TOP 30 PROSPECTS: New Year's Eve Edition

Talked this week with BBA's Bill Ballou, and he flatly stated that the Braves will try to be as active this winter as last year, which means that many of these names will be on the move.

But we needed to update this with respect to Riley's rise, as well as the arrival of Bird and Gant. This is more of a snapshot that a full-blown off-season list; that will come after the winter meetings in early December.
 
I saw where Dave O'Brien said on Twitter that many in the Braves organization believes that Austin Riley is the Braves top overall prospect now, and that they were very impressed with Ronald Acuna in Instructional League.
 
Super excited about Riley. Our farm is gonna be crazy next year. Adding a 3rd pick and top international guys to and we could be looking at a Cubs type of young offense coming up in a few years.
 
rico43 said:
Revised mine as well. Wilson among my HMs, but have Soroka where a first-round pick should be, in top 25. Have dropped Lipka all the way out for good this time (probably).
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But why do you have our 2nd round picks higher? Soroka taken 28th overall...Herbert taken 54th. Soroka pitches 34 innings...looks extremely good and is only rated #22? Herbert only plays in 4 games before his injury and is #9? Soroka should be in the top 10.
 
I'm not gonna lie, rico, there's some bizarre stuff going on in your ranking. For starters, Edgerton 14 and Ruiz 27? What is the rationale there?

Minter well ahead of Soroka? Herbert top 10? I just don't get some of it.
 
ball4life32 said:
But why do you have our 2nd round picks higher? Soroka taken 28th overall...Herbert taken 54th. Soroka pitches 34 innings...looks extremely good and is only rated #22? Herbert only plays in 4 games before his injury and is #9? Soroka should be in the top 10.
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Fair question. 1) Herbert was rated the top defensive catcher in the draft. 2) He had the game-winning hit (a homer, I think) in his first game or two and 3) he tore a menescus in game four so he didn't have a chance to build on his memorable start. Braves have many pitchers, few catchers, in the pipeline.
 
smootness said:
I'm not gonna lie, rico, there's some bizarre stuff going on in your ranking. For starters, Edgerton 14 and Ruiz 27? What is the rationale there?

Minter well ahead of Soroka? Herbert top 10? I just don't get some of it.
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Ruiz had a crappy year. Edgerton was among his league's top RBI producers for a second straight season when he got hurt and missed a month. I put a lot of value on guys who get runs home (no forumula, sorry). As for Herbert, see above. Soroka probably deserves to be higher, but the Braves have such an abundance of pitching and so little help behind the plate I weighed his positional value. Minter was a stud who got hurt; no one much had even heard of Soroka. Projections as to where a healthy Minter would have gone made it sound very much like another first-rounder who fell.

The purpose of rankings, like polls, is to stimulate discussion.

Another revision on the way after the winter meetings. Right now, too busy for a proper investment of time.
 
I cant help but get excited when I look at the list now knowing we have Maitan and our highest draft slot in 25 years. I dont think we are competitive in 2017 at this rate but I need sunglasses to look at how bright 2020 looks. I hope we trade Shelby now. Rafael Devers from the Red Sox would look good around the top of this list.
 
cajunrevenge said:
I cant help but get excited when I look at the list now knowing we have Maitan and our highest draft slot in 25 years. I dont think we are competitive in 2017 at this rate but I need sunglasses to look at how bright 2020 looks. I hope we trade Shelby now. Rafael Devers from the Red Sox would look good around the top of this list.
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I bet we are competitive by 2017. Watch something crazy happen. #Faith
 
Just for the purposes of discussion, I'll rank my top 30 (I probably weight ceiling more than any other single factor) and include tiers. I do not consider Olivera, Folty, Wisler, or Banuelos to be true prospects anymore.

Tier 1
1. Sean Newcomb - pretty much has to go here, has a chance to be up quickly
2. Ozhaino Albies - saw him once in person and that's all I needed
3. Kolby Allard - probably the best pure talent in the system
4. Lucas Sims - I was down on him, but he looks phenomenal right now
5. Austin Riley - another good year from being a top-30 guy overall
6. Touki Toussaint - needs better consistency, but massive ceiling

Tier 2
7. Max Fried - tons of talent but will obviously have to prove it this year
8. Mallex Smith - lower ceiling than some, but can provide real value right away
9. Braxton Davidson - crazy that he's now this low; great approach, just needs the power to come on
10. Mike Soroka - could fly up lists this year
11. Chris Ellis - don't know much about him; seems solid, this is about where most have him
12. Tyrell Jenkins - again, crazy that he's this low now; still can be a good 2-3 starter in the majors

Tier 3
13. Rio Ruiz - had a bad year at 21 in AA, it happens; one bad year away from dropping off completely; one good year from flying back up
14. Zach Bird - has the talent, needs to cut the walks down
15. Dustin Peterson - maybe too high, but flashed real talent last year, just needs to be healthy and consistent
16. John Gant - shockingly good after the trade last year
17. Ronald Acuna - like several others, a good year away from flying up lists
18. Lucas Herbert - just need to see him more
19. Juan Yepez - hit really well last year, may be underrated here
20. Ricardo Sanchez - this ranking shows the depth of the system perhaps more than any other; people forget he was 18 last year

Tier 4
21. Connor Lien - tough AFL, but still could be in Atlanta before long
22. Andrew Thurman - good in A+, really bad in AA; still has a chance
23. Josh Graham
24. Dan Winkler
25. Isranel Wilson - huge power, really intriguing
26. Derian Cruz - obviously an unknown now, good reputation
27. Randy Ventura
28. Luke Dykstra
29. Kyle Kinman
30. Christian Pache
 
cajunrevenge said:
I cant help but get excited when I look at the list now knowing we have Maitan and our highest draft slot in 25 years. I dont think we are competitive in 2017 at this rate but I need sunglasses to look at how bright 2020 looks. I hope we trade Shelby now. Rafael Devers from the Red Sox would look good around the top of this list.
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I think we'll trade some of our pitching for a bat.

Just no way to have this much pitching and not use it in trades.
 
Latest June draft lineup (going into Winter Meetings)

Braves have 3rd, 37th, 41st, 79th picks.
But there are 12 FAs yet to sign who have qualifying offers. Braves' second and third picks could move up considerably.
 
Swanson is older and (presumably) more polished, but I'd take a deep breath before saying he's that much better than Albies.
 
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