Midseason BA Top 100 List Includes 9 Atlanta Braves
By Fred Owens
Now just a few prospect mentions worthy of note. The heading has player’s name followed by his rank and season opening rank().
Ronald Acuna #10 (67)
Atlanta Braves fans aren’t the only ones who believe 19-year-old Ronald Acuna is something special as he jumped 57 spots from their preseason ranking. After destroying Florida League pitching with the fire Frogs (.287/.336/.478/.814 in126PA) the Braves bumped him up to Pearl on May 9th. He introduced himself to the M-Braves fans that night by going 3-4 with a homer and three RBI.
He went on to have a torrid but unsustainable May finishing with a .382/.435/.600/1.305 line that included eight doubles, two triples. four homers and three triples. He also racked up 15 stolen bases in 18 attempts, scored 18 runs and with a sense of symmetry drove in 18 OPR (other peoples runs.)
A slow down had to come (well he didn’t have to but he isn’t superman) and started June in a slump as deep as his May totals were tall. Through June 13th he managed a puny .157/.218/.235/.452 line and struck out 17 times in 55 PA drawing just three walks. Then he took a deep breath and righted the ship.
Over the next 19 games he hit .310/.338/.493/.831, hit three homers, walked four times and struck out 15 times in 77PA. That brought his batting line for the season to .287/.336/.478/.814.
Kolby Allard #23 (37)
Kolby Allard slid up 14 spots in spite of a huge re-ranking that includes many recently signed draft picks. In hi s16 starts this year Allard’s thrown 85 2/3 innings at a 3.05 ERA (3.35 FIP), 1.296 WHIP, striking out 73 and walking 32. Looking over his numbers I was particularly impressed with his 41% GB rate and a HR/9 rate of 0.59.
Here’s Kolby abusing Jon Perrin who was looking for his first professional hit; he didn’t find it.