Earlier this week I was lucky enough to spend some time with the number one prospect in Major League Baseball, Jason Heyward.  He and I are both involved with L.E.A.D., an amazing organization in Atlanta that is bringing baseball to the inner-city in a new and innovative way.  In the past, I've had the pleasure of volunteering with his mother, who is simply delightful.  I knew before I ever spoke with Jason that he was an outstanding young man because of his hands-on involvement with L.E.A.D. and the wonderful upbringing he had with such terrific parents.

I wasn't disappointed in anything I observed about Jason Heyward up close and personal earlier this week.  I was lucky enough to get to sit in on his session in the batting cage, and I was struck by his professional demeanor.  While he carried on conversations with other players outside of the cage, he was completely focused inside the cage.  It was impossible to watch and not notice how seriously he took this opportunity to hit in the cage and get instruction.

I observed several things about Heyward's routine in the cage.  In a round of soft toss I noticed that he was lifting his back leg up and bending at the knee when he swung.  Later, I asked hitting instructor, CJ Stewart, why Jason was picking up his back leg during soft toss.  CJ explained that this was part of a drill Heyward learned years ago that teaches the importance of shifting your weight during your swing from the back to front leg.  As a pitching instructor who makes my easily-embarrassed teenage girls stand on one leg for the "flamingo drill," this is going to make for a great example.  Even Jason Heyward, the number one prospect in Minor League Baseball, goes back to drills to improve his game.  Take notes, girls!

Another thing I noticed was that Heyward talked to himself in the later rounds.  He'd call out a situation as he got in his stance, like "runner on second," and then he'd say something like, "That'll work!" after the contact if he thought he hit the ball like he wanted.  I also noted that he took the time to get in his stance before each pitch and both his stance and his swing remained consistent through all of the rounds he took in the cage. 

If you haven't already heard, Heyward has a beautiful swing.  And  if you haven't heard, you probably shouldn't call yourself a baseball fan because it's impossible to escape the talk of this rising talent.  His stature and the full follow-through on his swings most reminds me of Fred McGriff, who I've heard him compared to more than once.  It makes me excited to be a Braves fan.

For me, the only thing better than a top prospect who is reminiscent of Fred McGriff is one who is also a great role model for young fans.  Heyward is all that and more.  The first time I met him was in early November at a luncheon for L.E.A.D.  I've been to events in the past when sports figures or celebrities slipped in just before they took the podium and slipped back out immediately after they spoke.  It seems to happen more often than not, but it's not what happened when Jason Heyward came to the L.E.A.D. luncheon.  I saw him pose for dozens of pictures with people and spend time talking to some of the young athletes who participate in L.E.A.D.  His speech was all about giving back and getting involved, and after observing him I don't doubt that he will continue to be an integral part of L.E.A.D. throughout the years. 

The second time I saw Jason was the day following the luncheon when he participated in the celebrity clinic L.E.A.D. put on for inner-city youth.  Jason was there from start to finish, along with his parents and brother who were also extraordinarily kind and generous people. 

Going into my third encounter with Jason this week, I wanted to respect him while he worked in the cage, but I was also dying to talk to him about some of the subjects in my book.  I waited until he was done batting and then asked if he'd mind a couple of questions.  It wasn't at all an interview but just a fun chat with someone else who loves the game of baseball.  He was incredibly generous with his time and knowledgeable about the inner-workings of the business of baseball.  It was truly a pleasure to talk to him.

With the natural talent that he has so well refined through his hard work, Jason Heyward is sure to be an impactful addition to the Braves lineup.  More than that though, he's a terrific role model for all the young fans.  You may not agree that sports figures should be role models, but the bottom line is that they are and so often they forget the little guys out there watching them with hopeful eyes.  Jason Heyward is someone all Braves fans, young or old, will be proud to claim as our own.

So, a big thank you to Jason Heyward and CJ Stewart for letting me have a front row seat outside the cage, and a special thanks to Jason for letting me pick his brain on boring things like revenue sharing!  Also, thanks to Dexter Fowler, Jay Austin, Scott Robinson and Telvin Nash for letting me watch their sessions in the cage as well!  It was an afternoon any baseball fan would love to have!

