Midseason BA Top 100 List Includes 9 Atlanta Braves

Atlanta Braves prospects continue to outnumber those of other teams in this year’s midseason top 100 prospects update from Baseball America.

The new midseason top 101 – BA left someone out and fixed it thus 101 – confirm the Atlanta Braves minor league system as one of baseball’s best.

The List

The table below show’s the Atlanta Braves in BA’s February prospect ranking, update ranking in May and today’s (July) ranks alongside those of Baseball Prospectus and MLB Pipeline.

Atlanta Braves

Baseball Prospectus  limits their list to 50 midseason and does not include 2017 draft or J2 signings, or any prospect-eligible player currently in the majors.

MLB Pipeline’s list includes only players who have not exceeded 130 AB (hitters) or 50 IP (pitchers) in the Majors.

Players on the 25 man roster of a major league team for more than 45 days (September call-ups and DL time do not count) are also excluded.

I’ve included Ben’s last ranking of only Braves’ players before his departure to other realms as a point of reference.

Movement in the rankings has a lot to do with the way BA and other lists view everyday players relative to pitchers. Without further adieu, the list.

You probably want to know where the Braves stand in relation to other teams.  For that I have another table.

Notice there are only 28 teams listed. The Marlins and Royals don’t have a prospect in the current list.

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.

Ozzie Albies #25 (8)

Okay before everyone goes ballistic because Ozzie Albies dropped  like a rock remember he started the season very slowly  (.255/.279/.378/.656) . Others more or less exploded off the line or started as expected.

The good news is he’s turned it around hitting .350/.398/.581/.980 since June first. He’s knocking  – make that banging hard – on the Braves door. It will be interesting to see how long they can hold off bringing him up. Here’s Ozzie going deep.

Mike Soroka #33 (48)

Hands up in you thought the Braves first round pick (28th overall) in 2015 would land as a top 50 prospect on every list except oddly MLB Pipeline.  My hand did not go up and if yours did I suspect you’re rewriting history.

Soroka climbed 15 spots this time. Like Acuna he’s just 19  but made the jump from low A to AA this year and got better. His ERA dropped from 3.02 with Rome to 2.55 in 91 2/3 innings in 16 starts at Pearl.

He doesn’t walk many (2.06/9) and  his 48% GB rate keeps his WHIP at 1.11while he continues to strikeout just under eight per nine.

Luiz Gohara #76 (NR)

Gohara came over in the three way shuffle that saw Mallex Smith end up in Tampa.  After seven starts with the Frogs where he struck out 9.66/9 and posted a 1.98 ERA (1.99 FIP) bolstered by a 56% ground ball rate, the Braves gave him a ticket to Pearl.

The 20-year-old lefty (21 on July31) from Brazil continued to dominate. In nine appearances – eight starts – he pitched to a 2.72 ERA (2.87 FIP) striking out 41 in 36 1/3 IP while walking 12 and maintaining a 46.5% GB rate.

Depending on who’s scouting grades you believe, he features a 60 or 70 grade fastball and a 55 slider. I’ve seen comments that he may end up in the bullpen but at 20 with that kind of arm .

I’d suggest we let him continue to start and see what happens. Remember so many wanted to put Folty in the pen. That would have been a huge mistake.

His change looks pretty good in this video.

Other movers and shakers

Sean Newcomb made the second largest jump, up 36 slots since the season started. We’ve seen why in his recent transition to the majors where he’s been better early than I expected and seems to be locked in.

Anderson and Maitan both moved up six slots on the BA list while BP seems to think highly of the young righty placing him at number 48.

Newly drafted Kyle Wright jumps right into BA’s list at 41 but others want to see him of  do something first.

That’s a Wrap

Beauty it’s said is in the eye of the beholder. It’s much the same with prospect rankings. Rankings fluctuate with performance and injury as we’ve seen with Fried slumping and Patrick Weigel requiring surgery.

Whether you agree with them or not, rankings provide an objective view of a team’s assets. With trade season ramping up and some of our prospects potentially on the move soon they these rankings may give insight into what other teams and the Braves themselves see.

Next: The great flood of 2017 was a flop

Imagining that teams actually agree with them is a completely different thing. Internally teams view prospects – both theirs and those of other teams – through a different lens. Right now we’d like to hear how your lens views this list. . . and I’m sure we will.

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