Good ESPN article on Freeman (and Heyward and Wood)

[CyYoung31]

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/po...-bigger-things

Oh, look. An article that's not felating the Nationals. There's actually some praise here for the Braves. I disagree with him about Justin Upton though. I think he's just as much a potential MVP candidate as Heyward and Freeman.

[thethe]

What I love about Freeman is that he has not once changed his approach or swing whie the national media keeps saying he won't hit for power with that swing. Well, the guy just continues to learn how identify pitches sooner and situations when to rip it a little more. Nothing but great things for this kid. Braves locked him up at the perfect time and in three years he will be one of the best contracts in baseball.

[GovClintonTyree]

"I know WAR is more suggestion and sorting tool than fact..."

She's right. Remember this when trying to persuade people using WAR.

On a related note, I saw something (didn't have time to get into it) about a new system for measuring defense during spring training. What was that all about? Will it fix the defensive component of WAR?

[GovClintonTyree]

"Not that one game means much, but with Mike Minor on the mend coming off a breakthrough year in 2012, if veterans Ervin Santana and later Gavin Floyd simply provide innings, regular turns and quality starts more than half the time, maybe the Braves’ starting pitching won’t turn out to be so bad after all."

No s^*t. The first analyst to tiptoe out from under the Worldwide Leader's mudslide of Braves Doom and Nats Greatness.

[Teheran_49]

This is why I can't get into saber metrics or whatever it is Pecota uses as well as others. How do you factor in things like how a guy is feeling that day? Or just life period. One thing I know is the good ones will produce and Freeman and Heyward will have big years if they are able to stay relatively healthy.

[cajunrevenge]

Wren needs to get a lot of credit for how hw handled Teheran/delgado/vizcaino.

[thethe]

Wren needs to get a lot of credit for how hw handled Teheran/delgado/vizcaino.

It was funny when people were trying to make the argument that Delgado was better than Teheran. Teheran was ALWAYS the guy internally for the Braves and their actions showed it.

[GovClintonTyree]

What I love about Freeman is that he has not once changed his approach or swing whie the national media keeps saying he won't hit for power with that swing. Well, the guy just continues to learn how identify pitches sooner and situations when to rip it a little more. Nothing but great things for this kid. Braves locked him up at the perfect time and in three years he will be one of the best contracts in baseball.

I remember when they were looking at his HR totals at age 20 and calling him a poor man's Mark Grace. Just lazy journalism. It was so obvious that they'd never seen him. Really, all you needed to see was his first HR in September 2010 against Doc Halladay that went to the very back of the bullpen to know that was wrong.

[thethe]

I remember when they were looking at his HR totals at age 20 and calling him a poor man's Mark Grace. Just lazy journalism. It was so obvious that they'd never seen him. Really, all you needed to see was his first HR in September 2010 against Doc Halladay that went to the very back of the bullpen to know that was wrong.

We all saw it as Brave fans. Freeman just has the perfect approach. He has a gameplan pitch to pitch and AB to AB. He lets it rip when he gets his pitch in his location in his counts. This guy is just going to be a brilliant hitter the next 10 years.

[GovClintonTyree]

It was funny when people were trying to make the argument that Delgado was better than Teheran. Teheran was ALWAYS the guy internally for the Braves and their actions showed it.

In fairness, Teheran had a pretty scummy year in 2012. I saw him pitch at Turner relieving Derek Lowe in September 2011 and he was pitiful. So I started wondering if they got it wrong. They didn't.

[thethe]

In fairness, Teheran had a pretty scummy year in 2012. I saw him pitch at Turner relieving Derek Lowe in September 2011 and he was pitiful. So I started wondering if they got it wrong. They didn't.

It was just a tough situation with Teheran. There was just no room on the starting rotation in 2012. Maybe Teheran was frustrated going back to AAA after dominating that league a year earlier. Maybe he was working on things. I just know I was never concerned with the year he had in 2012.

[zitothebrave]

It was funny when people were trying to make the argument that Delgado was better than Teheran. Teheran was ALWAYS the guy internally for the Braves and their actions showed it.

I sorted them as Julio, Viz, Delgado.

Only positive Delgado has over the other 2, is floor. Delgado has a much higher floor than Julio or Viz.

[thethe]

I sorted them as Julio, Viz, Delgado.

Only positive Delgado has over the other 2, is floor. Delgado has a much higher floor than Julio or Viz.

I never saw the floor argument either. To me Julios floor was always a middle of the rotation starter.

[cajunrevenge]

I like Vizcaino the most then Teheran then Delgado.

[Knucksie]

It was funny when people were trying to make the argument that Delgado was better than Teheran. Teheran was ALWAYS the guy internally for the Braves and their actions showed it.

It's easy to say that now with hindsight. At one point, the org might well have foreseen future internal roles for all of them. If, a few years ago, nobody would've suggested that 2 of the 3 would be shipped out.

Plus, there may have been concerns with Teheran. He regressed in his 2nd year of AAA, when he should've been at least as effective as the previous season. It also showed his susceptibility to the long ball. If somebody recommended Jurrjens to act as a mentor, he wasn't the best pitcher to offer tips. They were practically inseparable.

All that said, just glad that everything is back on track and things look promising again for him.

[AUTiger7222]

If I remember correctly the Braves tried to change Julio's delivery going into the 2012 season which led to him getting hammered at Gwinnett. It wasn't until late in that year that they just let him get back to doing what came naturally to him and boom he was back to dominating.