ST. LOUIS, MO - AUGUST 12: Lucas Sims #50 of the Atlanta Braves throws to first base against the St. Louis Cardinals in the first inning at Busch Stadium on August 12, 2017 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
The competition has been friendly-fierce as there were a lot of excellent minor league performances this season.
Via twitter, the Atlanta Braves announced their minor league players of the year at all levels. Yet to be announced are the overall organizational players of the year; that will come before all of these prospects are honored at SunTrust Park this weekend.
This was a team that didn’t fare very well in the standings (18-53, no other team had less than 24 wins), but it doesn’t mean that there weren’t some standouts.
Juan Negret was the best hitter among the regulars on this team at .264/.410/.391/.801. Yes – he walked a bunch (27 times in 174 AB) and then stole 23 bases to lead the team (next closest had 10), which routinely turned his singles and free passes into doubles.
21-year-old Gabriel Noguera was promoted to the GCL later to get a taste of the states after posting a 0.87 ERA in 31 DSL innings. In Florida, he threw 20 more with a 2.66 ERA… with batters still unable to hit more than .200 off of him. Overall, he K’d 48 in 51.1 innings, though walked 25 as well.
Jefrey Ramos (18) didn’t stick around in the GCL for the full campaign (this is kind of a theme with these players, for obvious reasons). In fact, he saw 3 levels this season: DSL, GCL, and Danville. Combined, he played 83 games with 315 AB for a .266 average. His best work was in the GCL, hitting .325 and OPS’ing .930, hitting 6 homers (8 for the year).
19 year old Miguel De Jesus Jerez will be 20 next month, but was also promoted to a stateside assignment after throwing to a 1.00 ERA in 9 DSL innings and a 10:1 K/BB ratio. But he more than held his own in the Gulf Coast League: 39 innings, 1.38 ERA in 15 games with a 35:10 K/BB split. How many pitchers threw to a sub-1 WHIP in two different leagues?
He’s still just 19, but “Willson’s little brother” just might have a chance to be better. He hit .290 in 45 games/169AB with an .379 OBP and .811 OPS. He also can recognize a strike zone, walking 24 times and K’ing just 30. Contreras also had 4 jacks for Danville.
Javier is 21 now, and in 63 innings, he was getting hitters out: .253 average against and 50/22 K/BB split. He started 13 games for Danville… and in that league, an average of nearly 5 innings per outing nearly max’s out the mound time that coaches will permit.
It is thought that Pache might have been the chief bait for the A’s in the Braves’ tepid pursuit of Sonny Gray this Summer, but of course the A’s didn’t bite.
Bryse Wilson. Baseball America also chose to highlight him today… though their story is behind a paywall, sorry.
No Braves pitcher was more consistent than the 19-year-old Bryse Wilson.https://t.co/xKGXY5ViwK
At just 19 years old, the 2016 draftee cranked it up this season with 137 innings and 26 starts. But what’s more is evident in the numbers: 2.50 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 139K/37BB. He had just 4 “bad” outings (4, 4, 5, and 6 runs). Even so, all but one of those was still 5+ innings. In 8 starts, he gave up zero runs. There’s a fair chance that Bryse could start 2018 in Mississippi.
ATLANTA, GA – SEPTEMBER 9: Ozzie Albies #1 of the Atlanta Braves throws to first for the first out of the first inning in an MLB game against the Miami Marlins at SunTrust Park on September 9, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images) /
The Frogs honor could have gone to 2B Alay Lago (.303/.756 OPS), but Jackson gets recognized for turning around his career while also re-learning a position that the Mariners thought they didn’t need him to play. He gets this award for the Frogs, though ended the year at AA Mississippi. Combined, his slash line is .267/.328/.480/.808 over 96 games and 367 AB. His strikeouts were a bit elevation (106 vs. 23 BB), but so were his 19 homers.
Suddenly the organization is flush with interesting catching prospects.
There were more than a couple of pitchers that could have been named here, but Toussaint is the guy as he markedly reduced his walk rate in 2017 while striking out 167 over 145 innings. There’s still work to do for him (high-ish ERA, walked 5 per 9 innings when promoted to AA), but this represents at least a step in the right direction for the kid with the electric curveball.
MIAMI, FL – JULY 09: Ronald Acuna #24 of the Atlanta Braves and the World Team warms up prior to the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game at Marlins Park on July 9, 2017. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) /
Okay, you know Acuna was going to be here someplace… the only question being ‘which team he would represent’. Sure, he was better in AAA, but he was actually better than everybody, period. For the season: 139 games, 181 hits (most in the organization until Ender Inciarte passes him), .325/.374/.522/.896. Oh… and with 44 steals. Acuna is a lock to be the overall organizational position player of the year.
Mike Soroka (still just 20 years old… but that’s older than Acuna) was probably the Acuna of pitchers. 1.09 WHIP, 2.75 ERA with 154 innings, 125K, and just 34 walks. He will get a long look this Spring.
As far as the organizational pitcher of the year – it will probably come down to Bryse Wilson and Soroka.
Albies – through 150 major league AB – has actually been better with Atlanta than he was at Gwinnett… and that was after spotting the NL a week before he got his bat going. Either way, he’s still hitting… .285 in AAA, .293 at the moment in the majors (with an .828 OPS!). But he’s the reason than Acuna’s award came from Mississippi.
The kid from Lawrenceville has made it to the majors… and earned the trip. His minor league WHIP dropped notably to 1.14 this season in 115 innings, and though he’ll give up a run here and there (3.75 ERA in AAA), he did so grudgingly (.224 BAA).
At this time, Sims is working out of the bullpen, having already amassed 157 innings – just now over his career high for a season – but don’t think Sims is done as a starter just yet.
That’s a strong list and it’s great to see so many of the Braves’ better prospects having a solid year. Watch this weekend back at SunTrust when the team hands out their hardware… if it’s the first time you’ve seen some of these players, it probably won’t be the last.
