Maybe I'm not following closely enough. How in the world are player lists and organizational lists relevant when we didn't see anyone develop over the last 18 months. The below 7 positional players that aren't expected to compete for jobs in Atlanta in Spring Training (I left Pache and Contreras off), were all at the alternate site last year. Waters is the only one that has seen an AB above A ball as far as I know. The extremely limited information on alternate site performance of these 7, as reported by MLB, is below.
Jesse Franklin OF - #18 prospect on talking chop. “Franklin hit the ground running after missing his junior year at Michigan."
Bryce Ball 1B/DH - #20 prospect on talking chop.
Vaughn Grissom SS - #13 prospect on talking chop.
Michael Harris OF - #4 prospect on talking chop. “Both 19-year-olds more than held their own against the advanced pitching they were facing on a regular basis,” Sestanovich said. “Harris has very good instincts in center field and a plus arm. Grissom’s versatility on the infield and bat to ball skills stood out.”
Braden Shewmake SS - #9 prospect on talking chop.
Shea Langeliers C - #6 prospect on talking chop. “He worked hard with our hitting guys on his offense and showed consistent above-average power at the alternate site, particularly to right center-field,” Sestanovich said of the right-handed hitter.
Drew Waters OF - #3 prospect on talking chop.
https://www.mlb.com/news/braves-alternate-training-site-report
Each of the above should have progressed significantly since we last saw them in 2019. They found themselves working against advanced competition at the alternate site with the best coaching they could get from the entire organization. How that develop translates into games is anyone's guess, but I will be really surprised if the Braves treat these 7 as if last year didn't occur at all and just bumps them a single level from where they were to end 2019.
I guess what I'm saying is, in an imperfect world like ours you'd expect half of these 7 to have taken a significant step forward last year. If 3 or 4 out of this group is producing in AA this season, won't our system be better than we, or the folks making money by ranking prospects and systems, could possibly know.
And that doesn't even address the pitching.
Talking Chop has Kyle Muller as our 7th best prospect. The knock-on Muller has always been consistency. Talking Chop says his results at the alternate site weren’t overwhelmingly positive. MLB says: “Kyle is a really good athlete and his stuff is plus across the board,” Sestanovich said. “He’s developed a slider which has complemented his other pitches well. He sat it the upper 90s for the summer and touched 100 a number of times. He’s worked hard on his delivery and we saw the consistency of his stuff and strikes improve over the course of our time in Gwinnett.”