Brandon Beachy In, Mike Minor Out?

The Braves are one of the best teams in baseball at developing young talent and it looked pitching prospect Mike Minor was well on his way to winning the fifth spot to open the season. Minor, 23 years of age, is having a great spring but another young talent is expected to delay his arrival.

Brandon Beachy, 24 years of age, was strong in the minors last season and helped the Braves down the stretch with a 3.00 earn run average in 15 innings worked. That performance may make the difference in what has been great battle between two talented young pitchers.

Fantasy Outlook If Beachy Wins The Job

At some point this season, Minor will work his way back to the majors as he was, at times, lights out in spring and would be starting for most teams in the majors, right now. Since the Braves have a strong pitching staff, they have the luxury of letting Minor continue his development in the minors.

As for Beachy, he probably won’t be selected in mixed leagues, but he will be on many fantasy squads by the end of April. Healthy competition is a good thing, and usually the winner goes on to find success right away. Especially when you have a situation where both pitchers are throwing under a 2.00 earn run average this spring.

No doubt, this will be a hard decision for the Braves to make but assuming Beachy wins he is easily worth four or five dollars in an NL only auction, if you’ve yet to draft.

Look to Beachy as a decent bet for strikeouts as well as he posted a career 9.9 strikeout ratio in the minors and had 15 strikeouts in 15 innings worked as a pro, last season.

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