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“He reminds me of Steve Avery,” the leathery-skinned, 60-ish scout said in a gruff voice, comparing him to a lefty who won 18 games in his first full season for Atlanta in 1991. Avery was 21 at that time, Gilmartin 1.

Avery also went 18-6 with a 2.94 ERA in 1993, the last great year in a career diminished prematurely by injuries.

Told that Gilmartin had patterned himself as a youngster after another former Braves lefty, Tom Glavine, and that Glavine was the comparison made after Gilmartin was selection by the Braves with the 28th pick of the draft, the scout didn’t waver.

“Glavine maybe, the way both are upright [in their delivery],” he replied. “But Avery’s the guy he reminds me of stuff-wise. Glavine finished his pitches better than this guy. Steve Avery, that’s all I can tell you.”

Being compared to Avery? Gilmartin humbly accepted the compliment, as he had comparisons to Glavine, a 300-game winner. Article

Another fantastic pitching product in the Braves organization. Yawn.

Will enjoy watching him come up through the Minors and see how he steadily progresses.

haha man does Wren have a nack for getting great young pitching prospects. Well done Mr. GM

ATL Boy wrote:haha man does Wren have a nack for getting great young pitching prospects. Well done Mr. GM

Indeed he does. Now, he just needs to make sure he acquires value for the ones that he intends on trading.

Avery threw 95 and sometimes reached 98 (playoffs against PITT, for example) and had a great curve.
Glavine threw 89-90 with a great changeup.

When we drafted Gilmartin, they said he threw 88-91 with a good curve against lefties and a great change.

Is this scout saying Gilmartin has gained 5-7 mph on his fastball? Not to be a killjoy, but that sounds too good to be true.

parson wrote:Avery threw 95 and sometimes reached 98 (playoffs against PITT, for example) and had a great curve.
Glavine threw 89-90 with a great changeup.

When we drafted Gilmartin, they said he threw 88-91 with a good curve against lefties and a great change.

Is this scout saying Gilmartin has gained 5-7 mph on his fastball? Not to be a killjoy, but that sounds too good to be true.

I highly doubt he gained 5-7 mph. That's interesting.

Plenty of talent on horizon in Braves' system

That should give young catcher Christian Bethancourt all the time he needs to develop in the Minor Leagues.

And Bethancourt, who just turned 20 years old in September, isn't in a rush. The youngster split time between Class A Rome and Class A Lynchburg and wrapped up his season with a tour of the Arizona Fall League, where he was able to compete against upper-level pitchers.

"Let me tell you something: When you sign a contract to become a professional baseball player, you are automatically a professional, but there are still a lot of things you have to learn," he said. "I'm learning that here. There are some Double-A guys, some Triple-A guys and some that have played in the Major Leagues. It's been a great experience for a person like me, who was at Class A."

Bethancourt has never walked more than 20 times in a season, and most of his extra-base power manifests in doubles at this early stage of his career. The Panama native threw out 47 percent of attempted basestealers for Class A Lynchburg, the best rate of his career.

"I'm learning about the consistency of the game," he said. "Some days are up and some days are down, but I'm learning about the responsibility that comes with this job, the focus that it takes. Maybe these are not the things people notice in the stands, but they are really important." http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/news/arti ... l&c_id=atl

Promising prospects invited to spring camp

Terdoslavich, Gilmartin among players to showcase skills
Joe Terdoslavich and Sean Gilmartin introduced themselves to many Braves fans in impressive fashion last summer. Now these two promising prospects will have a chance to introduce themselves to Chipper Jones and some of the Major Leaguers they followed during their youth.

Terdoslavich and Gilmartin are among the non-roster players who have been invited to participate in Atlanta's Major League camp when Spring Training begins next month. Christian Bethancourt, Andrelton Simmons, Todd Cunningham and Zeke Spruill are among the other notable non-roster prospects who have been invited to big league camp. http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/news/arti ... l&c_id=atl

This just puts a smile on my face, the Braves are loaded with prospects, if Gilmarth proves himself we'll have what 8 starting calabar pitchers for the future (this includes Hanson, Beachy, and Medlen) and we also have some great position player prospects. Hats off to Frank Wren for his impressive work to get these prospects here, he's really geared the Braves up for an exciting future.

