Jarrod Saltalamacchia C Atlanta Braves


"It's amazing how many catchers are coming out of that system right now," our NL scout said, "Estrada, McCann, and this guy will be the best of the bunch. Start printing the 'Let's Get Salty' T-shirts now, because everybody's going to want one."

'Salty' is farther away from the big leagues than any other prospect in the Top 5, but that doesn't hurt him, or the Braves, because as a catcher, his learning curve is going to naturally be slower.

"They could probably move him up faster than they are going to," our Senior scout said, "but why bother? Give him time to learn, time to get comfortable, and time for the other kids they have to increase in trade value."

He's an imposing physical specimen, and one of the players thinks he'll get bigger.

"If you look at him, he's already big, but his shoulders haven't fully developed. I wouldn't be surprised if there's another 25 pounds of muscle on the kid by the time he gets to the bigs."

Our Director of Player Development could hardly contain himself, "The Atlanta organization just simply can't be questioned when it comes to how they handle their prospects. They don't do anything 'across the board' they evaluate guys individually. They moved Andruw Jones fast, they slow played Marcus Giles, they just know exactly what they are doing. A lot of organizations would have had Saltalamacchia in Double-A the second half of this year, and they'd have him in the bigs at the end of next year. I can't wait to see what the Braves do though, because he's going to be an All-Star, he is going to be better than Javy Lopez. He's a total package, smart, fun, great work ethic, and talent to die for. He was one of four players down here who really lived up to their hype for me, and his numbers weren't even that great."