Catcher’s Blog

I would just like to say that I started writing this article about two weeks ago, I didn’t want to rush finishing it just to get it posted. I also had other things to worry about than to work on this article, but I finally found time to finish it between working on schoolwork. Also, this article was started before all of the Jake Peavy rumors surfaced, so this article does not mention any of that at all.
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There’s a (somewhat) newly written article that was posted on the Braves official site a few weeks ago about Prado possibly becoming an everyday player, with other people, such as Chipper Jones, backing the idea as well. I believe that Prado could possibly be a useful player if he played more, but I’m not sure that he would be as valuable as he currently is if he did play at one position on an everyday basis. While I do favor KJ over Prado, this perception of mine isn’t based on favoritism. This is just my opinion, do with it what you will. Below I will review each of the players’ positives and negatives and compare the two of them with each other.

I understand completely that KJ could be a solid foundation in a trade package for quality pitching for next season and beyond. I know that we really do need and could really use good and lots of good pitching, but while KJ isn’t a natural second baseman, he is proving that he could possibly be one of the better hitting second baseman in the game. Even if he does end up with another team in 2009, he’ll be providing that team with a lot of upside.

KJ’s Positives & Negatives:

• Being selective is one of KJ’s many positives, but sometimes his downfall is being too selective when at bat. Being too patient led to his strikeouts adding up during the season (coming out at 113), until he started becoming somewhat “more aggressive” at the plate. KJ has a total of 305 SO in two and half seasons, but he does have 171 walks. Below are comparisons to a few of his current teammates.
  

  Jeff Francoeur - 430 SO/115 BB
  Yunel Escobar - 160 SO/68 BB (with 154 games, 525 AB less)
  Brian McCann - 218 SO/151 BB

• KJ is projected to be a power hitter and projected to hit around 20+ homers per season, but has yet to reach that feat in his young career. In ‘07, he hit 16 homers, but in ‘08 his HR total dropped to 12. Hopefully he’ll get better in this department as he gains more experience.
• Another asset that KJ has on his side is decent speed. In two and half seasons, he’s stolen a total of 22 bases. He’s not going to steal a lot of bases, but stealing bases isn’t always everything. KJ is more of a power guy than a speed guy anyway. His speed on the base paths, though, is where he comes in handy, especially scoring from first.
• KJ could probably be one of the better all around 2B in the league if he worked on his defense, which he’s supposedly doing this off season (after he gets back from Italy, of course). Over the past two seasons, KJ has a fielding percentage at 2B of .979. Now really that’s not that great, but hopefully he can improve that number as he gets more experience at the position. KJ did make a lot less errors toward the end of the season, when he was on his monster tear at the plate in September. I don’t think that he’ll ever be gold-glove caliber, though you never can tell, but hopefully he’ll become somewhat decent-to-average over the course of his career, if he stays at 2B.
• KJ makes it no secret that he can be his own worst enemy at times; he wants to succeed so much that he puts pressure on himself and has to do well. He’s stated that he started to relax a bit toward the latter months of the season, plus mixed a bit of “aggression” into his swing and it seemed to work for him. KJ can think too much and when he does, it becomes a bad thing, usually resulting in striking out, sometimes in key situations.
• One of KJ’s other major downfalls is that he can be an extremely streaky hitter. It’s like he stated previously, he had two great months and four mediocre ones. When he finds his groove at the plate, which hopefully he’s slowly getting a grasp of, he’ll become more consistent with more experience. This is, after all, only his second season playing a long, 162-game season.
• Being an arbitration-eligible player for the first time, KJ could see his salary raise to around $2 million or more. This makes some people feel that the Braves are looking to trade him to let the cheaper Prado take over. I do not think that is the case, though, as the Braves decided to keep Matt Diaz last year when he was somewhat expendable with the amount of outfielders that could have been used this past season in his place, for example. KJ will still be a lot cheaper and more of a bargain than most of the other 2B around the NL.
• KJ did beat out Prado, and other candidates as well, for the 2B job before the 2007 season and he could do so again if having to compete for it. I’m not sure that he will have to, though, if he’s not traded.

Now moving on to Prado. I watched nearly every game this past season and when Prado played, he didn’t really impress me too much defensively; his offense, on the other hand, was a lot better, especially after he came back from injury and was filling in for regulars.

The 2008 season was his first full season on the Braves roster, and he did miss some time due to a thumb injury from sliding head-first into 1B, but he did manage to play a total of 78 games. It’s a small sample size to compare to KJ because Prado only played 17 games at 2B this past season, while KJ played a total of 144 games. Prado played more games at 3B (24), playing for Chipper when he was out of the lineup for whatever reason. Prado also filled in at 1B for 17 games for Casey Kotchman when he was with his ailing mother. But since Prado did end up with a .320 BA and can be used as a super utility player, he too, could find himself playing for another team in 2009.

