Review: 30 years of Atlanta Braves #1 prospects and their careers
The Current Crop
Baseball America’s pre-season 2019 list placed Austin Riley at #22 overall, but with pitchers Ian Anderson (24) and Mike Soroka (25) close behind.
Riley, of course, kept the streak of ‘reaching the majors’ intact with a big early debut in 2019.
As of right now, MLB Pipeline has Cristian Pache as their #1 Brave, with Drew Waters and Anderson the next pair. Their reckoning puts this trio 11th, 23rd, and 31st overall.
BA was less bullish on Pache and Waters early this year, placing them 85th and 83rd respectively, so clearly this still isn’t an exact science. BA’s rankings are a bit surprising, but there’s still room for growth for both players and the site’s consistently good results over these decades does suggest that they can be relied upon.
The Point for Today
For 2020, you can expect Baseball America to dub one player from the group Pache/Anderson/Waters as the #1 Braves prospect… assuming, of course, that all are still in the organization.
Austin Riley will not be among them as he’s no longer eligible, thanks to 80 games and 138 days of major league service time.
It’s a reasonably tough call among that trio, and probably close enough that you could apply most of the history above to each player.
Thus, when a team trades top prospects like these, it’s vital to know you’re getting an impact player in return, for you’re fairly certain to give up a player that will be useful for multiple seasons.
That’s the rub when you’re making deals to fill out spots that are intended to finish out a World Series contender: it’s a balance between the need to get that prize vs. knowledge that you will be losing something significant.
All this is being said and done because it’s quite reasonable… and truly almost expected… that the Braves will attempt an ‘impact’ trade come January. But realize no top prospect is going to be dealt on a whim: there’s going to be an expectation that the deal will be worth the expense.
Next. Speaking of Riley.... dark
That may not take away the short-term pain… but let’s all hope that come next Christmas we’ll all be getting World Series merchandise under the 2020 tree.