Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: Players of the Year

Mississippi Braves Manager Aaron Holbert, seen with coach John Moses. August 2014. Photo credit Alan Carpenter, TomahawkTake.com

Atlanta Braves Announce Organizational Players of the Year

FROM ATLANTA BRAVES PRESS RELEASE

DOMINICAN SUMMER LEAGUE BRAVES

• PITCHER:  RHP Ramon Taveras.  3.15 ERA in 34 innings, 7 saves, 23 appearances.
• PLAYER:   OF Randy Ventura.  Hit .329 in 231 AB, scoring 61 runs and driving in 25.  OBP .421.  The big number:  55 stolen bases – most in the entire DSL by twenty.

GULF COAST LEAGUE BRAVES

• PITCHER:  RHP Evertz Orozco.  5-2, 2.33 ERA in 27 innings, 3 saves.  Graduated to the ‘mainland’ this season after spending the past 2 years in the DSL.
• PLAYER:  C Jonathan Morales.  25th round draft pick last June, hit .304 with 41 hits, 7 HR, 22 RBI (second on team in all of those numbers).  Hit 14 for 22 in the last 6 contests.

DANVILLE BRAVES

• PITCHER: RHP Ryan Clark.  The 5th round pick in June went 6-1 with a 3.08 in 13 games (7 starts).  That tied for 2nd in the Appy League for wins.  .221 oppo batting average.
• PLAYER:  3B Austin Riley.  Austin had to be listed here somewhere.  He was the final (of 3) 1st round picks this Summer and quickly moved to Danville after torching GCL pitching.  At Danville, hit .351 with 5 homers and a 1.028 OPS over just 30 games.  He hit 12 homers in 60 games overall if you include the GCL stint.

ROME BRAVES

• PITCHER:  RHP Sean Furney.  On March 21st, there’s a one-liner in the Braves’ transaction “Arizona Diamondbacks traded RHP Sean Furney to Atlanta Braves for cash.”  Apparently the Braves know what they’re doing.  Furney threw a 3.03 ERA with 14 starts/21 appearances/113 innings at Rome.  Also saw 6 games with Carolina and had a 3.76 ERA overall.
• PLAYER:  SS Ozhaino Albies.  Well, duh.  122 hits, 98 games, batting .310 and scoring 64 times.  Made the All-Star team and the ‘World’ Futures team.  ‘Just’ 29 stolen bases this year.

CAROLINA MUDCATS

• PITCHER:  RHP Brandon Barker.  Most wins of any Braves pitcher at any level (at least so far) with 12.  3.25 ERA across three levels – Rome, Carolina and Gwinnett.
• PLAYER:  OF Connor Lien.  2nd in the Carolina League with 34 steals.  Was Top 5 in the league with 129 hits and 72 runs scored.  Oh – also hit .285 with 5 triples and 9 homers.

MISSISSIPPI BRAVES

• PITCHER:  RHP Victor Mateo.  10-9 with a 3.41 ERA at the AA and AAA levels…. 2.68 ERA at Mississippi in 107 innings.  Made 27 appearances (25 starts) for the season.
• PLAYER:  INF Emerson Landoni.  7th in the Southern League with a .297 hitting average – 122 hits in 118 games.  23 doubles, 53 runs.

GWINNETT BRAVES

• PITCHER:  LHP Manny Banuelos.  While with Gwinnett, ManBan threw to a 2.23 ERA in 16 starts, making the All-Star team.  Was also solid at the major league level, though a bone spur cost him some stats – hopefully that’s the extent of his current elbow pain… still awaiting word on that.
• PLAYER:  3B/OF Adonis Garcia.  Honestly, Garcia was better in the majors as he has this uncanny ability to hit timely opposite field homers… something that really didn’t happen a lot at AAA.  Still, he hit .284 in AAA over 87 games with a pair of 10 game hit streaks.

Organizational Players of the Year

• RHP Tyrell Jenkins.  3.19 ERA between Pearl and Gwinnett.  Made the Southern League All-Star team and saw 25 starts with three complete games.  88 strikeouts in 138 total innings.
• CF Mallex Smith.  Also split time between AA and AAA, getting increasingly comfortable with AAA pitching as the year went on.  Overall hit .306/.373/.386/.760 with 57 stolen bases and 51 walks in 484 ABs.  Made just 6 errors in the outfield.

I don’t even want to know the details of that, but congratulations on some really fine seasons by all of these players!

Next: No State Money? Bet Me!

Cobb County Graphic – public record of latest pedestrian bridge design and route.

There’s more than one way for Cobb to get Braves stadium money from the state

JAMES SALZER / AJC INVESTIGATIONS BLOG

Cobb County may have struck out in its efforts to secure state funding from the Department of Transportation for a bridge to carry pedestrians and a shuttle bus to the new Atlanta Braves’ stadium, but history shows us that county officials have other ways to get state taxpayers to chip in.

And they only have to look to the co-founders of Home Depot for an example.

The parking deck project, estimated to cost $3.5 million, is needed to make the deck stronger before shuttles can drive across the platform and access the bridge, which county officials say will cost $9 million.

While GDOT provided $42 million in grants to the county the DOT balked at the two projects most directly related to the Braves’ new stadium.

It is unclear from where the money will come to pay for the projects — and Cobb County officials wouldn’t discuss the possibilities with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Cobb watchdog Dan Klepal.

But the DOT’s refusal doesn’t necessarily end the discussion. Cobb County officials could appeal directly to Gov. Nathan Deal and their local legislators for help. Not saying that will happen, but that has long proven a successful path to get state money for projects throughout metro Atlanta.

Lawmakers routinely approve sales tax breaks for construction projects, from amphitheaters in the northern suburbs to zoo improvements in Atlanta.

Lawmakers have at least twice given sales tax breaks to Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus’ downtown aquarium: once for the original construction and another time for an expansion.

[ Ed. note:  more about sneaky financing – for the Falcons – is in this report… see the link above.  Don’t be surprised if a little here and a little there gets chipped in to build that new bridge.  ]