The Braves put together a fascinating day 1 of the draft, taking AJ Gracia with their first pick and some intriguing upside plays with the rest of their picks. I am a big fan of the approach they took, taking an intriguing combination of floor and ceiling with the ninth pick in Gracia, for reportedly well underslot money. They then took a tooled up outfielder from an unorthodox background with their Prospect Promotion Incentive from Drake Baldwin’s NL ROY in Carter Beck, also generating more bonus
pool savings. They then went big in the second and third rounds on huge upside overslot prep pitchers in Kaiden McCarthy and Jensen Hirschkorn, with a less highly rated prep arm, Cole Dennis in the fourth round. I love taking advantage of the extra pick by spreading the money around. Gracia was a nice pick for what he brings to the table offensively. Given the talent-pool at the ninth pick being less exciting than in some drafts, I think it is a savvy move to pick up reportedly large savings with a still-exciting player and use that money later in the strength of the draft class — prep pitching depth.
Braves News
Our prospect team has excellent write-ups of all 5 of the Braves’ picks in an exciting Day 1 of the draft. See them here for AJ Gracia, Carter Beck, Kaiden McCarthy, Jensen Hirschkorn, and Cole Dennis.
Mike Yastrzemski hit the IL and Owen Murphy returned to Atlanta in a flurry of roster moves.
Matt Olson broke Dale Murphy’s franchise consecutive games played record.
Back on the field, the Braves had a rough night, losing 4-1 to the Cardinals.
MLB News
One of this past offseason’s biggest free agents, Zac Gallen will likely hit the IL with elbow inflammation.
Orioles’ closer Ryan Helsley is expected to avoid UCL surgery, for now at least.
Day 1 of the MLB Draft was completed, with 135 picks in our tracker.
The A’s are placing their star bat Nick Kurtz on the 10-day IL with a thumb strain.
