The last few seasons have seen an almost unprecedented influx of young talent into the major leagues. We saw some of it on display this postseason. There is more on the way. If you are into fantasy baseball and you don't know who these elitely talented prospects are, you might find yourself left behind in the dust, just like you favorite MLB team.
We'll start off with BA's 2017 minor league player of the year, Ronald Acuna from the Braves organization. Acuna not big physically at 6'0", 180 lbs, but has a huge set of 5 tools. He B-R, T-R and plays OF. He clearly has the speed to play CF, but has mostly played RF where he can show off his arm.
Acuna was not well known prior to 2017. He put up a strong slash line of .311/387/.432 for Rome in low A ball as an 18 year old, but was limited to just 171 PA due to injuries. 2017 was a huge breakout as he raced through 2 levels to reach AAA well before his 20'th birthday. Just wait until you see his combined stat line for the 3 levels: .325/.375/.522, 31 2B, 8 3B, 21 HR, 44 SB. He actually performed better at each successive level and dropped his K rate from 31.1 A+ to 23.0 AA to 19.8 at AAA.
He is now tearing up the AFL. He'll almost certainly start the 2018 season back in AAA for at least 2 months until he achieves "Super 2" status. The Braves will have to figure out how to move Matt Kemp or Nick Markakis, but if Acuna keeps up this pace he will easily force the issue by midseason.
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