2012 MLB Season Preview: Atlanta Braves

2011 Review

An amazing thing happened on the way to a catastrophe:  Many other things.

Do you know how many milestones Chipper Jones reached in 2011?  Or that Brian McCann became the second player ever to hit a game-tying home run and a game-winning home run in the same game?  Or that the Braves franchise record was over .500 for the first time since 1923?

Of course you didn’t, because you’re a self-involved sadist, choosing to laugh and slobber at the Braves rather than look up on the internet any good things they did last year.

But the list goes on.

Craig Kimbrel!  Who could have known a 23-year-old would set Atlanta on fire with frightening enthusiasm?  Everybody, really.  In 2010 he went 4-0 with an ERA under 0.5 and 40 K’s in 20 2/3 innings.  But nobody paid attention until 2011, when he spent a whole season with the Braves ruining heroic, magical comeback wins for opposing teams in the ninth inning and, with undying support from flamethrowing young relievers Eric O’Flaherty and Johnny Venters, wrapped up the NL Rookie of the Year Award pretty unquestionably.

Meanwhile, prior to the ninth inning, Dan Uggla was terrible.  Hitting .173 going into July 4, Uggla wasn’t giving his $65 million contract a good name.  Which was why it was so weird when he went on to hit in every game until August 14, a hit streak long enough to fit Freddie Freeman’s hit streak inside of it.  Uggla didn’t hit over .200 for the entirety of the stretch.  And he led the league in errors for a second baseman (15).  But still!  Hit streak!  Impressive.

So, you see?  The Braves spent 2011 being a pretty interesting, competitive, positive club.  They won games with dominance.  They won games with theatrics.  They had a competitive starting rotation in Jair Jurrjens, Derek Lowe, and Tommy Hanson in a division that defines starting rotations.  They had powerful youth coming into their own.  They signed Michael Bourn halfway through the season and watched him finish with a personal best .294 batting average and all those bases he steals without even really trying that hard.  This year it was 61.  It was all going so well.

… and then they imploded.  Quite violently.

But again.  You know all about that.  So, like the Braves, let us ignore the past.  Let us forget it.  When other people bring it up, let us bang the two nearest objects together and yelp loudly.  Because the Braves were a championship caliber team for the first five months of the 2011 season.

In 2012, they’re trying for six.

2012 Season Outlook

It’s kind of hard not to consider most teams in the NL East legit contenders, thanks to the combination of radically strengthened basement dwellers in the Marlins and Nationals, and the traditionally dominating Phillies (despite their injuries).  The Braves, however, are the only one of the four who wasn’t forced to change much and still retain their “contender” label.  These are 25 guys with a ton of hungry youth and strategically placed vets who proved they were skilled enough to power through the regular season, they just picked the wrong month to shit all over themselves.

They couldn’t do it for Bobby, but it seems like the Braves will spend 2012 taking mainstay on a farewell tour in Chipper Jones, so maybe they’ll do it for Larry.  Like last year, they will have the capacity to, it will just be a matter of pulling the trigger.

A full season of Michael Bourn will be a godsend, though the corner outfield positions need to be filled by two people who can contribute in some form, whether that be hitting the baseball or, failing that, massaging Bourn’s precious legs.  A resurgent Jason Heyward would be welcome.  A productive Martin Prado would also help.  Both doing something would be big sexy thunderstorm of baseball.

All they need then is an every day shortstop and that chilling back end of the bullpen–Johnny Venters, Eric O’Flaherty, and 2012 NL Rookie of the Year Craig Kimbrel–to maintain their status as “OMFG” and Atlanta should be set for another run at the title, lest something totally awful and unexpected happens.  But when does that ever happen?

I mean twice.

2012 Prospect to Watch

Frank Wren grabbed a microphone as soon as the Braves were done murdering themselves in 2011 and announced pretty firmly that Derek Lowe was to stay the hell away from the Braves’ clubhouse.  Although he probably used more tact, as socially aware people usually do.  The point was, Lowe had performed so lowly (PUN STATUS:  Intended) the previous year that a change was deemed necessary.

And if you’re at all familiar with the Braves’ farm system, then you know it is less of a farm system, and more of a fiery volcano, constantly belching out high ceiling pitching prospects who just make you want to flee for your life before even warning anyone else in the quiet mountain town you are in for some reason.

So, for which one should you scramble away from the dinner table, still chewing a mouthful of food to see on TV?  Well, not 21-year-old right hander Arodys Vizcaino, their second best prospect in general.  He’s having Tommy John and won’t be back until 2013.

Fortunately, the Braves have possibly the best prospect in all of baseball in Julio Teheran, so it may far too predictable to pick him, but honestly, why would you ever look away?  Their bullpen is going to be so deep and so rich and so young it hurts to look at it.  Probably hurts even worse to have to hit against it.

But if you want a non-pitching prospect to look at, weirdo, then check out their starting shortstop.  Why, it’s Tyler Pastornicky, who is neither Alex Gonzalez nor Diory Hernandez (though he was part of the trade that brought both himself and Gonzalez to Atlanta.  Baseball!)  So anyways, Pastornicky is 22 and was given the starting duties, despite being called up last September from Gwinnet and never playing in a game.

He’ll join an unfairly long line of Braves prospects who are young and skilled and will be on glorious display in the Futures Stars exhibition game to take place between the big club and the system’s best young players in Gwinnet.  Bobby Cox will be managing the Futures team because the Braves just can’t seem to get over him.

Find your team’s 2012 season preview or when it will be published here.

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