2020 Braves Minor Leagues and Prospects Thread

[Ransack 3,005]

TIme to start it over again.

[K26dp 4,852]

First OFR Farm Report Podcast of 2020 is up. We talk about Phil Pfiefer pitching in Australia, the new minor league free agent signings (Chris Nunn, Pete Kozma, and Elison Joseph) and then try to figure out the 2020 Florida Fire Frogs Opening Day roster.

[K26dp 4,852]

The Florida Fire Frogs have a home for 2020, and it will be CoolToday Stadium in North Port, FL, the Braves spring training home.

The team will now have only two and a half months to sell season tickets and market to the area. Also, the move is only for this season: the location is with in the territorial rights of the Charlotte Stone Crabs of the Rays organization. The Stone Crabs agreed to the temporary move "for the good of the league", but they are unlikely going to acquiesce for any time longer.

The Braves agreement with the Fire Frogs ends after this season. 

[AUTiger7222 1,518]

1 hour ago, K26dp said:

The Florida Fire Frogs have a home for 2020, and it will be CoolToday Stadium in North Port, FL, the Braves spring training home.

The team will now have only two and a half months to sell season tickets and market to the area. Also, the move is only for this season: the location is with in the territorial rights of the Charlotte Stone Crabs of the Rays organization. The Stone Crabs agreed to the temporary move "for the good of the league", but they are unlikely going to acquiesce for any time longer.

The Braves agreement with the Fire Frogs ends after this season. 

What happened to where the Fire Frogs were playing at before?

[K26dp 4,852]

11 hours ago, AUTiger7222 said:

What happened to where the Fire Frogs were playing at before?

After a contentious relationship (the team said the county didn't keep up with maintenance, the county said the team didn't pay timely), the county offered the team a $500K buy-out of their lease. In May the team, deeply in debt, accepted the offer. The county has already converted the facilities to a soccer complex. 

However, the Frogs ownership had not secured a new home before the end of the season. They had an agreement to move back to Brevard County (the were originally the Brevard County Manatees), but MLB and MiLB nixed the agreement because a facility up to code was available. It was hoped it would be cleared at the Winter Meetings, but they still couldn't find a spot.

North Port was always considered a likely landing spot on a temporary basis, but the territorial rights were a legit hold-up. The Florida State League is one of the lowest attended minor leagues in the country -- lower than the Pioneer League, which MLB has proposed get completely eliminated, and the Stone Crabs was on the low end of that as well.

[K26dp 4,852]

Talking Chop has finished their Top 30 list.

[AUTiger7222 1,518]

9 minutes ago, K26dp said:

After a contentious relationship (the team said the county didn't keep up with maintenance, the county said the team didn't pay timely), the county offered the team a $500K buy-out of their lease. In May the team, deeply in debt, accepted the offer. The county has already converted the facilities to a soccer complex. 

However, the Frogs ownership had not secured a new home before the end of the season. They had an agreement to move back to Brevard County (the were originally the Brevard County Manatees), but MLB and MiLB nixed the agreement because a facility up to code was available. It was hoped it would be cleared at the Winter Meetings, but they still couldn't find a spot.

North Port was always considered a likely landing spot on a temporary basis, but the territorial rights were a legit hold-up. The Florida State League is one of the lowest attended minor leagues in the country -- lower than the Pioneer League, which MLB has proposed get completely eliminated, and the Stone Crabs was on the low end of that as well.

I'm surprised to hear that the Florida State league has the lowest minor league attendance in all of minor league baseball. With the terrific weather in Florida I figured going to minor league games would be a big family outing. Guess I'm confused about it because of how well the Birmingham Barons draw on a nightly basis during the season. Tickets are so cheap it's such a great family thing to do. Plus the games end at a decent time to still get the kids home and to bed so it doesn't ruin their day at school.

That explains while all the FSL teams were on the elimination proposal. Speaking of which, I don't like it, but I do understand it. There are a lot of issues with minor league baseball and the economics of it all. I also think associations with MLB teams need to be reworked. Some of these affiliations make no sense from a geographic stand point, although it has gotten better in recent years.

[K26dp 4,852]

One of the lowest, not the lowest. But it's the lowest of all the full-season leagues IIRC.

There's three main problems with the FSL:

1. Rain. About a quarter of all games are either delayed/postponed/cancelled. Fans don't buy advanced tickets because of this, so teams are much more dependent on walk-up sales.

