Jason Heyward heads to Triple-A

The Braves will see how the top prospect in baseball does in Gwinnett.

The Braves have promoted top prospect Jason Heyward to Triple-A Gwinnett. He'll join the G-Braves in time for tonight's game against Charlotte.

Heyward was hitting .352 in Double-A Mississippi in 47 games, with seven home runs and 30 RBI in 162 at bats. Heyward also had a .446 OBP in Mississippi, with a .611 slugging percentage.

Overall this season, the 20-year-old Heyward has hit .319 with 17 home runs and 61 RBI in 351 at bats.

Gwinnett's season regular season ends Monday, but they will begin the International League playoffs against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday.

We'll have to wait a bit longer to see if the Braves will be tempted to bring Heyward up to Atlanta for the rest of the 2009 season. He will play in the Arizona Fall League later this year.


Bill Shanks hosts The Bill Shanks Show on WFSM Fox Sports 1670 in Macon, Georgia and The Braves Show Talk Show. Shanks writes a weekly baseball column for The Macon Telegraph and is the author of Scout's Honor: The Bravest Way To Build A Winning Team. You can email Bill at and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/billshanks.