Five years later: John Sickels top 20 braves prospects for 2019

Krgrecw

**NOT ACTUALLY RACIST
Since it’s the offseason. How do you guys think this list looks five years later?

https://www.minorleagueball.com/2018/10/29/18040366/atlanta-braves-top-20-prospects-2019



1) Ian Anderson, RHP, Grade A-: Age 20, first round pick from high school in New York in 2016, posted 2.49 ERA in 119 innings between High-A and Double-A, with 142/49 K/BB, only 87 hits and two homers allowed all year; plus fastball, curveball and change-up have all developed nicely, throws strikes, no deterioration in performance after being promoted; in my opinion he has the best combination of upside and polish of all the Braves pitching prospects; ETA late 2019.
 
Kind of crazy how almost everyone on the list has made it to MLB, almost none of them are still in the organization, and they're almost all mid
 
“Austin Riley: B+”

“William Contreras: C”

Lol. Yeah, I know they both had huge red flags coming up, but they’ve both turned into studs.
 
The difference in the hit rates of Braves pitching prospects and hitting prospects couldn’t have been much larger than it ended up being. We should appreciate how well all the hitters turned out more than we do.
 
Soroka and Wright both looked like studs before their injuries. Sucks what happened to them.

Anderson looked like a solid MOR before his injury issues crept up. Still time left to get back on track. Ynoa also with injury issues, but was a bit of an enigma before the injury. Will be interesting to watch as he comes back.
 
I remember Ynoa as the guy who was good enough that you kind of had to include him in your future rotation projections, but doing so felt a little dirty.
 
If I can rant for a second here I will never understand why "prospects" like Greyson Jenista are considered prospects. Dude was 21 raking at Low A. That's not impressive that's the expectation. I know there's been players really old for their league that eventually went on to be good players but the hit rate on them is lower than soft tossing lefty prospects given the Glavine comp kiss of death. 21 isn't old for Low A by average player age but it's old for a prospect at that level.
 
I remember Ynoa as the guy who was good enough that you kind of had to include him in your future rotation projections, but doing so felt a little dirty.


Ynoa was a very underrated prospect imo. He was a better prospect than Kyle Wright imo.
 
“Austin Riley: B+”

“William Contreras: C”

Lol. Yeah, I know they both had huge red flags coming up, but they’ve both turned into studs.


B+ isn't an insult to Riley. And for Contreras, catching prospects are notoriously hard to predict. Probably didn't think he would stick at Catcher.
 
Riley far outperformed his projections. Just one of those good/not great prospects who ended up hitting their 1% of outcomes.I doubt even someone like thethe envisioned him becoming a 6+ WAR 3B.
 
I think the only way he has exceeded expectations is defensively. I think .270-.280/.350/.525-.550 was exactly what he was projected to be. If you average out his last 3 years that exactly what we got. I think peoples expectations dropped when he didnt immediately hit the ground running in the majors. He didnt take off until 24 which is the same age Kelenic is this year btw.
 
I think the only way he has exceeded expectations is defensively. I think .270-.280/.350/.525-.550 was exactly what he was projected to be. If you average out his last 3 years that exactly what we got. I think peoples expectations dropped when he didnt immediately hit the ground running in the majors. He didnt take off until 24 which is the same age Kelenic is this year btw.

I think very few prospects project to be what Riley is offensively, and Riley wasn’t one of them.
 
Riley far outperformed his projections. Just one of those good/not great prospects who ended up hitting their 1% of outcomes.I doubt even someone like thethe envisioned him becoming a 6+ WAR 3B.

I was VERY high on Riley as a prospect. Soured a bit his first couple of seasons (he just looked so bad for sustained stretches') but early on I thought he could be a dominant hitter which is basically what we are seeing now. The one thing I always banked on was how he improved at every stop and when it clicked it was over.
 
I was VERY high on Riley as a prospect. Soured a bit his first couple of seasons (he just looked so bad for sustained stretches') but early on I thought he could be a dominant hitter which is basically what we are seeing now. The one thing I always banked on was how he improved at every stop and when it clicked it was over.

So was I, but I’m self aware enough to know that my irrational exuberance has a tendency to overwhelm common sense. So I knew Riley was going to be a star, but I didn’t tell anyone.
 
I think very few prospects project to be what Riley is offensively, and Riley wasn’t one of them.

I dont follow prospects like I used to but can you point out to me the hitting prospects in the top 100 besides the up the middle positions that dont project to an .850 OPS because I dont think they would be considered top 100 prospects if they didnt unless they were projected to be plus-plus defenders. Maybe we just have a different interpretation of what a projection is but Riley is exactly the player I projected him to be offensively.
 
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