Baseball America Touts Multiple Atlanta Braves Prospects
Feb 23, 2015; Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA; Atlanta Braves pitchers equipment lies at the base of the fence during spring training workouts at Champion Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports
BaseballAmerica is rolling out a bunch of top prospect lists during the rest of this month – one for each minor league around. They are starting with the rookie leagues and the names of multiple Braves are showing up.
GCL
The Gulf Coast League consists of 16 teams among 15 of baseball’s franchises (there are 2 Yankee GCL squads). The BA top twenty is nonetheless dominated by prospects from the Astros (2), Cardinals (3), Phillies (3), and Braves (2).
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Austin Riley, despite sticking around for only 30 games, merited the #10 slot on this chart. Teammate Ronald Acuna was #11 on the list.
3B Riley hit .255 with 7 homers in 106 AB, slugging .500 and OPS’ing .831. He added 5 doubles and 21 RBI in those 30 games as well. His strikeouts were high at 37, but also walked 12 times.
CF Acuna played in 37 contests with 132 AB, hitting .258 and OPS’ing .800. He hit 3 homers and pounded 9 doubles. His strikeouts were limited to 23 with 18 walks for an OBP of .376.
The #1 prospect on this chart is Anderson Espinoza, RHP for the Red Sox. The Astros hold the 3 and 4 spots with draftees Kyle Tucker and Daz Cameron.
Appalachian League
The Braves might have had another name on that GCL list, except that he didn’t stay there long enough, but the Danville Braves are well represented in BA.com’s list. The Braves’ 2nd 2015 pick RHP Mike Soroka was tagged as the #8 prospect in the Appy League, joining Austin Riley (#2) and Ronald Acuna (#14) again.
There are 10 teams in this league, and once again, it’s the Astros and Cardinals holding several of these positions: 6 of them. Adding in the 3 Braves’ representatives, plus 3 from the Twins, and that makes nearly 2/3rds of the most promising rookies come from just 4 clubs.
Riley’s Danville stats are actually much better than those from the GCL: .351/.443/.586/1.028 with 5 more homers, 9 doubles, a triple, and 19 RBI in 30 more games. He also cut down on the strikeouts: 28 in 111 AB. Nice.
Acuna had just 18 games here, but hit .290/.388/.464/.851 with another jack of his own.
Soroka threw for a total of 34 innings between the GCL and Danville. His WHIP was 1.12, ERA 3.18, and walked just 5 while striking out 37. Good start.
Hudson Belinsky of BA.com conducted a chat on this list after it was released and opted to condense a bunch of questions about Austin Riley into one giant, general issue response:
Hudson Belinsky: Hey does anyone want to talk about Austin Riley? Lots of questions about him in the queue. I’ll aim to address those here. What kind of hitter is Riley? He takes aggressive hacks, and he’s not afraid to swing and miss. He just doesn’t make soft contact; everything comes off the bat with life. His swing plane is conducive to backspin, and he has power to all fields. Realistically, we’re looking at a hitter whose value comes mostly from his power output, but he should hit for a solid average as well. He made adjustments so well this summer, and took well to coaching. Is Riley going to stick at third base? It looks like that is certainly a possibility. He has really taken care of his body over the past year, and he has natural first-step quickness. His arm strength plays at third base. Is it a guarantee that he stays there? No, but it seems more likely than not at this point. How far behind Kyle Tucker [#1] was he? Not all that far. Riley has a chance to stay in the dirt and has a chance to be a middle-of-the-order bat. Tucker’s track record is stronger, and he surged towards the end to cement himself as the top prospect, but Riley’s surge is real.
Of Particular Interest
Of course none of this counts Kolby Allard, who signed late and didn’t get much game time (thus was ineligible for these ranking lists), though was excellent in very limited action.
Regarding Allard, though, Ben Badler of BA.com just said the following in response to a question (emphasis added):
Ben Badler: Thank you. Allard didn’t meet our minimum playing time requirements to qualify (one PA per team game for hitters or 1/3 of an inning per team game for pitchers), but he would have been extremely high on the list, certainly the No. 2 pitcher after Espinoza and a good chance to crack the top five. I did hear his back issues flared up again this summer, which is part of why his innings were so limited. That can be a chronic issue, so it’s something to watch, but it’s better than elbow or shoulder problems for a young pitcher. When he’s healthy he’s electric, with a plus fastball, a knockout curveball and polished feel for someone who just turned 18 last month. I loved that pick by the Braves.
The reason Allard was selected so late in the draft (if #14 is “late”) was specifically because of a prior back issue. However, we were assured throughout the process that this was a minor thing that was no longer of any concern. Interesting.
Nonetheless, it’s a strong encouragement that many of the Braves’ recent draftees/signees are standing up and getting noticed for strong work on the field.