I kept putting this off, but it sure looks like the Braves intend to make Pastornicky the starting shortstop to begin the year. Needless to say, simply handing a regular job to a rookie with no major league experience (he was on the roster at the end of the year but never appeared in a game) who is not considered an elite prospect is an unusual move. But the Braves are planning to. The chances of this being a disaster are very good, and with only Jack Wilson in reserve things could get very ugly at shortstop.

Had a rough year by his standards, but that was basically because some singles didn’t drop. He’s one of the more effective bench players in baseball, a four-corners guy with an average bat, most of his offensive value coming in secondary skills (power and walks) rather than batting average. Hinske has had 584 plate appearances in his two years with the Braves, which is more than I thought or would have expected. In that slightly-less-than-a-full-season of work, he’s had 21 homers, 31 doubles, and 78 RBI, with most of his work coming as an outfielder or pinch-hitter. Some of Hinske’s value has usually come from his ability to play third base (not well, but not a lot worse than Chipper) but he has played the position only once with the Braves, off the bench in 2010. If Prado is traded, that might change… Actually used to run pretty well, is now really slow, and has attempted only one stolen base and hit one triple with the Braves.

Brought back in a dumpster-diving trade at the eligibility deadline, Matt hit .286 in 37 PA in September. That’s nice, but it’s a small sample size and also he had just one walk and just one extra-base hit, a double. I love the guy, but he turns 34 in March and his overall line last year was .263/.302/.323. He didn’t hit a single home run in 268 PA. Maybe he will bounce back, and I certainly hope so, but I never did expect him to age well, and he has to add a lot — like 40 points of batting average and 100 points or so of isolated power — to be a useful player. The Braves could eat his contract, but I don’t expect them to.

Well, that could have gone better.

Heyward’s sophomore season began with an injury that took him out of most of spring training, followed by a season-long slump. His batting average fell by fifty points from his rookie season and his walk rate fell slightly as well. Pitchers, especially lefties, were able to tie him up inside, leading to a seemingly interminable succession of GB4s, usually very slow ones. He continued to have nagging injuries, and missed three weeks in May and June on the DL.

Picked up in what was generally considered a heist on the Braves’ part, Bourn was… okay in 52 games with the Braves. He hit .278/.321/.352 (actually pretty close to his career line), played good defense, and stole 22 bases in 29 attempts. (He led the league in SB… and in CS.) What he mostly did was fill a gaping hole that the Braves’ centerfield situation had been since Andruw Jones departed.

As I write, it seems likely that he will be traded, which I think would be a mistake unless the return is unexpectedly spectacular. The Braves, like most teams, have a habit of selling low; Prado’s value is pretty low right now, because he had a bad season. But there were good reasons for the bad season, and the Braves should know that.

Some people seem to have decided that Chipper is a problem. This is dumb; he’s one of the best players on the team. He’s not what he once was, but here you’ve got a third baseman putting up a .275/.344/.470 line. The team would not be better off if he retired. Yeah, you think they could get more by moving Prado to third and getting another left fielder. I doubt it.

On the Fourth of July, Uggla was hitting .173/.241/.327. Over the remainder of the season, he hit .301/.386/.596. Uggla’s massive hot streak, highlighted by a 33-game hitting streak, helped keep the Braves afloat while some other guys were struggling, and brought his season numbers up to a respectable level (.233/.311/.453), even though it was still the worst year of his career and not really what the Braves expected.

That went better than expected. Freeman was considered something of a risk going into the season; most expected him to show raw power but there were a lot of concerns about holes in his swing and pitch recognition problems. These turned out to not be so much of a problem, and he hit just about average for a first baseman — which is pretty darned good for a 21-year-old rookie. The future looks pretty bright. Freeman’s 32 doubles and 21 homers are a good start, and so is his .282 batting average; just normal improvement should make him a real offensive plus. The biggest problem is that Heyward’s difficulties and then the McCann injury/ineffectiveness put too much of the burden on Freeman to drive the offense, and he wasn’t that good, not to mention it’s a bit of a stress on a 21-year-old rookie to be a core offensive contributor in the middle of a playoff race. Freeman hit only .143/.263/.286 in his last 14 games. He was probably tired, as rookies often are at the end of the season, finishing second on the team (to Uggla) in games played (157) and plate appearances (635).

The best backup catcher in baseball (and, by at least one measure, one of the best reserve players of all time) actually had his worst season in a Braves uniform, and still was an above-average hitter in a position where most teams will settle for “won’t kill you”. How much is this worth? Two games a year? Maybe not that much, but maybe so, and two games a year is a lot. Anyway, the variance in Ross’ productivity is largely in batting average, and he has very strong secondary skills. Ross’ career batting average is just .236, but it’s .274 with the Braves, .263 last year. This is his age 35 season coming up, but for a backup catcher that isn’t necessarily old.

Brian, the best catcher in baseball, was finally starting to get some recognition of that status and was seemingly on his way to his best season when he suffered the ever-popular strained oblique muscle in late July. He returned after missing just a couple of weeks, but wasn’t nearly the same hitter as usual, hitting just .180/.292/.346 after his return. A lot of that looks, statistically, like bad luck, but observation indicates that he really was messed up, though whether it was lingering injury or mechanics — or both — is beyond my ken.