David O'Brien's latest blog post quotes part of a long interview that Javy Lopez did with Atlanta Baseball Talk.

Here's the important part, as transcribed by O'Brien (it comes at around 40:30):

Lopez was then asked flatly if players were looking at steroids as an option and using them.

“Uh, yes,” he said. “In my opinion, yes…. I mean, how can I explain this? It’s like if you’re going to race cars, if you’re going to race a car and some people are using nitro in the fuel [Lopez laughed], and you see them winning all the time, and you’re using regular gas – you know what? If they’re using nitro and they’ve been winning, well, I’d be stupid enough not to use nitro, too.”

Look, everyone's innocent until proven guilty. But people have been whispering about Javy since his career year in 2003, when he hit 43 home runs in just 129 games and batted .328/.378/.687. I'm not trying to indict him on circumstantial evidence... but it's not hard to see what he's saying. He's saying that when everyone's using, you have to use too. And it doesn't seem like a stretch to imagine that he's actually talking about himself.

You're probably aware that our old friend Rany Jazayerli has occasional differences of opinion with the Royals brain trust regarding their management of the team. Yet despite Rany's years of torment, the team still manages to surprise him. Just two days ago, he noticed a quote by an unnamed team official who was expressing shock that the 2009 season went as badly as it did:

Everybody thought we had the greatest offseason in the history of whatever and people in the game were saying we did as good as anybody in improving the team.

Which... yeah. Wow.

After dropping his jaw for several paragraphs, Rany finally responds to it:

I could criticize this quote from now till kingdom come, but really, this quote transcends criticism. It is a masterpiece of hallucinatory thinking. I’m convinced the secret to cold fusion is locked somewhere inside that quote. So the only proper response is not criticism – it is mockery.

Rany then challenged his readers to invent other historical situations to which this meme could be applied -- including France in World War II, the makers of Heaven's Gate, and the advisers to Martha Coakley's losing Senate campaign in Massachusetts -- and I thought that our corner of the blogosphere should contribute.

The producers of "The Magic Hour" with Magic Johnson, 1998: Everybody thought we had the greatest talk show in the history of whatever and people in the business were saying we did as good as anybody in hiring a talk show host.

Nikita Khrushchev, 1962: Everybody thought we had the greatest missiles in the history of whatever and people in the Kremlin were saying we did as good as anybody in picking a country to put them in.

Atlanta, 1864: Everybody thought we had the greatest wooden buildings in the history of whatever and people in the Confederacy were saying we did as good as anybody at making them fireproof.

Your turn!

Bill Shanks of Scout.com has a report from the Braves' Caravan in Macon today, where he quotes assistant general manager Bruce Manno on the possibility of the Braves signing free-agent left fielder Johnny Damon: "Never say never."  Shanks points out the similarity between Damon's situation and that of Garret Anderson last winter.  Both are Scott Boras clients.  Anderson signed with the Braves last year on February 22, at a $9.5 million pay cut from his 2008 salary.  Shanks also has a pretty good article on why the Braves need to sign Damon.  Though I don't agree with him on all his points, his point #1 is enough for me: Damon makes the lineup significantly better.  I'm holding out hope.

So, like, there's less than nothing going on. I really would love it if the Braves got Johnny Damon -- because I really would love it if they kept Heyward on the farm for a couple more months, to get in his licks against pitchers with secondary pitches and keep his arbitration clock stopped. But I would be shocked if they did. It's February, which means their pennies are more or less counted, and Damon's already balked at 1 year, $6 million from the Yanks. I doubt that we'd be able to offer him much more than Garret Anderson money. His bat would look very nice in our lineup, provided that he doesn't remember how old he is, but I just don't believe we're gonna get him. (Apparently, we haven't spoken to Scott Boras about Damon in a month and a half, but those kind of rumors are about as unreliable as it gets, especially when Boras is involved.)

Sucks, though.

One piece of good news: it looks like the leader of the Pakistan Taliban is dead.

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In the last 24 hours, two more lists of top prospects have come out: MLB.com's Top 60 and Keith Law's Top 100. Both lists are largely scout-driven, though MLB.com's is basically the result of a poll and Law's is mostly based on his own eyes. Law also said that he tended to give weight to high-upside players, rather than lower-upside players who were nonetheless closer to the majors -- which is why Mike Minor was #58 on the MLB.com list and left off of Law's list entirely.

