Nov 2, 2016; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; Salt River Rafters infielder Dylan Moore of the Atlanta Braves against the Scottsdale Scorpions during an Arizona Fall League game at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 2, 2016; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; Salt River Rafters infielder Dylan Moore of the Atlanta Braves against the Scottsdale Scorpions during an Arizona Fall League game at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports /
The Mississippi Braves were the Atlanta Braves affiliate that saw the most major-league ready players in 2016. Will there be more impact players passing through AA in 2017?
The Atlanta Braves seemingly stocked the AA roster in their organization in 2016 with a roster that featured incredibly talented pitching, a deep lineup, and great coaching.
That that Mississippi Braves didn’t win the Southern League was a bit of an upset within the Braves organization, though they certainly ran into a buzzsaw in the Southern League championship, one of three Braves full-season affiliates to make the championship series.
This season will bring up much of the 2016 high-A roster to Mississippi, and that team was the only full-season affiliate that did not make their league’s championship, but it wasn’t just that Carolina (now Florida) didn’t make the playoffs, but they were a very rough team.
Can those players have more success in Mississippi in 2017?
Let’s first look at the guys putting the runs on the board:
It’s not hard to see when you look at the projected hitters for Mississippi exactly why Carolina was such a poor team in 2016!
The Braves did acquire a number of players for Carolina late in 2016 and now those guys will get to combine with a few holdovers in Mississippi to hopefully provide better punch than they did in high-A in 2016.
The team should feature an exceptional amount of flexibility with guys like Moore, Demeritte, Curcio, and Meneses penciled in as starters yet having the ability to handle multiple positions as needed.
The starting five here may be as good as any in the Braves system, and frankly, could make an argument for the best in the minor leagues.
The announced promotion of Soroka to Mississippi really shows how much the organization believes in the young man, who won’t even be 20 until August. Friday’s tweet from Allard and Fried that they are headed to Mississippi also confirms Kolby’s position here.
The list of names here is significant in length and in talent. While I’m not sure if there’s a future closer in that list of names, there are multiple future big league relievers, and there could be some guys who simply end up cut rather than sent down a level.
One interesting spot to watch will be the lefty reliever roles in Mississippi. I plugged in Chase Johnson-Mullins to skip past high-A after finishing in Rome due to his experience in high-A in 2016, but with Biddle coming back from surgery, Kinman’s injury history, and not being sure what you will get out of Lawlor, O’Neal, or even Pfeifer, I could see one of the big lefties the Braves have in the system ending up in Mississippi (Jon Kennedy and Adam McCreery are the other two 6’8+ lefties in the system).
It would not surprise me at all if the Braves ended up skipping over high-A completely with a handful of guys, so you could see more of the 2016 Rome team opening in Mississippi.
