KUDOS to Benjamin Chase, Rates TOP 100(103) prospects FIINAL

[rico43]

The web site Tomahawk Take has a talented writer named Benjamin Chase. Since their site serves a different fuction that Chop County, I do not hesitate to endorse and admire the work he did to rate the Braves TOP 100 prospects as of November of 2017. Actually, it's 103 with some odd waffling in the 40s. With the pending threat of the loss of some prospects due to Coppy Gate, this kind of list serves a bigger purpose that usual.

LINK TO ARTICLE

1. Ronald Acuna, OF
2. Mike Soroka, RHP
3. Luiz Gohara, LHP
4. Kolby Allard, LHP
5. Kevin Maitan, SS
6. Kyle Wright, RHP
7. Max Fried, LHP
8. Austin Riley, 3B
9. Ian Anderson, RHP
10. Cristian Pache, OF
11. Alex Jackson, C
12. Touki Toussaint, RHP
13. Joey Wentz, LHP
14. Drew Waters, OF
15. Bryse Wilson, RHP
16. William Contreras, C
17. Patrick Weigel, RHP
18. Kyle Muller, LHP
19. A.J. Minter, LHP
20. Travis Demeritte 2B-3B
21. Dustin Peterson, OF
22. Yunior, Severino, 2B
23. Tyler Pike, LHP
24. Brett Cumberland, C
25. Matt Withrow, RHP
26. J.C. Encarnacion, 3B
27. Isranel Wilson, OF
28. Tucker Davidson, LHP
29. Yefri Del Rosario, RHP
30. Anfernee Seymour, CF
31. Lucas Herbert, C
32. Freddy Tarnok, RHP
33. Huascar Ynoa, RHP
34. Akeel Morris, RHP
35. Corbin Clouse, LHP
36. Jared James, OF
37. Jacob Webb, RHP
38. Carlos Castro, 1B
39. Yenci Pena, SS
40. Thomas Burrows, LHP
41. Ricardo Sanchez, LHP
42. Derian Cruz, 2B-SS
43. Ray-Patrick Didder, OF
44. Josh Graham, RHP
44a. Braulio Vasquez, INF
45. Dilmer Mejia, LHP
45a. Leudys Baez, OF
46. Jefrey Ramos, OF
46a. (!) Kade Sivicque
47. Joey Meneses, 1B
48. Drew Lugbauer, C-3B
49. Jonathan Morales, C
50. Alay Lago, 2B
51. Alejandro Salazar, SS
52. Justin Ellison, OF
53. Chase Johnson-Mullins, LHP
54. Juan Contreras, RHP
55. Devan Watts, RHP
56. Troy Bacon, RHP
57. Yoeli Lopez, OF
58. Livan Soto, SS
59. Luis Valenzuela, INF
60. Jaseel de la Cruz, RHP
61. Tyler Neslony, 1B-OF
62. Phil Phiefer, LHP
63. Adam McCreery, LHP
64. Connor Lien, OF
65. Carlos Franco, 1B-3B
66. Matt Custred, RHP
67. Brad Keller, OF
68. Jeremy Walker, RHP
69. Brandon White, RHP
70. Drew Harrington, LHP
71. Juan Carlos Negret, OF
72. Jon Kennedy, LHP
73. Braxton Davidson, OF
74. Joseph Odom, C
75. Jaret Hellinger, LHP
76. Caleb Dirks, RHP
77. Gary Schwartz, OF
78. Wes Parsons, RHP
79. Luis Mejia, 3B
80. Dylan Moore, SS
81. Austin Bush, 1B
82. Kevin Josephina, 2B
83. Sean McLaughlin, RHP
84. Bruce Zimmerman, LHP
85. Raysheandell (Shean) Michel, OF
86. Ryan Lawlor, LHP
87. Zach Rice, LHP
88. Tanner Murphy, C
89. Manuel Juan, 1B
90. Alan Rangel, RHP
91. Henry Quintero, OF
92. Cutter Dyals, LHP
93. Antonio Sucre, OF
94. Hayden Deal, LHP
95. Miguel Jerez, LHP
96. Chad Sobotka, RHP
97. Filyer Sanchez, LHP
98. Hagen Owenby, C-1B
99. Omar Obregon, INF
100. Troy Conyers, LHP

[msstate7]

Top 100? Damn

[rico43]

Top 100? Damn

That was my first reaction also. Each one has an up to date bio as well. I'm impressed as hell.

[Preacher]

Wow!!

That’s dedication!

[Preacher]

Time to nitpick it.

Can’t belive he has Quintero at #91; he’s at least 73rd.

[Managuarantano's Volunteers]

Time to nitpick it.

Can’t belive he has Quintero at #91; he’s at least 73rd.

Isranel Wilson is 20 spots too high.

Also good work.

[rico43]

Relievers Adam McCreery, Jon Kennedy will be fast-tracked. Close to having one or both in my top 30. Right now, I'm holding off until the other shoe drops. Afraid we're losing Drew Waters as well as much of the 2017 international signing class.

[Chico]

Good Job...That takes a lot of work.

I'm kind of surprised Michael Mader, Jordan Rodgers, or Landon Hughes didn't make the cut but that's an extensive list

[biggentleben]

Good Job...That takes a lot of work.

I'm kind of surprised Michael Mader, Jordan Rodgers, or Landon Hughes didn't make the cut but that's an extensive list

Stay tuned. They're all mentioned in the post tonight....

[biggentleben]

So, first off, thanks for the kind words. This is my third year doing the top 100 for the Braves, previously with Tomahawk Take, and now with Call To The Pen. I'm also an editor with the Twins site on FanSided, and I put together a top 100 there. It took a LONG time to build up enough contacts I trust to counter all the guys I can't see on milb.tv, but frankly, I watch that like most people breath at night. Many summer nights I zip through 2-3 games on there, reviewing prospects with Notepad open as I throw up any thoughts as I watch a game.

