Julio Teheran is the Braves' #1 prospect

Jason Heyward was the no-brainer #1 prospect in the Atlanta system going into last season. His graduation obviously hurts the strength of the farm system, but Julio Teheran makes a worthy top prospect as well. The Braves signed Teheran for $850,000 as a 16-year-old based on his raw projection, but as a 19-year-old in 2010, Teheran started to turn that raw projection into actualized skill.

The right-hander demolished the opposition at High-A Myrtle Beach, striking out 76 batters in just 63 and 1/3 innings pitched against 56 hits and 13 walks. Upon advancing to Double-A, Teheran struggled with his command, compiling a 38:17 K/BB ratio in 40 innings pitched. The jump from High A to AA is widely thought to be the second-toughest jump behind AAA to MLB. Look for Teheran to begin 2011 with the Double-A affiliate.

If Julio comes out of the gates in 2011 blowing hitters away with his mid-90s fastball, devastating curve, and above-average changeup like he did in A-ball while demonstrating improved command of the strike zone, he could be in a position to help the major league team down the stretch in September and into the playoffs. Personally, I think the Braves play this one conservatively given the wealth of young pitching talent already at their disposal, and we don't see Teheran until 2012.

But when he does arrive, we're looking at a top of the rotation starter with several All-Star seasons if he reaches his ceiling.

Teheran was ranked the 7th overall prospect by Keith Law and the 10th overall prospect by MLB.com.

>> Next (#2: Freddie Freeman)

Einhorn is a man!

On Monday the Tigers traded RHP Armando Galaragga (of imperfect perfect game fame) and cash (of Vernon Wells fame) to the Diamondbacks for Kevin Eichorn and Ryan Robowski.

Really, guys? EINHORN? Wouldn't it have been worth it to sign a guy named Finkle off of the street so he could be included in this trade and we could have another excuse to watch THIS?!

I and an entire generation of people who were still young enough in 1994 to find Ace Ventura funny sure as hell think so.

The Return of the Screaming Indian

Hey guys. Is anyone still reading this? Probably not. Let's face it. Why would you? It's been almost a year since I posted. But I'm hear to let you know that we're back.

My lack of posts - while partly derived from general laziness - was mostly a conscious decision. Basically, I felt like I didn't have anything to say about the Braves or baseball in general that wasn't already well-covered by a variety of other sources.

And if I'm not bringing a perspective that I feel advances the discussion instead of just repeats what you've already read five times over, what's the point? With that in mind, the revamped Screaming Indian will not try to be something that I don't have the time to turn it into - namely, an incredibly through, almost beat reporter-esque type of blog.

Instead, I'm going to take a more whimsical look at baseball and write about what I feel like writing about rather than what I feel like I'm supposed to be writing about. (Yes, using the word 'whimsical' hurts me as much as it hurts you to read it, but it's appropriate here).

With that out of the way, I'm very excited about the encroaching dawn of spring training.

It's good to be back.