The Atlanta Braves had a big season, returning to the playoffs for the first time in multiple years. How did their farm system fare?
As part of our continuing coverage at Call to the Pen of the minor leagues, we will be covering each organization’s top players for 2018. The coverage will go in reverse order of record. Today, we will look at the Atlanta Braves.
We are going to review the system’s leaders for each organization statistically, then choose one hitter and one pitcher to honor for every team. This will be primarily based on statistical performance, though some “age relative to level” could come into play, so a very impressive season from a 28-year-old in AA will rank below a nearly as impressive season from a 20-year-old at the same level.
After we review each organization’s hitter and pitcher of the year, we will close out October with Call To The Pen’s Minor League team of the year. That will lead into November starting our team top 10 prospect lists. In other words, there will be plenty of minor league content on the way at CTTP, so keep coming back for more each day this offseason!!
Atlanta Braves minor leagues
The top minor league system in baseball the last few seasons began to see the fruits at the major league level as the Atlanta Braves won the NL East in 2018. The Braves have fallen to perhaps the #2 farm system (or certainly a top 5 system), but there are still plenty of reinforcements to come.
Before we offer up awards on the season, let’s take a look at the system’s statistical leaders:
Organization Leaders (min. 150 PA, 50 IP)
BA: CJ Alexander .352
OBP: Michael Reed .453
SLG: Austin Riley .522
OPS: Michael Reed .972
R: Rio Ruiz, Drew Waters 72
H: Riley Delgado 153
2B: Drew Waters 39
3B: Drew Waters, Justin Dean 9
HR: Braxton Davidson 20
RBI: Carlos Franco 76
SB: Ray-Patrick Didder 27
TB: Drew Waters 219
W: Kyle Muller 11
G: Jason Hursh 53
GS: Jeremy Walker 26
IP: Jeremy Walker 143
SV: Jacob Webb 18
K: Touki Toussaint 163
ERA: Walter Borkovich 1.47
WHIP: Hayden Deal 1.00
K/9: Chad Sobotka 12.0
K/BB: Miguel Jerez 5.20
Let’s look at the award winners…