The long awaited day for Braves fans has finally arrived- Atlanta has called up Tommy La Stella (Haymarket 2009) from Triple-A Gwinnett! He joins Eric Campbell (Luray 2006) as the first two VBLers to make the majors this season.
La Stella was showing excellent contact and strike zone judgement for Gwinnett, hitting 293/384/359 in 167 at-bats along with 25 walks and only 14 strikeouts. He’s hit only one home run- indeed, he hit it in his last minor league game. It’s almost as if the Braves were waiting to call him up until he went deep. Tommy’s an interesting player: he’s blasted through the minor leagues in a hurry (he was drafted in 2011), but he’s not a considered a blue-chip prospect. In fact, Baseball Prospectus wrote this about Tommy:
“La Stella isn’t a physical (5-foot-11, 185) or particularly toolsy prospect, but what he does, he does exceptionally well. It’s easy to criticize a player with below-average speed, below-average power, and below-average speed, but at some point, you have to give a guy credit for what he can do.”
What he does well is make contact, and Braves fans should enjoy his ability to avoid strikeouts, unlike Dan Uggla, the player Tommy will replace at second base.
Tommy was a critical piece of the Haymarket championship team in 2009, hitting 303/347/443 in 201 at-bats. He also hit 10 doubles and 6 home runs! La Stella was a part of an incredibly talented team in Haymarket- some of the players who went pro off that team include Michael Lang, Greg Hopkins, Jack Leathersich, Kevin Johnson and Matt Benedict. That team was stacked!
Tommy made his debut last night, and ripped two singles.
Congratulations to another success story from the Valley League!
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