Baseball’s New Wave: The Young Superstars Taking Over the Game
6-foot 180-pound Venezuelan prospect had proved he belonged Debuting in April 2018 Acuña produced 13 hits in his first eight games including five doubles and two home runs He became the first player in Braves history to tally five extra-base hits in his first five games By season’s end the player who was barely known just one season earlier was the league’s Rookie of the Year Scouted as early as 14 years old Acuña signed with the Braves for 100,000 in 2014 That was a modest figure compared with the game’s most sought-after young international players And even one year before his MLB debut Acuña remained relatively unknown When MLB Pipeline
came out with its Top 100 Prospects lists in 2017 the young Venezuelan was nowhere to be found The lack of expectations created a lack of pressure that Acuña seems to savor When I signed I wasn’t really considered a highly touted prospect so now it’s even better he said in 2018 I feel the same way I’ve never really had that pressure Acuña opened the 2017 season at the Class-A Advanced level That is three steps below the major leagues By the end of the year he was obliterating Triple-A pitching and was widely considered one of the best prospects in baseball Prospect tools are graded on a 20 to 80 scale with a 20 being the worst and 80 the
best A grade of 60 or higher is considered above average Acuña entered the majors with all five tools hitting for average hitting for power running throwing and fielding rated at 60 or higher Those tools were on full display in 2017 Acuña hit 325 with 21 home runs and 82 runs batted in RBIs to go with 44 stolen bases in 139 games played across three minor league levels Acuña than everybody else Braves shortstop Dansby Swanson said It’s pretty hard to explain When you watch him you can just tell there is a difference Whether you know a lot about baseball or know nothing you can see that guy is doing something right is a better athlete
Acuña has strong baseball bloodlines His uncle Jose Escobar and many of his cousins reached the big leagues His grandfather played minor league baseball So did his father Ronald Acuña Sr The elder Acuña swears he had the talent to make it to the major leagues Instead he league bounced around various minor levels never advancing past Double-A That hasn’t been a problem with Acuña Jr who his father said was more talented and disciplined than I ever was Acuña Jr also had the benefit of coming from a family filled with pro baseball players He was born with talent Acuña Sr said But the little things that you do to polish that talent he learned from all of us
