Baseball America releases their Top 10 prospects list for the Atlanta Braves

Renowned prospect evaluation outlet Baseball America has released their Top 10 prospect ranking for the Atlanta Braves, and it's remarkably similar to our rankings, published a few weeks ago.

We've got all the same pitchers in the same range on the top ten list, with both sites naming RHP AJ Smith-Shawver as the #1 prospect for Atlanta and RHP Hurston Waldrep as the #2.

Righties Spencer Schwellenbach, JR Ritchie, and Owen Murphy are numbers 3-5, albeit in a different order for Baseball America than for us.

But the big difference is in the position players in the back half of the top ten - we have infielder Ignacio Alvarez and outfielder Luis Guanipa in our top ten, while Baseball America has both third baseman David McCabe and catcher Drake Baldwin above Alvarez and Guanipa outside of the top ten all together.

Looking at their scouting grades on all three players, there's some commonalities: All three players are rated as below-average defenders, and all three have one of their two offensive grades (hit tool and power tool) below "average", represented by a 50 on the 20-80 scouting scale.

Alvarez has the lowest offensive score of the trio, with a 50 (average) hit tool and a 40 (below-average) power tool. By contrast, both Baldwin and McCabe have 45s (fringe- to-average) hit tools but average or better power tools, with McCabe coming in at an above-average 55 and Baldwin coming in with an average 50.

As mentioned above, Luis Guanipa isn't in Baseball America's top ten at all. A 2023 international free agent out of Venezuela, he batted .238/.361/.384 in 46 games this summer in the Dominican Summer League. Scouting reports for international free agents are always hard to reconcile, given the limited looks most get of those players, and so there'll be more consensus on his true deserved ranking as he gets stateside next season to play in the Florida Complex League for "rookie ball".

Rounding out the top ten on both lists are more right-handed pitchers, with 2023 draftees Drue Hackenberg (2nd round) and Cade Kuehler (2nd round - compensatory).

Superlatives for the Braves prospects

One fun feature of Baseball America's top prospects lists is their superlatives, where they bestow organizational "best tools" rankings. Of note here is AJ Smith-Shawver not only getting "Best Athlete" but "Best Curveball" - Smith-Shawver added that curveball over the spring, and it's already become a quality weapon for him. Between his fantastic fastball, the curveball, his existing slider and a new split-changeup, he's got fantastic potential and has a chance to be a future frontline starter for the Braves.

One worrying superlative is Drake Baldwin's "Best Power Hitter" award - as we mentioned above, the actual tool grade given to his power is only a 50, defined as average. Each minor league organization usually has several players with massive raw power potential, but Atlanta's lower number of rated position player prospects means they're a bit behind most of baseball in potential impact sluggers in their minor leagues.

Check out the full list of Top Ten Prospects and Best Tools on Baseball America ($).

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