Atlanta Braves Top 100 Prospects: #12 Braxton Davidson

Atlanta Braves Outfielder Braxton Davidson

Who Is He?

Braxton was drafted by the Braves in the 1st round in the 2014 draft out of high school in Asheville, North Carolina. His draft season was spent in left field, and he split time between the Braves GCL team and the advanced rookie Danville team. Altogether, he hit .224/.387/.299 with a 31/42 BB/K ratio. He did not hit any home runs, but he showed excellent power in his swing as well as his patience at the plate.

Next: Davidson's scouting report

The Braves pushed Davidson to full-season A-ball Rome in the South Atlantic League for 2015. He spent the entire season in Rome, playing right field. He slashed .242/.381/.374 with 10 home runs and an 84/135 BB/K ratio. He also tallied a tremendous 10 assists in the outfield.

Braxton Davidson Scouting Report

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Braxton is listed at 6’2 and 210 pounds, and he’s a left/left player, hitting and throwing from the left side.

Hitting
Braxton has a huge swing that is obvious from any viewing of game footage. He swings big, but he also has the ability to hit any pitch, not just fastballs. I enjoyed watching a game where Davidson took a slider breaking down and away and doubled opposite field. Davidson is much more athletic than he’s given credit for, and we’ll cover that later, but he’s shown an ability to move well on the bases, and especially out of the box. Braxton does frequently release his hips early on a pitch, which leaves him vulnerable to late break, which is where he struggles most in his strikeouts. Braxton handles velocity tremendously well, which is a huge plus in his favor already.

Base Running/Fielding
For a guy who was rumored to be a first base only sort of defender and has a total of 1 stolen base in 7 attempts in the minor leagues, you’d assume he’s an absolute stiff defensively and on the base paths, but that’s just not true. Davidson certainly could use work in his base stealing, but that will never be what the team asks of him regardless. The thing that is impressive is how well he does turning the bases on his own hits and reading fly balls to get good jumps on tags. In fact, it’s absolutely a base running oddity, but with the reports I’ve got coming out, I’ve watched a lot of speed in the Braves system, and Davidson is absolutely the best guy at getting down the line from third on a sac fly in the system that I’ve watched. His instincts on the base paths when it comes to grounders aren’t as well-honed, but at 20, he’s got time to work on those skills as he moves up the system.

Fielding is where Braxton made the biggest impression to me throughout the year, and watching video for this report certainly did nothing to dissuade me from my previous stance. Those who labeled Davidson as a first base guy were pure wrong, and his time in right field this season absolutely showed it. While he handled left field well and wasn’t necessarily good nor bad there, he showed solid instincts in right and above all, he showed a tremendous arm. Davidson’s 10 assists were not a result of teams toying with the big guy based on a poor reputation. He was still making big plays late in the season defensively. One of my biggest disappointments was in not finding any defensive highlight videos to include in this report. Needless to say, while he may not be Jason Heyward or Ender Inciarte in right field, he will absolutely be above average in range and fielding the ball, and his arm could be borderline elite.

Next: 2016 outlook

Video