Atlanta Braves search for hidden talent in the draft – Day 3

Here’s part two on the Atlanta Braves draft day three signings. All of these players are unranked but have a tool that intrigued the team to call their name.

As I noted before, it’s impossible to get all 30 Atlanta Braves new draftee prospects in a post and provide anything useful in the form of information, so I’ll break it up into a series of posts.

There are 6 players in this post and, as before, I’m piecing together scouting information from multiple sources, including Baseball America (BA), MLB Pipeline, Perfect Game (PG) and the Baseball Cube — as well as schools and online news pages.

Some players have more data available than others; the farther a player is from the various subjective lists of the 500 best prospects I get, the harder it is to find anything.

As I get to the end, it’s possible all I’ll have is a name and school data.

For those you who want to see a list of every player drafted, I’ve included a link to MLB’s’ draft tracker.

Mahki Backstrom 1B; bats L/throws L; 5-5, 220; Not Ranked.  @mahkib123, BA State Rank 76

Round 18 – overall pick 547:  Junipero Serra HS (CA)

If you watched the video you know Mahki Backstrom is a big, strong left-handed hitting first baseman. Perfect Game calls he “whips the barrel” through the zone generating “outstanding raw bat speed and impact strength, power to all fields.” but doesn’t sell out for his power.”

According to the Baseball America behind their paywall, Mahki had a successful 2018 tour of the showcases, “posting the top exit velocity (108.6 mph) at the World Wood Bat Association Championships.”

Perfect Game credits him with a 6.9 60-yard dash, but Baseball America says he’s “a below-average runner and below-average defender at first base and left field.”

There’s upside in his power stroke and he’s only 18-years old. It takes time to grow into those long arms, but in the videos, there are flashes of a nice swing.

Statistics for his junior and senior years in high school courtesy MaxPreps.