Braves in the AZL

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Why rush these guys? I put little stock in the Arizona Fall League stats. I worry more about guys getting injured. Riley has plenty to work on. I'd start him at Mississippi. AAA has become somewhat of an elephants' graveyard with a ton of older guys who still project as 24th or 25th guys on a roster and are hanging on for their dear baseball life. It makes little difference (at least to me) for development purposes to put young guys in AAA as some sort of proving ground. It's more about total minor league ABs with at least a year at AA or above in my eyes.

I have no problem with pushing the right young arms (Allard, Soroka, Wright) a little aggressively and having them spend time at the AAA level for that exact reason - these guys are going to be a LOT more selective than the hitters you'll see at the lower levels. I like having them make at least a handful of starts at Gwinnett so they're not completely shocked when people start spitting on their breaking balls when they're not even close to strikes. I do think it's better for hitters to spend more time at each level because it takes so much longer to have them develop pitch recognition and a solid approach. As mentioned elsewhere, Dansby was likely promoted for other reasons, and it created an obvious speed bump for him - but I think he's proving he's capable of making the needed adjustments (even though he's "on the clock" while doing so). We're likely to see Albies have an easier time because he spent more time against more advanced pitching in Mississippi and Gwinnett, but we're also likely to see Acuna be the type of exception to the rule that Andruw was - he simply advances to the next level and steps up as the quality of competition around him improves. This is the reason that you simply have to let some things be decided by your eyes.

Riley and Jackson are certainly worth getting excited about, but neither need to be pushed at all (IMO), and there's no reason either should start 2018 any higher than Mississippi - and if the plan is to keep Jackson behind the plate defensively, one could argue he probably should spend ALL of 2018 at AA no matter how well he performs. If his bat continues improving and you want to push him, that's fine, but he doesn't need to be behind the plate if you do - EVERY Catcher needs to spend much more time developing his thought process, game-calling, and defensive skills than anyone else.