2. Humidity. Not only is Florida just gross for most of the summer, the extreme humidity deadens the ball. The FSL is known for being a place where offense is generally hard to come by, and except for die-hards like me that's also a tough sell.

3. Competition: In the summer in Florida there are just too many other things going on that compete for dollars. 

If I were running baseball, I would convert the FSL to a short-season league and run it from mid-September to Thanksgiving when the weather is nicer and not as rainy.

[K26dp 4,852]

Fangraphs posted their Top Braves Prospect List.

[Ransack 3,005]

37 minutes ago, K26dp said:

Fangraphs posted their Top Braves Prospect List.

Kiley's writeups are always good.

[jidady 7,288]

2 hours ago, Ransack said:

Kiley's writeups are always good.

It kills me that we had him in the organization and blew it.

[ATLBrave 3,365]

I'm surprised no one has jumped on this yet, but Baseball America released their Top 100 today. The Braves netted 4 guys on the list, with Pache leading the way at No. 12. The complete list of Braves honorees can be found below:

 

12. Christian Pache

36. Drew Waters

44. Ian Anderson

64. Kyle Wright

 

[Unknøwn 11,343]

FireFrogs will play their home games in North Port, FL in the Braves spring stadium.

[K26dp 4,852]

19 hours ago, ATLBrave said:

I'm surprised no one has jumped on this yet, but Baseball America released their Top 100 today. The Braves netted 4 guys on the list, with Pache leading the way at No. 12. The complete list of Braves honorees can be found below:

 

12. Christian Pache
36. Drew Waters
44. Ian Anderson
64. Kyle Wright

 

In the Others Receiving Votes category:

William Contreras 
Tucker Davidson 
Shea Langeliers 
Kyle Muller 
Bryse Wilson

Wilson was mentioned as having just missed the Top 100.

[K26dp 4,852]

Kiley McDaniel's chat had a lot of Braves material in it, naturally coming on the heels of the Ozuna signing and Fangraphs releasing their top prospects list.

 

[K26dp 4,852]

MLB Pipleline has updated their Top 100.

13. Cristian Pache
26. Drew Waters
37. Ian Anderson
52. Kyle Wright
70. Shea Langeliers

[K26dp 4,852]

Baseball Prospectus dropped their Top 101.

22. Cristian Pache
38. Ian Anderson
42. Drew Waters
60. Kyle Muller (!)
77. Shea Langeliers
89. Kyle Wright

Also, Baseball America started their Top 20 positional lists, starting with catcher. Shea Langeliers came in at #10, William Contreras at #14.

 

[K26dp 4,852]

Continuing their positional lists, BA just put out their first base list. No Braves on it, but Bryce Ball was listed as their "sleeper", with defense and his ability to make consistent contact has reasons they are not quite ready to jump him on the list. 

[Akod2017 117]

On 1/27/2020 at 2:01 PM, K26dp said:

Baseball Prospectus dropped their Top 101.

22. Cristian Pache
38. Ian Anderson
42. Drew Waters
60. Kyle Muller (!)
77. Shea Langeliers
89. Kyle Wright

Also, Baseball America started their Top 20 positional lists, starting with catcher. Shea Langeliers came in at #10, William Contreras at #14.

 

Wright took a tumble but it really doesn’t matter (unless the Braves want to include him in a trade) with his kind of stuff. We have certainly seen that kind of raw talent mature later. 

[K26dp 4,852]

40 minutes ago, Akod2017 said:

Wright took a tumble but it really doesn’t matter (unless the Braves want to include him in a trade) with his kind of stuff. We have certainly seen that kind of raw talent mature later. 

Being in the top 100 anywhere is a good thing, and BP is the most pessimistic of the outlets so far.  

[K26dp 4,852]

BA named Cristian Pache the #3 CF prospect in baseball. 

[jidady 7,288]

Dear Atlanta Braves:

I DEMAND that you draft this player:

 

[K26dp 4,852]

Keith Law has published his first top 100 prospects list for The Athletic. Here's the Braves.

5. Cristian Pache, OF
27. Ian Anderson, RHP
61. Kyle Wright, RHP
65. Bryse Wilson, RHP
75. William Contreras, C
94. Braden Shewmake, SS

Obviously a bit of a different take.

[jidady 7,288]

Had he ranked Drew Waters on his ESPN list(s)?

[ATLBrave 3,365]

11 minutes ago, jidady said:

Had he ranked Drew Waters on his ESPN list(s)?

He had him 75th on the 2019 list.