Atlanta Braves Draft Day Two – Power Arms and Character Players

Since 2015 the Atlanta Braves have drafted power relievers in the late rounds. That continued today with an occasional position player thrown in..

First out of the box from the Atlanta Braves was a name that had the expects on the MLB.com stream scratching their heads; Freddy Tarnok. Tarnok wasn’t an unknown  BA ranked Freddy Tarnok the #29 prospect in Florida early this month and  yesterday’s BA list of 2017 MLB Draft Position Rankings: Righthanders he’s ranked number 65.

The move just caught the experts buy surprise, something that continued all day.

Looking at Atlanta Braves #3 pick Freddy Tarnok

Tarnok listed at 6’3” but is reported to be close to 6’5, 184 pound righty out of Riverview High School in Brandon Florida. Baseball Prospectus  watched him last month and filled a comprehensive report.

". . . plus projection remaining; could fill out upper half easily. Pitches from the stretch only; . . .low-effort . .  compact arm action; above-average arm speed; three-quarters slot. FB 88-96;. . .2S FB from time to time; 1st IP 93-95 (t96). . .Lots of swing/miss in the zone. . . (velocity dropped but) arm action looked consistent . . .arm strength. . .CB 78-80 (t81); shows hard, downer action . . inconsistent feel for it;  . . (will develop into) an average offering. . . .lots of swing/miss with FB early ."

Team one scout describes Tarnok as having a . . .72mph change with good depth and run. That contradicts BP’s thoughts.

That all sounds like a late inning reliever in the making to me. The video has a nice look at his motion.

He also played SS (shock) and  Prep Baseball Report  and said he has soft hands with a loose, above average arm . . quiet (at the plate) .. . . has a smooth, flat swing through the zone and gets great leverage. . .. Hard line drives to all fields and more power to come . . .

The Braves took him as a pitcher so unless that flops we’re unlikely to see him in the infield.

Atlanta invests in Bacon

Troy Bacon is a right-handed relief pitcher out of Santa Fe Community College in Tampa Florida.  Bacon ranked 75th on BA’s Florida Draft Report, not high enough to crack their top 500 but apparently he did enough to convince the Braves to take a chance.  The Rockies took him in the 37th round last year –#1100 overall – but understandably he decided to go to a junior college and try again

Listed at 6’1”, 190 pounds on the Santa Fe web page, Bacon is another slender RHRP  .  There’s not much out there on Bacon, D1 reports that after playing in the Northwoods League in 2016 his fastball improved to 93-94 mph and  showed would could become a good slider and changeup in the NWL all-star game.  Looking at his stats courtesy the Baseball Cube we can see what attracted the Braves.

He continued his solid relief work for Santa Fe CC  posting a 1.35 ERA, 0.750 WHIP and 14.4 K per 9 strikeout ratio in 40 IP.

Other Atlanta Braves choices this afternoon

In round five the Braves select Bruce Zimmerman.  Last week BA ranked Mount the Mount Olive College Lefty  North Carolina’s #65 prospect.  He appears to have been Mount Olive’s number one this season making 15 starts and throwing 99 innings finishing with a 9-1 record.

In those 99 innings he posted a 3.48 ERA, 1.141 WHIP, walked 24 and striking out 124, That translates to 11.73 K/9. I think I’m detecting a trend.  Zimmermann will be a senior sign.

Jordan Rodgers, third baseman from the University of Tennessee

According to UT sports, 2017 was a career year for their Senior third baseman. leading the team with a .322/.390/.512/.903 line including nine homers, 13 doubles and 35 RBI in 205 AB.  In an interview with USA today about his senior year. Rodgers said he had a mission to continue a tradition of excellence established by UT grads who went before him

"“Those guys paved the way for what I’ve tried to do and represent the last year or two. . .To come out every day and show guys how things are supposed to be done. . .Playing the game the right way. Staying even keel. My main thing is whether you’re going good or going bad, nobody should know the difference . . .stats, the numbers, the wins and losses, they all go away. But the mark you leave and the traits you pass down don’t go away.”"

