Atlanta Braves court new beau: Oregon shortstop Beau Philip

The Atlanta Braves final selection on day one of the draft is yet another shortstop; Beau Philip. Do they really want to sign him?

In the last five drafts, fans wondered if the Atlanta Braves would ever pick anything other than pitchers. This year they appear in love with college shortstops.

If Beau Philip’s name is new to you, you aren’t alone. Philip is a 19-year old Junior at Oregon State, ranked #132 by MLBPipeline and #254 by Baseball America on it’s free-to-view list of 500 draft prospects. Just keep scrolling, he’s there, I promise.

Undrafted out of high school, Philip attended San Joaquin Delta (Calif.) Junior College for two years where he put up good numbers. Prior to this season, He transferred to Oregon after being recruited to play shortstop there,

In the junior college league, Philip stole a lot of bases each year, that dropped off significantly after he moved to Division I ball.  Injuries were a factor.

When healthy, he hit leadoff and continued to produce as before while playing a solid – if not spectacular – shortstop this season.

Statistics from The Baseball Cube

Projection

As a couple of pitches in the video show, Philip struggles with breaking balls. He’ll require a lot of work if he’s to hit well at the next level, The BA scouting report from the link above isn’t high on Philip.

"Philip . .  moves side to side well and does a particularly nice job of making plays up the middle to his glove side. He has plenty of arm strength for the position, so much so, in fact, that if Phillip struggles with the bat . . .he could have a realistic fallback option on the mound."

Why?

All of that scouting data says Philip has little chance of success. I’d like to tell you I see a path to the majors for Philip, but I can’t.

Players ranked outside of the top 100 have only the tiniest chance of making it, and have at least one plus tool to lean on. That’s not true of #254 ranked Beau Philip.

The player taken immediately after Philip at #61, Aaron Schunk, plays third base for Georgia ranks #117 on the BA list. Two players later the Cubs took Chase Stumpf at #64. Stumpf ranks #42 on the BA list. Baseball America says Stumpf is an average to below average second baseman, but he can hit:

"(Stumpf was) considered arguably the top draft prospect in Southern California and hit .284/.422/.461 through the end of the regular season . . . and has consistently shown excellent bat-to-ball skills, with an impressive ability to backspin the ball the opposite way to right-center field . . . displayed a strong knowledge of the strike zone . . . almost as many walks (87) as strikeouts (106) the last two years."

Passing up multiple players with better tools is a valid way to draft, only if the player taken fills a need. Unless something’s changed, Mr. Philip doesn’t do that.

This selection wreaks of a way to game the system, as described in Alan’s post yesterday.  I wonder if the Braves actually want him to sign. If the 2020 draft is as stacked as everyone says, a second-round pick there – even at #61 – might look better to the Braves than anyone they can sign here.

More reasons to ponder this

For a moment, let’s take the best possible scenario:  suppose your internal scouting believes that his college injuries were really all that was holding him back from being a potential star and a 1st rounder… a reach, but let’s go with that for a minute.

Why would you need to draft him here in the 2nd round?  This is the 60th pick… he’s ranked in the 100’s.  At a minimum, the Braves could have picked him up in Round 3… possibly all the way to Round 5 or 6.

This doesn’t make any sense at all… especially since you just picked up SS Shewmake in Round 1.

I don’t mean to denigrate the player:  this is all about draft strategy, timing or selections, and the best ways to spend their available monies.  This doesn’t appear to help.

In the worst case scenario, Philip could be saddled with this legacy:  the draft pick preserved by not signing Craig Kimbrel at the beginning of the season.

That’s a wrap

Maybe all will become clear eventually. Right now there’s little logic visible in this selection and nothing in the way of improving the future.

The post-draft interview should make good reading; I can’t wait to hear the spin on this. If this is their plan, I hope the kid (he’s 19, and I’m really old, so he’s a kid) takes their money and runs with it.

It may be good business, but I view it as a way to circumvent the intent and purpose of the rules, and we know how well that worked for the last GM.