Baseball America points out a nice side story to Monday's expected debut of Mike Minor:
The Braves unveiled Jair Jurrjens in 2008 and Tommy Hanson in '09. Now, get ready for stud rookie pitcher, v2010.
An interesting corollary to the number that's being retired at Turner Field tonight. I'll go ahead and remind you that the last time this happened it was Tom Glavine in 1987, John Smoltz in '88, and we'll go with either Kent Merker or Derek Lilliquist in '89, but then we got Steve Avery in 1990.
And just think, we've had Jurrjens in '08, Hanson in '09, and now Minor in '10, but we could just keep going and expect Julio Teheran in '11, Randall Delgado in '12, Carlos Perez in '13, and so on. Those future names are not too far off base. What other team can boast such continued pitching development? Maybe the Rays.
Those young pitchers from the late 80's built the core of the Braves that dominated the National League for years. It looks like we're building another nice young core of great pitching.
Baseball America continues their praise of Minor:
Triple-A Gwinnett LHP Mike Minor will make his Atlanta debut on Monday as he eases into the big leagues by facing the hapless Astros, ye of a National League-worst .667 OPS. With 10 strikeouts (against just four walks) this week, Minor pushed his whiff total to 146, fourth best in the minors. He allowed two hits over 8 2/3 scoreless innings as he tuned up for the big day. Minor will become the fourth first-round pitcher from '09 to make his big league debut this season, joining Stephen Strasburg, Mike Leake and Drew Storen