Baseball America recently released an updated list of the Top 100 Prospects in baseball, and only two Braves made it.
Updated. Top. 100. Prospects.https://t.co/Cfxvy6UowA
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) June 2, 2022
Jake talked yesterday about Michael Harris‘ jump into the Top 20, moving up 19 spots all the way up to 18th. And if you think about it, you can probably guess the other Brave that joined him in the Top 100 — the hard-throwing Spencer Strider.
Strider’s meteoric rise through Atlanta’s organization has been incredible. Just last year, he was making his organizational debut after being drafted in 2020. Now he’s already in the starting rotation. However, that was only good enough to land him at #99 on the list. Here’s what Baseball America had to say about Strider:
One of the minors’ biggest breakouts of 2021 has been making a name for himself in the major leagues as a high-powered reliever out of the Atlanta bullpen. His one-two punch of a high-90s fastball with ride and life and a mid-80s slider has left the best hitters in the world swinging and missing at an advanced rate.
I’ll never call myself a prospect guru. I pay close attention to the Braves system, but other than that, I don’t keep up with too many guys outside of the organization. However, I can pretty confidently say there aren’t anywhere close to 98 better prospects than Strider, who is already dominating major-league batters.
Strider is sporting a 3.45 ERA, which is really good, but his 1.89 FIP suggests his ERA isn’t anywhere close to doing him justice. The man is striking out 38.6% of batters, and you’re telling me there are 98 better prospects in baseball. That’s blasphemous. Strider deserves to be way higher on this list, but at this point, it doesn’t matter. He’s not even really a prospect anymore; he’s a critical piece to a team with championship desires. Show me the other guys on the list that can say the same.
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Photo: David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire
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