The 2020 Draft Thread

Oklahomabrave said:
It’s like they had the same strategy as last year but forgot they didn’t have the extra rounds for high school guys.
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certainly interesting to see a shift towards college players high up. it's tough to say if the circumstances of this year made that the strategy or if they would have done it anyway, tho.
 
It reminds me a bit of the DeMacio drafts. If I had to choose a pick that I like best, it would be Franklin, but there are flags there as well. I think the other guys make sense given where they were drafted and the fourth-round pick to save money. My guess the ducks are in a row, but one can never tell. Like others, the Elder pick isn't making a huge ton of sense to me in terms of having to go well over slot to sign him. We'll have to see what the fourth-round guy settles at to know how much will be left on the table.

I am wondering given the tilt toward high-ceiling high school guys last draft that they were looking for guys that they could sandwich between the players in the developmental stage (Backstrom, Morton, Grissom, Paolini, Johnson, Owens, Estes) and the players nearer to the majors. Of course, with no minor league baseball this season and probable contraction of teams, who knows if there is any strategy to any of this by any franchise.

Interesting draft if a bit disappointing. I thought they would at least go after one high school guy with a perceived high ceiling. My choice in that respect was 3B Coby Mayo out of Stoneman Douglas High School (FL) who was drafted by the Orioles early in the 4th round. University of Florida commit, so he may have been out of the Braves' price range given the size of the pool.
 
50PoundHead said:
I am wondering given the tilt toward high-ceiling high school guys last draft that they were looking for guys that they could sandwich between the players in the developmental stage (Backstrom, Morton, Grissom, Paolini, Johnson, Owens, Estes) and the players nearer to the majors.
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don't forget Michael Harris!
 
50PoundHead said:
It reminds me a bit of the DeMacio drafts. If I had to choose a pick that I like best, it would be Franklin, but there are flags there as well. I think the other guys make sense given where they were drafted and the fourth-round pick to save money. My guess the ducks are in a row, but one can never tell. Like others, the Elder pick isn't making a huge ton of sense to me in terms of having to go well over slot to sign him. We'll have to see what the fourth-round guy settles at to know how much will be left on the table.

I am wondering given the tilt toward high-ceiling high school guys last draft that they were looking for guys that they could sandwich between the players in the developmental stage (Backstrom, Morton, Grissom, Paolini, Johnson, Owens, Estes) and the players nearer to the majors. Of course, with no minor league baseball this season and probable contraction of teams, who knows if there is any strategy to any of this by any franchise.

Interesting draft if a bit disappointing. I thought they would at least go after one high school guy with a perceived high ceiling. My choice in that respect was 3B Coby Mayo out of Stoneman Douglas High School (FL) who was drafted by the Orioles early in the 4th round. University of Florida commit, so he may have been out of the Braves' price range given the size of the pool.
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He already got 1.75 million. Doubt we could afford that.
 
This was not an exciting draft but I don't think there was any way it could be. We had 4 picks and a commensurately small bonus pool. Absent someone crazy good miraculously falling to us it was always going to be an unexciting draft.
 
I think they did they did ok. Many of their targets were off the board before our late pick came.

It was a tough draft with all our limitations and they didn’t get any luck either. So..it is what it is. Maybe a couple of these guys hit.
 
TheBravos said:
I think they did they did ok. Many of their targets were off the board before our late pick came.

It was a tough draft with all our limitations and they didn’t get any luck either. So..it is what it is. Maybe a couple of these guys hit.
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"OK" is probably the term for this draft, but I think it's on the short side of that.

I don't think you can call a 4 round draft that produces two guys with legitimate shots to pitch in the back-end of a rotation in relatively short order AND a 4th OF with some pop that has a legitimate shot at becoming an everyday guy if things come together "bad" by any stretch, but I keep going back to questioning the strategy involved. If the goal was to start trying to restock the lower levels, why spend the most money on two college SPs that you expect to move relatively fast that won't need much time there?

