Very pleased with how our system did this year

P

Preacher

Where's My Cup of Coffee?
This is probably a better post for sometime in the off-season, but was just pondering the future of Touki after seeing his latest start, and overall -- I love what happened in our system this year with our younger kids.

Obviously there's never going to be a year where every player develops and does well - and the Braves certainly had a their share of guys fall off (Bird, Blair, Braxton) but overall I think this rebuild is really trending up.

- The two big position players Swanson/Albies did great, Albies tore up AA and Swanson is already in the majors.
- Allard and Soroka lived up to the immense hype and Soroka probably exceeded it.
- Riley made some major adjustments and is certainly on track.
- The young pitchers from this years draft all pitched very well.
- A couple lower rated guys like Wigel/Povse made HUGE strides.
- Several young positional players from the international market made strong first impressions stateside with Ventura/Pache/Cruz -- also Acuna when healthy continues to look like a stud.
- Intriguing relief prospects everywhere, headlined by guys like Minter/Clouse/Morris and many others.
- Mid level starters progressed through the system, either up to AA/AAA or even the bigs with guys like Whalen/Gant/Ellis....
- Interesting in-season additions of Demerritte/Seymour/Dylan Moore/Mader
- Although they won't be seen until next year -- the org added about 8 very high level international free agents.
- Two great bounce-back performances from Fried and Touki; one returning from injury and the other harnessing his control. Those are two potential studs.
- Finally a breakout performance from DPete and very solid job by Ruiz in AAA.

And that's just off the top of my head..... all in all -- a great year for the system IMO.
 
I think also we've had some performances at the major league level that have very positive implications for the future.

Freddie Freeman is the player we have made the biggest financial commitment to. There were some big question marks coming into this season after his hand injury. I think it is fair to say that he has taken a significant step forward as a power hitter this year, with career highs in home runs and extra base hits.

Inciarte has been everything we could have hoped for. He's an elite defender at a premium position. And his bat will play at the top of the lineup. He has a lot of value to the franchise given we have him under contractual control for four more years.

Teheran is another player we have under control through 2020. He's also bounced back from a disappointing 2015 and some uncertainty about his health. Between Freeman, Inciarte and Teheran we have a nice young nucleus to build around.

I'm also encouraged from what I've seen from Kemp, Flowers and Castro in recent months.
 
Mallex Smith did not disappoint either. He is a notoriously slow starter and true to form he started slow in the majors. But as usual showed us flashes of a really solid option. I am excited to watch how he develops.
 
Horrible year all the way around, no one starting pitcher stepped it up and proved that they were worthy of being a top of the rotation starter let alone an elite ace. No hitters came to the forefront that scream potential franchise type changing player.

But we do have a bunch of MOR and bullpen fodder and average positional players so I guess there's that.
 
Millwood1Hitter said:
Horrible year all the way around, no one starting pitcher stepped it up and proved that they were worthy of being a top of the rotation starter let alone an elite ace. No hitters came to the forefront that scream potential franchise type changing player.

But we do have a bunch of MOR and bullpen fodder and average positional players so I guess there's that.
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Yeah, Freddie breaking out into an elite power hitter and one of the best overall first basemen in the league sure was average.
 
The only prospect I think took any kind of a step back at all this year is Davidson. You could argue Newcomb took an ever-so-slight step back, but I think he basically just stayed where he was.

Almost all of them took a step forward.
 
smootness said:
The only prospect I think took any kind of a step back at all this year is Davidson. You could argue Newcomb took an ever-so-slight step back, but I think he basically just stayed where he was.

Almost all of them took a step forward.
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I don't think Davidson has ever taken a step forward... IMO, he's just not even really a prospect anymore. I guess he can still figure it out, but I don't see it.
 
smootness said:
The only prospect I think took any kind of a step back at all this year is Davidson. You could argue Newcomb took an ever-so-slight step back, but I think he basically just stayed where he was.

Almost all of them took a step forward.
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Aaron Blair is the other big one that fell flat along with Braxton.
 
smootness said:
The only prospect I think took any kind of a step back at all this year is Davidson. You could argue Newcomb took an ever-so-slight step back, but I think he basically just stayed where he was.

Almost all of them took a step forward.
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if you are talking about top 30 prospects, I would agree. Bird (who was/is in our top 30) was supposed to bounce back with his velocity coming back, but he has been horrible. I really hope he gets one more year to see if there is something there or just another hard, wild thrower.
 
Preacher said:
Aaron Blair is the other big one that fell flat along with Braxton.
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That's true.

I don't think Wisler took a step back, just a young kid dealing with the majors. Also, I don't know if he was really considered a prospect anymore to start the year.
 
Positive stuff from the minors. Freeman has had a great year. I really, really hope his prime is not wasted on terrible baseball. Our young pitchers have a ways to go.
 
bravesnumberone said:
Positive stuff from the minors. Freeman has had a great year. I really, really hope his prime is not wasted on terrible baseball. Our young pitchers have a ways to go.
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If anything, he make the middle of our order look a whole lot better. It makes an Inciarte-Albies-Freeman combo look REALLY good.
 
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