Still, there were a lot of similarities. Jason Heyward was #1 on both (and both posted video of his smooth, sweet swing). And they praised a lot of other Braves prospects as well. The Braves had four prospects listed on the MLB.com list, tied for most in baseball with the Indians, Rays, and Royals. They had five prospects on Law's list, tied for third-most in baseball with the Indians and Reds, and behind only the Red Sox and Rays. No matter how you look at it, a growing consensus of scouts agrees that the Braves system is one of the best in the big leagues, and by far one of the best in the NL.

The four Braves on the MLB.com list were #1 Jason Heyward, #34 Julio Teheran, #58 Mike Minor, and #59 Freddie Freeman. The five Braves on the Law list were #1 Jason Heyward, #43 Arodys Vizcaino, #63 Julio Teheran, #67 Freddie Freeman, and #85 Randall Dalgado. Christian Bethancourt was nowhere to be found on either list, but I'm guessing we'll see plenty of his name next year.

Just because I'm a glutton for praise, I've pasted what they wrote, below the jump...

Well, now we've gotten through the offense on our Braves All-Decade Second Team. There were some tough choices for offensive players, but more often than not that had to do with choosing the best from a group of subpar players. The pitching is different: same tough choices, but this time it's because there are many deserving players who pitched well for the Braves during the 2000s. Even this second team rotation is stocked with very good pitchers, unlike the offense (which features some decidedly unimpressive names).

#1: Mike Hampton (2003-05, 2008), 35-24 with a 4.10 ERA and 262 K's in 509 2/3 innings (4.6 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, 0.8 HR/9).

This could be a controversial selection, but I'm looking here at what Hampton did, not at what he didn't do. I don't fault him for his injury issues: I'd rather have him on the DL when hurt than trying to get by pitching less than 100%. I also don't fault him for the salaries that he was paid, since after all the Braves agreed in advance to pay that money. The money that I refer to is the eight-year, $121 million contract that he signed with Colorado in December 2000. The Braves pursued him as a free agent that winter, but couldn't match Colorado's offer as Hampton signed the richest contract ever for a pitcher. Two years into the deal, with Hampton floundering in Coors Field, the Rockies dealt him to Florida in a six-player deal in November '02. Florida, however, still stood well above its payroll limit after the deal, and dealt the 30-year-old Hampton to the Braves two days later for reliever Tim Spooneybarger and minor-leaguer Ryan Baker. The Fish agreed to eat $38 million of the remaining money owed to Hampton, and with a $20 million contribution from Colorado, the Braves were left with Hampton for six years and $48.5 million total.*

*Taken verbatim from Cot's Baseball Contracts, the final word on contract numbers: "Colorado to pay $49M... Florida to pay $23.5M... Atlanta to pay $48.5M ($2M of 2003 salary, $2M in 2004, $1.5M in 2005, $13.5M in 2006, $14.5M in 2007, $15M in 2008)." Hampton, of course, never played in Florida.

He rebounded under Leo Mazzone in 2003 and 2004, posting an ERAs of 3.84 and then 4.28, though minor hurts kept him from reaching the 200-inning plateau in either season. Then, twelve starts and a 3.50 ERA into the 2005 campaign, all hell broke loose. Hampton struggled with elbow pain beginning in June and was eventually shut down for good in mid-August. He went under the knife for Tommy John surgery in September and missed the 2006 season rehabbing. On track to rejoin the rotation for 2007, Hampton then tore his oblique muscle swinging a bat in spring training. He returned to the mound in April, but his elbow pain recurred, and doctors discovered a torn flexor tendon which required surgery and cost Hampton the 2007 season. Set once again to return for 2008, he strained his left pectoral muscle warming up for his first start, and was sidelined until July, when he finally pitched in a major-league game again. He'd make 13 starts the rest of the way; after two bad starts, he posted a 4.17 ERA in his last eleven.

