Braves Briefing: AJ Smith-Shawver is getting love from national media

The staff at MLB.com provided a list of "One standout prospect stat from each team." 

The representative for the Atlanta Braves was the young and impressive pitcher AJ Smith-Shawver. 

Here's the stat that stood out to the staff at MLB.com.

What a crazy year for Smith-Shawver, who entered the year as a 20-year old with 77 total professional innings on his resume. He went from High-A to the big leagues, including the postseason roster. That miniscule .169 BAA (5.4 H/9) over 62 Minor League innings came with a K rate of 11.5 per nine. He wasn’t much easier to hit on a big league mound, either (.183 BAA).

They have Smith-Shawver ranked as Atlanta's top prospect. They also have him ranked as the 53rd-best prospect in all of baseball.

MLB Playoff Updates

The Houston Astros won game three of the ALCS against the Texas Rangers 8-5 last night. Texas now leads 2-1.

Tonight's schedule

NLCS: Philadelphia @ Arizona (PHI leads 2-0) - 5:07 pm ET on TBS.
ALCS: Houston @ Texas (TEX leads 2-1) - 8:07 pm ET on FS1.

Free agent look

As we go into our first offseason as a staff here at Braves Today, we thought it would be important to have our own Free Agent Rankings. Let's look at our top outfielder - Cody Bellinger with the Chicago Cubs.

Braves Today Free Agent Rank: 3

The 2019 MVP has seemingly rebuilt his value with a fantastic statistical year in Chicago, batting .307/.356/.525 with 26 homers, and is hitting the free agent market just months after his 28th birthday, looking for a long-term deal. I've personally still got doubts that he's back to his peak, as his underlying data isn't great - a 22nd percentile average exit velo of 87.9 mph, 33rd percentile chase rate of 31.0%, and a combined 27th percentile barrel rate (6.1%) and 10th percentile hard hit rate (31.4%). 

Important Braves Today Offseason Stories
2023 MLB Free Agent Rankings
Key offseason dates for the Atlanta Braves
2023 Atlanta Braves Club options
Projecting the 2024 Atlanta Braves' arbitration salaries