Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Final Standings

Well the minor league seasons have all come to an end save for the playoffs but unfortunately Braves fans in all cities don't have to worry about that now.

Richmond 56-88

The R-Braves finished the season with the worst record in the league. Throughout the season they had Andy Marte, Scott Thorman, Anthony Lerew, Kyle Davies, Brayan Pena, Carlos Duran, James Jurries, Chuck James, Joey Devine and Josh Burrus. If that had been the team all year they may have had the best record in the league, but with the big club relying so heavily on the minors this year only Jurries spent the entire year at the AAA level. It will interesting to see which of these returns here next year. (Crosses fingers against Marte).

Mississippi 36-34 (First Half) 28-34 (Second Half)

The M-Braves had to cancel the last 2 weeks of the season in their first year in Pearl in the wake of the Katrina aftermath. This team was hit hard by promotions also seeing the entire middle of the order (Francoeur, McCann, Thorman) get the call up and also seeing some of the better pitchers get promoted out (Lerew, Boyer, James). Some good things came from this club though. Martin Prado established himself as one of the better hitting 2B in the minors and maybe a future incumbent of Marcus Giles. Luis Hernandez started slow and was streaky for the rest of the year but wasn't completely horrible as a hitter in AA and actually did well when put in the #2 hole. Brian O'Connor was also among the league leaders in ERA for most of the year. Carlos Duran was hurt again this year but spent most of it here not doing too poorly.

Myrtle Beach 33-37 (First Half) 28-42 (Second Half)

The Beach had several of the players with the best all around seasons in its confines at one point or another this season. Chuck James started here dominating and left after only 8 starts. Jarrod Salty Dog (not typing that name if i don't have to) was the best catcher in the minors in the worst hitters park hitting .314/.394/.519 on the season with 19 bombs and 81 RBIs and rave reviews on his improved defense. Now the question is does he surpass McCann in a couple years or does someone switch positions. Tough call for the Braves. Brandon Jones also finished here on the season and I love him. I think he is the best OF we have in the minors right now and could end up being a very solid LF. He'll push Kelly Johnson in a couple years. Also Carl Loadenthal, Steve Doetsch, and Matt Esquevil all bear watching in the outfield as they move up to a more hitter friendly eviron next season. Diory Hernandez could go big too. More on the pitchers later.

Rome Braves 39-29 (First Half) 33-36 (Second Half)

Matt Harrison emerged as the next lefty tradebait for the Braves. I don't think all the Braves lefty's serve as trade bait, I think Chuck James is the real deal, but Harrison doesn't seem all that exciting to me. James Parr Does. At 19 he posted a sub 3.5 ERA and he sports a good mid 90s fastball. We'll see. Yunel Escobar is good enough to maybe make the leap to the majors next year. They like him that much. Matt Young, i don't even know who he is, but he hit .312 with excellent plate disc. Jurich didn't do as well as I had hoped but he did take a ball to the face to start the season. JC Holt was horrible for 4 months, but was brilliant the last month to reestablish himself as a great 2B prospect. I still like him a lot.

Danville 47-20 (lost to Elizabethtown in a three game series for the Championship)

The only minor league affiliate to make the postseason and oddly enough against the Twins. Why is that Odd? The Braves and twins are the two clubs who focus the most on drafting HS players. Also both teams are opposed to MLB eliminating some of the low minors like the Appy League because it would hinder their draft philosophy. Anyways, Eric Campbell made this league his bitch. He led the league in Homers, RBI, slugging, and everything you can think of. Max Ramirez wasn't far behind leading the league in AVG as a catcher. Jon Owings (Brother of Micah from Gat Tech/Tulane fame) was an above average hitter with Ovandy suero providing speed and AVG at the top of the order. Jairo Cuevas was dominant in the rotation posting 69/55 K/IP ratio and a 1.95 ERA.

GCL Braves 24-28

I don't know much about most of these guys cause they all got drafted this year. The most notable was Elvis Andrus. He is a 16 year old SS, 16...years....old. He hit in the .350 range for much of the season and then tailed off near the end to hit .295. He didn't hit for much power, but that is to be expected of a 16 year old. He had very good plate disc, again especially considering his age. Most people considered him the best prospect in the GCL and the Braves have been raving about him since spring training. It'll be interesting to see where he goes next year.

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