Is Todd Cunningham An Option For Centerfield Next Year?
June 4, 2012 at 12:24 pm by Ben Duronio under Atlanta Braves
The Braves are going to have a good amount of money to spend next year and will likely have at least two spots to fill. The rough estimate the last time I checked will be about 40 million, but with the uncertainty of the Braves staff and any potential injury or trades that occur, money could be spent on in a number of different places depending on what happens over the next few months.
One interesting player, who I value highly as a prospect, is Todd Cunningham. He is currently a 22-year-old centerfielder for Double-A Mississippi who switch hits and was called the top defensive outfielder in the Braves system by Baseball America after last season. To go along with the top tier defense, Cunningham has a line of .315/.362/.383. His current wRC+ is 119. For reference, in Michael Bourn’s 215 games and 975 plate appearances at double-A he hit .270/.349/.364. Bourn displayed better patience, which is a very valuable asset at that age, but the two are not entirely dissimilar in terms of production at the plate. Bourn’s wRC+ in double-A was 116.
The point about Cunningham’s patience has to be noted. He is walking in just 5.6% of his plate appearances while striking out in 12.4%. That is not a good sign of things to come in the future. Bourn had a 10% walk rate and 18.6% strikeout rate in his final season in Double-A, the furthest I can find those numbers. To go along with Cunningham’s discipline issues, he has a .364 BABIP, which will most likely decline at least a bit. He is a contact type hitter, so he could display a high BABIP, but .364 seems a bit excessive. Over the remainder of the year, in order to push the Braves hand he really needs to walk a bit more and try and do so without seeing a big spike in his strikeout rate. His defense will likely already play in the majors, but he needs to show that he can get on base at a consistent rate in a number of ways before the Braves would hand him a job at the end of winter. One odd way Cunningham has consistently shown is in his ability to get hit by pitches. It’s a skill that shouldn’t be simply overlooked, as he has been hit 34 times in 914 plate appearances. That rate would come down heavily in the majors, but his willingness to get hit by pitches shows that he knows his job — get on base.
Along with walking more, Cunningham could try and swipe a few more bases, but that’s likely not all his decision at the time. He has ran just nine times, and has been safe seven of those times. That’s a pretty big improvement over last year’s 14-6 SB/CS ratio last year. He is a strict contact and speed guy, so there will not me much power coming from him likely ever. This year he has just nine extra base hits, two triples and seven doubles. Last year across three levels he hit six triples and 16 doubles.
There still needs to be a lot of evaluation done on Cunningham, but so far he has done exactly what he needed to do this year in his first taste of the upper minors. There are certain areas he needs to improve, but he seems like the type of player that can be effective for the Braves in the future. If the Braves choose not to sign Bourn and do not believe Cunningham is ready to play every day, a stopgap could make a good deal of sense. If they do lock up Bourn or another impending free agent, Cunningham would then become either a trade chip or be deemed a fourth outfield type. There is an outside chance the Braves could use him like Brett Gardner as a center fielder in left field. I think one day Cunningham is a major leaguer and I certainly feel like will one day deserve a chance to start somewhere, and at least the Braves have a backup plan if they miss out on a free agent this winter.
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Would Cunningham in left and Prado at third next year be a less than optimal situation? (assuming we keep Bourn)
If the Braves were cash strapped, I could definitely see them doing that. Since they will have a ton to spend, I think they’ll use it for left field.
Well they do have a good bit of cash available to spend; but Bourne is not coming cheap if we do keep him, Hanson & Heyward will be getting significant raises, and we will need to settle McCann’s contract sooner rather than later.
I think people are expecting the Braves to go “big” in FA next year to replace Chipper’s bat, and I’m afraid it’s not going to be nearly as big as splash as people are expecting.
FA 3B and LF after this season:
Mark Reynolds (assuming the O’s don’t pick up his option)
Kevin Youkilis
Edwin Encarnacion (having a career year, but hasn’t made more than 42 starts at 3B since 2008)
Josh Hamilton (assuming Ted Turner decides to buy out Liberty Media…)
Ryan Ludwick
Juan Pierre
Delmon Young
Rick Ankiel
Marlon Byrd
Melky Cabrera
Angel Pagan
Cody Ross
Grady Sizemore
BJ Upton
Shane Victorino
Lance Berkman (more of a 1B now, and he’s coming off knee injury)
Andre Ethier
Torii Hunter
Carlos Quentin
Nick Swisher
Raul Ibanez
I said this in another post, but I’m keeping my eye on Nick Swisher… He seems like the type guy the Braves usually go after. Not really a huge name (yet) but a good skill set equaling a somewhat inexpensive price.
Bourn is coming so not cheap that there’s really no chance we’ll keep him. So go ahead and factor his potential salary out of your calculations; it will be paid by the Yankees.
