Atlanta Braves Midseason Top 50 Prospects: 20-11

14. Austin Riley, 3B, Low-A Rome

When the Braves drafted Riley with the 41st overall selection in 2015, many were curious what to expect out of him. Riley was a more highly regarded pitcher on most teams’ boards, with a fastball that could touch the mid-90s and a big, sturdy frame that had one thinking he could move quickly. The Braves chose to make him a hitter, and they put him at third base.

Riley had negative reviews in draft season due to poor conditioning over the winter, and some of that was evident in his struggles in his first year in moving laterally at third. He struggled moving forward on balls at well, leading him to miss a ton of balls that an average third baseman would get and to struggle fielding balls he did get to cleanly.

However, his bat definitely played. Riley followed up a .255/.331/.500 line at the GCL by hitting even better at Danville, going .351/.443/.586. All together, he knocked out 12 home runs on the season, and he ended up ranked as the #79 prospect in all of baseball by Baseball Prospectus.

This season has been a season of ups and downs for Riley. His power is evident, but he has struggled to always access it, and I do believe there is some lingering injury after Riley missed some time early in the season.

He came out in much, much better shape this year and was playing very good defense, and since returning from that injury, he is struggling on defense again, but not in his speed of movement, but like he’s inflexible in spots when trying to bend. It makes his swings look awkward as well.

I think the power is still there, but he will definitely need the rest of the season with Rome, and he may even be sent back there to start 2017 depending on how he finishes the season and how

and

taking turns at third base works out for the team.

13. Patrick Weigel, RHP, Low-A Rome

While Meneses is certainly the biggest riser overall, the biggest riser among arms is absolutely Weigel, and I might even be too low here. Weigel is a big (6’6, 220 pound) righty that the Braves drafted out of the University of the Pacific in the 7th round last summer. Weigel has a fastball that can run to triple digits in short bursts, and many thought his future was going to be in the bullpen.

The Braves gave Weigel the chance to start last season, and he put up a 4.53 ERA and 1.53 WHIP with a 26/49 BB/K over 51 2/3 innings. When assignments came out and I noted Josh Graham and Weigel both in Rome, I figured it was Weigel going to the bullpen and Graham getting another shot at the rotation, based on their success last season.

The Braves saw what I didn’t, however. In working with their Rome rotation in dialing back a notch on velocity and using natural movement low in the zone to keep hitters swinging over pitches for either weak contact or swinging strikes, the Braves uncorked a beast in Weigel.

His velocity has played up well as he’s worked in the 91-93 range, but he’s dialed up some 96+ deep into ball games, so he’s able to hold his velocity later into games, and the change up has played up well with the change to his velocity.

The big change for Weigel this year has simply been consistency. His reports pre-draft were all about how he struggled to find his release point. By dialing back a couple notches on the velocity, he seems to have found a consistent arm slot, and that has allowed what was graded an average slider and below average curve to play up a grade each, at least. The slider has really worked well low in the zone with some sharp depth, but it’s also the pitch that he can get hit hard on when he’s off as he tends to hang it.

Weigel’s move forward in performance certainly seems to be simply unlocking what was already there and nothing fluky or anything like that. I’m very intrigued how the Braves handle the rest of the season and whether they give him a taste of Carolina before the end of the season.

Next: 12, 11