Atlanta Braves Minor League Player of the Week

TalkingChop has decided to pass the torch of the weekly distinctive honor to Rome's Ozhaino Albies! Albies has been in the Braves system for two years now and has proven to be a valuable prospect to the Braves. The 18-year-old still has years to develop as he is second on the Rome roster in errors. Granted he is playing SS for Rome where a lot of batted balls go, but this is an aspect of the game he can fine tune. To make my point better, when Andrelton Simmons was with Lynchburg in 2011 he committed 28 errors at SS, and now Simmons only has 3 errors so far this season with Atlanta. Enough about how Albies can improve...let's get to how talented this young player is!

Since June 25, Albies has connected with 15 hits with three being triples. He has touched home five times while picking up four RBIs in the process. He has improved his slash slightly from .323/.375/.412 on June 25 to .331/.384/.424 today.  He is also currently riding a 16 game hitting streak with 10 of those games being multi-hit games.

Albies has played in 75 games where he has accumulated a slash of .331/.384/.424. He has reached his 100 hit mark this season with 21 of those hits being extra base hits (8 triples). He has swiped 24 bags this season, which is a slower rate than last season as he stole 22 in 57 games in the GCL and Danville. As being the primary leadoff hitter for Rome, he has scored 53 times while picking up 30 RBIs. His career numbers are jaw-dropping amazing as he has a .344/.409/.432 slash. His BB to K ratio is at 0.85, which is a great number to see from a leadoff batter.

The switch hitting 5-9, 150 pound stud hails from Willemstad, Curacao (just like Andrelton, not to keep comparing to him but the stars are aligning). He was born in 1997 and is only 18-years-old. According to mlbpipeline, Albies is the Braves 5th prospect in the organization and 88th in the MLB. He has also recently been named to the 2015 MLB Futures Game for the World Team.

We would also like to mention other players in the Braves organization that had a outstanding week (from GCL to GWN): Robert Nesovic, Alejandro Salazar, Juan Yepez, Jose Morel, Luke Dykstra, Carlos Castro, Leudys Baez, Ray-Patrick Didder, Braxton Davidson, Jordan Edgerton, Omar Obregon, Jacob Schrader, Carlos Franco, Dustin Peterson, Blair Walters, Keith Curcio, Jose Briceno, Matt Lipka, Rio Ruiz, Matt Kennelly, Tyler Jones, Mallex Smith, Jose Peraza, and Daniel Castro.