Three Braves prospects named to Arizona Fall League Fall Stars game

Every year in the Arizona Fall League, they hold what is called the Fall Stars game. It is essentially the AFL’s version of the All-Star game, although the participants in the game are generally dictated by team representation and name recognition (more on that in a bit) and some have even speculated that the rosters are predetermined regardless of a given player’s performance in the league.

With that said, prepare to be excited as well as a little irritated as is the custom on the internet.

The Braves had Austin Riley, Ronald Acuna, and Touki Toussaint named to the West team. The inclusions of Acuna and Riley are hardly surprising given that both are very highly regarded prospects and both have been absolutely raking in the AFL. Touki’s inclusion is a little more surprising, but honestly his numbers in the AFL have been skewed by one particularly bad outing and he has name recognition and got a promotion to Double-A so it isn’t that crazy of a notion to have him there.

However, the exclusion of both Max Fried and Alex Jackson is definitely eye opening. Fried, in addition to having as much helium as any prospect coming into the 2017 season, has been absolutely dominant in the AFL and leads the league in strikeouts in addition to ERA amongst starters. Alex Jackson has been among the league’s most productive hitters and he leads the AFL with five home runs after a season that saw him have a pretty big bounce back year in his first season with the Braves’ organization.

Regardless of who is in and who is out, this means there will be yet another opportunity to see some of the Braves’ best prospects play before the dark time we know as “the offseason”.