This blog has moved! Yes, already!
As of Thursday, Feb. 12, this little blog has relocated to a new home on AJC.com. It’s the same newspaper, the same Web site and the same writer (feel free to groan) — there’s just a new URL.
New features: Bigger type, more graphics, comments that load 10 times faster and a larger and more recent photo that makes me look pretty doggone old. I think you’ll like it (the blog, not the photo). But I am, as we know too well, often wrong.
Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2009 > January > 26
Monday, January 26, 2009
Bradley’s Buzz: The Braves, the NFL draft and … Junior Samples?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The future is … not now, but soon
Pitchers and catchers report to Lake Buena Vista on Valentine’s Day, and the young Braves pitcher to watch, according to Keith Law of Scouts Inc., is Tommy Hanson. Law rates Hanson the ninth-best prospect in all of baseball, which beats the heck out of being rated the 109th-best. But that doesn’t make Hanson the hottest guy in his own organization.
That would be outfielder Jason Heyward, whom Law considers the No. 3 prospect overall and the best up-and-coming corner outfielder. Writing for Baseball America, Bill Ballew regards Heyward as the Braves’ No. 2 prospect behind Hanson, but it’s noteworthy that, in the print edition of Baseball America, Heyward is now projected as the Braves’ starting right fielder in 2012, a year in which Jeff Francoeur turns the ripe old age of 28.
And what, you’re asking, happened to the heralded Jordan Schafer? He doesn’t crack Law’s list of the top 25 prospects — he shows up at No. 8 among all minor-league center fielders — and he has been downgraded to No. 3 among Braves on Ballew’s list. (Schafer was No. 1 a year ago.)
But that demotion might be due to the Braves’ strength as a farm system. Law rates Atlanta the fourth-best organization in the majors, which beats the heck out of being the 24th-best. He also gives high marks to scouting director Roy Clark, who obviously knows a lot about farms having sat out in the cornfield with Buck Owens on “Hee Haw” all those years.
Yes, yes. That was a different Roy Clark. I just made a dumb joke. I consider myself a latter-day Junior Samples. And did you know Mr. Samples was born and is buried in Cumming? I didn’t until I Googled his bio.
Speaking of which … here’s my favorite Junior Samples joke, arising from the aforementioned cornfield.
“Hee Haw” choruses: “Hey, Junior! What’s a grudge?”
Junior: “That’s somethin’ my pa keeps his car in.”
Back to sports, and more mock drafts!
A frequent contributor to the Buzz festivities, Don Banks of SI.com projects Matthew Stafford as the No. 3 pick in the April draft. Banks also guesses the Falcons will take Peria Jerry, a defensive tackle from Ole Miss, in Round 1, and that Knowshon Moreno will still be available when the Falcons exercise the draft’s 24th pick. Which isn’t, I feel sure, what Moreno had in mind.
And what, you’re asking, about the Junior Samples of ESPN — Mel Kiper Jr.? Well, ol’ Mel has Stafford going No. 1 and Moreno going 16th, and I don’t know what he foresees the Falcons doing because the Worldwide Leader only offers the first half of Kiper’s mock for free. And I bear an inherent garage — er, grudge — against any site that makes you pay.
Checking out Mel’s Big Board — no charge! — you’ll note that Stafford is rated the fourth-best overall prospect. Moreno is No. 15, and Jerry is 23rd.
This just in! Waddell on the hot seat!
In his second-half NHL predictions, Allan Muir of SI.com opines that the Thrashers will fire general manager Don Waddell. Me, I believe the NHL will fold before the Teflon Don gets dislodged. The man mightn’t be the keenest judge of talent, but he’s world-class at keeping his job.
Midterm exams for your Atlanta Hawks
On FoxSports.com, Charley Rosen awards the local NBA team a B for its first-half work but suggests it “still can’t play with the big boys.” On SI.com, former colleague Steve Aschburner gives the Hawks a B-plus, and in a roundtable discussion he calls the Hawks the team most likely to do as the Arizona Cardinals have done in the playoffs. Which would seem to mean that Aschburner believes the Hawks can indeed play with the big boys.
Come to think of it, Josh Smith does bear a slight resemblance to Larry Fitzgerald. Minus the hair.
Back to the Braves
In an essay that also runs in this week’s print Sports Illustrated, Phil Taylor of SI.com laments the Braves’ signing of Derek Lowe as a signal that the old-school franchise has lost its old-school charm.
Gee, and those of us around here figured it all went to pot when John Schuerholz handed $4 million to Ample Albie Lopez.
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