Developing hitters

[bravesfanforlife88]

I was talking to my dad earlier about Newcomb and how he is the last piece from the Simmons trade. I was telling him how frustrating it is that Simmons struggled so much his last year or two at the plate in Atlanta, yet has done really well in LAA.

That got me thinking, outside of Freeman, who is the last good hitter that we have developed through our system recently? Heyward did okay early on but struggled mightily towards the end. Before that, francouer was the same. Dansby came up and did well last year but fell off the face of the earth.

Do you think focusing almost solely on pitching has caused us to fall behind on how to properly teach these kids to hit...? (Of course you sometimes get lucky and have guys with natural hitting talent like freeman. Hopefully Acuna falls into that category.)

Btw, it seems like a lot of the issues for these guys seem to be similar. Poor situational hitting, lots of strikeouts, and poor pitch recognition.

[zbhargrove]

I worry about out hitting and pitching development.

[Carp]

Gattis was/is pretty good. Obviously McCann was fantastic. Yunel was good and has had a long career. Heyward was a good hitter, not elite, but a good hitter nonetheless.

[jsebe10]

I worry about out hitting and pitching development.

Couldn't agree more.

The last TOR hitter the system has developed would be Smoltz and Glavine. They developed the occasional bullpen arm. Position player wise...nothing after Chipper Jones.

[Southcack77]

Nothing much has changed about Simmons except that he is hitting the ball a little harder this year and his HR rate has spiked along with just about everyone else in baseball it seems. Otherwise, he's basically profiling about the same as a hitter. Same GB/FB -- relatively similar walk and k rates.

His BABIP is up this year probably in part because he is hitting the ball harder.

But he has displayed this kind of power before albeit it was an outlier season where things otherwise weren't going that well for him.

This seems like natural progression, plus some good fortune, plus maybe a juicy ball.

[IslandBrave]

Couldn't agree more.

The last TOR hitter the system has developed would be Smoltz and Glavine. They developed the occasional bullpen arm. Position player wise...nothing after Chipper Jones.

Wainwright
Alex Wood

[GeorgiaGirl]

If you have a guy like Dansby, who has average tools, he's not going to be great unless he maxes his tools out, and he's not even half tapping into his tools because the Braves aren't good at helping you max out your tools.

Ozzie is more likely to be okay even if he doesn't max out (the worst he does is probably Andrelton like with better speed before LAA which would be frustrating) because his tools are better. And Acuna's are even better.

[bravesfanforlife88]

I worry about out hitting and pitching development.

I can see the argument there with busts like Hanson,minor, etc.

[bravesfanforlife88]

If you have a guy like Dansby, who has average tools, he's not going to be great unless he maxes his tools out, and he's not even half tapping into his tools because the Braves aren't good at helping you max out your tools.

Ozzie is more likely to be okay even if he doesn't max out (the worst he does is probably Andrelton like with better speed before LAA which would be frustrating) because his tools are better. And Acuna's are even better.

Dansby is so lost at the plate it's not going to be fixed by seasons end. He needs to go into the offseason and re-start his swing from the ground up

[jpack1]

Prado as a hitter. But yes. The development of can't miss prospects that keep missing is concerning. Very concerning

[Southcack77]

Dansby is so lost at the plate it's not going to be fixed by seasons end. He needs to go into the offseason and re-start his swing from the ground up

That would be cool. Would at least be the end of the talk about how they blew a year of control, I would hope.

He really does need to stay down until he is crushing AAA.

[smootness]

I can see the argument there with busts like Hanson,minor, etc.

Then what about guys like Medlen and Beachy?

This stuff is overblown. We're no better or worse than any other organization at developing players. We view prospects by their ceiling, then get disappointed when they don't hit that.

[thewupk]

I can see the argument there with busts like Hanson,minor, etc.

While injury risks are a real with certain prospects I wouldn't label players that perform well and then don't right after injury 'busts'.

[chop2chip]

Early Tommy Hanson was awesome. Such a fun pitcher to watch. RIP

[Horsehide Harry]

Wainwright
Alex Wood

Jason Schmidt (stupidly traded him)
Kevin Millwood
Jurgens (before injury)
Medlen

With that said, the best ML team at getting the most out of hitters is Toronto (any number of underachieving veterans have gone there to blossom). I think minor league development is too much tied to talent acquisition and evaluation to really be judged separately. You could say the Dodgers are really good with Bellinger and Seager and Pederson and Puig or the Astros or the Cubs or the Bosox, but alot of their top end hitters were top end prospects, not bought in the bargain bin. The Braves have a bad historic tendency to think they are smarter than everybody else when they take early draft hitters and they either hit pretty big (CJ, Heyward, Freeman) or completely bust (Komminsk, Thorman, Lombard, Davidson). Pitching tends to be a little different in that, even if the pitcher doesn't ever do much, they are at least good enough to get a cup of coffee.

[zbhargrove]

Jason Schmidt (stupidly traded him)
Kevin Millwood
Jurgens (before injury)
Medlen

With that said, the best ML team at getting the most out of hitters is Toronto (any number of underachieving veterans have gone there to blossom). I think minor league development is too much tied to talent acquisition and evaluation to really be judged separately. You could say the Dodgers are really good with Bellinger and Seager and Pederson and Puig or the Astros or the Cubs or the Bosox, but alot of their top end hitters were top end prospects, not bought in the bargain bin. The Braves have a bad historic tendency to think they are smarter than everybody else when they take early draft hitters and they either hit pretty big (CJ, Heyward, Freeman) or completely bust (Komminsk, Thorman, Lombard, Davidson). Pitching tends to be a little different in that, even if the pitcher doesn't ever do much, they are at least good enough to get a cup of coffee.

Agreed. I like our minor league player development staff. It seems like our MLB development folks are lacking, though.

[jpx7]

Wainwright
Alex Wood

Wainwright wasn't can't-miss until after he got to STL.

[Knucksie]

Wainwright wasn't can't-miss until after he got to STL.

Ditto for Jason Schmidt after he went to the Giants, and the Pirates were who he was traded to initially.

[Slippyjms]

I think our problem is less development and more evaluation. Trading Wood and Wainright were 2 major mistakes.

[Knucksie]

I think our problem is less development and more evaluation. Trading Wood and Wainright were 2 major mistakes.

Forecasting is an inexact science. Mark DeRosa had a nice career, but nothing from his minor league performances suggested anything more than backup type.

Wood's having a great year, for sure, but that doesn't mean he'd have done the same behind Tehran as Clayton Kershaw. Plus, it doesn't mean it will be the same next year. Not sour grapes. Good for him.

People tend to get a little carried away with ex-Braves having success elsewhere or a trade didn't work out. it happens to every team.