BA ATL Top 10
by rdf8585 on Dec 15, 2008 12:14 PM EST
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http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/rankings/organization-top-10-prospects/2009/267345.html
1. Tommy Hanson, rhp
2. Jason Heyward, of
3. Jordan Schafer, of
4. Gorkys Hernandez, of
5. Freddie Freeman, 1b
6. Cole Rohrbough, lhp
7. Jeff Locke, lhp
8. Julio Teheran, rhp
9. Kris Medlen, rhp
10. Craig Kimbrel, rhp
For comparison's sake, here's Goldstein's ATL List
Anyone else think Freeman should be above Hernandez?
Hanson over Heyward at 1 - how surprising, if at all?
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Surprised
to see Hanson above Heyward.
That link for BP doesn’t work – at least in the sense that it goes to a page that dates back to before the war on terror…
Flowers...
where do you think BA had him before the trade? I am guessing 7th pushing Locke back
Flowers
Higher than 7th. How much higher is debatable. Someone could probably could rationalize anywhere from 3 down.
From the chat
Flowers would have been around 7th or 8th. His defense behind the plate still leaves a bit to be desired, but he is improving. Offensively, he’s looking more and more like a monster
Locke
I still say he is better than Rohrbough.
I’m still not a huge fan of Gorkys either but I suppose him playing CF is why Freeman is behind him. The list seems pretty good to me since I’m sure a lot of these guys are very close in the rankings.
Best Slider
They list Hanson as having the system’s best slider but I wouldn’t think he comes even really close to Kimbrel’s. Hanson is mostly a fastball/curve guy with the change and slider both lagging behind.
Ya
Hanson’s slider isn’t notable. Its the high fastball and hammer curve that makes him successful.
Now raise your goblet of rock. It's a toast to those who rock!
Slider
Did anyone get a chance to watch Hanson’s 5 INN in the championship game of the AFL? MLB offseason package gets you access to the game. It was the first look at Hanson for me. I thought the slider was a killer. The only knock was that he had inconsistant location with it. I recall times when he had it started out over the plate, it was an automatic swing and miss.
I did notice hanson will need to mature. He was throwing a little tiffy on the mound when he didn’t get some calls. That is a little more telling to me of him not being quite ready. His stuff looks ready though. I think it was more competitive juices rather than poor makeup.
Slider
Here’s what the write up says:
He added a hard slider in the upper 80s midway through last season, which brought about comparisons to John Smoltz’s best offering
Interesting
I wonder how consistent it is.
Now raise your goblet of rock. It's a toast to those who rock!
That's not what Hanson (or anyone else) says
The story I heard is that he threw a really good slider as an amature, but the Braves didn’t want him throwing it because of worries about stress on his arm, etc. The first game he threw the sliders as a pro was his no-no.
That BA ranks it as higher than Kimbrel’s should make you reevaluate your opinion, if nothing else.
I should add
I’ve read articles (maybe on BA) saying that it’s his best pitch.
Ridiculous
1. Heyward
2. Freeman
3. Hanson
Now raise your goblet of rock. It's a toast to those who rock!
Wow
I’d have gone with something like Heyward, Hanson, Schafer, Freeman, Gorkys, Locke, Rohrbough. Heyward is just so much better than Hanson, and it isn’t even close.
I really like it
Heyward and Hanson is a toss up to me. I like the rest of the list
A Marlins fan in exile. Keep the Fish in Miami!
IMO
Hanson is seriously overrated and people will be very disappointed.
Now raise your goblet of rock. It's a toast to those who rock!
He may be overrated
but he is much closer to the majors than Heyward, and put up a great performance all season. Maybe we are overrating Heyward by voting him the #3 prospect in the minors. To be sure he’s a great hitting prospect with exciting upside, but I’m not sure he’s the 3rd best prospect in the minors based on one (albeit impressive) season in low-A.
http://mvn.com/milb-yankees/
on what basis is he over-rated?
You have posted this before. The guy was lights out in the minors and in AFL. Why is he seriously over-rated? he is in the 20s and below holland on the community list. :) Heyward is a bit farther from MLB action. If anything, until BA raked him number 1 in Atlanta system, i’d have thought he was under-rated.
yeah I am baffled at how he can be considered overrated at this point. I still think (like you) on the overall prospect landscape he might be underrated. The guy puts up excellent numbers at every level of competition, has good command of a 4 pitch repertoire, has above average stuff and solid mechanics. I don’t see how you can say he is overrated.
Lol
I’m loving how everybody seems to think that they’re far more entitled to rate these prospects using Sally League statistics than the scouts who can look at those same numbers and also rely on, you know, actually seeing these guys play.
I do not think Freeman should be over Hernandez. It’s a lot easier to envision Hernandez contributing to a major league team in some capacity than it is to do the same with Freeman. And that’s even assuming that Freeman ends up being a pretty decent hitter (which I think he has a fair chance of doing).
Hanson and Heyward is indeed a toss-up at this point. Hanson’s rate of development over the last few months has been pretty staggering.
mrkube seems to be the only one here paying attention to Hanson
At first, I thought he was just being a little underrated because his AFL performance wasn’t really factored in when people voted for the community list. But now I’m starting to think that this community is just way behind on the curve here. Hanson blew away the AFL. He blew away AA. He’s got 3 (4 when the curve is working) pitches rated as plus or higher. About the only knock is that sometimes he doesn’t locate his FB as well as he should. I don’t think there’s a MiLB pitcher outside of David Price who is a better bet to be a top-of-the-rotation starter by 2010 than Tommy Hanson.
