Atlanta Braves Draft Philosophy
By Fred Owens
What’s ahead?
As I noted in the open there’s a divergence of opinion amongst those who make projections about the draft. Early in the year everyone was leaning towards a prep arm like Pint or Jason Groome but lately more like Callis are suggesting Lewis as the guy. The landscape changes almost daily as players have good spring seasons, go into awful slumps or get injured.
Adding to the uncertainty is the chaos in a draft class that is filled with question marks as highlighted in John Manuel’s latest post “Uncertainty Reigns With Draft Just Three Weeks Away.” The post is worth reading in its entirety but a quote from an unnamed executive summed up the situation.
"“We don’t always know who will be there when we pick the day of the draft,” one scouting director said. “Heck, last year, we had no idea two or three guys were going to be available when we picked; we didn’t know until two or three minutes before we picked who we were going to take.”"
He opines that the high school pitching prospects are “among the riskiest demographics in the draft” while their peer hitters are plentiful buy are a risky group “especially early.” He calls this year’s college draft options uncertain and says that college pitchers are a volatile bunch.
Discussing the Braves draft Manuel says, “. . (they) pick third and not again until the 40th pick, though they have tried (in vain to this point) to move up by trading for one of the compensatory picks . . (the Braves draft) pool, just shy of $12.4 million, could allow them to be aggressive if they aren’t blocked by (other) teams . . .”
Conclusion; no one knows but everyone is willing to guess.
Next: And in closing