Atlanta Braves 2016-2017 Top 100 Prospects: Top Ten

10. Robert Whalen, RHP

Whalen is the guy that was forgotten about last season, but was originally considered the better prospect received in the 2015 annual “rob the Mets of pitchers for Kelly Johnson” trade that also brought over John Gant.

Whalen had really never been healthy as a pro, and he only made three starts with Carolina after being acquired in 2015 before getting knee surgery done to finally get himself healthy.

He spent all offseason rehabbing and getting himself healthy, and he came back with all of his stuff working well, but most impressive, he showed an incredible mental make up that is probably the most impressive in the system.

Whalen works with a four-pitch mix that plays to a six-pitch mix. He offers a four-seam and two-seam fastball. His two-seam has excellent sinking movement that really baffles hitters, getting a lot more swings than you’d expect from a sinker and rarely getting squared.

His slider has incredible depth, so much so that many places have often rated it as his best pitch, but they’ve called it a curve due to the tremendous depth he gets on the pitch. He also throws his curve with two different grips. Interestingly, one gives the traditional looping slow curve effect, and the second gives more of a traditional slider look with more of a short, sharp break, but it definitely has loop ahead of the plate like a curve.

His change emulates his four-seam fastball more than his two-seam, but interestingly, that actually plays well. Hitters expect his four-seam fastball as an eye-level-changer, and Whalen does often use it up in the zone to get hitters from looking low, low, low, where he locates everything else. Then he’ll get a hitter thinking anything high is a four-seam and he’ll toss a change there and have the hitter looking foolish as he spins himself into the dirt he’s so far ahead of the pitch.

What makes Whalen so incredibly impressive is that he has what I would grade as 80-grade mental make up. He uses his different shapes of his pitches to set up hitters within an at bat, and then when he sees that hitter the next time, he attacks him in a different way to really keep him guessing. The crazy part is that when he sees that hitter the next time, he then attacks him with a completely different game plan than the first game.

Whalen also seemed to really work well with his catchers and called out his catchers to him to set up things well and discuss working over hitters. I know this is a name that strikes a certain chord in Braves country, but I haven’t seen a guy who was this in tune with his plan of attack on each hitter since watching Greg Maddux work in the mid- to late-90s.

Whalen didn’t have a pretty showing in Atlanta, and sadly, many fans only know him from that performance, but at that point, he had already thrown 30 more innings than he’d ever thrown in his career, and he was on fumes. Heck, he was on fumes when he got to Gwinnett, let along Atlanta!

I think Whalen’s a guy that may not have a fastball that touches triple digits, a curve that makes you curse at the screen, a slider that wobbles a hitter’s ankles, or a change that a hitter pulls the Bugs Bunny effect on, but his mental make up makes all that stuff, which is all above-average stuff on its own, play up even more.

My biggest worry for Whalen is just that he works with a coach and catcher that work with him to develop his attack plan on hitters rather than preach to him a certain style or force a certain method onto him.

Whalen should be a very good candidate for a big league opening day starting rotation job, and if he isn’t in the opening day rotation in Atlanta, he’ll be a big piece of Gwinnett’s rotation.

9. Mike Soroka, RHP

I love having Soroka and Whalen back to back as they are really similar style pitchers, albeit with different methodology. Soroka is more of a traditional pitcher in his pitches, but he attacks hitters with control, working for weak contact from hitters rather than trying to overwhelm anyone with pure, raw stuff.

Soroka has excellent control, and his sinking stuff has tremendous effect, especially in limiting home runs, allowing 3 total in his 177 minor league innings thus far in his career.

Soroka did pitch nearly the entire season at 18 years old, and there were some signs of immaturity when Soroka wanted to blow by a hitter rather than get him to roll over something low in the zone.

He worked into his method as the season wore on, and his performance in the playoff showed just how far he’d come in his approach. In his two playoff starts, he threw 14 2/3 innings with a 0.61 ERA and 1.02 WHIP, with a 1/10 BB/K ratio.

He was working hard in the playoffs at getting hitters to hit the ball weakly, and his defense let him down badly. While he only allowed one earned run, his first start, he allowed 5 runs overall, and 4 of those were unearned as the defense kicked the ball around. However, Soroka continued with his method rather than attempting to take over guys on his own, sticking to the plan of getting guys to roll over pitches and letting his defense get him out of innings rather than trying to overpower hitters.

Soroka has excellent stuff overall, but it’s not the type of premium velocity of wicked snap that some guys have to get lots of strikeouts, and he’ll likely settle in as a future #2/#3 starter, but he also has a very high floor as a back-end pitcher in a rotation.

Soroka will pitch most of 2017 at 19 years old, and he will likely do it at high-A unless he forces the issue to AA during the season.

Next: #8 & #7