The Braves have stocked their farm system with a slew of really good starting pitching prospects. The idea behind their strategy has been both that pitchers will always be a risky and volatile commodity due to injury and developmental setbacks AND that pitching will always be in demand (both internally and on the trade market).
A cursory look at our top 30 Braves prospects list tells us that, so far, the scouting department and front office has been successful towards that goal. 16 of the Braves top prospects are pitchers (15 starters and 1 reliever). Coming into the season, if there was a knock on the Braves’ system, it was that all of these pitchers were far away from the majors as they lurked in the low minors.
However, with the aggressive assignments of Mike Soroka and Kolby Allard to Double-A to start the season in addition to some promotions, that is no longer the case as a large portion of the Braves top pitching prospects now reside in either Double-A or Triple-A. That progress continued today.
Atlanta has promoted Luiz Gohara to AAA and Touki Toussaint to AA. Gohara was #39 on my midyear top 50: https://t.co/Rt7f6FLs78
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) July 27, 2017
Luiz Gohara was acquired from the Mariners this past offseason and started the season at high-A. Since then, all the guy has done is be lights out and improve in almost every aspect of his game. This is the second time he has been promoted this year and between High-A and Double-A, he has posted a 2.34 ERA and has 99 strikeouts and 28 walks in 88 1⁄3 innings this season. Some have already asked why not promote Mike Soroka or Kolby Allard instead, but Gohara’s performance combined with the fact that he will need to be added to the 40-man roster this offseason anyways to protect him from the Rule V draft likely influenced this decision.
As for Touki Toussaint, we have often maintained that Touki’s performance this season has been much better than his ERA (which currently sits at 5.04 in 2017). Some others out there would agree with that assessment.
Gohara will get the focus but Toussaint has been much better than his 5.11 ERA in FSL. 25.8 K%, 9.4 BB%, 3.51 FIP in 100 1/3 IP. #Braves
— Sam Dykstra (@SamDykstraMiLB) July 27, 2017
It will be interesting to see how Touki’s stuff plays in Double-A in a park that is decidedly pitcher friendly and with arguably better defenders behind him than he had on the Fire Frogs. Another big upside (for us anyways) is that Touki will be watchable on MiLB TV again, so we will be able to get a sense of how his stuff is looking this season.
With these promotions, eight of the Braves’ best pitching prospects will be at Double-A or Triple-A and with the recently-drafted Kyle Wright expected to be a fast mover, help is coming quicker than many of us thought when the 2017 season started.