Atlanta Braves have 12 players on various Top 100 lists
UPDATThe numbers continue to point toward a loaded farm system for the Braves as more evaluators publish the spreadsheets of their own Top 100 prospects.
The Atlanta Braves continue to dominate the ‘ranking season’ of baseball this Winter. That’s not the end-all goal of this organization, of course: there are no trophies and there are no parades for winning the Prospect Wars.
Going further, Alex Anthopoulos (rightly) doesn’t want to pat himself or anyone else on the back for such an accomplishment either, but it does mean that the new Braves’ GM will have options available to him at the appropriate time… and many more than most teams.
So with the recent release of a few more rankings, here’s a chart on how the Braves stacked up (and ‘stacked’ is a word many are using):
[table id=81 /]
LINKS:
- Baseball America
- MLB Pipeline
- Baseball Prospectus
- Keith Law/ESPN (subscription required): Part 1; Part 2
- Baseball Haven
- ZiPS (subscription required)
- UPDATE: Fangraphs just chimed in, too.
So there are twelve different names on these lists.
A quick reminder, because math is hard: There’s 100 prospects on these lists (ignoring the list with 101 names on it). There’s 30 teams. Divide 100 by 30… 3.33. Therefore… on average… each team should expect to find 3, possibly 4 players on any given prospects list.
Instead, the Braves have:
- 8 players on ALL of the lists
- 9 players on 3 different lists; 10 on 2 of them.
- 5 players named on every list
- 1 other players named on all but one list
- 12 different names overall
- Acuna is the best overall prospect by all but 2 evaluators.
That’s just nutty.
UPDATE: I think it’s fair to say – especially with his insider knowledge – that Kiley McDaniel at Fangraphs is really touting Cristian Pache.
SIckels’ Perspective
I like John Sickels’ approach with these rankings… and year-after-year, he grades them on an A/B/C/D/E scale, so you have the same eyes looking at thousands of players over the years.
When he released his Top 20 for the Braves back in December, he added a few comments of note. Here’s the most telling:
"Obviously a deep system, and you could order the guys in the B+ range in any number of ways with good solid logic. I like Wentz more than many people do, so your mileage may vary with him in relation to the other pitchers."
That ‘B+’ range starts with Kolby Allard (5th in the organization, by his reckoning) to Bryse Wilson (at 10th).
Sickels’ Top 12 for Atlanta are the same names (in some order) as listed above… and he counts Acuna as the #1 overall prospect.
His next group includes these:
- A.J. Minter
- Alex Jackson
- William Contreras
- Kyle Muller
- Drew Waters
- Freddy Tarnok
- Patrick Weigel
- Anyelo Gomez (the Rule 5 pick snatched from the Yankees)
In the ‘Honorable mentions’ section, there are over 30 more names of players he considers ‘Grade C’ and above… possible major leaguers with a possible breakout star here and there.
Breakouts?
There’s a number of prospects to watch for the upcoming season to see if they build on foundations laid in 2017. Of those, I’d put William Contreras at the top of the list, followed by Cristian Pache, Alex Jackson, Isranel Wilson and multiple pitchers.
On Austin Riley: consistency with modest improvement will be sufficient to maintain his trajectory – he doesn’t need to do the spectacular, though becoming a force in the midst of a lineup might be considered spectacular by some.
Next: A look toward Freeman in 2018
It’s definitely a good time to be watching Braves’ minor league ball.