo (20), Bethancourt (19), Lipka (19) and Drury(19) to name the most high profile. One must remember that it takes a greater amount of time to develop hitters as opposed to pitchers - so I don’t think there is an inbalance but maybe a bigger gap in mlb ready or soon to be ready offensive talent in the system.
Bethancourt was 19 and in high A, Salcedo and Lipka, both 19, in low A full season which is a very advanced level for their age - all can expect to have some growing pains but all are very talented - so, let’s not short change this system - the future is bright on the offensive side of the game !!

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This trade will anger me for the rest of my life. It set back the Braves IMO and even though Yuni was good then he was a headcase and not a leader like Andrus. I don’t think Atlanta collapses like they did if they have a leader like him. Feliz would probably be our ace right now and Harrison in the 4 spot and a lefty starter.