Braves-Giants Preview, 6/16/13

Kennesaw, GA- Julien B.

Braves (40-28, 5.5 GU, NL East) vs. Giants (35-32, 1.5 GB NL West), 8:05pm EDT; ESPN

Good morning, Happy Father's Day to all the great dads across this great nation. It's a great day for baseball in Atlanta, and the Braves will try to make all of us happy by winning tonight's game and the series vs. the San Francisco Giants. The match-up is Tim Lincecum (13 GS, 76 IP, 4.70 ERA, 3.75 FIP, 3.55 xFIP, 0.7 WAR) vs Julio Teheran (12 GS, 77 IP, 3.62 ERA, 4.06 FIP, 3.91 xFIP, 0.8 WAR).

Lineups- Braves: Atlanta Braves ‏@Braves

now

Tonight's lineup vs. SF (8:05, ESPN/680AM/BRN): Simmons 6 Heyward 9 JUpton 7 Freeman 3 BUpton 8 McCann 2 CJohnson 5 Pena 4 Teheran 1

From the lineup hitters- Simmons has never faced the FreaK; JHey 4-15, w/ a 2B and 5 BB, 6 Ks; Justin 11-47 w/ 4 2B and 1 3B, 4 BB, 17 Ks; Freeman 0-11, 1 BB, 2 Ks; Melvin is 0-2 w/ 1 BB, 1 K; Mac 11-33, w/ 5 2B, 1 HR, 3 BB, 11 Ks; CJ 2-6 w/ 1 K; Ramiro Da Gawd 1-3; Teheran has never faced him

On the bench- Uggla 0-13 with 2 BB, 6 Ks; Reed, 1-11 w/ 1 2B, 5 Ks; Schaf 3-9, 3 Ks

Giants: San Francisco Giants ‏@SFGiants

3h

Tonight's (6/16) #sfgiants lineup - Blanco CF, Crawford SS, Posey C, Pence RF, Belt 1B, Torres LF, Arias 3B, Noonan 2B and Lincecum RHP

No Giants hitters have faced Teheran enough times for the stats to matter

Pitching Comparison-

Lincecum- Lincecum has had a rough year. He had a decent April, but got completely torn apart in May, to the tune of a 6.37 ERA. His 2 starts for June have been good (11.2 IP, 2.31 ERA), but that was versus the Blue Jays and Pirates; not exactly teams that have firepower like the Braves. He still gets his strikeouts, even despite a drop in velocity. He is, however, more apt to allow walks, so a patient approach from the Braves tonight would be nice to see. Right-handed batters have fared better against Lincecum than lefties this year, by about 100 points in OPS. Tonight would be a good night to see Gattis or Chris Johnson get a start over guys like, say, Pena or McCann.

Teheran- Teheran was the focus of much hype the past few seasons; he was also the cause of major concern last year as he got dominated by AAA hitters. He has laid much of these fears to rest however, and is now looking like the guy that he was projected to be. His K% needs to rise, but he's not doing too bad right now; the strikeouts will come. What he is doing is limiting walks (4.7%), and this is allowing him to work through many innings without surrendering runs. Until his start in San Diego, Teheran had put together 8 straight starts during which his cumulative ERA was 2.13. He threw 69% of his pitches for strikes (yes!) and had a K for about every 4 outs. He's getting ground balls (44% GB) and a fair number of fly balls as well. If he keeps this up, he'll be a very good starter both tonight, and for the rest of the season.

Braves Top 25 Prospects

6/15/13, Kennesaw, GA- Julien Benjamin

After the draft last week, I'm feeling in the mood to write up a list of our top prospects. Included are some details on the top 5 prospects. I'm not a guru like Mr. Purser or Mr. Hipp (From TC/Twitter), so my info is a bit more limited. For most of the prospects listed (the ones who have played minor league ball), I have included links to their fangraphs pages so that you can see their stats. This is a working issue, so I will likely be updating this soon. Anyways, do enjoy.

1.Alex Wood


The 22 year old starter was drafted last year out of Georgia. He went on to post a 2.22 ERA (2.58 FIP) at Rome over 52+ innings (13 starts), while striking out nearly 25% of his batters.  He continued the good work at AA Mississippi this year, posting an even better 1.26 ERA (2.27 FIP). Since being called up, he hasn't been used much (5.2 innings in 13 days), but has shown flashes of his brilliance. A solid fastball/change and an improving curveball can one day make him a dangerous starter, with #1-2 potential. ETA: Now

2. Christhian Bethancourt- Solid defensive catcher, still struggling to hit well in games. Many questions remain about his power and contact ability. At best, he becomes a solid, 1st division starter, that averages .250/.310/.400. At worst, he becomes a defensive backup catcher, albeit a very good one. ETA: Not before mid 2014

3. JR Graham- Graham was drafted in 2011, and since then has taken great strides to securing a big league job with the team. He's currently battling shoulder issues, but is expected to bounce back from them and possibly make an impact for the team as soon as this year if he gets healthy. He has a plus plus fastball that he works 94+, reaching 100 in short bursts; if used as a reliever, I'm sure that he would work 96-98 regularly. His slider is his 2nd best pitch, and it is a damned good one. Not much projectability left, needs to control it a little better vs. LHB, but he's doing well here. His only problem is the changeup. It's useable, but tends to stay up in the zone. ETA: 2014

4. Jason Hursh- The Braves 1st round pick of the 2013 draft has a very good ceiling. His fastball is his best pitch, but his slider is very useable and projectable. His changeup needs work, but if he can develop it, he has the potential of a #2-3 starter. If he ends up being just a fastball/slider pitcher, he can be a late inning bullpen anchor. ETA: 2015

5. Lucas Sims- The Braves 1st round pick from the 2012 draft has had success in the past year since being drafted. He has a 3.32 ERA (and a good FIP) along w/ a very nice K rate. He has struggled a bit with control, but for a 19 year old at Rome, he is progressing very well. I expect him to finish out this year at Rome, then be moved up to Mississippi next season. ETA: 2016


6. Joe Terdoslavich
7. Cody Martin
8. Mauricio Cabrera
9.Tommy LaStella
10. Edward Salcedo
11. Victor Caratini
12. Carlos Salazar
13. Jose Peraza
14. Sean Gilmartin
15. Aaron Northcraft
16. David Hale
17. Phillip Gosselin
18. Luis Merejo
19. Bryan de la Rosa
20. Matt Lipka
21. Todd Cunningham
22. Kyle Kubitza
23. Josh Elander
24. Ian Thomas
25. Robby Hefflinger