Analyzing The Atlanta Braves’ Depth: http://bit.ly/9LNGFk

I posted a slideshow analyzing the Atlanta Braves depth on BleacherReport.com. Below is the introduction and a link to the BleacherReport.com article.

Depth is key to any team with legitimate playoff aspirations. The Phillies were able to win a world series with Matt Stairs having some key hits in there NLCS series against the Dodgers, and the Yankees benefited from having Brett Gardner running around the bases late in games last October.

One thing Bobby Cox has always managed to do with the Braves is maximize the potential of the Braves fringe starters and bench players. Willie Harris, Wilson Betemit, and Charles Thomas are a few players who were great with the Braves in limited roles and played pretty poorly with other teams.

This season the Braves have a number of position players who can move all around the diamond and this could be critical if the Braves hope to make the post-season for the first time since 2005. A long playoff drought is something that Braves fans have not come to expect out of the Atlanta franchise and in order to avoid another season of golf in October the Braves must get the most out of their high energy players.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350966-analyzing-the-depth-of-the-atlanta-braves

The Importance of the Bench

The Atlanta Braves two best hitters are third basemen Chipper Jones and catcher Brian McCann. Chipper Jones is one of the best all around hitters in the game but with his injury history you can nearly guarantee that he will only play 130 games a season. Brian McCann is one of the best catchers in the league but catchers don’t have the privilege of playing every game as a second basemen or left fielder does. McCann shouldered a huge load last season due to the fact that the Braves had a very poor backup behind him in Corky Miller. This season should see more rest for both Chipper and McCann due to the fact that the backups behind them are solid backups who could very well be starters on other teams.

Martin Prado will be the primary backups to Chipper this season. Last season Prado saw a nice increase in his extra base hit totals. Prado is a contact hitter and due to the increased velocity of the pitches at the major league level he was able to let the pitchers supply the power to his bat. He hit the ball gap to gap consistently last season in limited play. His minor league numbers suggest that this was an aberration but his isoSLG (the difference between his average and slugging which tells how much extra base power a player had that season) has steadily increased over the past three seasons going from .079, .104, and .141 last season. This tells me that he is getting better as a hitter and should be solid for the twenty or so starts that he will see at third base. He is not a prototype corner infielder but his defense and contact rate make him a more than adequate backup.

Omar Infante is one of the most versatile backups there are in the game. Having the ability to play every outfield position along with second, shortstop, and third base is a quality that almost no players have and he is especially valuable when you consider his skills at the plate. Infante was able to hit 24 doubles in only 317 at bats. To put that into perspective, Chipper Jones had 24 doubles last season as well in 439 at bats. Infante will be the primary backup at shortstop and centerfield this season. Yunel Escobar will play nearly every day unless he is injured, but Josh Anderson, Jordan Schafer, and Gregor Blanco are all left handed bats so Infante may start against some tough lefties. The Braves lineup is dominated by left handers so when facing pitchers such as Cole Hamels and Johan Santana, Cox may try to get as many right handed bats in the lineup as possible which would include inserting Infante in center. Infante is a crucial part of this team and his versatility will spell players from injuries and poor play while still providing solid offense and defense.

David Ross is the new backup at catcher for the Braves. Ross’ career OPS+ of 90 is a considerable drop off from Brian McCann’s 122 OPS+, but it is also a considerable increase over Corky Miller’s -24 OPS+ from last season. Ross will be able to give McCann more days off this season as he supplies a good amount of power as he had 21 and 17 home runs in 2006 and 2007 respectively. He always has a fairly low average but balances that with very good patience at the plate as he has walked more than 30 times in the past three seasons in limited at bats. Ross is not the quality backup that Kelly Shoppach is but he has the ability to give McCann a rest without seeing an enormous drop in production as we saw last season with Miller

Overall our bench will be very important to us with an inexperienced center field, an injury prone third basemen, and a catcher who needs to be rested. Having quality players such as Prado, Infante, and Ross is invaluable and many teams, especially the teams in the division, don’t have these types of players available.

Braves Update

Sorry for the absence lately, midterm week can do that to you. Not much has happened in the Braves community over the past week so it seems like midterm week came at the right time.

The roster is starting to come to form except for a few positions. Backup 1B job, and two bullpen spots. The Braves can chose to trade or waive a few players in order to make room for others in these final spots. Here is the list of options for the Backup 1B job.

Scott Thorman
Brayan Pena
Joe Borchard

Of these three, Borchard has had the much better spring. However, it is said that Borcahrd’s first base is very shaky to say the least. Thorman had the starting job last year but couldn’t produce, and it is likely that a trade could happen with him and possibly Martin Prado before the season starts. I say this because Prado has played SS in the past week, a position he’s never played before professionally and it looks like the Braves could just be advertising his abilities.

The backup bullpen spot is a little bit more competitive. Here is a list of the players competing for the final two bullpen spots (Soriano, Moylan, Ohman, Acosta, and Yates are all locks at this point)

Blaine Boyer
Chris Resop
Jeff Bennett
Royce Ring
Jeff Ridgeway
Buddy Carlyle

The way the final two spots are chosen depends on how the Braves want their bullpen to look. If they want a long reliever/spot starter then it is likely that Carlyle or Bennett would attain one of the spots. If they chose that they need another lefty along with Ohman then Ring or Ridgeway could win a spot, although it is said that Ring has been unimpressive this spring and could find himself being waived or traded in the coming weeks. Resop and Boyer have been the most impressive over Spring. Both have power arms and are out of options. I’m thinking the Braves go with a long reliever and one of the two power arms. Most likely the final two pitchers will be Blaine Boyer and Jeff Bennett.

The 25 Man Roster to start the season would then look like this-

Pitchers-

SP- John Smoltz
SP- Tim Hudson
SP- Tom Glavine
SP- Mike Hampton
SP- Jair Jurrjens
LR- Jeff Bennett
RP- Blaine Boyer
RP- Tyler Yates
RP- Will Ohman
RP- Manny Acosta
SU- Peter Moylan
CL- Rafael Soriano

Catchers-

C- Brian McCann
C- Javy Lopez

Infielders-

1B- Mark Teixeira
2B- Kelly Johnson
3B- Chipper Jones
SS- Yunel Escobar
IF- Martin Prado
IF- Brent Lillibridge
1B/LF- Joe Borchard

Outfielders-

LF- Matt Diaz
CF- Mark Kotsay
RF- Jeff Francoeur
OF- Josh Anderson