Atlanta Braves Grab Christian Walker Off The Wire
By Fred Owens
This time of year roster crunches cause good players to end up on the waiver wire. Today the Atlanta Braves took advantage of that by claiming Christian Walker.
The Atlanta Braves had one slot open on their 40-man roster last night. Rumors about the return of Kelly Johnson and Jeff Francoeur persisted but this Atlanta Braves front office is looking forward, not back. As Blake noted earlier, Atlanta filled that open slot with a right hand hitter who flashes power. He’s also a backup first baseman and possibly more; Christian Walker .
Baltimore designated their first baseman/outfielder and former top 20 Oriole prospect for assignment on the 21st in order to add pitching depth; and boy do they need pitching depth. When I saw that news I began to write a piece saying Walker could fit quite nicely on the Braves bench.
Work – and fear of jinxing the claim – got in the way of finishing it but today I can officially be excited about the signing.
Walker looked on track to make their 25 man roster but the Orioles have Chris Davis signed long-term and added Mark Trumbo ending Walker’s shot in Baltimore.
Whither Christian Walker
In January 2009 Bryce Harper had all of the scout and pundits drooling over his performance in the Rawlings Home Run Derby event. All of the press was about Harper but Walker actually won that day.
The link above details that the event was as much a test of endurance as a home run hitting contest, starting in nine in the morning with 69 participants taking swings with both metal and wooden bats.
"It was a long day: Aside from occasional two-minute breaks to replenish baseballs, and a 10-minute break before the finals, the action did not stop for more than 12 hours!"
Harper grabbed the headlines that day with a series of monster homers in the semifinals – all with an aluminum bat – to join the final five. Christian earned his place with ten homers – three wood; seven metal bat – including a 468-footer to the upper level in deep center field at the Metrodome. His size and strength helped him win the event with nine homers in the final round.
Walker’s invitation to the event came as a result of a stellar high school career at Kennedy-Kenrick. At the time he was a third baseman/catcher who had been on Perfect Game’s radar for years.
". . . (Walker) has a solid strong build and his hands and arm work in the infield. . runs fairly well (and) the ball jumps off his bat (with) big power. He has a good stroke with excellent bat speed . . . hits hard line drives to all fields . . . and can already drive the ball out of any ball park . . ."
That history and the derby won encouraged the Dodgers to select him in the 49th round of the 2009 draft. Walker honored his commitment to the University of South Carolina instead. (Gee, I wonder why?)