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Instructional leagues are essentially a way for many of a team's prospects to continue their work on the field, give them a sense of what to work on during the offseason, and finalize a team's plan for them for the following season. Generally speaking, those sent down to instructionals are younger/lower level prospects, prospects that have missed time due to injury or otherwise, or a player who is sort of in-between leagues performance-wise and the team wants an extended look.
Down in the Braves' instructional leagues, there are going to be some familiar faces to followers of the Braves farm system including Ozhaino Albies, Dustin Peterson, Touki Toussaint, and Braxton Davidson. Of particular note is how well represented the 2015 draft class is going to be at instructionals.
.@Braves' top four 2015 @MLBDraft picks -- Allard, Soroka, Herbert & Riley -- at instructs: http://t.co/PGotxR6Hje pic.twitter.com/fnRichy36k
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) September 24, 2015
Mayo's article is particularly good at highlighting some of the Braves' higher draft picks and what to look for going forward out of them including Kolby Allard, Austin Riley, Mike Soroka, and Lucas Herbert. However, that is far from the only interesting prospect that is attending instructionals (from the 2015 draft as well as from elsewhere).
Derian Cruz and Cristian Pache, the headliners from the Braves' international signing class, are attending. Prospect cult favorite Randy Ventura, despite being in a car accident that ended his DSL season prematurely, will get to showcase his speed stateside as well. There are also some intriguing, yet lesser heralded players from the 2015 draft in attendance, including 3rd round pick Anthony Guardado who made a grand total of one appearance in rookie ball this season, and Dalton Geekie who showed a great deal of promise as a reliever as he progressed quickly through rookie ball and even making it to Rome.
For a full list of those attending instructional leagues for the Braves, click here.
Overall, its an exciting time for the Braves' farm system, even if the season is technically over.