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With the end of the minor league season comes the small consolation that we get to look back at the season and how the Braves' prospects performed and look forward to the future with them in it. The farm system is orders of magnitude better than it was just a year ago, so there are certainly a lot of players that impressed during the course of the year.
That said, it wouldn't fun if we didn't look at who were the "best" prospects, and as it turns out the Braves agree with that sentiment and they handed out their Organizational Pitcher of the Year and Player of the Year awards. Predictably, some familiar names took home the hardware.
Congrats @TyrellJenkins14 & Mallex Smith on being named @Braves Minor League Organizational Pitcher and Player of the Year. #FutureIsBright
— FOX Sports South (@FOXSportsSouth) September 10, 2015
Before fans of Kolby Allard, Ozhaino Albies, Austin Riley, etc. get up in arms, these are ultimately somewhat empty honors which don't necessarily mean anything about how good of a MLB prospect a player is seen, not to mention the fact that competition was fierce this year. That said, these are two VERY deserving candidates that we could be seeing in Atlanta very soon with Tyrell Jenkins posting a 3.17 ERA across the top two levels of the minors while Mallex Smith hit .306/.373/.386 across the same top two levels as Tyrell while stealing 57 bases and scoring 84 runs. Their respective promotions barely slowed either of them down for long and they quickly brought themselves to the precipice of the major leagues, so congratulations guys.
The Braves also gave awards for Player of the Year for each level of the minors
Congratulations to all of the Atlanta Braves Minor League Pitchers and Players of the Year! See the full list here: http://t.co/74dTUbanQC
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) September 10, 2015
For the record, names you will see honored on that list include Manny Banuelos, Austin Riley, Ozhaino Albies, Connor Lien, and Emerson Landoni. Looking at the list, one cannot help but smile because it really brings home that help is on the way for Atlanta.