Fangraphs did a large update to their 2019 rankings today. Here's the list:
https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/...0000&pagenum=0
They wrote a long story accompanying the update with some notes. Here's the main section that impacts the Braves (
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/updating...ft-rankings/):
"Some preferences in the early picks are becoming clearer. It still seems like Adley Rutschman at one (Orioles) and Andrew Vaughn at two (Royals) are the two easier ones to project with what we know at this point (the full draft order and slots can be found here). Rutschman’s lead at the top spot is still significant, so it would take a major injury or an uglier-than-expected medical to make Vaughn a real option at the first pick for Baltimore. The buzz is that the White Sox are leaning heavily to college prospects for the third pick, with Nick Lodolo in the mix along with the next tier of college hitters, which can be ranked any way at this point (UNLV SS Bryson Stott, North Carolina 1B Michael Busch, Vanderbilt RF J.J. Bleday, Arizona State LF Hunter Bishop, Missouri RF Kameron Misner is the way we have them lined up right now). There’s similar buzz that Miami is also looking hard at college options and that Lodolo is in their mix. Things get a bit hazier beyond that and also depend on the picks at three and four. The general feeling is that this top 10 isn’t strong enough to make every club just take the best player available, so there’s some chatter that clubs picking outside the top five may take a money saver with the first pick and move that money to float a prep prospect to their second pick. That strategy may be more fraught than normal this year with Arizona in possession of a $16 million bonus pool and set to pick 16th, 26th, 33rd, and 34th."
That 16th pick for Arizona could really hurt us trying to float someone down to 21, but if two prep players slip because of money, I'd think we are probably positioned second best behind Arizona to get one of them. None of the other teams loaded with picks (like Arizona) has a pick before 21.
It seems like the ideal scenario right now is to take a college bat from the Bleday, Misner, Bishop group with our 9th pick and try to save some money with it (as Kiley mentioned), and then try to get a high schooler like Matthew Allan, Brennan Malone, Brett Baty, etc. at 21.