see the future

It’s certainly good to see Dansby Swanson heating up in Atlanta. The rookie shortstop is batting .353 with a pair of homers and nine RBIs over his last 10 games. He’s up to .207, four, 17 for the season. There really aren’t a lot of reasons to watch the scuffling Braves. Swanson — among the scant few Mississippi Braves alums now playing for Atlanta — is one. While so many current Braves are just aging placeholders, Swanson is part of a future that holds great promise. Baseball America’s projected 2020 lineup for Atlanta includes Swanson and fellow former M-Braves Freddie Freeman (of course), Julio Teheran, Ozzie Albies, Dustin Peterson, Sean Newcomb and Patrick Weigel, plus current M-Braves Ronald Acuna, Kolby Allard and Mike Soroka. Austin Riley, the DeSoto Central High product now playing in high Class A, is also in that group. Others who could contend for roles by 2020 are current M-Braves Travis Demeritte, Max Fried and Luiz Gohara and Ian Anderson, Kevin Maitan and Cristian Pache, highly touted prospects in the low minors. Atlanta’s farm system is truly stacked. Some of this new wave of Braves will arrive later this year or next. If all goes according to the apparent master plan, the Braves will be something to see again soon. P.S. Peterson, a Southern League MVP candidate last year after batting .282 with 12 homers and 88 RBIs in Pearl, is playing again at Triple-A Gwinnett. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound outfielder suffered a hand injury while in spring training with the big club.