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