ATL Boy wrote:This just puts a smile on my face, the Braves are loaded with prospects, if Gilmarth proves himself we'll have what 8 starting calabar pitchers for the future (this includes Hanson, Beachy, and Medlen) and we also have some great position player prospects. Hats off to Frank Wren for his impressive work to get these prospects here, he's really geared the Braves up for an exciting future.

I think Gilmartin makes Minor expandable in a few yrs, Gilmartin has a higher upside.

Braves have more shortstop prospects after Pastornicky

The Braves built so much minor league depth at shortstop that by last fall they moved a couple of prospects to new positions.

Edward Salcedo, 20, a prized international signee two years ago, moved from shortstop to third base at Class-A Rome, and 2010 first-round draft pick Matt Lipka switched from shortstop to center field last fall at the instructional league in Florida.

Lipka will play center field this year, likely at high-A Lynchburg. The Braves were pleased with how he took to center field and believe his speed and athleticism are well-suited for the position. He also worked extensively on his leadoff skills in the fall.

Moving Salcedo and Lipka still left four minor league shortstops whom the Braves consider promising: Tyler Pastornicky, penciled in for the major league job; top prospect Andrelton Simmons; and youngsters Nick Ahmed and Elmer Reyes.

Simmons, 22, is one of the top shortstop prospects in baseball and was rated the Braves’ No. 4 overall prospect by Baseball America after a 2011 season in which he hit .311 with a .351 on-base percentage at Lynchburg, winning the Carolina League batting title by 21 points in his first full minor league season. http://www.ajc.com/sports/braves-have-m ... 20388.html

Braves like their organizational catching depth

Christian Bethancourt has earned the attention he has garnered from multiple media outlets, including MLB.com, which ranks him as the game's seventh-best catching prospect.

But as the first two days of Spring Training have passed, Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez has learned Bethancourt is not the organization's only impressive catching prospect. Evan Gattis has also drawn some attention during batting practice by providing a glimpse of the power he displayed while dominating Class A South Atlantic League pitching last year.

"I was telling [roving catching instructor] Joe Breeden, 'Man, we've finally got some guys that look like catchers,'" Gonzalez said. "Gattis looks like a monster. Bethancourt looks like he could put some weight on him."

While the 6-foot-3, 205-pound Bethancourt has an athletic frame that could comfortably carry an additional 20 pounds of muscle, the 6-foot-4, 235-pound Gattis already provides the appearance of an NFL fullback. He also seems to possess a fullback's mindset, as he hits without batting gloves.

Already 25 years old, Gattis is not going to gain highly-regarded-prospect status. But after winning the SAL batting title with a .322 batting average and belting 22 homers in just 88 games for Rome last year, he at least provided the Braves a little more reason to feel good about the catching depth in their organization. http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/news/arti ... l&c_id=atl

Here is the title and article since the article is so long.

Braves slugger Gattis has a story. Man, does he ever

http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-braves-blo ... raves_blog

Braves trade Minor league Pitcher JJ Hoover to the Reds for 3b Juan Francisco.


http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/news/arti ... l&c_id=atl

How is Teheran doing? Okay, I guess.

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.js ... pid=527054

Kris Medlen's line for Triple-A Gwinnett Braves tonight: 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, O BB, 4 K, 58 pitches (40 strikes)

Nemesis21 wrote:Kris Medlen's line for Triple-A Gwinnett Braves tonight: 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, O BB, 4 K, 58 pitches (40 strikes)

IDK why we opted him down, we need him in the rotation

ATL Boy wrote:

Nemesis21 wrote:Kris Medlen's line for Triple-A Gwinnett Braves tonight: 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, O BB, 4 K, 58 pitches (40 strikes)

IDK why we opted him down, we need him in the rotation

That was his stat line before he got called back up a few weeks ago. He is still with the Major League club.

2011 Braves first rd draft pick LHP Sean Gilmartin has been promoted to AAA Gwinnett,

http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-braves-blo ... -gwinnett/


He was 5-8 with a 3.54 ERA in 20 starts for Double-A Mississippi. He limited batters to a .248 average, walked only 26 in 119 1/3 innings and struck out 86.