The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Prospects provide hope down on farm
Young talent nurtured, led to blossom before harvested for big city.
On nights such as Tuesday, at the big empty ballpark out on the northern frontier of Gwinnett, it looks as if the pipeline surely will burst.
There is just too much talent to contain.
On a night when the starter is as untouchable as poison ivy, when a 21-year-old top prospect is hitting every ball square, when all around the field acrobats in long pants are diving and tumbling, leaving no ball uncaught, the remedy to every Braves anxiety seems at hand. Tomorrow, who knows? Only 800 fans witnessed this mid-week show put on by the Triple-A Gwinnett Braves, an inadequate number of eyeballs for a production as entertaining as this, but at least the right people were paying attention.
A bigwig from corporate HQ, president of baseball operations John Hart, was in the seats, no
doubt quite pleased. And even as he was in mid-broadcast of the major league team’s game against the Dodgers, 37 miles away, radio guy Jim Powell tweeted to his followers the news that young Aaron Blair was no-hitting the Durham Bulls.
The unwritten message: Hang in there, fans, help is on the way.
To be a Braves believer these days requires quite an expanded range of vision. The major league club traded just about everyone either popular or familiar in the name of re-stocking a depleted minor league system. All recent pains — the 95 losses last season, the nine-game losing streak to start this season — were framed as therapeutic and necessary for the long-term good. And fans suddenly needed a good road atlas.
Can you find Zebulon, N.C.? That’s where Dansby Swanson was hitting .333 with an .880 OPS in 14 games through Wednesday for the Carolina Mudcats, the Braves’ high Single-A affiliate.
Pearl, Miss.? The gateway to Jackson. Also known as the temporary Double-A home of flashy infielder Ozzie Albies and treasured arms Sean Newcomb and Lucas Sims.
Rome’s in Georgia, too, you know. Max Fried, another pitcher of great promise, is there for the time being.
Closest of all is the apex of the Braves’ minor league pyramid, the Gwinnett Braves, the last stop before the good life of five-star hotels, jets with actual leg room and clubhouse spreads that deserve their own Food Network show.
The talent funneling there at the season’s beginning — and the talent that is sure to flow over the course of the summer — moves general manager North Johnson to declare, “Absolutely, there’s no question this is the best team we’ve had since I’ve been here.” He arrived in Gwinnett in 2010, one year after the team moved there from Richmond.
Proof comes in many packages. Tuesday night it showed itself in the form of starter Blair (acquired as part of the deal that sent Shelby Miller to Arizona), who no-hit Durham for seven innings before being lifted. And third baseman Rio Ruiz, who despite being the youngest player on the team continued his explosive hitting (he was batting .367 through the team’s first 14 games).
Nowadays, Gwinnett most reflects the Braves’ emphasis on attempting to corner the pitching market. And that shows up in the starters’ combined ERA — 2.45 before the team departed Thursday for an eight-game trip.
“Every night in this minor league system there is a big arm throwing. Every single night,” Gwinnett starting pitcher Tyrell Jenkins said.
When Brian Snitker was re-assigned to manage the G-Braves in 2014 — coming from the big club’s third base box — he noted that “there wasn’t a whole lot in the system, I saw it for myself.”
“The last couple years,” he said this week, “it has been amazing to me what they’ve done and how they’ve stockpiled some numbers — really good players, really good athletic baseball players.”
The sentiment is shared throughout the system. The GM at Rome, Mike Dunn, said he senses a greater interest in the Braves’ minor league talent each time “I go to the post office and pick up the crate of fan mail.”
Carolina GM Joe Kremer said the card collectors are showing up more at his games, going Swanson hunting.
At no time is the objective to build championship minor league teams. This is all about developing players who might slowly turn the fortunes of the big league club. It is trafficking in a most highly speculative market, that of human potential, fraught with all the uncertainties that come wrapped in flesh.
It’s about having something hopeful to say when Gwinnett pitching coach Marty Reed completes his nightly report and sends it on up the line, or when he is in one of his many conversations with Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell.
The messages have been more glowing than in the past, and the energy that sparks in a minor league pitching coach is plain enough to hear. “When (the prospects arrive), you better be a part of it,” Reed said. “I know a lot of people are down on what’s going on at the big leagues. We have accumulated a group of players who, if they come, you’re going to have a pretty good club for a long time.”
The Gwinnett Braves may win a little more this year — they currently lead the International League South. Their marketing motto — “The Future is Here” — rings as more than just the usual minor league message, but a concrete promise. Already outfielder Mallex Smith and infielder Daniel Castro have been summoned to Atlanta.
Still, a lot of good baseball goes unseen, as this team, burdened by its proximity to the major league product and the big-city realities of traffic and a hundred other diversions, lags near the bottom of International League attendance.
More people will note, however, what happens there, because that ultimately will define the aggressive rebuild by the new Braves management and set the course for what happens inside that shiny palace in Cobb County.
What else is there to hold onto while the big league club marks time at Turner Field?
Everyone realizes that, from the oldest hand in the front office to the youngest Gwinnett Brave.
From the mouth of Ruiz, the relative babe: “I think what the Braves have done is very noticeable by the baseball world. We’re developing talent everywhere, at every position. I think we’re going to be pretty good for the years to come.”