Place for hot takes & observations across numerous levels of baseball: younglings (my kids), college (Vols), AA (Lookouts), Bigs (Braves), Grown-up Sandlot (me)
Chattanooga, TN
Joined February 2026
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No one asked for it, but I had to put it together to collect my thoughts on the Braves prospects, especially in light of the great starts from the hitters in Rome and Augusta.
Here's a ~quarter of the way through 2026 Top-60 List.
cc: @LethalPlatypus1 @weaver_cards @gvedak @CrosbyBaseball @CardsJtr @BigBobsCards
With the actual head coach out sick tonight, I will be making my head coaching debut in a bit over an hour in a 6U rec league game.
Go Roaring Dragons 🐉 !!
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Profar and Strider for Seager and deGrom, no other salary accommodations.
Should both teams do that?
The Braves checked in on Corey Seager last offseason and it would NOT be surprising if they do again this offseason, per @Joelsherman1
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That you have to go back more than 16 years before Didier was born to Tom Gordon in 1989 to find a streak of 11 straight MLB outs by a pitcher 21 or younger (in any game, not just playoffs against the vaunted Dodgers), is pretty incredible.
His father had not watched him pitch since he left Colombia at 15.
Tonight, at 21, he retired 11 Los Angeles Dodgers in a row.
No reliever that young has ever done that in a playoff game.
His name is Didier Fuentes and he pitches for the Atlanta Braves.
Atlanta was down a game to nothing in the division series, on the road at Dodger Stadium, and manager Walt Weiss had already burned through four pitchers by the sixth inning.
So he went and got the 21 year old.
Fuentes got the sixth. Then the seventh. Then the eighth. Then two outs in the ninth.
Eleven batters. Eleven outs. Not one of them reached base.
Then Max Muncy got him with a two-strike, two-out home run to make it 3 to 2, and Raisel Iglesias came in and finished it off.
Braves 3, Dodgers 2. The series is tied and it is headed back to Atlanta.
Now here is the number.
Eleven in a row is the longest streak by a reliever 21 or younger in a postseason game in the history of Major League Baseball.
The last pitcher that young to put up a streak like that in any game, regular season included, was Tom Gordon of the Kansas City Royals. April 12, 1989.
So go back.
Fuentes is from Tolu, a small coastal town in Colombia. Atlanta signed him in January 2022 for $75,000.
That is not a typo. Seventy five thousand dollars. He did not crack the top 200 international amateurs signed that year.
Three players from that entire signing class have reached the major leagues. He is one of the three.
He had left home at 15 to chase it.
And his father did not watch him throw a pitch in person again until June 20, 2025, when Didier made his major league debut against the Miami Marlins. Ramon Fuentes flew up from Colombia for it.
Three days after his son turned 20.
Top of the first inning, two outs, Austin Riley lifted a foul ball into the seats.
Ramon caught it. Barehanded.
An analyst watching it happen said what everybody was thinking.
"There are people that'll tell you about going to big league ball games for 30, 40 years and never getting a foul ball."
Be honest about tonight. Atlanta still has to win two more games to advance. Muncy did take him deep. He is 21 years old and this is his first postseason.
But a kid left a coastal town in Colombia at 15 for $75,000 and a maybe.
His dad flew up to see him pitch in the big leagues, and the first foul ball of the game landed in his bare hands.
And tonight that kid walked into Dodger Stadium in October and got eleven of them in a row.
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I just need @RealCJ10 to step up to the plate now!
(F bombs warning)
cc: @CardsJtr @Kirb_10 @Cody_from_KY
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Poor Marlins
They did get a WS win during this stretch (w/ that one Livan Hernandez game being the best argument in history for ABS?)
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Am I reading this right, that Kyle Tucker has something like a negative $110M surplus value for 2026? I think I am.
Was just re-visiting a July 2025 post I made saying the Braves needed to poach the Cubs hitting coaching staff (which the past 3 days re-iterated tremendously).
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As of today, seems like Martín is locked in as the Playoff # 3 (Sale, Mahle, Pérez)
LHP Martín Pérez has pitched to a 0.28 ERA across his last six home starts, the lowest mark by a Brave in such a span since earned runs became official in 1912.
Courtesy of @EliasSports
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Accept an IL stint, Big Tex. Come on, don't screw your team over!
Elder’s knee is still bothering him. So, he won’t make another start for at least another week. He’ll be available out of the bullpen. Smith-Shawver, Lopez and Perez will start against the Rays. Sale will start against the Phillies on Friday and Mahle will likely go Saturday.
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With 14 K's and only 1 hit allowed now in 7 IP for the DSL Braves, I would think Martires Polanco will be traveling to Northport very soon to join the FCL club.
A 6' tall Dominican RHP who wears #45, seems like he probably is a fan of @45PedroMartinez
Here's an updated note on Martires from @gvedak
xitter.gq/gvedak/status/20647123…
There's a 19 year old out of the Dominican Republic that is turning some heads in the DSL amongst coaches and staff - Martires Polanco.
14K through 7IP
96-98 on his 2S with good movement, and a really solid slider.
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Some video from @BaseballAmerica of Martires Polanco
xitter.gq/BaseballAmerica/status…
Martires Polanco, RHP, Braves
Polanco was one of the best pitching prospects in the Dominican Summer League. The lightning-armed righthander works with two pitches: a mid-90s fastball that gets up to 99 mph and a mid-80s slider that generated a miss rate of nearly 72% in the DSL. Those two offerings helped him strike out 58 hitters in 37.1 innings in his debut season.
More:
baseballamerica.com/players/…
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Sale > deGrom
deGrom had his supernova seasons, but couldn't sustain. Sale's Braves chapter at relatively advanced age (in baseball terms) has been beautiful. Waiving the no-trade clause to join the Braves makes it a landslide for my personal rankings.
BREAKING: The Atlanta Braves are acquiring seven-time All-Star Chris Sale in a trade with the Boston Red Sox, sources tell ESPN. Well-regarded infield prospect Vaughn Grissom is the return to Boston, which will send money with Sale, who waived his no-trade clause to join Atlanta
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Hey @grok, going back to 1990, where does tonight's 80 strikes thrown by Chris Sale rank in terms of most strikes thrown in a game by a pitcher?
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