Good morning. This is LEADOFF, the early buzz in Atlanta sports.
Baseball America's midseason ranking of the game's top 100 prospects includes nine from the Braves organization. Similarly, Baseball Prospectus' midseason ranking of the top 50 prospects features five Braves.
The Braves' top prospect in both sets of rankings is 19-year-old outfielder Ronald Acuna, ranked the No. 10 overall prospect by Baseball America and No. 11 by Baseball Prospectus.
Yes, for all the emphasis on stockpiling prized pitching prospects, the Braves’ top-ranked prospect is now a position player.
And yes, for all the young players brought in during the Braves’ rebuilding project, their top-rated prospect is a player signed by the organization several months before the teardown/rebuild commenced.
Acuna signed for a bargain bonus of $100,000 as a 16-year-old international prospect on July 2, 2014.
He’s currently playing at Class AA Mississippi, where he is slashing .325/.374/.507 and perhaps on track to arrive in Atlanta next year.
Other Braves prospects in Baseball America's midseason top 100: left-handed pitcher Kolby Allard No. 23, second baseman Ozzie Albies No. 25, right-handed pitcher Mike Soroka No. 33, newly drafted right-handed pitcher Kyle Wright No. 41, left-handed pitcher Sean Newcomb No. 42, right-handed pitcher Ian Anderson No. 55, shortstop Kevin Maitan No. 72 and left-handed pitcher Luiz Gohara No. 76.
Of the nine Braves in BA’s top 100, four were drafted by the organization (Allard, Anderson, Soroka and Wright), three were signed as international prospects (Acuna, Albies and Maitan) and two were acquired in trades (Gohara and Newcomb). Six of the nine are pitchers.
Meanwhile, Baseball Prospectus' midseason top 50 ranks Allard No. 24, Soroka No. 32, Albies No. 40 and Anderson No. 48. (BP's rankings don't include 2017 draftees or players currently in the majors, which excludes Wright and Newcomb from consideration.)
The big take-away from the rankings of Braves prospects is the ascent of Acuna, who soared from No. 62 on Baseball America’s preseason list.
Albies moved in the other direction, slipping from No. 8 on BA’s preseason list, apparently because of questions about his hitting against right-handed pitching. At Gwinnett this season, the switch-hitter has a .371 batting average in 89 at-bats vs. left-handers and a .264 average in 250 at-bats vs. righties.
* * *
READ ON …
- Which of the Braves' major-leaguers will be traded this month? Mark Bradley offers some insight here.
- One Brave (Ender Inciarte) and four ex-Braves (Alex Wood, Craig Kimbrel, Justin Upton and Ervin Santana) are on the teams for tonight's All-Star Game in Miami. Michael Cunningham catches up with Kimbrel and Upton here.
- At SEC Media Days in Hoover, Ala., the Georgia Bulldogs and Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium are on today's schedule. Coach Kirby Smart and three UGA players will take their turns before the media, and Falcons president and CEO Rich McKay will brief the assemblage on the SEC Championship Game's new home stadium. Catch up on Bulldogs news here and Mercedes-Benz Stadium news here.
About the Author
