After a so-so debut with Low A Rome in 2010 that saw him hit .260 with a .679 OPS, 9 doubles, 20 RBI, and 7 stolen bases in 65 games, Todd Cunningham was looking forward to his first full season with High A Lynchburg. Unfortunately a series of leg injuries turned it into more of a half season, as he played in just 87 games for the HIllcats, hitting .257 with a .701 OPS, 12 doubles, 4 triples, 4 homers, 20 RBI, and 14 stolen bases in 386 plate appearances.

More than anything, Cunningham needs a healthy 2012, but he also needs to show more with the bat when he is on the field. He won a batting title in the Cape Cod Summer League while in college, but as a professional he has a .257 career average. He's a hands first, contact hitter, and so far he hasn't been making contact. He also hasn't shown a ton of patience for a player who projects as a two hole hitter, walking in 8.5% of his plate appearances with Lynchburg, while striking out in 12.2%. He doesn't provide much in the way of slugging, with 23% of his hits last season going for extra bases, and at his age, 23 in March, with his batting approach, he's unlikely to develop much power. Defensively, he's an above average fielder with an average arm capable of playing all three outfield positions. He would probably be best in left field, but his defense is solid enough in center field that he's very playable there.

Major League Spring Training should be a good experience for Cunningham, since he'll be able to spend time with veteran hitters who can teach him how to refine his approach for better contact, and possibly even how to maximize the power in his swing. At his age it would make sense if the Braves started him out at AA Mississippi, but there's also a chance he could start the year at Lynchburg again, if only to get some confidence under his belt for a month before moving him up.

Atlanta Braves outfield prospect L.V. Ware just tweeted this from Orlando:

Terrific to see the boys tweeting with such excitement already. And good to see L.V. rhyming in his tweets, whether that was intentional or not. Braves camp "officially" opens this Sunday when all Pitchers and Catchers report to spring training.

Follow LV on Twitter @LV_Ware.

Former Atlanta Braves catcher Javy Lopez will release his autobiography, Behind the Plate: A Catcher's View of the Braves Dynasty, in April. I believe this will be the first Atlanta Braves player from the 14-year run to release a book, so I for one am pretty excited to see what it will hold.

I'm hoping to get a copy to review on the site, and if that happens, I will have my Lord or Reading (and baseball cards), Chris Mays, hammer out a review of the book.

This post is the second in my series on the best player names in the Braves franchise's long history. Part 1 covered the years 1876 to 1906. This post deals with the years 1907 to 1935, when the franchise was known as the Doves (1907 to '11), the Rustlers ('12), and for the first time, the Braves ('13 to '35).

Jiggs Parson, 1910-11: Parson had a 4.89 ERA over 60 innings for the Doves & Rustlers in 1910 and 1911. After that, the Jiggs was up; he never played in MLB again.

Les Mann, 1913-14, 1919-20, 1924-27: While his given name was rather emasculating, Mann compensated with the nickname "Major." Regardless, Mann had a long career that included 3 stints with the Braves franchise. A speedy outfielder, he didn't hit for much power. That doesn't make him any less of a man (sorry), though... he started his career in the Dead Ball Era, when almost no one hit for much power.

Bris Lord, 1913: Lord is one of my favorite players of all time, and not just because his name implies that he's the King of the Mohels. In addition, his middle name is "Robotham," which includes two of my favorite things: robot and ham. And best of all, Lord's nickname is "The Human Eyeball." How great a nickname is that? Lord hit .251 / .276 / .387 in his time with the Braves, his last year in MLB.

Dick Crutcher, 1914-15: Uh, yeah... I'm not going to make any further comments about this name. TC is a family blog. Crutcher had a 3.65 career ERA in 202 innings, all for the Braves.

Dizzy Nutter, 1919: Nutter had no extra-base hits in his 56 career plate appearances, all of them for the Braves in 1919. At least he had a spectacular name.

Continue reading this post »

Despite being drafted by the Braves in the second round of the 2010 draft as a pitcher, Andrelton Simmons had a nice debut season with Rookie level Danville as a shortstop, hitting .276 with a .695 OPS, 11 doubles, 26 RBI, and 18 stolen bases. He followed that up with an excellent 2011 with High A Lynchburg,, winning the Carolina League batting title by hitting .311, and adding a .759 OPS, 35 doubles, 52 RBI, and 26 stolen bases. That season opened some eyes around baseball, as he was named the 65th best prospect in the game by MLB.com.

Simmons' calling card is his phenomenal defense. Wiry and quick, makes good reads and is athletic enough to make plays most other shortstops couldn't dream of attempting. His arm is capable of producing 95mph fastballs off the mound, and he uses it to make lightning fast, accurate throws over to first. He could play defense in the Major Leagues right now and already be one of the best defenders in the game.

He showed himself more than capable with the bat with Lynchburg, though there are concerns for him offensively. He's a pure contact hitter, and while that leads to a low strikeout rate, fanning in 7.5% of his plate appearances, it also leads to a poor walk rate, as he earned a free pass in just 5% of his trips to the plate. He also doesn't offer much in the way of slugging, with just 26% of his hits going for extra bases. Jack Wilson, similar glove-first player, has hit 26% of his career at bats for extra bases, and the epitome of glove first players, Omar Vizquel, has only seen 21% of his hits go for extra bases, while striking out in 9% of his plate appearances and walking in 8.6%. It's easy to envision Simmons being the kind of player Vizquel has been over his career, and if he could come close to providing the .272/.337/.353/.690 slash line the 11 time Gold Glove winner has in his career, Simmons would be an excellent Major Leaguer.

Still relatively new to the game at 22 years old, Simmons' big goal in Spring Training is just to gain experience by spending time with veterans such as Wilson, absorbing all the information and knowledge he possibly can. He'll go to Mississippi to start 2012, looking to refine his game and prove he deserves a shot at the Majors in 2013.

The mother-ship, Baseball Nation, has posted their list of the top-10 worst swings of the 2011 season. Five Atlanta Braves players are represented. Thankfully, three of them are Braves pitchers who are making opposing batters look foolish. One I wanted to highlight is relief pitcher Anthony Varvaro. We'll be talking more about all the Braves bullpen options throughout spring training, but this is a good opportunity to highlight a reliever who is on the 40-man roster and who has a very good chance of breaking camp with the big club.

Here is the number-4 worst swing of the 2011 season, Anthony Varvaro against Michael Morse of the Washington Nationals:

I'm going to go with that being a change-up, though it could also be some kind of overhand curve ball. Either way it's a nasty pitch if Varvaro can command it with regularity. This is a window into why the Braves really like this kid for the pen. Not only does he have a mid-90s fastball, but with off-speed stuff like this, he's got two strikeout pitches.

Varvaro is a guy the Braves claimed off waivers from Seattle prior to last year, and we should all know by now how successful the Braves have been with former Seattle relievers. So he's got that working in his favor. Of the relievers the Braves called up from Gwinnett last year, Varvaro arguably had the most success, though he seemed to benefit from good defense behind him.

Tommy Hanson makes an appearance on the top-10 list while making Jose Reyes look stupid (hope that happens a lot this year). Chipper Jones and Freddie Freeman check-swing their way into the top-3, but Tim Hudson grabs the number-1 spot with his fairly awesome swing attempt on a pitch-out:

See the rest of the GIFs at Baseball Nation.

(FYI, if the constant repetitive movement of the GIFs bothers you, just hit the Esc key and it will stop the moving GIFs.)