Atlanta Braves Draft Day Open Thread
By Fred Owens
The latest news from the third stool
Folks who spent time in the military will understand that heading, perhaps they’ll explain it to you.
The other names loudly spoken and often are (in no particular order) Austin Beck HS OF, McKenzie Gore college LHP, Royce Lewis Inf/OF, Brendan McKay college LHP, Kyle Wright College RHP.
This morning MLBPipeline’s Jim Callas and Jonathan Mayo went off-board suggesting that the Braves would surprise everyone by choosing Keston Hiura and OF/2B out of UC Irvine. Their rationale being that the Braves would try to stretch their draft pool by cutting a pre-draft, under-slot deal for Hiura – or others I’ll mention is a minute – to give them late round flexibility. They did this last year with Ian Anderson and picked up Joey Wentz and Kyle Muller at 40 and 44.
Atlanta Braves
If the Braves do that this year they pick up someone like Tristan Beck who had an injury that might make him less attractive to some clubs. We’ve seen their willingness to do this with the Kolby Allard selection among others.
This morning’s Baseball America pick ($$) in Kyle Wright while Tyler Conway at Bleacher Report opts for Royce Lewis and CBS Sports’ Dayn Perry comes out of left field – literally – with Jeren Kendall a strikeout prone college outfielder. You’ve probably been around all the mocks already so I won;t bore you with more from the usual sources.