The Braves have released 23-year old righty starting pitcher Mark Pope.  Pope pitched in 5 games (all starts) in A-ball for the Braves last year and he was 0-2 with a 12.27 ERA and a 2.62 WHIP.  Pope has now pitched in 47 games (26 starts) in his first three years in the minors and he is 10-12 with a 6.40 ERA and a 1.60 WHIP.  Pope should start looking into a new line of work if he doesn’t pitch well when another team gives him a shot.

21-year old righty swinging catcher Christian Bethancourt is off to a good start in AA-ball this year.  He has played in 14 games in AA-ball so far this year and he is 16 for 51 (.314 avg, .778 OPS) with 6 runs scored, 1 homer, 6 RBIs and 3 stolen bases.  Bethancourt has now played in 372 games in his first six years in the minors and he is 370 of 1,387 (.267 avg, .658 OPS) with 147 runs scored, 15 homers, 163 RBIs and 40 stolen bases.  He came into this season as the Braves’ #3 prospect according to Baseball America because of his outstanding defense.  Bethancourt is behind Brian McCann and Evan Gettis on the food chain at catcher for the Braves, so he’s going to have time to develop his bat before he gets to the show.

The Braves have released 30-year old lefty reliever Dusty Hughes.  Hughes pitched in 12 games (0 starts) in AAA-ball for the Braves this year and he was 0-2 with a 6.75 ERA and a 2.17 WHIP.  Hughes last pitched in the majors in 2011 for the Twins.  He has pitched in 80 games (1 start) in his first three years in the majors and he is 2-5 with a 4.99 ERA and a 1.58 WHIP.  This isn’t much of a loss for the Braves moving forward.

The Braves have released 28-year old righty swinging outfielder Jordan Parraz.  Parraz played in 29 games in AAA-ball for the Braves this year and he was 11 of 78 (.141 avg, .550 OPS) with 10 runs scored, 4 homers, 8 RBIs and 4 stolen bases.  Parraz has now played in 833 games in his 10 years in the minors and he is 853 of 2,999 (.284 avg, .801 OPS) with 461 runs scored, 69 homers, 399 RBIs and 129 stolen bases.  This is not much of a loss for the Braves moving forward.

25-year old righty starting pitcher Omar Poveda is off to a fast start in AAA-ball for the Braves in 2013.  He has pitched in 5 games (all starts) so far this year in AAA-ball and he is 2-1 with a 1.93 ERA and a 0.80 WHIP.  He has only given up 15 hits and 11 walks while whiffing 24 batters in his first 32 2/3 innings, which is very impressive.  Poveda has now pitched in 166 games (160 starts) in his first 8 years in the minors and he is 53-49 with a 4.26 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP.  Poveda could get his first shot at the majors at some point in 2013, if he keeps pitching like he is right now.

23-year old righty starting pitcher J.R. Graham has a bright future for the Braves as he came into this season as their #2 prospect according to Baseball America.  But, he’s off to a rough start in AA-ball this year for the Braves.  Graham has pitched in 2 games (both starts) in AA-ball for the Braves so far this year and he is 0-1 with a 7.20 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP.  Graham has now pitched in 41 games (36 starts) in his first three years in the minors and he is 17-5 with a 2.61 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP.  The Braves have depleted some of their starting pitching in recent deals, making Graham even more important to them for the future.

The Braves dealt a lot of top prospects to the Diamondbacks for Justin Upton, so the high minors is pretty barren for them heading into the 2o13 season.  But, they have a couple of solid prospects ready for the show in 2013.  Here is a look at them:

Julio Teheran:  22-year old righty starting pitcher Julio Teheran comes into this season as the Braves’ #1 prospect according to Baseball America.  He pitched in 26 games (all starts) in AAA-ball for the Braves last year and he was 7-9 with a 5.08 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP.  He also pitched in 2 games (1 start) for the Braves last year and he was 0-0 with a 5.68 ERA and a 0.95 WHIP.  He has now pitched in 7 games (4 starts) in his first two years with the Braves and he is 1-1 with a 5.19 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP.  Everything seems to be coming together for the Braves so far in spring training.  He has pitched in 6 games (all starts) for the Braves so far this spring and he is 3-1 with a 1.04 ERA and a 0.62 WHIP.  Teheran has only given 7 hits and 9 walks while whiffing 35 batters in only 26 innings this spring!  Like my wife likes to remind me though….spring training is nothing more than practice.

Todd Cunningham:  24-year old switch-hitting outfielder Todd Cunningham comes into this season as the Braves’ #12 prospect according to Baseball America.  Cunningham played in 120 games in AA-ball for the Braves and he was 144 of 466 (.309 avg, .767 OPS) with 77 runs scored, 3 homers, 51 RBIs and 24 stolen bases.  Cunningham has now played in 276 games in his first three years in the minors and he is 292 of 1,042 (.280 avg, .725 OPS) with 170 runs scored, 8 homers, 95 RBIs and 46 stolen bases.

Major League Baseball has suspended 24-year old righty reliever Billy Bollock for 50 games due to his second violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. Bollock pitched in 40 games (0 starts) in AA+AAA-ball for the Braves last year and he was 1-2 with 1 save, a 6.34 ERA and a 1.99 WHIP. He has now pitched in 182 games (0 starts) in his first four years in the minors and he is 11-11 with 50 saves, a 4.33 ERA and a 1.59 WHIP. Bollock is running out of chances with the Braves.

27-year old righty starter/reliever Gary Moran is looking good in the minors for the Braves. He has pitched in 26 games (20 starts) in AA-ball so far this year and he is 5-10 with 1 save, a 3.11 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP. Moran has now pitched in 85 games (53 starts) in his first four years in the minors and he is 27-16 with 1 save, a 2.89 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP. He is running out of time as a prospect, so he hopes that he’s catching the Braves’ eyes this year.

The Braves have recently signed 33-year old switch-hitting 3B Terry Tiffee to a minor league deal. He has already played in 6 games in AAA-ball for the Braves and he is 5 for 20 (.250 avg, .550 OPS) with 1 run scored and 1 RBI. Tiffee has also played in 69 games in Independent-ball this year in which he was 80 for 269 (.297 avg, .818 OPS) with 30 runs scored, 11 homers, 46 RBIs and 1 stolen base. Tiffee last played in the majors back in 2008 with the Dodgers. He has played in 97 games in his first four years in the majors and he is 55 for 243 (.226 avg, .626 OPS) with 20 runs scored, 5 homers, 29 RBIs and 1 stolen base.