Atlanta Braves: Keith Law with Interesting Ranking of Prospects

Prospect rankings continue to come out and Keith Law of The Athletic had some interesting choices when ranking the Atlanta Braves farm system. 

There have been several prospect rankings released over the last month and just about all of them have Michael Harris II as the Atlanta Braves top prospect.

Many in the industry believe Harris has the chance to be a five-tool player if the power comes along.

But that’s not enough for Keith Law of The Athletic to put him over Cristian Pache in his ranking of the Atlanta Braves farm system (subscription required).

Everyone does their prospect rankings a little differenty and I’m sure has legitimate reasons for why they rank a certain prospect ahead of another. I did my top 10 strictly based on upside, but it seems Law did something else.

He still has Pache with the top spot and ranked 38th overall despite a poor showing in 2021. Meanwhile, he has Harris ranked second in the Braves’ system and 61st overall.

Shea Langeliers is the only other prospect in his top 100 coming in at 80.

I’m certainly not giving up on Pache as a prospect and have gone on record saying I could live with him getting another shot at center to start 2022 after he ended the 2021 season hitting the ball well at Gwinnett.

However, it’s really hard to argue that the upside of Pache is higher than that of Harris right now.

I was happy to see he was really high on Freddy Tarnok ranking him sixth. It will be a big 2022 for the right-handed pitcher, but I believe he has number two starter potential.

The most questionable ranking of all is putting Spencer Strider at 12th behind the likes of Braden Shewmake and Tucker Davidson.

He basically said that if he develops a third pitch he’ll be a league-average starter.

I just don’t see how you can come to that conclusion when he has a 70-grade fastball. He has the most upside of any starter in the Braves system and should at the very least be in the top eight.

And if he doesn’t become a top of the rotation starter, there is little question about his ability to be an elite reliever or closer.

But Law is known for some wacky rankings and saying weird stuff on Twitter — I’m pretty sure I blocked him at one point because the things he was saying were so ridiculous.

He does have a lot of contacts in the industry and I believe his sources are good, I also think he does stuff like this to stir up conversation — and to that, job well done.