Reviewing an Atlanta Braves Prospect Evaluation from 2005
John Sickels has been writing at minorleagueball.com for well over a decade. So let’s see how some of his Braves prospect evaluations turned out.
I was researching Atlanta Braves prospects the other day – again – and stumbled across something I found interesting: a prospect list from 2005… with grades and evals.
Sure – these exist out in the internet from multiple sources, but this list struck me as quite instructive, and thus I wanted to share.
This was written in February of 2005. That was an interesting year for Braves’ prospects. So here is Sickels’ Top 20 list from that season.
- Andy Marte, 3B, A
- Kyle Davies, RHP, B+
- Jake (Jacob) Stevens, LHP, B+
- Jeff Francoeur, OF, B+
- Brian McCann, C, B+
- Chuck James, LHP, B-
- Anthony Lerew, RHP, B-
- Ryan Langerhans, OF, B-
- Kelly Johnson, OF, C+
- Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C, C+
- Chris Vines, RHP, C+
- Luis Atilano, RHP, C+
- Macay McBride, LHP, C+
- Brayan Pena, C, C+
- Kevin Barry, RHP, C+
- Wilson Betemit, 3B, C+
- J.C. Holt, 2B, C+
- Martin Prado, 2B, C+
- Blaine Boyer, RHP, C
- Bill McCarthy, OF, C
Lots of familiar names here, eh? Some of the evaluations are even more interesting – and they shed a good light on Sickels in the process. His quotes are noted below.
On Jeff Francoeur:
"I rate Jeff Francouer as number four, while many people (notably Baseball America) rate him as number one. I love his athleticism and tools, and he’s made substantial progress turning his tools into skills, but he still has a ways to go on the plate discipline front."
Does that ring as dead on accurate, or what? Frenchy is now 33 years old, and since the Braves have chosen not to engage his services, his pro career might be coming to a close.
If so, a 5% career walk rate played a part, though his K-rate was lower than I would have guessed at 19.1%. He hit 160 homers over his 11-year career with a total fWAR of 5.4.
On Brian McCann:
"Of the other top hitters, I think McCann is significantly underrated by many."
No mention of his defense, but this turned out to be right on as well.
On some pitchers:
"As usual, the Braves have many lives arms around. Davies is a stud, while lefties Stevens and James both deserve more attention than they have received thus far."
Kyle Davies broke into the majors with the Atlanta Braves during this 2005 season, going 7-6 while starting 14 games with 14 starts. 2006-07 were pretty terrible for him, though and Davies was moved to the Royals in 2007.
He remained a starter, though continued to struggle with the leap to the majors. He last pitched in 2015 and holds a career major league ERA of 5.57 over 770 innings with a 43-65 record.
“James” is Chuck James, a lefty who burst onto the scene with Tom Glavine-like promise. His debut in 2005 was excellent and a 119 inning follow-up in 2006 was very good (11-4, 3.78).
Unfortunately, he did not improve from there and injuries (shoulder) derailed him as well (he missed the 2009 season and really never got back to form – as is the case with so many having shoulder problems.
Jake Stevens was the bust of this group, never getting past AAA with the Braves… or anyone else, for that matter.
Andy Marte:
Marte also got some high praise from Sickels, but being a #1 prospect with an “A” grade kind of speaks for itself.
But we know the story: his bat never really came around and the Braves gave up on him after a .140 debut in the majors with just 66 ML plate appearance.
He continued to bounce around as a “AAAA” player for the next 9 seasons – mostly with the Indians, though 3 other organization tried to get him going as well. He finished with a .218 lifetime average in the majors with 21 homers in 940 PAs.
Marte was lost to us this last off-season in another of a string of Dominican Republic vehicle wrecks that have claimed so many promising baseball players – including Yordano Ventura on the same day.