One of the articles Baseball Prospectus took another look at was the. Not all were complete failures. Some, like or , even had some good seasons. The common theme, however, was that none reached the sky-high projections that people believed they could have. No Braves prospects made the list. I know — I was shocked, too. A number of busts quickly came to mind, but none were on the BP list. With that in mind, I wanted to put together a Top 10 list of prospect busts for the Braves. This list is entirely subjective and you are more than welcome to share your own or add to it. What We Thought: or Delgado? Which would be the true ace? Many were convinced it was Teheran, but Delgado was a good bet, too. Like many young pitchers for the Braves before their High-A franchise moved from Myrtle Beach, Delgado came on the scene with a big campaign in the Carolina League. Immediately, he was a borderline Top 50 prospect in baseball. While he still flashed a good arm from time-to-time, he was never able to build upon his success during his 2011 cup of coffee. We should have seen it coming, too. He came back the next year and struggled throughout. The next winter, Atlanta traded him to Arizona and he finally had a 1-win season last year. It was his seventh year in the majors. What We Thought: TOOLS! When Atlanta got Lombard out of the Lovett School in Atlanta, they saw a guy with all of the tools you could possibly search for. The Braves were convinced that he would soon join in the outfield. Sure, that came with a super high ceiling, but there was also a very low floor. Would he make enough contact to produce the numbers he needed to? The Tigers, who were awful, gave Lombard an extended look and he hit just. He would play just 33 games in the majors for the next several years, bouncing from the Rays to the Red Sox to the Nationals to the Dodgers, Marlins, and Indians. By 2009, he was playing for the independent Long Island Ducks. He since has gone into coaching. Jarrod Saltalamacchia Chris J. At least, we thought so. He followed up a disappointing 2006 campaign by hitting like gangbusters to open 2007. Injuries and poor play by brought him to the majors and he held his own at the plate while receiving a crash course on how to play first base. When he was included in the trade to acquire , he was the headliner. Not , not , not. It was Salty who would head to Texas and start behind the plate for them for a decade. Still, his value was through the roof. What We Got Wrong: He was a hitting catcher who forgot how to hit. Batting average has his issues, but after hitting. He would rebound some in 2013, now with the Red Sox, to post the only. Derek Lillquist What We Thought: had a 54. Oh, and had 18. Drafted before those pitchers — and sixth overall — was. Lillquist was a big reason Georgia won its first SEC Title and went to the College World Series. He was mature, sound, and expected to join the Braves within a short amount of time. In 1988, he was their top prospect — better than 4 , 6 , and 8 according to Baseball America. He fell to third the next year. Even at his best, he had average strikeout numbers. At his worst, they were abysmal. He did have good control but lacked an out pitch when he needed it. Still, with a bad Braves team in need of talent, they brought him up in 1989 and he did okay 3. There was some thought that he could join Smoltz, , and as the Braves improved. That thought ended the next year. He struggled out the gate and the Braves traded him in July of 1990 for. Lilliquist jumped around from there to the Indians, back to the Braves, and on to the Red Sox, Dodgers, Reds, and Royals. He replaced in St. Louis back in 2011 and joined the Nats this offseason. What We Thought: People forget that before there was , there was Tyler Houston. Things were bad behind the plate for Atlanta. What We Got Wrong: Unfortunately, this was a bad miss by and the Braves front office. Houston languished in the minors as an iffy defender behind the plate and a poor bat in the box. He occasionally showed off the power potential, smacking 30 homers over 561 PA between 2001-01 for the Brewers, but it was a far cry from the expectations that the team had for Houston. Related — What Could Have Been? What We Thought: Flashback to the winter of 1998-99. The Baseball America staff was sorting their yearly Top 100. The Cardinals had and flamethrower. They took the first two spots. Who would be next? How about from Florida? Or catcher of the Expos? No, it was Bruce Chen, a Panamain lefthander who had made his major league debut the previous season after starting the year in Greenville. Chen was putting up some ridiculous strikeout numbers, had solid control, and kept the ball in the yard a lot. The Braves had another excellent lefty on the way. He got a bigger cup of coffee in 1999 and did little with it. New York, Montreal, Cincinnati — what fun! Houston, Boston, Baltimore — gimme more! Texas, Kansas City, Cleveland — the end. You gotta hand it to Chen. Few prospect busts play 17 years in the majors. Regardless, the Braves were excited and as was Baseball America, who ranked Betemit the 8th best prospect in baseball coming into 2002. Betemit would languish between Richmond and Atlanta, though. Bad plate discipline and a weaker-than-advertised bat were failing him. In 2005, the Braves, forced to keep him or potentially lose him on waivers, kept Betemit around and he responded with a. Perhaps he was on his way to big numbers after all. In 2006, they surprisingly traded Betemit to the Dodgers for and. He was playing a lot behind an often-injured. Yet, the Braves sent him packing. He was a lot more successful than you might think, finishing with a. What We Thought: Mike Kelly was going to be better than. The Braves made Kelly the second overall pick of the 1991 draft. So what if wants to go play football — our outfield is set. On one hand, things were looking up. What We Got Wrong: On the other hand, 1994 was abysmal for Kelly. He struggled tremendously to start the year and was demoted. When he