Podcast Appearance: Braves Prospect Observations Entering Season
I joined the guys at the Three Flags Flying podcast this past Friday for an opening day edition. The episode covers a variety of Braves major and minor league topics.
Prospect talk included observations of the prospects in summer camp, including deep dives into Kyle Wright and William Contreras. I also broke down what to expect from Cristian Pache this year and the importance of prospects being added to the player pool.
Listen to the episode here.
In other news
The emergence of Contreras came quickly. I’ve covered the young catcher’s development at length in recent weeks, noting the adjustments at the plate to help round out his game and put him in a position to contribute now. It’s an incredible story that Contreras went from barely keeping his head above water while working on adjustments in Double-A last year to getting his first big league start, hit and RBI this past weekend.
At the same time, while Contreras is working to take advantage of a sudden opportunity, fellow catching prospect Alex Jackson’s struggles at the plate are only getting worse. Jackson continues to show solid defensive ability behind the plate with soft receiving, a great arm and a feel for handling a pitching staff. But the bat has extreme swing-and-miss and is dragging down his prospect value. He’s 0-4 with four strikeouts so far this season.
Looking ahead
My Wednesday post will focus on game observations for the first few days. Contreras will definitely be at the top of that list, but I’ll also dig into the first starts for Mike Soroka, Max Fried and Sean Newcomb in addition to Austin Riley’s promising start to the season at the plate.