Atlanta Braves Draft – Quick Takes on Draft Day 1
The Draft offers many choices… but how many winners?
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The Braves had the most picks available last night of any club and other than Houston (who had better picks), had the most to gain.
The question, then, is whether that goal was achieved.
We will not know the complete answer until a decade from now since there are a pile or 17- and 18-year-olds that were selected last night, but there are several observations that we can make.
The Draftees
First off, here’s the list of players selected:
[table id=28 /]
The rankings have two values: overall ranking and ranking in their state/province. I will not give further profiles of each here, as Fred has already done a bang-up job of keeping you up to date on these kids: Allard here, Soroka here, the other three here….with more coming all the time! I do have some further thoughts on Soroka a bit later, though.
Regarding the ‘Sign?” column – none have actually signed their pro contracts yet, of course, but the reports do indicate that all are willing to do so, which is a huge deal for the Braves – and certainly would have been a priority for them.
#Braves are expected to have all 5 of their first-day picks signed soon.
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) June 9, 2015
The Observations
- This feels like the same philosophy is being used as John Hart & Co. have used since taking the helm of the Braves: acquire high upside players with some risk involved.
- Two of those risk picks are Allard and Minter, both who were much higher ranked talents until injury knocked them down. Even Minter was getting into Round 1 discussions based on his Spring work.
- With Allard, I see scouting reports suggesting “easy gas” into the mid-90’s. Clearly, with a stress fracture in his back, he’s putting more effort in than those scouts are seeing. His height (6-0″ to 6-1″) is concerning as part of that, however, it is reasonably possible that he could come up another inch or two before age 20… and that might make a huge difference.
But for now: note that in this photo, Allard (at left) appears to be slightly shorter than battery-mate-teammate Herbert. Both are listed at 6’1″.
Kolby Allard and Lucas Herbert – tweeted by Allard on Draft Day 2015.
- For a team that everybody mentioned as liking to draft home-grown talent, the picks came from far and wide: California, Canada, Texas, Mississippi. Hopefully that means the Braves were beating the bushes for quality over geography.
- The team was said to be looking at multi-sport athletes – not necessarily the best from the traveling teams. A.J. Minter played running back and linebacker in high school, so he certainly fits that mold. Likewise, Austin Riley was a quarterback. Other than that, they were going for high school talent in large part… and have certainly gone in that direction.
Mike Soroka is a bit of an enigma for me. At first glance, my thinking is that Atlanta could have pulled him 2-3 picks later… there was no need to even go after him on the first day.
Two things about that: first, he was not an unknown quantity: the video below is of him pitching for the Canadian Junior National team... against major/minor-leaguers of the Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin this Spring. I would imagine that of all players they missed on, Toronto may be really ticked at getting sniped by Atlanta on Soroka. He did not have the best control of his fastball that day, but his curve did get through an inning without damage, save for a single from Dalton Pompey.
Additionally, this could have been one of those ‘strategic’ picks to draft a lower-ranked player in a higher slot, both to urge him to sign and to save some draft monies for other players down the line. Still, a 90th-ranked player in the 28th slot seems a bit on the high side.
Austin Riley constitutes another head-scratcher with regard to draft position. He’s been listed as both a pitcher and third baseman, and rumblings I’m seeing suggest that he will start at the latter position with Atlanta, thanks to both his bat and lack of further projection on the mound.
Some clubs viewed Riley as a pitcher. But the Braves like his power potential at the plate.
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) June 9, 2015
Whenever I see a prospect being mulled at two different positions, I have to wonder which one he is being ranked for… and whether that ranking would improve (or go down) if he’d been able to stick at a single spot. So this feels like a big reach at pick 41, though may have been for signability reasons. Either way, I do think that if there’s a mistake in any of these first five picks, it would be in taking Riley at this point… unless there’s a significant money savings to be had.
They may like his bat… but at pick 41, they’d better like it a lot.
Your Mileage May Vary
As usual, this forum is conducted on a two-way street: while I kick off the conversation, I would love to see your takes as well: so please have at it in the comments section below!