The rule 4 draft begins at 6 PM today and the last mocks are out with new projections for the Atlanta Braves
The Atlanta Braves lost their third round selection and the associated pool money as a result of the misdeeds of their former general manager.
Alan’s looked at how new GM Alex Anthopoulos might decide who to select but as in all things, we operate with less than half of the available information.
That detail doesn’t stop anyone from guessing of course and guesses aplenty abound. Over the past few weeks the Atlanta Braves choice in today’s draft seemed locked in to one player. This weekend that changed a little.
Atlanta Braves front-runner slips back
High school Nolan Gorman third baseman sat atop the mocks for weeks. The 6’1” left handed hitter offers one of the drafts best power options.
A unanimous Baseball America High School All-American seemed to lose ground early this spring but turned that around sits safely as BA’s #15 draft prospect and #4 on MLBPipeline’s list.
Yesterday 6’6” RHP Carter Stewart took Gorman’s place. Stewart’s mix of a high 90s fastball and a curve BA calls “other worldly” due to a 3317 rpm spin rate.
Baseball America also reports TrackMan called his curve ”among the most impressive pitches the company we’ve ever tracked, at any level”.
High school arms present a higher risk of failure but Braves’ history suggests that a pitcher with those credential would sit atop their list.
If by some quirk of fate Joey Bart falls that far the Braves will be on him like white on rice. Buster Posey didn’t sign with the Braves so a chance to grab Bart would be a karma payback.