John Sickels Updates His Braves Prospects List

B

bamfin21

Creepy Lurking Stalker
John Sickels of Minor League Ball has updated his Top 2- Prospects in the Braves organization to reflect the trades with Arizona and LAA.

Here are his grades:

A: Dansby Swanson, SS

A-/B+: Sean Newcomb, LHP

B+: Aaron Blair, RHP; Hector Olivera, 3B-LF; Kolby Allard, LHP; Ozzie Albies, SS;

B: Austin Riley, 3B; Lucas Sims, RHP; Mike Soroka, RHP;

B/B-: Touki Toussaint, RHP; Mallex Smith, OF

B-: Tyrell Jenkins, RHP; Zachary Bird, RHP

B-/C+: Braxton Davidson, OF; Max Fried, LHP; Ronald Acuna, OF

C+: John Gant, RHP; Chris Ellis, RHP; Manny Banuelos LHP, Josh Graham, RHP; Juan Yepez, 1B-3B; Lucas Herbert, C

C+/C: Rio Ruiz, 3B; Andrew Thurman, RHP

He explains what the grades mean and gives a decent scouting blurb on each player. Personally, Sickels is my favorite prospect writer. He had a list out a few days before the Simmons trade and updated it on Sunday.
 
I like these rankings. I think Touki tends to get put too high on a lot of lists just based purely on stuff. He has potential but his risk limits his placement for me. After guys like Sims and Soroka and before guys like Jenkins is about right.
 
By far the most aggressive ranking I've seen of Graham. I like it though. Really intrigued to see how he does this year.
 
That's a good ranking. I see Fried really moving up that list if he is healthy this year. We should add several more to it as well after July.
 
I think he has Albies too low, but yes, this is a good ranking. Touki, Fried, Acuna, and Ruiz could be in for big jumps.
 
striker42 said:
I like these rankings. I think Touki tends to get put too high on a lot of lists just based purely on stuff. He has potential but his risk limits his placement for me. After guys like Sims and Soroka and before guys like Jenkins is about right.
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His BB rate concerns me. A whole lot.
 
zitothebrave said:
His BB rate concerns me. A whole lot.
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Me too. He's gotta get those under control. I have hope based on how raw he is and how teams sometimes take pitches away from players and give them back later. But he needs to take a step forward this year.
 
zitothebrave said:
His BB rate concerns me. A whole lot.
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I think it's hard to judge a guy in low A for stats, even for peripherals. Without being able to fully utilize his curveball, something both the Braves and Dbacks wanted from him, we have no idea how it affected his feel for the game overall, pitch progression for each batter, etc. Don't get me wrong, his command isn't great at the moment and he's super raw, but a 6 BB/9 doesn't seem right.
 
praeceps93 said:
I think it's hard to judge a guy in low A for stats, even for peripherals. Without being able to fully utilize his curveball, something both the Braves and Dbacks wanted from him, we have no idea how it affected his feel for the game overall, pitch progression for each batter, etc. Don't get me wrong, his command isn't great at the moment and he's super raw, but a 6 BB/9 doesn't seem right.
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My concern is that he's struggling to repeat his mechanics. I'll leave that to the experts though. I fully admit I haven't seen much of him aside from a few games.
 
zitothebrave said:
My concern is that he's struggling to repeat his mechanics. I'll leave that to the experts though. I fully admit I haven't seen much of him aside from a few games.
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That's normal for a 19 year old and, honestly, a better reason for control issues than mental issues. You can fix mechanical issues. The mental stuff is much more difficult.
 
chop2chip said:
That's normal for a 19 year old and, honestly, a better reason for control issues than mental issues. You can fix mechanical issues. The mental stuff is much more difficult.
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My concern is that his mechanical stuff getting fixed. Often it's done via tweaks, which can be fine, or could lead to more long term issues. I just have a few reservations.
 
I saw Touki twice last year. One good/one bad. His good start, his command was on. BUT...he was wild enough that everyone behind the plate was scared to death the ball would get away. I think he only walked two that night...the other time, he was wild beyond belief. I would absolutely say that if he were to put it together, he'd be up there with our other higher rated pitchers. He has that kind of ability.
 
cajunrevenge said:
I dont understand how Olivera gets a high grade anymore. Best case scenario right now is he becomes Prado in LF.
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Safety is a big reason. But people are still high on his bat. I woulnd't compare him to Prado. I'd call him a very very poor man's Ryan Braun.
 
I don't get the high rankings for Olivera either. There's a good chance he ends up being Cody Asche except old. He'll turn 31 right at the start of the season. At best he's not improving and there's a good chance his game is actually in decline. If he was 24, I could understand the ranking. Considering the age and the risk of him not transitioning well to MLB and not being the player he used to be after the injuries and long layoff, I just don't see it.

We have to remember that Touki came late to pitching. As such, his mechanics being a mess isn't surprising. Honestly, he probably could have used another season in rookie ball. Moving him to low A was aggressive by the D-Backs and when we got him you don't want to demote him for fear of destroying his confidence. He should probably repeat Rome this year, at the very least start there, but it wouldn't surprise me if they push him up to high A. They've been pretty aggressive with Sims even though he struggled repeating his delivery and that has hopefully finally paid off.

Toussaint is all ceiling right now. He's a huge risk of flameout but he has the ceiling to be one of the game's most dominant pitchers.
 
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