Last year, Jason Heyward ranked No. 1 among all Major League Baseball prospects. And boy, did he ever deliver for the Braves in his 2010 rookie campaign.
While the “J-Hey Kid” certainly helped thrust Atlanta back into the playoffs last season, he isn’t the sole reason the club is beaming about its seemingly bright future.
Three Braves players—right-handed pitching phenom Julio Teheran, projected starting first baseman Freddie Freeman and left-handed pitcher Mike Minor—are ranked in the first 21 spots on MLB’s top 50 prospect list.
Teheran, who has garnered comparisons to Pedro Martinez, figures highest among the trio at No. 10. The youngster’s star continues to skyrocket as MLB.com listed him as the game’s second best right-handed pitching prospect. Teheran showed steady improvement with three different minor league affiliates in 2010, concluding the season with a 3.38 ERA for Double-A Mississippi. Equipped with a make up that has been deemed off the charts for a 20-year-old, Teheran could see time with Atlanta in 2011.
Freeman claimed the 17th position in the prospect rankings, four ahead of his teammate Minor. Both players got the call to the big leagues late last season and made quite the impression on team officials.
The 21-year-old Freeman amassed 24 major league at-bats in 2010, notching his first career home run off of Philadelphia ace and eventual NL Cy Young winner Roy Halladay. After rehabbing a thumb injury that limited him to just five games in the Arizona Fall League, Freeman is now poised, healthy and ready, to claim the Braves’ starting first base duties.
Minor got the call to the bigs after Kris Medlen went down with season-ending Tommy John surgery—and his brief stint with the club provided a mix bag of results. After setting an Atlanta rookie record for strikeouts with 12 in an Aug. 22 victory over the Cubs, Minor showed obvious signs of fatigue and faded down the stretch, posting a 9.37 ERA over four starts. Still, the southpaw’s ceiling remains high as MLB.com ranks him as the fourth-best left-handed prospect in baseball and he figures to be a front-runner to break camp as Atlanta’s fifth starter.
Renowned for growing and cultivating their own talent year after year, this season appears to be no different for the Braves, whose pipeline to the Minors is as rich and stocked as ever before.
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