Rodgers was BA’s number 13 prospect out of Tennessee and number 396 in their top 500. Their scouting reflects  a player who puts team first and plays a solid third base.

". . .Rodgers played first base last year in deference to Senzel, even though that meant that he wasn’t able to show off his defensive skills.  . . (this season) Rodgers was a nearly flawless third baseman showing range, instincts and an above-average arm. He projects in pro ball as a plus defender or better at third.. . .a fluid swing with impressive barrel awareness.. . . will be a useful senior sign."

 Landon Hughes (@landonhughes27)

Landon Hughes is 6’5” 186 pound right hand relief pitcher out of Georgia Southern University. BA ranked him the #29 prospect in Georgia entering the draft

The only scouting report I can find is what you see in the first video his own in the post game news conference.

His coach looks like Jim Thome’s younger brother. . .I digress.

Herewith his statistics this season. Once again a big arm with a high K/9.

John Curtis, left handed relief pitcher

Johns Curtis is a 6’2”, 180 relief pitcher from Lenoir North Carolina and a graduating senior for Lenoir-Ryne University.

Be aware there a a slew of pitchers named John Curtis, make sure your search fins the right one.

Riley Delgado SS Middle Tennessee State University

Delgado is a 5’10”, 175 pound shortstop from Miami. When his name was called during the streaming draft broadcast the experts called him a “heart and soul of the team” kind of player. In his two years at Middle Tennessee he played in all 110 of their games and posted .369/.435/.458/.893 line striking out just 21 times while walking 57 – there’s an unusual stat these days.

The Baseball Draft Report  for the 2016 draft  said there was “. . . no denying his consistent ability to grind out extended at bats that ultimately (more often than not) end with him on base. . (he has) sneaky pop and steady defense makes him an easy draft . . Delgado is both the better draft prospect and long-term professional player (than others in his class.)

Jacob Belinda, rhp, West Virginia (Sr., Lock Haven, Pa.)

Jacob Belinda is a 6’3” 190 pound righty out of Port Matilda, Pa. This season at Lock Haven he appeared in 12 games – 11 starts –  throwing 61 innings with a 4.72 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, striking out 78 and walking 33. He has what’s been the standard stat of the day, a 11.5 K per 9 rate.  The on screen experts said that he had good stuff working up and down – in and out to hitters and obvious has the ability to strike hitters out.

Last August BA discussed Belinda

"Even though Belinda had a hard time keeping his ERA down  . . scouts were still interested in his swing and miss stuff. . . a good fastball, a decent changeup and a sharp slider. . .(led to a) league-leading strikeout total of 69 in 52.1 innings . .  has nice size to build on, and he goes deep in games. . .six-plus innings in eight of 11 starts while posting a 2.06 ERA . . ."

Belinda is a Junior so he could stay another year. However, I suspect the Braves contacted him to make sure they didn’t waste a pick that could affect their draft pool.

That’s A Wrap for Day Two

Once again the Braves went heavily after pitchers. They passed on injured arms and those who sat out the year and went for pitchers that look like back of the bullpen arms. All have double-digit K rates and a couple are absurd. The sample size is small however we’ll know once they start throwing to professional ballplayers.

I apologize for the lack of data on many of these players but Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis were scrambling to find information too.

I found the choice of Jordan Rodgers interesting. He’s a solid defensive 3B who sound like a character guy. If his bat plays he could move pretty quickly.

Bruce Zimmerman could be the only pitcher to remain a starter. He is a lefty with strike out stuff and those are rare.

I felt the names chosen indicated most of the draft pool money went in the first two rounds and they were simply buying players who would sing below slot in order not to lose any of that money and incur a penalty.

Next: Not a Watered Down Pick

Ben suggested in his mocks that the Braves system was full of players at the lower level and drafting would have to be judicious in order to prevent a log jam. I believe the draft reflects that perfectly.

Ben’s going to sift through the data and provide a summary/recap when it’s done. In the mean time let us know what you think,