I'll be starting a series on top 10s for each team this week before heading to my top 125 just after the first of the year along with positional rankings in January as well. Needless to say, the upcoming top 10s for each team is about as much time as I'll spend this offseason NOT writing about Braves prospects!!

[biggentleben]

Relievers Adam McCreery, Jon Kennedy will be fast-tracked. Close to having one or both in my top 30. Right now, I'm holding off until the other shoe drops. Afraid we're losing Drew Waters as well as much of the 2017 international signing class.

Their stuff is such that it's hard to have them quite that high. Also, there are just a ton of relievers right now. Some very, very good guys spent all year in Rome (usually starting pitchers and position guys spend a full year at Rome as part of the Braves development, but not relievers) simply because of the depth of relievers. A guy like Thomas Burrows should have been pushed quickly, but he wasn't, primarily due to the lack of room in upper level bullpens.

On the punishment, I have a guy who has gone on to work with MLB's main offices in New York. He's specifically said he cannot comment on specifics on the investigation, but he gave me one thing when I sent him my list - he told me that I wouldn't have to worry about losing anyone on that list, based on their initial investigation. That doesn't mean that they aren't going to find more, but that is quite good news!

[chop2chip]

Glad to have you on board Ben. Hope you stick around.

Quick question, please don't take this as a slight as I am genuinely curious, why 100? Seems to me that any player past 30 in even the deepest system is about as much of big league prospect as I am. What value does your analysis bring to the average fan to read through the last three quarters of players on your list?

[biggentleben]

The first year I did it, Jose Ramirez was #90, Camargo was #48, Whalen was #45, and all of those guys have now hit the majors. Guys like Withrow (79), Chase Johnson-Mullins (76), Weigel (72), Minter (47), Didder (42 before Rome), Povse (39), Pache (35), and William Contreras (34 after first DSL year - I've legit been on him from the beginning) were all guys who are still prospects, but were not mentioned by anyone that year and now have put themselves in a spot where they have either moved up significantly or gained some significant note in the system: https://tomahawktake.com/2016/10/09/...ast-years-100/

As much as anything, it allows the average fan to get a chance to read names that they may begin to hear much more the next year. The argument that any particular player has minimal chance to make it is just as true from 1-5 as it is from 95-100. I will tell you that there is no such thing as prospect ordering done by teams, but every team has an idea of how they'd rate another team's catchers, middle infielders, outfielders, etc., and there's some level of idea the order if forced to choose between outfielder and catcher, but typically that's not something that a lot of time is spent on. The teams often have guys that we as fans never hear about from the prospect websites that they consider as more premier trade targets than any top 20 guy on a site's list. A longer list like this gives a chance for a guy that another team comes calling for to be highlighted and noted.

More than anything, readers enjoy lists. You'll see tonight, but I put together another 30ish names for "names to know" along with the top 100. Frankly, there are a handful of guys in that grouping this year that wouldn't surprise me if they made the big league club in 2018. The Braves' system has that much depth that it's worth taking the time to review at that level right now. I did the same with the Twins, and the guys I profiled were at lower levels, but the talent level was huge. Frankly, Huascar Ynoa ranked better with the Braves than he would have with the Twins as hard as that may be to believe.

[Managuarantano's Volunteers]

Hope you know I was messing around. Awesome insights and enjoyed the list.

[CyYoung31]

On the punishment, I have a guy who has gone on to work with MLB's main offices in New York. He's specifically said he cannot comment on specifics on the investigation, but he gave me one thing when I sent him my list - he told me that I wouldn't have to worry about losing anyone on that list, based on their initial investigation. That doesn't mean that they aren't going to find more, but that is quite good news!

Awesome. And awesome work.

[Julio3000]

Top 200 or GTFO.

[mqt]

Glad to have you on board Ben. Hope you stick around.

Quick question, please don't take this as a slight as I am genuinely curious, why 100? Seems to me that any player past 30 in even the deepest system is about as much of big league prospect as I am. What value does your analysis bring to the average fan to read through the last three quarters of players on your list?

Have you seen some of the players in the 30-50 range on his list? They're not knocking down the door or anything, but they're real prospects still.


Also, welcome Ben! Always enjoyed your commentary on TC, hope you stay somewhat active!

[CyYoung31]

Top 200 or GTFO.

Are you trying to double your membership fee?

[biggentleben]

Have you seen some of the players in the 30-50 range on his list? They're not knocking down the door or anything, but they're real prospects still.


Also, welcome Ben! Always enjoyed your commentary on TC, hope you stay somewhat active!

As much as I can. With two sites currently to edit, it gets a little hairy, but eventually I'll pare it down to just the general baseball site (and a day job and 5 foster/adoption kids), so I'll try to keep peeking in every so often!

TC and I don't get along so much anymore, mainly because of the "lead" minor league guy there. Funny part is, a few of the guys I chat with most on Twitter are the rest of his prospect team, and I'm not even at the "competing site" anymore, but he's got his own stuff to deal with, which is why I don't post there anymore - I go there for Matt's articles, mostly, unsigned in.

[biggentleben]

Top 200 or GTFO.

Careful...someone joked about that with me last year. I produced my list of 265ish players that I considered for the list and had ordered. Many of them do get tossed aside right away for a host of reasons, but even a lot of the guys that will be in the post tonight (9 eastern will be a post with the entire top 105 (because I lost 5 guys in the course of a computer change but it had them "struck through" on my list, so I didn't realize it until I started getting deeper into the list - all 5 were top 50 guys) in a list format along with roughly 30 guys that are "others to know".