Still, that line at the top is what gets him here. He employed his groundballing tendencies to win 35 games with a solid ERA. He gets excellent marks for being a good athlete and a great fielder, taking home a Gold Glove in 2003. He also handled the bat about as well as any pitcher in baseball: he's won five Silver Slugger Awards, including one with the Braves in 2003.

The rest of the rotation is below the jump...

Over at MLB Fanhouse, Frankie Piliere has a top 100 prospect ranking, one of many to come out this offseason. It's the same mix of names that you see everywhere, in slightly different places. But most of them tend to be pretty consistent at the top. Jason Heyward's been regarded as the consensus best prospect in baseball for a while now, with a few ranking Stephen Strasburg's golden arm just above him. Piliere's list is different, however: Heyward was ranked fourth, behind Strasburg, Michael Stanton, and Desmond Jennings, causing me to get my dander thoroughly up.

Michael Stanton and Jason Heyward are basically the same age: Stanton is 3 months younger, but both were born in the second half of the year, which means that they have the same baseball age each season. Heyward's career minor league SLG is .508, while Stanton's is .539; Heyward's OPS is .899, while Stanton's is .893. So far, fairly even. But Stanton's numbers are depressed by his disappointing .766 OPS in 341 PA last year at AA. On the other hand, during Heyward's 195 PA at AA last year, he had a 1.057 OPS.

Last year, Heyward hit 17 homers in just 99 games, while striking out and walking exactly 51 times each. Power and plate discipline in equal measure. Stanton had 28 homers in 129 games, but 59 walks against a whopping 144 strikeouts. That's one reason his career minor league batting average is .267, 51 points lower than Heyward's .318. Stanton is an athletic player, unlike many Three True Outcomes prototypes (Adam Dunn, Pat Burrell, Ryan Howard), but he has a serious, serious strikeout problem, and he'll struggle to keep his batting average over .250 in the major leagues if he can't fix the holes in his swing. He's a terrific athlete, and there's a decent chance he will, but right now there's no certainty.

On the other hand, everything that Jason Heyward has ever done in the minor leagues has added up to one certainty: he will hit. Calling Stanton a better prospect than Heyward, at this stage in their respective development, is crazy talk. Crazy, I tells ya!

There's no actual news to report (well, other than Peter Moylan's $1.15 contract from last week), so I thought I'd point your way toward our old friend Peter Hjort's Braves depth chart over at Capital Avenue Club. It's an interesting roster that Frank's built us, with potential platoons in 1B and LF and Chipper's standard effective platoon at 3B.

Eric Hinske is basically a platoon player anyway: since he bats lefty even though he throws righty, for his career he's OPS'ed .804 against RHP and only .666 against LHP. Then again, that doesn't help us much, because while Glaus has a platoon split, it's not one that Hinske can really address: Glaus, a righty, has a career .957 OPS against lefties but still an .822 OPS against righties. So the only reason to use Hinske over Glaus is to protect the health of a guy who's only played 280 games the last 3 years. That will also keep him fresh to back up Chipper when he inevitably gets dinged up over the summer. I'm not a big Hinske fan, but he can be useful if he's utilized sparingly.

Matt Diaz will probably be the regular (or mostly regular) left fielder, but Melky Cabrera will likely be given a certain number of defensive innings anyway. If Heyward opens up the season on the farm -- as Tom and I hope -- then Melky could see a few more starts in right. I don't really expect Heyward to be significantly better in 2010, and certainly not in the first half of 2010, than Melky Cabrera.

Why do I think that Melky and Heyward will be about the same? Justin Upton. In 2007, at the age of 19, Justin Upton posted a .961 OPS (.319/.410/.551) in A+ and AA, and was promoted to the majors. Last year, at the age of 19, Jason Heyward posted a virtually identical .963 OPS (.323/.408/.555) in A+ and AA, and was given 3 games in AAA rather than a late promotion to the majors. In his first 151 games in the big leagues, over the 2007 and 2008 seasons, when he was 19 and 20, Justin Upton batted .242/.334/.435. Considering that Upton's minor league track record was very similar to Heyward's, I don't think this level production is completely unlikely. Remember, last year, in 154 games, Melky batted .274/.336/.416 -- almost the same as Upton's line. I'd rather see him getting at-bats in right field the first two months of the season than Heyward. In this league, penny-pinching is no crime.