Top Prospect Alert dot com's J.P. Schwartz has compiled his top-10 Braves prospects for the upcoming year. Here is the list:
1. Jarrod Saltalamacchia
2. Elvis Andrus
3. Matt Harrison
4. Beau Jones
5. Van Pope
6. Eric Campbell
7. Anthony Lerew
8. Yunel Escobar
9. Tim Gustafson
10. Cory Rasmus
There's no verbiage to go along with the rankings so I'm not sure what he was thinking when he ranked each player in their respective spot. Also, they need to learn how to spell Saltalamacchia, it's really not that hard (they spelled it Salatalamacchia, though they have now corrected it; something about 2am and no coffee...j/k).
I'm not surprised to see Rasmus on the list, he is considered by some to be one of the great steals of the '06 draft. I am a bit surprised to see Gustafson there; his numbers at Georgia Tech were not nearly as impressive as Kevin Gunderson's.
I'm also a bit surprised to see Beau Jones and Van Pope that high. Jones' star has fallen a bit after struggling mightily with his control at Rome this season (83 BB in 110.2 IP - that's 6.75 BB per 9). Pope was a late comer, but still hasn't put together a "full" season to show us that he's a high caliber prospect.
I must also say that I'm going to be a bit dismayed that everyone is going to be ranking Andrus high. Elvis still hasn't showed us that he's any more of a threat with a bat than Tony Pena, Jr. Seriously, I just don't see him as a top-5 prospect...not yet.
As a recap, here are my top-25 Braves prospects for 2007:
1. Jarrod Saltalamacchia
2. Matt Harrison
3. Eric Campbell
4. Jo-Jo Reyes
5. Kala Ka'aihue
6. Elvis Andrus
7. Joey Devine
8. Kevin Gunderson
9. Brandon Jones
10. Yunel Escobar
11. Matt Wright
12. Jamie Richmond
13. Anthony Lerew
14. Van Pope
15. Kristopher Medlen
16. Beau Jones
17. Jairo Cuevas
18. Will Startup
19. Manny Acosta
20. Martin Prado
21. Brayan Pena
22. Carl Loadenthal
23. Matt Young
24. J.C. Holt
25. Thomas Hanson
As I learn about other top prospect lists for the Braves I'll be posting them here and breaking them down. I'm also going to reexamine mine after all the big boys come out with theirs (BA and JS). I'm thinking Holt is too low what with his taxicab confessions in Arizona (you like how I did that?).