Great read Ben. Cunningham is almost a forgotten man among Braves prospects after his first 2 years were somewhat disappointing for that high of a pick.
I admittedly, and sadly, am not very knowledgeable on the Braves’ farm system outside of the couple big names that might get called up at any time. I was wondering, do the Braves have any prospects which are projected to grow into a big-time power hitter and make it to the bigs as a long-term starter?
Evan Gattis is the closest thing the Brave’s farm system has to a “big-time power hitter”. If you haven’t kept up with the farm recently, I would read up on him. His whole story is pretty entertaining.
There’s Edward Salcedo who hasn’t shown a ton of power yet, but scouts have raved over his tools and potential. After a 2010 season to be forgotten, he had a very good first half of 2011, but fell off in the second half. This year he’s shown the ability to drive the ball and is playing better defense at third (he was an error machine at shortstop in 2010 and at third in 2011).
There’s an interesting thing going on in the Braves minor leagues IMO. Both Cunningham and Gattis COULD present themselves as viable options for the OF in 2013. If Cunningham can come up and lead off , and ut up as good an OBP as he has in the minor’s (and play stellar D) than I think he is a possible option for CF next year. Though I’m not 100% that he can hit enough to stay up. (but you never know unless you give them the shot)
Gattis, presents an interesting set of problems himself. His BB% is pretty low (around 8%) yet his K% is also very low (12%) when you consider his power. But can he play an avg LF defense? Will his K% skyrocket in the show? I wouldn’t mind seeing both of them in Sept. and in next years ST , but I can’t see the team really giving BOTH of them a shot to be starters next year.
I reckon, Cunningham has a greater shot of starting next year (though I only think he has an outside chance). Gattis might earn a bench spot though as his ability to both backup the OF and Mac could mac him a valuable addition.
So, I reckon both will get their shots, though I think that Gattis has the better chance to make the team in 2013 . I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Braves rent someone for 2013 CF and hope Cunningham is ready for 2014.
second *mac* should be “make”
I’d be very surprised if the Braves lock up Bourn; he makes too much sense for the Nationals. And I’m not so sure locking up a speed-first guy into his 30s is all that great of an idea anyways.
Cunningham at best will be nothing more than a 4 OF/platoon guy. Marlon Byrd, Shane Victorino, and BJ Upton will all be FA CFs the offseason as well, all better options than Cunningham.
But even if Bourn isn’t re-signed and they don’t get a 1 or 2 year stop gap to Matt Lipka like the 3 mentioned above, I’d rather the Braves have an open competition between Luis Durango and Constanza. They both may be light hitting like Cunningham, but both are much faster than Cunningham and have ML experience.
Constanza’s defense is nothing to scream about.
Never said it was, but I’ve seen Cunningham too and his D is nothing to write home about. Its not terrible but its not eye opening either, just good defense nothing more and nothing less. All I’m saying is they have several options that would probably work out better. In the end though, if he gets it………good for him, if Durango gets the job, or they bring in someone like Byrd well thats all fine too. Someone has to play there and keep the spot warm until Lipka arrives.
Keep it warm until Lipka arrives? We are planning the future of CF around a guy with a career minor league OBP of .317? If Cunningham is a 4th OFer then Lipka is a 5th OFer. The guy hasn’t done anything, ever, and now we are waiting for him to “arrive”? Seriously?
Nick S ……. Stupid comment. To say Lipka hasn’t done anything in his career is a ridiculous statement. First, he just turned 20 in April. When he was drafted in 2010 out of high school – he promptly hit .302 in the GCL and was named the 3rd best player in the league that year and an Organizational All-Star. This year he is the 7th youngest player in the Carolina League ( High A ) and is having a pretty decent year. His career as you term it, has just started – so don’t act like he has been playing forever. He also started in CF in the Futures Game this year so that speaks to what the Braves organization thinks of him. By all accounts, he is very young with alot of potential.
My dream free agent is Andre Ethier. But that ain’t happening. But B.J. Upton is a free agent who could very well be a realistic option. He would look great in a Braves uniform in LF or CF. Considering the amount of outfielders in free agency and guys like Cunningham and Gattis in the system I would be very, very surprised to see Prado not starting at 3B next year.
If Cunningham is Plan B for CF then signing Bourn is even more important. The dude is a 4th OFer. I predict Wren signs Bourn and Swisher this offseason, and extends Prado to buy out his Arb3 season and a couple FA years. Greinke is not even a possibility, so we can stop thinking about that and trying to come up with elaborate trade scenarios to make room to squeeze him into the payroll. It may be time to stop worrying about opening up the checkbook for Heyward, so maybe we hold off on planning around paying him mega bucks in the future.
[...] a “breakout” season has him flying on many radars now. Back in June, Ben Duronio of CAC suggested that Cunningham could be a potential option for the likely hole in centerfield next season. Ben [...]