Award Watch 2017: Do any Atlanta Braves have a shot at major awards?
By Scott Ferris
From players to management to the fans, everyone in Braves country seems hopeful for the upcoming season. Who has a chance to add to their trophy case in 2017?
Despite their abysmal record, the Atlanta Braves did manage to take home some hardware last year.
Ender Inciarte secured his first career Gold Glove Award. Freddie Freeman won three (3!) NL Player of the Weeks and one NL Player of the Month Award. Jim Johnson also took home one NL Player of the Week.
It could be argued that Freeman also deserved the NL first base Silver Slugger Award but the selection of Anthony Rizzo was a defensible one… well, maybe.
Every team is guaranteed at least one All-Star selection so it’s hard to get too excited about Julio Teheran’s second trip to the midsummer classic but he’ll certainly remember it.
If you include the minors, the number of accolades climbs even higher. Notably, Ozzie Albies won a batting title and Dansby Swanson earned two All-Star selections (Southern League and Futures Game). That’s not to mention the entire Rome Braves team winning Baseball America’s Minor League Team of the Year.
Also, a gaggle of minor league players won player of the week honors in their respective leagues:
| Max Povse | Carolina |
| Joey Meneses | Carolina |
| Enderson Franco | Carolina |
| Kolby Allard | Appalachian |
| Dustin Peterson (x2) | Southern |
| Ozzie Albies | Southern |
| Carlos Franco | Southern |
| Jed Bradley | Southern |
| Sean Newcomb | Southern |
| Aaron Blair | International |
| Williams Perez | International |
Today, we’re going to take a look at players in the Atlanta organization with a chance to take home major awards in 2017.
Note: It’s more or less impossible to predict Player of the Week candidates (as noted above, the closer of a last place team won it last year). These will just look at the end of year awards.