The Atlanta Braves: A Good-Looking Organization

Of late, I've been writing about the future and present of the Atlanta Braves.

Now, with (once they're both signed) more veteran leadership, the pressure is off the farm and the focus is once again on 2009, not 2010 and 2011 like it was (for the more reasonable among us) maybe a month-and-a-half ago.

With Ken Griffey Jr. (as of right now, not official-but it should be soon), Tom Glavine (same as Griffey), Derek Lowe, Kenshin Kawakami, and Javier Vazquez all joining the Braves, this season looks almost as good as Tommy Hanson's 2008 AFL stats (almost but not quite). (Warning, I'm in a parentheses-using mood tonight.)

Now, without further ado, the line-up Joe Morgan and Jon Miller will be introducing on Opening Day against the Phillies (probably against the lefty Cole Hamels/these are my predictions, and will predict productive Springs for some guys)

1 L CF Josh Anderson

2 R SS Yunel Escobar

3 S 3B Chipper Jones

4 L  C  Brian McCann

5 R RF Jeff Francoeur

6 L 2B Kelly Johnson

7 R LF Matt Diaz

8 L 1B Casey Kotchman

SP: R Derek Lowe

Now, I know that these have been tweaked slightly since...well, a couple of days ago, but these come from the advise of some of my fans (AKA Joel, Kevin, etc...).

You can also move:

5 R RF Jeff Francoeur

6 L 2B Kelly Johnson

7 R LF Matt Diaz

to:

5 L 2B Kelly Johnson

6 L LF Ken Griffey Jr.

7 R RF Jeff Francoeur

against righties.

Frenchy's batting fifth in this line-up if and only if he shows improvement in Spring Training.

You can look at the "present" hyperlink above for more in-depth analysis on the players in the line-up.

Now, the whole purpose of this article was to compare the present to the future that the Braves farm system is providing us reason to believe is bright.

Now, my top-ten prospects:

1 OF Jason Heyward

2 RHP Tommy Hanson

3 CF Jordan Schafer

4 LHP Cole Rohrbough

5 1B Freddie Freeman

6 OF Gorkys Hernandez

7 INF Brandon Hicks

8 RHP Julio Teheran

9 LHP Kris Medlen

10 RHP Craig Kimbrel

Now, let's factor out tradeable players, and take out two that won't make it to the Bigs (in a perfect world all prospects will reach their potential and contribute at an All-Star level, but the world is NOT perfect).  I will also assign a position for the players that have "OF", "INF", and "_HP", based on how I see them developing (by the way, I will be optimistic here, so you can criticize me if you like, I already know).

That leaves us with:

1 LF Jason Heyward

2 SP Tommy Hanson

3 CF Jordan Schafer

4 SP Cole Rohrbough

5 1B Freddie Freeman

7 3B Brandon Hicks (a SS now, but Esco is here to stay)

10 CL Craig Kimbrel (he has electric stuff, watch out for him in a few years)

(I really wish that I could have put Teheran on there, but he is still too far off-although next year he could be shaping up to be a skinny Felix Hernandez.)

For more info on these guys, Talking Chop, minors.baseball-reference, and Google in general.

Now, let's plug these guys into the line-up for 2011 and beyond (still, you don't know what will happen, but here we go).

1 L CF Jordan Schafer

2 R SS Yunel Escobar

3 L  C Brian McCann

4 R RF Jeff Francoeur

5 L LF Jason Heyward

6 L 2B Kelly Johnson

7 L 1B Freddie Freeman

8 R 3B Brandon Hicks

Staff:

R Tommy Hanson

R Tim Hudson (if he re-signs)

R Jair Jurrjens

L Cole Rohrbough

R Derek Lowe (until the contract runs out)

If you notice, the rotation is RHP-strong, and the line-up is lefty strong, so that could be an issue that gets addressed in the future.

The Braves are a good team now, and should be a good team for a long while to come if everything comes close to working out.

(I really do apologise for this article, I'll call this a draft, and revise it based on everyone's recommendations, so please give me some hints as to what will make this a better read. ~Cameron)