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Our first prospect list of the year is here as John Sickels releases his 2013 top-20 Atlanta Braves prospects. We'll put this in a TC post instead of linking it through United so you can discuss on this site, but make sure to visit John's site for all the writeups. Here are his top-20, with a shocker at number-1:
- J.R. Graham, RHP
- Julio Teheran, RHP
- Alex Wood, LHP
- Luke Sims, RHP
- Zeke Spruill, RHP
- Sean Gilmartin, LHP
- Nick Ahmed, SS
- Mauricio Cabrera, RHP
- Tommy LaStella, 2B
- Jose Peraza, SS
- Aaron Northcraft, RHP
- Cody Martin, RHP
- Evan Gattis, OF
- Edward Salcedo, 3B
- William Beckwith, 1B
- Christian Bethancourt, C
- David Hale, RHP
- Luis Merejo, LHP
- Navery Moore, RHP
- Todd Cunningham, OF
- Josh Elander, C
- Joe Terdoslavich, 3B
Certainly listing Graham first is surprising, but Teheran has been stalled at triple-A for so long folks might start giving up on him ... that would be a mistake. Teheran still has better stuff that Graham, so I take issue with that ranking.
CB and I have already done the Talking Chop top-25 prospects, being released Thanksgiving week, and I can tell you that Graham is in the top-10, but no where near number-1.
He also overrates some guys like LaStella and Northcraft, while underrating a guy like Bethancourt, though we moved Bethancourt down in our rankings as well, and the description of him having a "hopeless bat" doesn't give me warm fuzzies.
Disagreements in the rankings aside, I always like Sickels' approach to ranking prospects, and in his writeup he lets you into his process and the disagreements he had with himself about the list and about some of these guys. There is great depth to his article, and he lists several guys after the 22 above that don't get much press.
Make sure you pick up a copy of John's prospect book. He's been doing it for years and my shelf is full of at least a half dozen of them. He'll usually list around 35 to 40 Braves prospects with scouting reports. If you even remotely like prospects it's worth the money.