Developed Teams 2011: Atlanta Braves

Remember that discussion about players with the longest tenures with one team? A few weeks back, that spurred the Developed Teams project. Well, I just found out the answer to the question of who's had the longest active tenure with one team: It's Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves. He's right in front of Todd Helton from the Rockies, the one about whom the discussion took place. In honor of Chipper's incredible career - he's up there with Mickey Mantle on the list of greatest switch-hitters of all time - let's profile a team made up of the Braves' best homegrown talent:

There's Chipper himself -
doesn't he look so young...

As with the other teams in this series, I'll start with the players still on the real life Braves. Unlike most of the other teams in this series, those players make up the real crux of the story. There's Chipper Jones, obviously, whose marvelous career I won't try to explain in a sound byte. There's star outfielder Jason Heyward, whose potential is somewhere up around the cumulo-nimbuses. Perennial All-Star Brian McCann (Erickson?) and converted infielder (and batting title contender) Martin Prado make up the rest of the still-on-the-team lineup.


Three of the four dedicated relievers on the Developed squad still play for the Braves - indeed, two are rising stars. The rotation as it stands above - drawn up based on pre-season rankings and ignoring season-ending injuries - consists of mostly current Braves, including two rookies. If I were to have made the rotation using 2011 stats to date, it would contain many fewer current Braves...

The thing is: those other starter candidates are still on the team, in the bullpen. That's right, the number of decent Starters by the Braves outnumbers their number of decent Relievers. And remember, it's a lot easier to be a good reliever than a good starter. And that's not even counting what Charlie Morton (who didn't make my list all those months ago) is doing for the Pirates. There's Matt Harrison (who wasn't even ranked by MLB) and Jason Marquis (who's bouncing back like we knew he should) as well.

Adam Wainwright, when he
pitched for Danville in 2000.
He won't throw a pitch in 2011

Kyle Davies was struggling in the majors, but he's currently in the middle of a pennant race, pitching for the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. I wonder if they're named after the original The Natural. I mean, it's plausible, right? The movie was from 1984 and the team only adopted that name in 2008.

In addition to developing a wealth of starting pitching, the Braves have three very strong shortstop candidates. However, they don't really have a true center fielder. The two candidates - Jeff "Frenchy" Francoeur and veteran bench/DH type (though still listed as CF) Andruw Jones - display a characteristic shared by a great many of these former/developed Braves: they have great baseball names (c'mon, who's ever seen it spelled with a "u" before?).

LaRoche hearkens back to "LaLoosh" in another '80s baseball movie. (It could have been Freddie Freeman, who's currently pulling his weight in his rookie season.) Andrus is the only active major leaguer with the name "Elvis" and Escobar is the only person ever in baseball associated with the name "Yunel." DeRosa has a nice ring to it. And just marvel at the syllables involved in Saltalamacchia (5 on a good day).

A solid team, especially considering Kelly Johnson is going the extra mile to prove that 2010 was no fluke. Next time, I'll look at a team I saw play recently, the Cincinnati Reds.