Big Braves Blog 4

As Spring Training had gone on the outfield seems to be answering more questions than it was asked. Last year the Braves started the season with Garrett Anderson, Jordan Schafer and Jeff Francoeur in the three outfield spots. The likely hood is none of those three will be on the teams Major League roster come April, only one will be a member of the organisation. I’ve thought about starting this blog with either left or center field but it’s impossible not to begin by looking at phenom Jason Heywood. While it’s unfair to put the future of the franchise on the shoulders of a 20-year-old he has done little by way of performance to quiet the talk. The buzz surrounding Heyward began in earnest when he made AA ball look like a weekend game of catch. In Rome he hit for a huge .352 average in 47 games, perhaps even more impressively he had 28 walks to only 19 strikeouts for a .446 on-base percentage. What all those numbers mean is that Heyward ate AA ball for breakfast as a nineteen-year-old. When the Georgia native was promoted from Rome to Gwinnett for the G-Braves playoff games he picked up exactly where he left off, would you expect anything else from the most composed teenager you were ever likely to see. In his very first playoff series he hit .364 in the three games he played, what says more about Heyward is that he actually improved his OBP to .462. For someone who would only be a sophomore in college Heyward shows discipline that can barely be comprehended and that has continued into Spring Training. Through 7 games in Florida he has compiled the mind boggling OBP of .619 with 6 walks to only 1 strikeout. Just to put the cherry on the top of the Heyward sized cake he is also hitting .429. Even in Spring Training Heyward has shown a type of dominance that we have rarely if ever seen, one that is making his inclusion on the opening day roster almost impossible to avoid. It is not just his numbers that impress about Heyward it is the extraordinary make-up of such a young man. Unfortunately numbers are the only thing readily available to SportSpot but MLB.com columnist Peter Gammons wrote a great piece on Jason and his family;

http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100309&content_id=8723826&vkey=news_atl&fext=.jsp&c_id=atl

Even with Heyward the Braves will still need two other outfielders and as Spring’s gone on who that’s going to be has become less clear. The original plan involved Nate McClouth in center field with a platoon of Melky Cabrera and Matt Diaz in left. However no one has taken it upon themselves to solidify their position. Of the three Matt Diaz has so far giving the best showing in Spring, his average (and it really is average) currently sits at .273 he has no RBI’s, 4 strikeouts and only two walks. Melky could easily be feeling pressure this early, he has been mainly vilified since he arrived in the Vazquez deal, but he hasn’t yet tried winning over the Braves fans. His average average is .250 with 1 RBI but 3 walks to only 1 strikeout. This is the Cabrera style of game that fans will have to get used to, he has great patience at the plate, will take his walks and hit a few dingers. He will never give great average and will only be a solid everyday player. This is proven by his career .269 batting average and .331 on-base percentage. So far that’s exactly the impression he is giving. Most disappointing of all has been Nate McClouth. Having been encouraged by the improvement in vision his new contact lenses provided he felt better than any other period in his short stay in Atlanta. In the early part of Spring Training that hasn’t exactly happened. His pretty disappointing first 84 games in Atlanta was put down to mentioned eye issue, those 84 games included a miniscule .257 average which was somewhat hidden by his eleven homers. Pencilled in as the teams lead-off hitter for 2010 it would be good to see McClouth working on his OBP just as much as his average, both have dive bombed. His average is down to .077 so far this Spring and his OBP not much better at .188, only three Braves have smaller averages through the first week of Spring Training and only one of them will be playing higher than AA ball this year.

Whether McClouth, Cabrera and Diaz will improve, this early in Spring is never a good indicator, we will only know over time. Hopefully two of the three will go out and prove their worth and make the other two spots theirs. Whoever they are they will be playing the giant Heyward shadow, which may not be an awful thing for them. As for Heyward this could be his first year as part of a rejuvenated franchise, one which he is the face of.

This will be the final instalment of the Big Braves Blog, a series I have had to neglect due to school and work commitment. I hope it has satisfied some interest in the major players on the Braves 2010 roster, one that I hope has the opportunity to take Bobby Cox back to the Promised Land. I will keep writing on points of interest in the Braves spring camp looking forward to the start of the 2010 season. Keep checking back and Go Braves!