Minor League Preview - The South Atlantic League

The full season minor leagues started their season last Thursday, and with that in mind, the prospect staff here at Fake Teams will be taking a look at some of the relevant information with each league. While we always hope that you'll come to us when you're looking for fantasy writing and analysis to help you in your leagues, we also want to help you get a better understanding of what we're looking at so that you can do some of this analysis should you need it quickly. Last up is the Single-A South Atlantic League, also known as the Sally League.

The Basics

While there have been leagues with the South Atlantic League name since 1903, the current iteration was formed in 1980 when the Western Carolinas league was renamed. The league has 14 teams primarily in the southeastern U.S., but also range as far north as Lakewood, New Jersey and as far west as Lexington, Kentucky. It is in the lowest classification of full-season leagues, four levels below the major leagues, and as a result is usually filled with high school draftees from the previous year who are making their debuts.

Offensive Profiles

The South Atlantic League is home to some of the more unique stadium profiles in how they play on offense. You have Asheville's McCormick Field, which is just 373 ft to center field and 297 down the right field line, and while there is a 36 ft wall in right field, the park still plays up home runs quite a bit. On the flip side, parks like Augusta's Lake Olmstead Stadium and Lakewood's FirstEnergy Park have severely limited offense in previous years.

Last Year's Champion: Hickory Crawdads (Rangers' affiliate)

Teams

Instead of breaking down the rosters, I'll share some prospects that bear keeping an eye on. Any players that appeared on the Fake Teams Top-100 will be notated with their ranking in parentheses.

Asheville (COL) - Terry McClure

Augusta (SFG) - Phil Bickford, Lucius Fox, Jalen Miller

Charleston (NYY) - Luis Torrens, Domingo Acevedo

Columbia (NYM) - Milton Ramos

Delmarva (BAL) - Ryan Mountcastle, D.J. Stewart

Greensboro (MIA) - Josh Naylor, Isael Soto

Greenville (BOS) - Anderson Espinoza (24), Luis Alejandro Basabe, Michael Chavis

Hagerstown (WAS) - Victor Robles (18), Max Schrock

Hickory (TEX) - Dillon Tate (58), Andy Ibanez

Kannapolis (CHW) - Corey Zangari

Lakewood (PHI) - Franklyn Kilome, Cornelius Randolph (53)

Lexington (KCR) - Foster Griffin, Chase Vallot, Marten Gasparini

Rome (ATL) - Max Fried, Touki Toussaint (75), Austin Riley (87)

West Virginia (PIT) - Mitch Keller, Ke'Bryan Hayes