Mini Mall pt 12 - Braves Rookies

Last batch from the nickel box. Here are all the rookies I deemed to be 'good' that I could scrounge. It was still hit and miss. Out of 8 cards only 3 are still in the organization. I've grouped them accordingly.

The Present:

2006 Topps Updates & Highlights #UH245 Martin Prado

Martin got his shot thanks to injuries and slumps by his infield teammates and has gone from super sub to starting second baseman in a couple of months. Don't be surprised if Kelly Johnson is moved in the next month.

2006 Bowman #B44 Diory Hernandez

He's torn up Triple-A this year but has only hit .145 in the bigs. He'll probably be back on the farm once Infante is healthy.

The Future:

2007 Bowman #BDPP12 Freddie Freeman

The conventional wisdom is that Casey Kotchman is just keeping first base warm for Freddie. The kid's not even twenty yet but he's hitting well at Double-A. This isn't that surprising once you know that he's a superhero.

The Past:

2007 Bowman #BDPP12 Elvis Andrus

Ok, so he's playing damn well for the Rangers concidering he's only 20 years old and by all rights shouldn't be much past A-Ball right now. Life's too short to dwell on bad trades. Besides, I'm pretty happy with Yunel Escobar right now.

2005 Bowman #BDP53 Brandon Monk

I'm not sure what the heck happened here. Brandon was a 7th round pick in 2005 for the Braves. Then he got suspended for performance enhancing whatevers in 2007 and then fell off the face of the earth. I guess he's out of baseball, but I can't back that up at all.

2004 Heritage #402 Brayan Pena

I'm still mad the Braves let him go, and I don't understand why he can't get a shot to play somewhere. At least as a backup! The dude can hit!

2006 Upper Deck #1175 Travis Smith

This card makes an utter mockery of the MLB rookie card logo. Travis made his major league debut for Milwaukee. In 1998. Logos push product out the door though. Nice pose by the bespectacled one.

2006 Upper Deck #1016 Phil Stockman

The Braves' other Australian reliever. I remember a couple of awesome interviews from him, but injuries cut his time with the Braves to ten games over two non-consecutive seasons.