Braves 2015 Draft Gains in Importance
When James Shields put pen to paper and signed his Padres contract, the 2015 draft order was finally set. The Braves will have higher – and more frequent – picks than they have in several years, by virtue of a terrible finish to 2014 and the “loss” of free agent pitcher Ervin Santana.
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To give you a basis for comparison, here’s how
went:
- Round 1 – no pick
- Round 1 Compensation – Pick #32 overall (Braxton Davidson)
- Round 2 – Pick #66 (Garrett Fulenchek)
- Round 3 – Pick #102 (Max Povse)
- Round 4 – Pick #133 (Chad Sobotka)
- … and then (finally) every 30 picks thereafter
2015 will be substantially different:
- Round 1 – Pick #14
- Round 1 Compensation – Pick #28 (for losing Santana)
- Round 2 – Pick #54
- Round 3 – Pick #89
- Round 4 – Pick #120 … and every 30 picks thereafter
Big change: instead of 2 picks in the Top 100, Atlanta gets 4 – two of those in the top 30 (none in 2014).
If you were to browse the picks made in 2014, you can see names in that area of the draft such as Catcher Max Pentecost (11th), SS Trea Turner (13th), or Pitchers Sean Newcomb (15th) and Brandon Finnegan (17). While the Braves did well to get Davidson in that 32nd spot, they can look forward now to a player of his caliber plus one of the top 15 draftable players in the country.
Not the Only Upgrade
The rest is about money. And there’s a lot of it.
In 2014, the Braves had a total allotment of $4,557,700 available in bonus money for all of their draftees. This amount was set by formula in rules governing the draft in the hopes that the “richer” teams would not be able to steal away better/”unsignable” players by throwing money at them.
For 2015, though, that number gets a big boost. BaseballAmerica is currently estimating the pool size at $8,702,808 – fifth-highest overall. Depending on how the team chooses to use that bonus money, better players might be drawn out of college commitments to play for Atlanta.
So the groundwork has been set up for Atlanta to have a robust draft in June – undoubtedly, the scouts are already dispersed to the corners of the country in search of that next generation of talent.
Oh yeah – and we have the scouting version of the “A Team” back in the saddle as well.
Looking forward to June?