2024 Minor League Thread
- Thread starter 50PoundHead
- Start date
To be fair, the Braves minor leagues have been pretty successful at turning out position players. I hope they don’t start ruining them now.
Deester11
Well-known member
I agree to a point. But I will say that whatever the philosophy has been for 2 years plus has left a lot to be desired. We've gone to a no contact...let it fly..sell out type swing thing. It's not working.To be fair, the Braves minor leagues have been pretty successful at turning out position players. I hope they don’t start ruining them now.
jpx7
Very Flirtatious, but Doubts What Love Is.
Would he bet on it?
Deester11
Well-known member
Hmm. Interesting choice of words. Swing and miss applies to the majority of the hitters results in the system. Good thing the pitching prospects are coming along.
It's indeed bleak right now. But after the success they had from Acuna through Harris I can't be too upset right now.
To be fair, we haven't drafted a hitting prospect inside the top 2 rounds since 2019. So we have really just been throwing darts at the draft board when it comes to position players in the draft recently.
Given the relative success of Elder, AJSS, Waldrep, Swellenbach, Owens, and Mejia as strong prospects and viable starting options long term, I would hope we focus more on hitting early this year.
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50PoundHead
Hessmania Forever
Most of that happened under the previous management teams in terms of drafting and instruction. Harris is really the only position player solely under the current management team who has done much. I'll give you half of Contreras, signed by the previous team but largely developed by the current staff. Too early to tell on Grissom, but he struggled at the big league level last season and is off to a terrible start this season. Albies, Swanson, and Acuna were already in (or very close to) the major leagues when the current staff took over with Albies and Acuna pre-dating Coppolella.
To Deester's point, it was only one game and the standard deviation from the mean level of talent in the Florida Complex League is vast, but the Braves' hitters struck out 15 times in 21 outs (7-inning game) on Monday. Got two hits. Like both the A and A+ teams, contact appears to be a big issue.
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Southcack77
Well-known member
They spend the bulk of their picks on pitching.
They've only recently rejoined the international signing game and likely have had to rebuild that completely.
And it's rare to hit on a whole lot of guys in an entire draft.
Also analytics favor three true outcome position players.
Southcack77
Well-known member
Also they've picked at the bottom of the draft for pretty much the entire tenure of the current GM.
And consistently found players to help the club any way.
And consistently found players to help the club any way.
Deester11
Well-known member
Where they pick has no bearing on the contact issues that permeate throughout the organization. We all know they are a pitching first organization. I've watched the minors for too many years to count and the issue is not the missing of players in a baseball draft. That happens a lot. The philosophy was the question.
50 stated it pretty well about the lower levels. There seems to be regression with regards to contact. I'm not sure I've seen it this rough in many years. I guess the simple term is that offense is down across baseball. But it seems excessive to me.
Langeliers is doing well this year Justyn Henry Malloy just made the majors with Detroit too.
Deester11
Well-known member
Shea is power and defense, nothing more. Malloy is the closest thing to an all around hitter since 2021. We've drafted 29 hitters since then. There are names you know : Baldwin, Alvarez and McCabe. McCabe is INCOMPLETE due to injury. The aforementioned 2 have been disappointing considering they are thought to be the two best positional prospects the Braves have. The Braves should draft pitchers only and trade for bats if this is the outcome.
I say all this to say, in watching the minors I'm failing to see the development piece. I haven't looked at other teams to see their success rate with hitters but this is interesting to me. Oh well...dead horse has been beaten.
I do have hopes for the international group behind Guanipa. Benitez is lost. WHEN Tavarez and Benitez and Glod make contact it is loud. But they're never advancing with 37% strikeout rates. At this rate, they'll never make enough for it to make a difference. Guanipa looks different. Love his swing. Shrugs.
Southcack77
Well-known member
Sure it does. The level of talent at bottom of rounds is lower than at the top of rounds.
In regards to Shea, he's been worth 1.3 bWAR so far. Even if he's only power and defense, that's pretty great production for a catcher.
And while we've drafted 29 hitters since Malloy, the vast majority of them have been college hitters in the middle to late rounds of the draft, and about half that group has been college seniors, which typically are perceived as having very low ceilings. So it shouldn't be all too surprising that we aren't seeing much production from this group as a whole.
The 2022 class has made a little noise. Nacho Alvarez shows promise and was a pre-season top 100 prospect. Drake Baldwin shows promise as well as a power hitting catcher with solid defensive skills. E.J. Exposito is showing signs of life this year. And as previously noted David McCabe is incomplete, but he showed promise before the injury. Sure they aren't your typical top prospect caliber guys, but that's at least 4 position players drafted in the middle rounds that are promising.
2023 draft will largely be dependent on Isaiah Drake, as we basically sold out the rest of the draft to sign him. But given how young he is, it will likely be another year or 2 before we start seeing fruit yield.
The Braves just went on an insane run of promoting offensive players and having them work out to not be just good but great. They’ve drafted mainly pitching recently, and almost exclusively pitching in the top rounds the last few years. It’s far from shocking that the farm is offensively challenged at the moment, and I think it has little or nothing to do with their dev strategy.
Deester11
Well-known member
Well that's a take, but sorry, it is surprising. No one is saying we haven't grown hitters..long contracts yada yada, but if you're saying a hitting philosophy is not important....I'll just respectfully disagree. Their strategy is very questionable. College or prep.