It feels like we beat the same drum every time we write one of these articles. National media outlets aren’t huge fans of the Braves farm system as a whole, and for good reason. However, I do think they are improving, and Baseball America agrees.
Baseball America farm system rankings, 1-30:https://t.co/k5HsRxBNOI
— Ben Badler (@BenBadler) August 17, 2023
The Braves clock in at 28th, which seems pretty bad, but it could always be worse. They are ahead of the Royals and Angels, two teams who are headed in the wrong direction. Here’s what Ben Balder had to say about the Braves:
28. Atlanta Braves
Top 100 Prospects: RHP AJ Smith-Shawver (45)The Skinny: It bears repeating but the Braves have found themselves at the bottom of these rankings in recent years for all the right reasons. They’ve not only graduated several talented players, but they’ve used their prospect depth to trade for a bounty of stars. The recent draft looks to be a potential upgrade to a Braves system desperately needing reinforcements.
I couldn’t agree more with the assessment. It’s great to see AJ Smith-Shawver up so high on their national list. Plus, if Vaughn Grissom still had prospect eligibility, he would find himself on the Top 100 as well, perhaps even higher than Smith-Shawver.
I’m not too concerned about farm system rankings. The Braves develop talent as well as any team in the league. They’ve been at the bottom of these lists for a while, yet they seem to consistently call up players from their farm system at an alarming rate. Just this year, we’ve seen Jared Shuster, Dylan Dodd, AJ Smith-Shawver, Daysbel Hernandez, and Allan Winans make their MLB debuts. The results have varied, but that’s a lot of talent in Gwinnett on the cusp of being MLB ready, and that’s not even including Vaughn Grissom and Michael Soroka.
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Photographer: Larry Radloff/Icon Sportswire
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