Through the Eye
Wedging open the needle through which precious few farmhands pass to the toughtest roster in the majors, the Atlanta Braves, is no easy feat.
Marc NORMANDIN
Minor League News
Landing a slot on a major league roster is a lot like taking a solid piece out of a 100 mph fastball. You get a split-second look. If you can’t take it downtown, you may find yourself on your way out of town.
Fighting for a playoff spot on July 7th, the Atlanta Braves dispatched to the batter’s box the newest addition to the team, outfield prospect Jeff Francouer. In his first game in the major leagues, somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that he had to do something to make a name for himself on a depth chart overloaded with young, capable outfielders.
He delivered a three-run home run to help beat the Chicago Cubs, and keep the Tribe in contention with the Cubbies for the Wild Card.
In today’s high-salary game, it’s hard to send down a mediocre player to the minors costing you millions. You have to find someone else with a bigger checkbook who wants them. This caps opportunities for strong farm players in the depth chart.
When a club has a pitching rotation or an fielding staff that gels, it can be years before certain opportunities open to farm-hands hungry for a shot at moving up to the big-leagues.
In Atlanta the time allowed for players to prove themselves is measured in nanoseconds when the club is in a divisional championship race, which is almost every year. Just as it is said that there are no second acts in American lives, there are no bad days for players at the margins of a major league roster during an evaluation call-up. A missed ball, being too cautious, or too aggressive in the wrong moment can mark a turning-point in careers.
The Braves have had one of the tightest rosters in baseball. A championship team with as many league pennants and World Series appearances as are held by Atlanta engages in a very elaborate choreography of its top players, trades, and farm hands. Savvy trades have kept them from landing a lot of high-priced deadwood on their roster. High standards of performance cull out only those who are ready to shine in the majors from their farm system now.
Over-seasoned veterans like Raul Mondesi and Brian Jordan have lost their jobs to make room for promising youngsters like Andy Marte, Adam LaRoche, Ryan Langerhans, and Francouer.
What happens to all of the top prospects in an organization like the Braves?
This year has seen more of an opening than in years past. The Braves have dosed themselves with an injection of youth and talent to step it up and open up a large lead over the Washington Nationals, the team the Braves toppled in a three games series that brought them their division lead.
Francouer was a hero in that series, hitting 2 home runs in a 5-4 Braves win on July 28th. Jeff has big league instincts, meeting National league pitching with a .407 average and an .891 slugging percentage as of this writing. His prospects for more time in an Atlanta uniform long-term look good.
Some great prospects implode in the brief cups of coffee with the major league club, the auditions that they get to show their stuff.
Marte’s wait behind Hall of Famer Chipper Jones at third base may have become longer after a recent showcase call-up yielded an anemic .159/.250/.250 (AVG/OBP/SLG) in 44 at-bats, earning him a ticket back to Triple-A Richmond. While it’s expected that some additional seasoning will bring Marte’s game numbers up to big league levels, his performance gives Jones’ agent leverage to negotiate contract extensions that might not come in with numbers to his client’s liking, or with meaningful terms if the Braves’ prospect had put up position-threatening numbers on his cup of coffee.
Sometimes a utility player will find a better shot at making the roster because they can play well for injured players. Langerhans is more of a fourth-outfielder type, filling in at the corner positions, who does his job well. He could find his way to the Braves bench as a critical role player.
Some players get stuck for a while, with nowhere to go upward on the depth chart. If they continue to perform well, and are lucky enough to be traded, they might find a better position on another club’s chart. Charles Thomas was a player who had a good debut season for Atlanta. He became part of the package with Oakland for starting pitcher Tim Hudson.
