The Braves have added 20 prospects to their farm system in the past seven months via trade, and with Friday’s non-waiver trading deadline approaching, they figured to add a few more. J.J. Cooper, managing editor at Baseball America, answered 10 questions on subjects ranging from how far the Braves’ farm system has come in a short amount of time to who some of the Braves’ more intriguing additions are. Here are excerpts:
Q: How does the Braves’ farm system compare now to this time a year ago in terms of talent?
A: It is a 180-degree change. It's still worth noting that what the Braves have done both in the draft and as far as trades (indicates that) they are going for ceiling, and there's a whole lot of risk involved with that. They've gone pitching heavy; pitchers are riskier than trading for position prospects generally. They've gone for guys who have injuries in the recent past, guys who have injuries that they're still recovering from, and they've also taken some guys who were prominent prospects who have lost a little bit of their shine. And they've already had some reasonably solid success with that.
Q: Who comes to mind?
A: Manny Banuelos is a guy who they felt like they were buying low on; they would not have gotten Manny Banuelos for anything close to what they traded for him if this had been three years ago. Is he going to be an ace? Probably not. But he's had a very solid season. They've already gotten a little bit of payoff for him. Obviously they're hoping you're going to see that with Max Fried, which won't probably really be until next year. They got Tyrell Jenkins to Triple-A.
Q: Which of their trades so far intrigued you the most?
A: It's hard to imagine anyone is going to do a better job of winning a trade than they did with that trade with the Diamondbacks this year where they got Touki Toussaint (and Bronson Arroyo's $10.1 million guaranteed salary for Phil Gosselin). Usually it's pretty easy to see both sides of a trade. … It's very rare when there's a trade that the reaction is universal: "Wow how did they do that?" And "Man, I wish we would have done that." That was pretty innovative. You don't really see trades where a team is able to essentially add another first-round pick.
Q: What’s different about the Braves’ approach than some other clubs have taken?
A: What the Braves have done is a scouting-heavy approach. At this point every team has an analytics department, but a lot of the prominent guys the Braves traded for were traded for — it would appear — based more on scouting than numbers and analytics because these guys are either coming off an injury where it's hard to project what they're going to be when they come back, or in many cases, they are guys who weren't as productive recently as maybe you want in a trade. You're buying on the hope that they're better than what their recent results have indicated.
Q: Who is an example of that?
A: Mallex Smith needed a second year to really emerge in the Midwest League. The Braves got him, and boom he's up to Triple-A very quickly, and I think he's a guy who's maybe outperformed, if you look truly on analytics. I'm not saying (the Braves) aren't doing analytics because I know they are, but Mallex Smith is a guy whose tools jump out. He has that speed that really jumps out and some feel to hit.
Q: How is that different than what some other teams are doing?
A: If you look at what the Astros did in their rebuilding job, for example, theirs was more of an analytics-based approach. The Astros said, "Let's assemble a whole lot of very productive players, and then we'll figure out which ones step forward." That doesn't mean they weren't looking at tools, too, but if there was a criticism of the Astros before this year it was, "Once you get past Carlos Correia, who are the impact guys?" Now they've done a great job developing a Dallas Keuchel, guys like that. They had more guys than they could fit on their 40-man (roster) coming through last offseason. They lost guys in the Rule 5 draft because they were so deep in solid players. I think the Braves are trying to hit more home runs than doubles. We'll see how that works out, but so far so good.
Q: What’s your take on all the pitching the Braves have accumulated? Is there such a thing as too much pitching?
A: It's worth noting we've had two big trades this week already, (Johnny) Cueto and Tulo (Troy Tulowitzki). Every prospect traded in those is a pitcher. The Blue Jays gave up three pitching prospects to get Tulo, and the Royals gave up three pitching prospects to get Cueto. It is a currency that if they develop, you can say, "We need to fill some position-players holes," and do that.
Q: So is Touissant, then, the acquisition that intrigues you the most?
A: To me, he and Max Fried, once he comes back, are the highest upside arms they have. If you want to throw (first-round pick) Kolby Allard in that, too, you could. Touki is a long ways away (from the majors), but it is an outstanding arm. We knew that when he was in the high school class a couple years ago. It was funny that the Diamondbacks said, "People like to say he throws 97, 98; we haven't seen that at all." And then the first start with the Braves he shows that. He has that kind of arm.
Q: How does he compare to Fried?
A: Even though he's coming off an injury, in some ways Max Fried is probably a little safer guy. I don't think he has as much upside as Touki because Touki has exceptional stuff. Fried has very good stuff, but Fried has three pitches that pre-injury he would show you all of them on the right day and with a little bit better control on his best days than Touki has right now. That's the 1-2 punch. And again, Kolby Allard fits very much into what we're talking about. If not for the injury Kolby Allard could have easily been the No. 1 high school pitcher in this draft class. Those are three guys who are all pretty high ceiling, and that's not even counting Ricardo Sanchez.
Q: How does the Braves’ farm system compare to other teams now?
A: If you look at the NL East, the Mets and the Nationals also have impressive farm systems. With the Mets, you really have to say young big-league talent and the farm system because a lot of the Mets guys have come up recently (Steven Matz, Noah Syndergaard.) The Nationals have a little more top-heavy farm system, and the Braves are deeper. But I'd rather have the top end of the Nationals' system. Lucas Giolito was the best pitching prospect in the minors in our midseason top 50. Trea Turner was a No. 10 prospect for us in the midseason update. If you gave me a choice between depth or top-10 guys, give me top-10s, so I think the Nationals are right there with the Braves still.