returned two months later, he started to put some things together — including a four-hit game right before the Strike. Atlanta gave up on Kelly the next winter, trading him to the Reds. A comeback attempt went nowhere and Kelly finished his career with a. Many on this list had a worse career, but few had a higher ceiling. What We Thought: The fourth overall selection of the 1979 draft, Komminsk was a future star. With Durham in 1981, Komminsk hit. He also got a cup of coffee to get his feet wet. The stage was set. Should have been a blue chipper, but something happened on the way between being the best prospect in the minors and being the best player in the majors. Komminsk argues that coaches tried to change him and that put him on the wrong direction. Maybe they were trying to change his swing so that he could hit a curveball. Regardless, the results were miserable. He did swipe 18 bases with 8 homers, but hardly an impressive campaign. In 1986, he only played a handful of games with the Braves and they would trade him the following January for. He played only 156 more games for five teams, finishing with a career slash of. Well, I guess Hank Aaron is allowed to be wrong every now and then. The question many had about Marte was how he would fit in for the Braves. Would he move Chipper Jones to another position? Or would the Braves be forced to trade Marte? So many questions surrounded Marte, but none seemed to be related to his playing ability. He posted an OPS between. In 2005, he briefly appeared in the majors, hitting just a buck-forty for the Baby Braves. He would earn a rank of the 14th-best prospect in baseball. After 2005, the Braves traded Marte to the Red Sox for. Less than two months later, he was sent to the Indians in the deal. He was a great fit for Cleveland but never came close to reaching his expected potential. The Indians gave him shot-after-shot, but after five years, he was hitting just. They non-tendered him and after some time in the minors, he resurfaced in the majors for a brief run with the Diamondbacks in 2014. Marte spent the next two years in Korea, hitting 42 homers in the process. After 2016, he went back to the Dominican Republic and hoped to catch on with another team to once again try to reach the majors. On January 23 of this year, he died in a car accident. It was the same day a similar fate took the life of. Marte was just 33 and finished his career with 21 home runs in 940 plate appearances. Related — Sorry for the somber note to end this look back at some of the biggest busts? Did I miss some names? Are my rankings off? Let me know below! I hope that The Braves keep the strategy of drafting high school pitchers early in The Draft for years to come. A team can NEVER have too much pitching in The Minors or in The Majors, lol. But barring that, stick with drafting the likes of Soroka, Allard, Wright, Anderson, Wilson, Wentz, etc. Imagine how things would have turned out for The Braves.. He was a little like Kyle Davies, Anthony Lerew, and a few others. Back then, the prospect ranks were a bit thin so it made iffy prospects look better by comparison. Reyes seemed like a bigger prospect because the Braves had so few good pitching prospects from about 2004-to-2009. While Komminsk hit for more power in The Minors than Acuna…. Acuna has the ability to make adjustments. I saw a number of games last year where Acuna looked awful in his 1st plate appearance against a pitcher…only to have much better at-bats as the game went on. Heck, there were at-bats when he looked bad swinging the 1st couple of pitchers getting into a 0-2 hole then either draw a walk or work the count full and get a hit on a pitch to his liking. Acuna will probably open April in Triple A…then after his promotion, enjoy a long MLB career hopefully all with The Braves. Albies and Acuna hitting 1- 2…should give Freddie Freeman a PLETHORA of RBI opportunities. Paul, long-term, I agree with you- Acuna projects as an ideal 2 hitter, behind Albies. This season, however, I feel like Snitker would be right to hit him 6th or 7th in the order. A line-up needs his speed at the top of the order. If Acuna struggles, then maybe a change in play would be in order. However I say once Acuna makes it to Atlanta, he should be immediately inserted into the 2 spot of the order. If anything, having Albies and Acuna setting the table for Freeman…will illustrate the glaring need for our GM AA to go out and acquire some serious power in The 2018 Free Agent Offseason to fill what is a glaring weakness on this team: Power in the 4- 5 spots of the order 3rd base-left field, traditionally power hitting positions. We have to give these kids a chance to play! However, it sounds as if he carried the heavy weight of expectation; much as Acuna will in his first season. Honestly, it might not be the worst thing for Acuna if he struggles a bit at AAA to start the season, and is held down for awhile. I doubt anybody here has seen Kominsk playing. The stats in minors were excellent —. We could estimate, we could project and we would be more or less right only most of the times. To see how he responds for that. Second, let him get at least 1000 ABs in minors. Acuna is a pretty accomplished hitter at this point. He hit extremely well at all levels in 2017…in addition to just toying with The AFL pitching. Unless he bombs the beginning of The 2018 Season in Triple A…. If The Braves have an expectation to seriously contend in 2019, then Acuna is going to need as many MLB at-bats as he can get in 2018. This would be A SICK line-up! Rocketed through the minors by what I can only consider as necessity and desperation by the front office, he was in the majors in no time and creating memorable moments for the Braves and us fans. After JoeyD was traded, there was a brief glimpse of a moment where he seemed like he was about to make the Braves look extremely stupid for trading him…. Arm just fell apart on him. Then there was Eric Campbell. Hit hit for a time in A-ball, but fizzled out in Double-A rather quickly.
