Yep. And while the organization is loaded with prosition prospects, we've pretty much seen up at one time or another the top pitching prospects in the system. It's very top loaded right now with pitchng. Not a lot of quality arms at High A or below.
And the Braves draft strategy on pitching was a bit different this year. Normally they go heavy on high school pitchers over college pitches, but this year it looks like 14 of the 18 pitchers they drafted are college pitchers. Most likely looking for pitching that has an opportunity to advancethrough the system a little quicker.
Also, going to be interesting to see where they start the first round draft pick catcher from Baylor. On Wednesday they sent a catcher from AA to AAA, and they sent William Contreras from high A Florida to AA. They have an opening still at high A, so they will likely either start him at high A Florida or send one of the catchers (3 on the Rome roster) from low A Rome to high A Florida and start him in Rome. Wherever he goes, he's the guy. That slot is worth just under $5 million, so he'll play immediately.
There are still a few at AA or higher that we haven't seen- Ian Anderson, Joey Wentz, Kyle Muller, Patrick Weigel. But after that, the pickins get pretty slim. And if they make a big deadline deal, they'll probably have to part with 3-4 of these young arms. It's well past time to identify who they want to roll with and start shopping the rest. A 3 man postseason rotation of Bumgarner, Soroka, and Keuchel would be pretty hard to handle- but they have to get there first.
