BA's Sally League Top 20 Features 5 Braves

Here's the link:

Sally League Top 20

Here's the List:

1. Madison Bumgarner, lhp, Augusta (Giants)
2. Jason Heyward, of, Rome (Braves)
3. Mike Stanton, of, Greensboro (Marlins)
4. Jhoulys Chacin, rhp, Asheville (Rockies)
5. Matt Dominguez, 3b, Greensboro (Marlins)
6. Angel Villalona, 1b, Augusta (Giants)
7. Jesus Montero, c, Charleston (Yankees)
8. Austin Romine, c, Charleston (Yankees)
9. Nick Noonan, 2b, Augusta (Giants)
10. Freddie Freeman, 1b, Rome (Braves)
11. Michael Burgess, of, Hagerstown (Nationals)
12. Che-Hsuan Lin, of, Greenville (Red Sox)
13. Cole Rohrbough, lhp, Rome (Braves)
14. Jeff Locke, lhp, Rome (Braves)
15. Michael Taylor, of, Lakewood (Phillies)
16. Alex Cobb, rhp, Columbus (Rays)
17. Darin Holcomb, 3b, Asheville (Rockies)
18. Caleb Gindl, of, West Virginia (Brewers)
19. Ryan Kalish, of, Greenville (Red Sox)
20. Cody Johnson, of, Rome (Braves)

The biggest surprise for a lot of people in the chat was Bumgardener getting the nod over Heyward. I don't know how great Bum will be but he did have a great season all year long at age 19 and Heyward slipped a little in the middle ( a little, not a lot) and his power production wasn't off the charts. I'm not too worried seeing as how deep this league was this year.

BA was pretty impressed with Cody Johnson's second half as well noting that he cut his strike outs from 41% of PAs to 'just' 34 %. Now that is a 7% drop, but don't get fooled, a 34% K rate is still insanely bad, but Johnson seemed to over come it in the second half and post a solid OPS. Coaches and scots love how hard he hits the ball apparently.

I thought Freeman might rank a little higher on this list but sometimes BA falls head over heals for certain players (Villalona) and takes some time to buy into the hype on others. Either way, they say Freeman is our 1B of the future.

People are still big fans of Cole Rohrbough and his amazing spike curve even when he has struggles and Jeff Locke still has some big supporters out there. I am a big fan of Locke as well but I was alittle surprised that he ended up on the list, though they say his tools are still good and his numbers were worse than he pitched. Edgar Osuna also had some votes for the list but didn't quite make the stacked league, but we are told he will move up the Braves top 30 list significantly.

I can't wait for the Carolina League list!