It is
And there’s probably 3 or 4 other guys that could be in the discussion. I guess my real point is that Hanson belongs with the Cahill/Feliz/etc. group rather than the next one or two below them.
No doubter
Price is by himself at the moment. I’d take Cahill, Anderson, Porcello, Hanson in some order to round out your top 5. Holland just a hair behind them, his stuff jumped late last year and I want to see if he can sustain it. Feliz is in that next tier IMO.
Bumgarner, Tillman etc?
Do they make your top 10 of pitchers?
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by OldProspects on Dec 15, 2008 4:18 PM EST up reply actions
Whoops
I totally forgot Madison Bumgarner on that one. He’s really good, but as much as I’m impressed by the numbers and the scouting reports, I want to know that he’s going to have something really good past his fastball, which is the difference between him being a 3 and him being a 1/2. With Holland in tier 1.5 I think.
So I mentioned Price, Cahill, Anderson, Porcello, Hanson, Holland, Feliz, Bumgarner as top 10 guys. That’s 8. The other two are Jeremy Jeffress and James McDonald.
Tillman would appear to be No. 14 on my list, FYI.
from the chat:
To tell the truth, Heyward started out at the top of my list until Hanson simply dominated in Arizona. Either one could have been at the top without too many arguments.
Young pitchers
What do people think about Randall Delgado and Brett Devall? I was a little surprised that neither made BA’s top 10. What’re their ceilings, are they real, etc?
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Like DeVall
A little more polished than the typical Braves pitching draftee, but still some significant projection there. Similar to Brett Anderson as an amateur prospect, although Anderson graded out better. An interesting guy for the Braves developmental team to take on.
DeVall
1S pick in 08. Only pitched briefly in the GCL… heard whispers of an injury but never have seen them confirmed…. maybe someone can ask about that in the BA chat?
Here’s his report from pgcrosschecker.com (free content)
SCOUTING REPORT (3/1): DeVall will likely gain comparisons to 2006 southpaw Brett Anderson, now with the Oakland A’s after being a surprise (i.e., later than expected) second-round pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2006. DeVall is big and strong at 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds like Anderson, but more athletic. Like Anderson, he’s a polished pitcher with lots of time on big-game stages and pitches like a professional with an emphasis on getting outs rather than on velocity. DeVall can touch 92-93 mph at times but is more comfortable pitching at 87-88 mph with movement and location. Both his secondary pitches—a low-80s slider and upper-70s changeup—are potential plus pitches in both command and life. DeVall has rarely been hit even moderately hard at the high school level in the Florida Panhandle or during the summer with the East Cobb Astros program, and pitches with a confident aggressiveness. As a junior at Rutherford High prior to transferring to Niceville High for his senior year, he went 8-3, 0.70 with 98 strikeouts in 53 innings. He earned co-Most Valuable Pitcher honors at the World Wood Bat Association fall championship in Jupiter, Fla., while going 2-0, 0.00 with 17 strikeouts in 10 innings overall for East Cobb. Radar-gun scouts will pass him off as a college lefthander but scouts who have seen his body of work over the past two years will think differently.—DAVID RAWNSLEY
UPDATE (5/15): With the exception of his final game, a 3-0 loss to South Fork High in the Florida 5-A semi-finals, DeVall was solid this spring, with stuff and performance very consistent with what he’s shown in the past. That’s an integral part of DeVall’s package, he’s physically mature and mature as a pitcher in his approach to the game. He walked an uncustomary five batters in three innings against South Fork, after walking just 25 all season on his way to compiling a 13-2 record. He also struck out 152 on the season.—DR
What about Delgado?
Thanks!
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by OldProspects on Dec 15, 2008 2:27 PM EST up reply actions
is he that projectable?
everything i’ve read says he has pretty much maxed out physically.
Founder of the Johnny Giavotella fan club.
Define "projectable"
In the classic sense of projection being “shrimpy kid who could put on weight,” no he is not. But projection involves physical maturation in other ways IMO. DeVall is a big kid but he could probably tone up a bit and if he does, he might find an extra tick or two on the heater.
Both are interesting
But, considering the depth in the Braves system, especially in the area of pitching, they are good prospects that need more time to prove themselves versus those prospects in the system who have good arms AND are proving themselves.
I like DeVall, but wonder if he’ll ever have enough velocity to more than a back of rotation starter.
DeVall
BA’s draft report said he could be a 3/4 guy. With more velocity, maybe a 2.
Is Mark Buehrle a fair comp for him?
Eh, no
Buerhle is a crappy comp for most pitchers, honestly . . .he doesn’t have a single pitch that grades out as more than average other than his cutter, but his pitchability is just amazing. 99 out of 100 Buerhles would be career minor leaguers.
DeVall, to his credit, actually has some good secondary offerings. And the Braves tend to be among the best at bringing along their pitchers physically and mechanically to get the most oomph out of their fastball.
by mrkupe on Dec 15, 2008 1:58 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
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