Fansided

The Atlanta Braves draft history showcases how much things have remained the same

The Atlanta Braves made their first two selections for the 2024 Rule 4 Amateur draft on Sunday – Pitchers, of course. When it’s over, they’ll have added 20 players to the 2791 players selected by the Braves over the past 59 years. It's the 60th birthday of the draft, but 121 drafts have taken place along the way. That's a lot of players, so how have the Atlanta Braves fared?  Let’s take a look.

By Fred Owens |
The Atlanta Braves" first successful draft of a position player one-one was Bob Horner.
The Atlanta Braves" first successful draft of a position player one-one was Bob Horner. / George Gojkovich/GettyImages
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On June 8, 1965, the Milwaukee Braves selected first baseman Dick Grant with the 12th pick in the first round of the inaugural Rule 4 Amateur Draft, rewarding him with a $25K bonus to sign. They should have saved the money for Grant and second-round selection Don Johnson. Neither player played for Atlanta, and both were out of baseball in 1971.

The first player drafted by the Braves to reach the Majors was their third-round pick in 1965, Charlie Vaughan. Vaughn’s Major League career lasted two games, one in 1966 and another in 1969. The team sent him back to the minors after one inning in relief, and he never reached the majors again. I can’t confirm or deny that they made a movie about his son…

Tom Terrific was a Brave, then he wasn’t.

The Atlanta Braves selected Tom Seaver in the first round in the January-secondary draft and signed him. Seaver was still attending USC at the time and technically on the team but hadn’t played. Baseball Commissioner William Eckert (based in New York) decided that Seaver’s contract was void is violated a rule that college players could not sign once their season had begun.

Eventually, he held a lottery, allowing the Mets, Phillies, and Indians to match the $40K contract Seaver signed with the Braves, and surprise, the New York Mets won. You may read more about it by following the link to Covering the Corner.

Seaver was the real deal, and the Braves drafted a few others that sound like the real deal.

Right name, wrong pitcher

In 1966, the Atlanta Braves selected RHP Charlie Brown, but he didn’t sign, citing something about a football and Snoopy.

The Braves drafted Kevin Brown in 1986. Unfortunately, it wasn’t THE Kevin that pitched so well from 1986 to 2005. Our Kevin Brown was a lefty that we eventually traded to the Mets in 1988.

Braves pitching drafts

The Braves have drafted a lot of pitchers,1380 to be exact, and signed 780 of them, 542 righties and 238 lefties,  but only 169 reached the majors. Of that group:

  • Five appeared in only one game
  • Six appeared in two games- two of those pitchers are still active
  • 21 appeared in at least three but less than nine games – four are still active
  • 43 appeared in at least 200 games, with a half dozen still active
Atlanta Braves Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Glavine leads all pitchers drafted by the Braves with 518 appearances for Atlanta.
Atlanta Braves Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Glavine leads all pitchers drafted by the Braves with 518 appearances for Atlanta. / Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

Late round pitching

The Braves drafted 287 pitchers after the 20th round, but only 15 pitched at least one game in the majors. Of that group,10 pitched for the Braves. Jonny Venters has the most appearances with the Braves (267), followed by John Rocker (210) and Tommy Hanson (108).

John Foster is next (67), followed by Chuck James (64), Tim Spooneybarger (55), Shae Simmons (33), Ryan Weber (21), Jason Shiell (4), and Darrell May and William Woods (2 each).

Top 20 rounds

One hundred twelve of the 527 pitchers taken in the first 20 rounds made at least one appearance wearing the Tomahawk.

Second-rounder Tom Glavine’s 518 games are the most for any drafted pitcher as a Brave. Home run hero Rick Camp is second with 414, followed by Mark Wohlers (388), AJ Minter (375), Steven Bedrosian (350), Mike Stanton (304) and Craig Kimbrel (294).

Kent Merker was the last Brave to toss a no-hitter and leads all Braves first-round pitchers to date with 251 appearances. Jeff Dedmon (229) and Steve Avery (203) are the only other pitchers who pitched in more than 169 games for Atlanta.

You can see the full list of these pitchers at this link, and this link shows every pitcher drafted by the Braves to pitch at least once in the majors. Five of the names on the list are position players, making the list look longer than 169.

How many pitchers?

From the beginning, the Atlanta Braves decided to draft pitching and trade for everything else, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that they’ve drafted only 26 position players in the first round and taken a position player 1-1 twice, Bob Horner and Chipper Jones.

The Atlanta Braves selected 1436 position players in the last 59 years and signed 854, but only 124 played at least one Major League game.  

Chipper, Brett Butler, Dale Murphy, and Dusty Baker are the only drafted position players with over 2000 games; Butler was a 23rd-rounder, and Dusty a 26th-round pick. Freeman has 1982 games, Gant’s exactly 140 behind him, and Jermaine Dye’s another 70 back; Wes Helms sits in 25th, with 1212 games.

Chipper leads all drafted players with 85.3 rWAR as a Brave, with Freddie Freeman’s 59.7 in second. Brett Butler (49.7), Dale Murphy (46.5), Jason Heyward (41.3), and David Justice (40.6) are next, and it drops off pretty quickly after that. Austin Riley is in 16th place with 20.5 and should pass Jeff Blauser and Bob Horner this year.

You can view the complete list at this link.

Drafts create wonderful fantasies about superstars in the making, but over time, unexpected prospects emerge, and hot prospects vanish. The draft's a tease, and we love it.

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