We’ve made it to the top 10 of Snowshine’s list, people! If you’re behind, here’s a full list of the current countdown with only the top-5 left!
Braves Top Prospects, #10, Blake Burkhalter, RHP, 24, A+, 2026
You would think a guy with plus grades on 3 pitches and double plus control would get a lot of
notice in the prospect world but Burkhalter manages to stay anonymous. The reason is that he
displays very real reliever risk due to a combination of injury history and age. Coming back from
Tommy John this season he put up a nice line at Rome in mostly short starts (avg 4.5 innings).
The team is going to give him at least the first half this year to see if he can stick in the rotation
but don’t be surprised to see him moved to the bullpen late in the year. As a bullpen guy he
could be lights out.
Braves Top Prospects, #9, Drue Hackenberg, RHP, 22, AAA, 2025
2023’s 2nd round pick, Hackenberg comes from an ultra-athletic family and was drafted on that
potential rather than his skills at that time. Given that the bet was $2M in this case, let us hope
that somebody was pretty sure of their evaluation here! In his first full season, we saw him pick
up a 4-seam fastball, develop his change and start hitting 96 consistently. He put up a ridiculous
16k/no walk game for Mississippi after getting promoted there. Bill James once wrote an essay about “signature” moments prospects could have that predicted future greatness – he used a3k/no walk effort from (minor league) Roger Clemens as basis for the piece. We can dream.
Braves Top Prospects, #8, Nacho Alvarez, SS?, 21, MLB, 2025
I guess I am the low guy on him, but I just don’t see an MLB regular here. He got his time in the
show and half a season at AAA and put up puny average exit velocities at both – we’re talking
1.5 mph slower than Vaughn Grissom. He is stretched at short in that he lacks quickness to his
right and he doesn’t quite have the arm for third and we all saw he doesn’t have the lateral
quickness to excel at second base. He does have elite bat to ball ability though and because of
that somebody is going to give him a job.
Braves Top Prospects, #7, Didier Fuentes, RHP, 19, A-, 2027
A Dominican stringbean, Fuentes got babied a bit in low A while putting up 75 excellent innings,
striking out 11.7/9 while keeping the walks low (2.5). He throws 92-94 so far but has room for
growth in his frame. His breaking stuff and change are serviceable for the level but will need to
get sharper as he moves up. No nickname as yet.
Braves Top Prospects, #6, JR Ritchie, RHP, 21, A+, 2026
Once a highly rated prep arm, Ritchie returned from elbow surgery with most of his stuff intact.
He was still maxing out around 97 but was sitting a couple beats slower than before the surgery.
Hopefully, the second year removed from injury will see a resurgence in his velocity. Even at 93-
94 his fastball has filthy motion into righty hitters which makes it almost impossible for them to
make hard contact. Will need to develop his changeup to throw to lefties to reach his #2 starter
potential. “Poor little rich boy” has a nice 19th century sound, much like “Death to flying things”
or “Wild horse of the Osage” back in the day.
In his recent chat, Keith Law was optimistic on Ritchie:
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6089277/2025/01/28/mlb-prospects-live-chat-keith-law/
Echoes what you’re saying! We could definitely use some good news on the farm, other than Schwellenbach we haven’t had a lot of pleasant surprises in the last couple of years since Harris and Strider took the world by storm.
Disappointing to hear on Alvarez. I’m more of a pitchers guy, so I don’t know about development of hitters. Is exit velocity modifiable without PEDs or is it mostly a fast twitch type trait that is innate?
In Nacho’s case the exit velocities are a function of not getting his lower body into the swing except for low inside pitches — everything else is an opposite field arm dominated swing. We saw a lot of that when he filled in for Ozzie. Braves minor league coaches are working with him on this and some guys — Justin Turner will always be my poster boy on this — go on to have very productive careers.
Unfortunately, swing changes have a high failure rate.
The biggest plus in Nacho’s case seems to be his high makeup. But the degree to which he was overmatched in the majors was a comprehensive failure — it revealed major limitations on both sides of the ball, and it showed that the organization was so starved for depth that they were basically spitting into the wind.
The comps for me would be guys like, say, Brent Lillibridge or, heck, Tony Graffanino – have-glove-will-travel journeymen who hang around for a while because they can play more or less everywhere and can outhit a backup catcher. I like betting on makeup guys to get the most out of their skills, from Michael Harris to Gregor Blanco, and I am confident that Nacho will work hard and do what he can.
But I agree, it’s hard for me to see how he can be a regular.
The ancient among us will surely nickname Fuentes “Bob”. I’d be inclined to call him “Bob Tito”.
His parents must have been fans of the 1969 Braves. Or maybe they are just enamored of good defensive catchers who can’t hit, but if that’s the case they probably would have named him Uecker.
Didier Fuentes? Gotta root for him on principle.
Tito Fuentes was a funny player, a real styler in a ’70s era when that was a little dangerous.
He had this whole routine with his bat when he’d come up to the plate. Of course, that didn’t earn him any favors from opposing pitchers, who dusted him more than a few times. After a game that saw him dodge a brushback or two, he had a great quote:
“They shouldn’t throw at me — I’m the father of five or six kids.”
Can we call him “Diddy”? Or is that name taken?
Love the interchange today. Thanks.
i would trade Nacho away like we did Grissom. Wouldnt hesitate
For sure. Would be nice to do it for a big league SS. His value may never be higher. Bichette available now that they signed Kim?
I would put Nacho in a package for an elite reliever with years of control right now. If Nacho becomes an All-Star, fine, but I don’t see it.
I’m excited about Ritchie and Hackenberg. I’m happy we’ve been picking at the back of the draft for years now and we still have so many high upside arms in the system.
My biggest concern with Nacho was that he was completely overmatched with the MLB fastball. Is bat speed teachable or something that can be improved?
Also, he graded out very poorly at second base in a week’s worth of work.
I’m with oldtimer and Rob. Trade him before his value is shot.
Agreed. Sometimes we hang on to guys too long (mostly pitchers) and it completely torches their value it seems. Unless we have some type of high-end prospective performance, we need to move on from guys like Nacho while we get max value.
I’m afraid we have already held on to AJSS too long. His stuff looked very pedestrian at the major league level as a starter. Maybe in short stints out of the bullpen his stuff would play up, but even then he’s just a reliever.
Waldrep apparently has a limited arsenal and may be ticketed for the bullpen as well.
I’m afraid other teams know this and aren’t offering us as much as we want.
Why is San Diego willing to trade one of their two best SP? They’re contending, and this is not exactly a position of strength.
WAR/# of starts breakdown of their top 6 SPs:
Cease: 4.2 WAR/33 starts
King: 4.2/30
Waldron: 0.7/26
Musgrove: 1.7/19
Vasquez: 0.5/20
Darvish: 2.0/16
Ok, so maybe Darvish comes back healthy and deals. But it’s not like their rotation is full. Are they cutting salary? And if they’re in win now mode, who could we give them for even King, who has had exactly one good season as a starter? They’re not going to let us package our AAAA stuff like Nacho and Elder, will they? And why would they want even an elite prospect? It doesn’t make sense to me.
The Padres have lost a lot and must not think they can contend for even a WC. Both pitchers could return a large package of prospects, and if you know you’re not going to be able to sign either one, why keep them for a .500 season and only get a low draft pick in return when they walk?
Of course. Outside looking in, it’s easy to see that they should prioritize the future and sell off a couple pieces. I just don’t know how they sell that to their fans.