Atlanta Braves Top Prospects via Tomahawk Take, 11-15

11. 3b, Rio Ruiz

Rio Ruiz- Remember when Freddie Freeman was coming through the Minor League ranks and many scouts debated whether Freeman’s power would translate into Major League over the fence power or gap power?  I can’t recall which scout it was, but one discussed Freddie’s swing and said that the natural uppercut his swing provides combined with his batspeed will, no doubt, produce 20 HR power in the Majors. Thus far, that scout has been right and Freddie’s peak is still a few years off.  So, why do I reference Freddie’s swing when discussing Rio Ruiz? The following piece comes for an excerpt from the crawfishboxes on 10/23/14 where their main focus was discussing the consistency of Rio Ruiz:

"A knock on Ruiz was he only hit 11 home runs this past year, but he may be able to improve in this facet: a scouting report noted his swing to be level and linear without an uppercut, and we’ve all heard Alex Presley‘s tale of how the Astros asked him to make his swing more uppercut-like in a quest to reach higher power levels. Ruiz already makes very solid contact; an added uppercut should lift many more balls outside the park."

No, he has not added that patented uppercut that helps Freddie produce 20 HR a year, but just a slight adjustment to his swing could turn 7 or 8 of those 38 doubles into fence flyers.  Make no mistake, there’s no mechanical adjustment that needs to be made for Ruiz is already a well-above average hitter.  Both his walk rate and k-rate are healthy for a player his age with his walk rate really getting a boost this past year.  Ruiz projects to be an above average offensive 3rd baseman who could provide average defense at the hot corner.  He’ll likely begin at AA Mississippi, but could see a promotion to AAA at some point in 2015.  There’s no need to rush Ruiz as he’ll only be 21 in 2015.  Expect the Braves to essentially go year to year with Ruiz with late callups, which would put Ruiz into receiving the beloved cup of coffee in late ‘16, and taking over the hot corner when the Braves open SunTrust.

Stay tuned for the rest of the series!  As always, thanks for reading.