We all know the names of guys like Pujols, Fielder, Howard, Teixeira, and Rodriguez. They’ve been the league leaders in power numbers for most of this past decade.
But now that 2010 is here and a new decade has dawned, who is poised to step into the limelight? Who among the nameless, faceless masses is ready to become the next HR king?
My criteria is as follows:
Player must be no more than 23 years old.
Player must have no more than 500 MLB at bats.
Player must not be a Buffalo Bills fan. I won’t put up with that crap.
So without further ado, here’s your Top 5 Power Hitters under 23:
Earlier this week, I asked a question on my twitter account: “Is there a better young pitcher/hitter combination in baseball than Tommy Hanson and Jason Heyward?”
Jordan from OriolesProspects.com, and @oriolesprospects on twitter, responded with Matt Wieters and Brian Matusz. The question and answer sparked both of our interests, so we decided to construct an article in which Jordan would make the argument for his Orioles, and I would make the argument for the Braves.
We both made our arguments a bit differently. Jordan went with an actual rating system whereas I just posted their numbers. You be the judge, comment below and gives us your thoughts or hit us up on twitter and voice your opinion. I’m @Ben_Duronio and Jordan is @oriolesprospects, as previously mentioned
Just six games ago, the Braves were shut-out by the No. 2 man on the all-time homers allowed list.
Now, they find themselves dumping a high-powered Brewers attack out of a dust pan and into the trash after outscoring the Brew Crew by an unbelievable (keep in mind we’re talking about the team ranked next-to-last in runs in the NL coming into this series) 21-run margin over three games.
The heroes of this series (outside of the usual suspects Jason Heyward, who returned to the line-up for game two of this series and went on to steal two bases, and Martin Prado, who hit a grand slam in game one) may be surprising, though.
Troy Glaus, Brooks Conrad, and Eric Hinske played out of their minds (the latter two in only the two final games).
Glaus went 5-for-13 (.385) with two homers, five RBIs, three runs scored, and also tacked on two walks.
Hinske, while manning what had been a massive left field hole for the Braves, went 3-for-6 (.500) with three doubles, four RBIs, and only one strikeout to two bases on balls.
Brooks went 4-for-9 (.444) with two homers (both off of Carlos Villanueva to right field), five RBIs, and some pretty slick fielding over at the hot corner.
Wow.
Not bad for two guys that have been riding the pine all year, (though Hinske has shown all season that he has deserved better) and another that for the month of April was being called “washed up” by many in Braves Nation.
But, the question remains: can the Braves keep it up?
After all, they dazzled us with the bats in the opening series and have been putting up eight- nine- and ten-spots at various points over the course of the ’10 campaign–what makes this series of gappers, drives, and lucky bloops any different?
Well, I’ll tell you—it comes down to the personnel.
And with the group that was thrown out for the Milwaukee series, I really, honestly, believe that this is for real (knock on wood).
Add to that the fact that this line-up has been lacking two cogs in Yunel Escobar and Chipper Jones that have been vital to the team’s success over the past few years, and this thing looks downright scary come their expected returns this Saturday (I’m referring to them being “in there” together—Chipper will be back sooner).
Just imagine…
R 2B Martin Prado L RF Jason “Manchild” Heyward S 3B Chipper Jones R 1B Troy Glaus L C Brian McCann L LF Eric Hinske R SS Yunel Escobar (yeah, I believe the ’09 Escobar is the real Escobar) L CF Nate McLouth
With the performances in the month of May for those guys, there is plenty to support a Braves starting staff that only gave up three earned runs (Hanson with zero, Hudson with one, and Lowe, typically with the highest, with two) to the Brewers in this past series.
Now, there will be a hitch here and there (after all, this is baseball we’re talking about), no doubt about it (and with Conrad swinging a big bat, I’d almost be willing to give him Jones’ position for a while and stick with the Infante/McLouth-Prado-Heyward set-up…but we all know that’s not going to happen).
But there is no way that this group can be as anemic as the Leche/Diaz-packed order we saw at the start of this most recent road trip (which the Braves managed to finish up 5-4 in spite of those awful orders).
I’m not going to call a 15-game win-streak for the Braves right now—not by a long shot.
But, I am going to call for some good success on the horizon (if that makes sense) since this team finally seems to be coming around.
Count the layers of the L-sandwich: W-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-W.
After a stretch of futility of nonagonal proportions (bad geometry joke), the Atlanta Braves scratched out a win (and their first save in 20 games) Friday night in Atlanta as Billy Wagner induced a double-play to Houston clean-up hitter Carlos Lee.
Timely offense, superb pitching, and mostly clean fielding (we’ll forgive J-Hey’s boot in right field) netted the ‘Bravos’ what had so eluded them for over a week.
Well, it was either that or me wearing my Elon University shirt today—the last thing I wore before this horrid stretch started last week against the Phillies.
But, I think I’ll sit pretty with the former…
Doesn’t this just feel great, though?
Even sans Escobar and Jurrjens for a bit, just seeing some excitement out of this line-up (especially from the lead-off spot) is extremely refreshing.
Nate-Dogg energized this lifeless heap of humanity (and a surprisingly sizable Turner Field crowd) with a lead-off blast to left-center and also went on to swipe a bag after a perfectly placed bunt-for-hit.
Throw in 1.5 Jason Heyward home runs (as he was robbed of a near-blast in the eighth by Hunter Pence) to bring his April total to six (about 1/3 of what I predicted for him before the season started—that’s looking pretty bad), and this group showed some of the promise it displayed in the season’s first two home series.
A Tommy Hanson’s eight-inning, 99 pitch, seven strikeout, no walk, (*breath*) two-run performance followed by Billy Wagner’s second save took care of the other end of the game as the Braves added a tally to bring their win total to a whopping (sarcastically) nine.
Now, this was only one game—but it offered a lot to build on.
Sparking the offense on their home turf (provided this keeps up at least a bit) before shipping out for three game sets at Washington, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee should bode well for the National League’s worst team in terms of team batting average.
One win after nine losses is kinda huge—but two or three in a row are needed to really solidify the team’s bot of regained mojo.
But, it takes one in a row to get those multiples.