Prado’s Positives & Negatives:

• Prado’s BA has climbed over the past three years as he’s become a more permanent fixture on the Braves 25-man roster, more or less outgrowing the minors and making a small name for himself to become a major utility guy. It’s a small sample size to try to figure out if Prado’s average will continue to stay around .320, or even .300 for that matter, or if it will be in the mid-to-upper .200’s.
• So far, he’s played several different positions, ranging from 1B to LF, which brings me to my next point. Prado can play just about any position on the field, with a few exceptions, of course. Bobby put Prado wherever there was an empty spot on the field just about to have his bat in the lineup, especially toward the end of the season, which proved his versatility when someone had to be out for whatever reason.
• Prado doesn’t have a lot of power, but he will hit balls into gaps and to the warning track to net him a good bit of doubles and a few triples. He might hit a few homers here and there, but he probably won’t hit more than five+ in a season.
• Prado gets on base well, having a .377 OBP in ‘08, which averages out to .363 over three seasons. He’ll walk at a good rate, but he also will have his strikeouts as well.
• His defense isn’t the best in the world. All fans have seen that Prado probably won’t ever be a Gold Glove winner, as I’ve mentioned previously for KJ as well, but I would say, even though they both are not very good at defense, KJ probably has the upper hand on Prado at 2B. Prado’s fielding percentage came out at .967 in ‘08, but his overall fielding percentage at 2B is .962 with 14 errors. KJ and Prado are pretty close defensively at 2B, and both are not that great at it.
• Prado isn’t that fast when it comes to stealing bases, he’s stolen a total of three while being in the majors, but he runs somewhat decent on the base paths. He may or may not score from first on a decent hit; it depends on where the ball is hit, the ballpark and its field conditions, etc. to determine this. He is relatively average with speed, but isn’t the fastest guy on the team.
• Prado will be making a lot less than KJ will in 2009, so the question is, will the Braves want to take on his cheaper salary instead of keeping KJ with his arbitration eligibility? It’s a thought, but I don’t believe they will trade KJ just to have the cheaper salary in Prado at 2B for the next few seasons.

In conclusion, it is clear that one of either KJ or Prado will be playing 2B in 2009. The question is, who will it be? If Prado continues to hit like he did toward the end of season, he may just prove to be the man for an everyday job somewhere. But where? Well, that’s up to certain circumstances (if KJ is traded or not) and up to Bobby Cox. I do believe that if KJ is still a Brave next season, he will keep his 2B job without question. KJ is the better of the two players overall, maybe not by a lot, but he is, at least in my opinion.

Somewhere in the early hours of Thursday morning, October 23rd, the host will be upgrading its servers for about an hour at a time. This means that Catcher’s Blog and anything associated with it will not be accessible during that time. I’m not sure exactly when the site will be down, but the e-mail I received said between the hours of 12 am to 6 am of Thursday, the 23rd. This probably won’t effect many visitors, but in case you might happen to try to access the site during those hours on the 23rd and the site is down, then that is why. This is just a heads up for everyone. Everything should be back to normal after the upgrading process is completed.

I’ve been following the Jake Peavy rumors all week since they broke and I haven’t really posted anything about them on here. The main reason is because right now they’re just speculation and who knows what might happen with this situation. Everyone is saying that the Braves are indeed the front runners in this, but who knows what other teams have to offer? I’m sure there will be plenty more of this topic mentioned within the coming weeks, as the trade could be completed with the right offer most anytime now, or so the rumors say.

I was sent an e-mail from the host of Baseball Daily Digest, Eric SanInocencio. He mentions that FOX Sports Writer, Ken Rosenthal, was on the show today to discuss the whole Jake Peavy situation and what could possibly go down within the next few weeks. Rosenthal believes, as does many other writers, that the Braves are the front runners for Peavy’s services. Rosenthal talks a good bit about Peavy and possible scenarios. Check out the show.

In other news, I’m still working on a write-up that will hopefully be done soon. Be on the lookout for that post.

Last off season, I did a series on the Braves’ roster and what our options at each position were before the season started. This year I’m thinking about doing the same thing, only not quite to the same extent because it took way too long to do last time. I won’t start this probably until January or around there, but there’s a fanpost on TalkingChop about where we stand so far. It’s pretty detailed payroll-wise and it’s sorted pretty well by each facet of the team, so have a look if you wish. It’s a very nice read and a good reference as well.

Another off season-speculation read is on MLBTR, which is an abbreviated version of the newly-posted Braves Mailbag, and discusses options for the Braves “big bat” on the off season checklist for next season. If you wish to read the whole Braves Mailbag on the official site, feel free to do so here. MLBTR throws out a few names mentioned by Braves beat writer, Mark Bowman, in which the Braves might be seeking services from. My take on this is that the Braves do not want to overpay an outfielder just to play here for a year or so and are looking to trade for the power-hitting outfielder that they need to bolster the lineup in 2009 without having to fork over a lot of money while doing so. Who will it be? I would say an Adam Dunn-type player or around that equivalent; someone who’s not too old and isn’t declining and someone who hits for power with consistency. Mark Bowman named, specifically, Xavier Nady that would probably be the better option. We’ll have to see, though. Still a while to go before the season starts and even a few weeks before teams even start gearing up for the Hot Stove League.

DOB’s latest blog addresses the upcoming off season needs as well. He mentions a few names as well that the Braves might have some interest in or might even take a look at at the very least, some of which are not mentioned in the Mailbag, but are definitely worth a look or two.

I saw a few sites doing this and thought I’d try it out. Here is what comes from catchersblog.com from the site Wordle: