ESPN Puts A Surprising Number of Braves Among Top 100 Players in MLB
The Atlanta Braves, it could be argued, have the best collection of major league talent of any team in all of baseball.
Whether it's the reigning NL Most Valuable Player in Ronald Acuña Jr., last season's home run leader in Matt Olson, or last season's strikeout leader in Spencer Strider, the Braves have both a lot of talent and high-end talent, to boot.
The MLB team over at ESPN released their rankings of the top 100 players in all of Major League Baseball this morning, and Atlanta led the league in both top talent and depth with a league-leading eight selections, including the #1 overall player.
(The Houston Astros tied Atlanta with eight selections, but since their top player was #8 on the list, we're giving the tiebreaker to the Braves.)
Coming in at #1 on the list was Ronald Acuña Jr, with writer Alden Gonzalez predicting that he will put up MLB's first-ever 50/50 season in 2024.
First baseman Matt Olson comes in at #12, with them noting that he's "unlucky" by being in the same league as several of the top performers in the league last year. How often does a player lead the league in home runs (54) and slugging (.604), yet finish 4th in MVP voting? Olson did.
Starting pitcher Spencer Strider comes in 15th on the list, the 2nd pitcher on the list (New York Yankees starter and AL Cy Young award winner Gerrit Cole was #7). Jeff Passan predicts Strider goes 22-6 with a 2.41 ERA in 2024, as well as logging the most strikeouts for a pitcher in the National League since Randy Johnson's 334 strikeouts in 2002.
Third baseman Austin Riley comes in 29th on the list, with Gonzalez predicting this is the season Riley finally breaks into the top five of the MVP voting.
Starting pitcher Max Fried makes the list at #31, with ESPN making the same case that we have - Fried's not really injury prone, but his frequent injured list stints have prevented him from putting up the consistently large innings counts of his peers. Writer Brad Doolittle predicts Fried to finish with somewhere between 190-to-200 innings in his platform year, meaning he wins 20+ games and his first career Cy Young award.
Second baseman Ozzie Albies, who famously isn't a top-ten second baseman in baseball according to MLB Network, comes in at #36 on the list. Writer Dave Schoenfield predicts he'll put up another 30-homer season (although he's doubtful Ozzie can maintain last season's .280 batting average.)
Centerfielder Michael Harris II is probably the most underrated Braves player on the list, coming in at #53. Writer Jesse Rogers agrees with us that a 30-30 season is within reach for Harris if everything breaks right.
Catcher Sean Murphy gets a nice ranking, coming in at #69 on the list. The 2024 prediction for him, delivered by Alden Gonzalez, is merely "his best offensive season" in 2024. But it makes sense, as he was slowed both by some nagging injuries and the miserable Atlanta heat in the second half. The goal to beat here would be a .251/.365/.478 slashline with 21 homers and 68 RBIs, put up last year and carried by an absolutely electric first half of the season.
And in an addendum at the end of the story, each writer picked several categories like most overrated/underrated, etc. Michael Harris II was picked by Dave Schoenfield as the player that could climb the most between this season and next season's ranking, as he started off slow last season due to injury and some uncharacteristic offensive struggles. Schoenfield predicts that a full season of his post-injury results - .335/.360/.552 over his final 100 games - could land Harris into the top 25.