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Atlanta Braves midseason top 50 prospects – A-ball

By Benjamin Chase

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FL - MARCH 03: The glove, batting gloves, and bat of Matt Lipka #86 of the Atlanta Braves it on the field before the game against the New York Mets on March, 3 2014 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. (Photo by Rob Foldy/Getty Images)
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FL - MARCH 03: The glove, batting gloves, and bat of Matt Lipka #86 of the Atlanta Braves it on the field before the game against the New York Mets on March, 3 2014 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. (Photo by Rob Foldy/Getty Images) /
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Atlanta Braves
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FL – MARCH 03: The glove, batting gloves, and bat of Matt Lipka #86 of the Atlanta Braves it on the field before the game against the New York Mets on March, 3 2014 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. (Photo by Rob Foldy/Getty Images) /

The Atlanta Braves have an impressive farm system still, even after a few graduations. Who are the top 50 prospects in the system as we hit midseason?

Welcoming Benjamin Chase back to Tomahawk Take means that you will get plenty of minor league coverage of your Atlanta Braves on site. We are going to open with a midseason top 50 list, but this will be a different method than you’re likely used to on other places that put together a mid-season list.

Rather than present a list number by number with quick profiles of each number, we will be presenting the profiles of all those players who are seriously considered for the top 50, right now over 100 players in total, and then on Friday, we will cover the list itself. Here’s what the preliminary schedule will look like:

Monday – AAA and MLB prospects
Tuesday – AA prospects
Thursday AM (due to connection issues!) – low-A and high-A prospects
Thursday PM – Rookie ball prospects
Friday – Top 50 list

We will start with a couple guys whose gloves got them in the Braves organization but have a chance to be much more:

Riley Delgado, SS

Delgado was a 9th round pick out of Middle Tennessee State in 2017, known for his exceptional glovework up the middle. He really only had that glove work to hang his hat on in his draft year, as he hit .217/.280/.241, but the refrain that began to come out of a few scouts this spring when asking about the Braves 2017 draft class was that Delgado was one of “Chipper’s boys”. A recent interview with Brian Bridges confirmed that Chipper had an eye on Delgado during draft workouts and was impressed then.

Having the organization’s most recent Hall of Famer and face of the franchise is typically a good omen, and Delgado has seemingly cashed in already in 2018. He has a short, compact swing that likely won’t produce much for home run power, but he sprays the ball throughout the field with consistency, and that’s led to a .320/.374/.386 line across both A-ball levels this year offensively while still flashing the leather up the middle as wxpected. He’s not a guy who will be a fantasy darling with home runs or steals, but he has laced 20 doubles this season, and his sub-10% strikeout rate and lower than 2/1 K/BB rate is a very positive sign that this is not a mirage.

AJ Graffanino, SS

The last name is certainly familiar to Atlanta Braves fans due to his father coming up as a member of the Atlanta Braves in the midst of the division title run era of Braves baseball. Viewed as one of the top 3-5 shortstop defenders in the entire 2018 draft, Graffanino was the Braves 8th round selection this June out of the University of Washington.

Graffanino’s big league father and exposure to the game gives him tremendous natural instincts, and thus far, those instincts have outplayed any pitching he’s come up against, hitting .373/.395/.427 in 20 games, but he is known primarily for his glovework, so it will be intriguing to see how the rest of the season plays out for AJ with the bat. Regardless, his work with the leather will keep him on the field plenty for the Braves for the near future.

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