Like others, I'm not saying a boring (and safe) draft is necessarily a bad way to go given the circumstances this year, but it's certainly uninspiring to say the least. Assuming we go nuts trying to sign a ton of NDFAs (as expected) we won't necessarily have lots of trouble filling out the rosters at the lower levels, but it just feels like the number of kids with any type of significant upside or ceiling didn't increase at all.
 
clvclv said:
"OK" is probably the term for this draft, but I think it's on the short side of that.

I don't think you can call a 4 round draft that produces two guys with legitimate shots to pitch in the back-end of a rotation in relatively short order AND a 4th OF with some pop that has a legitimate shot at becoming an everyday guy if things come together "bad" by any stretch, but I keep going back to questioning the strategy involved. If the goal was to start trying to restock the lower levels, why spend the most money on two college SPs that you expect to move relatively fast that won't need much time there?

Like others, I'm not saying a boring (and safe) draft is necessarily a bad way to go given the circumstances this year, but it's certainly uninspiring to say the least. Assuming we go nuts trying to sign a ton of NDFAs (as expected) we won't necessarily have lots of trouble filling out the rosters at the lower levels, but it just feels like the number of kids with any type of significant upside or ceiling didn't increase at all.
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I don't think they need to restock the lower levels to a great extent. A lot depends on how one views the 2019 Dominican Summer League team, but I'm guessing that the 2021 Gulf Coast League team is largely made up of those guys and some repeaters. The Danville roster will likely be comprised of 2019 GCL guys and draftees from 2021. We don't know what contraction will look like beyond that point, but if A and A+ leagues are somehow combined, there should be no problem putting those rosters together.

I agree that there's not much upside in the draft. Shuster and Elder are probably major league starting pitchers at some point. (although Elder's profile reminds me a lot of Nolan Kingham's). For how good and how long is the question, but that's always the question. Franklin looks like a player. Strider was drafted out of high school and hit 96 on the gun as a high schooler, so there's something there. And if baseball doesn't work out for Strider, he can always go back to being the 26th King of Arnor and the 35th King of Gondor.

Not having the pool money for the second round pick really hamstrung things.
 
I'm probably overly optimistic.

Schuster has limited mileage on his arm, but already has a plus off-speed offering. Mechanical changes appear to have increased his fastball and given him good control coming off the injury, but limited opportunity to show it.
Franklin was better as a freshman than a sophomore and injured for the abbreviated season so his stock had to be down. Unlike most Braves hitters he seems to have a good eye at the plate.
Strider missed 2019. To me he looks like a relief prospect, though I expect he will get a shot in a rotation to start to get innings.
Elder is a college pitcher. Does that translate? Who was the kid from Stanford? Seems like a replacement.
 
Law's take...


Atlanta Braves
Atlanta led off its draft with Wake Forest lefty Jared Shuster (1), a fastball/changeup guy up to 94 mph with good deception in his delivery. He started throwing more strikes this spring, which gives him fourth-starter potential. Jesse Franklin (3) didn’t play this spring after breaking his collarbone while skiing in the winter, so his last look for scouts was hitting .262/.388/.477 last spring for Michigan and a mediocre showing on the Cape. He has some power but strikes out a lot and as a 40 runner is probably limited to left field. Clemson right-hander Spencer Strider (4) returned this year as a starter after missing 2019 due to Tommy John surgery. He’s been up to 97 mph with good characteristics on the fastball, but the breaking ball needs work. He has a chance to start, as does Texas right-hander Bryce Elder (5), a strongly built pitcher with a high arm slot who has nothing plus but throws strikes with all of his offerings.
 
clvclv said:
Law's take...


Atlanta Braves
Atlanta led off its draft with Wake Forest lefty Jared Shuster (1), a fastball/changeup guy up to 94 mph with good deception in his delivery. He started throwing more strikes this spring, which gives him fourth-starter potential. Jesse Franklin (3) didn’t play this spring after breaking his collarbone while skiing in the winter, so his last look for scouts was hitting .262/.388/.477 last spring for Michigan and a mediocre showing on the Cape. He has some power but strikes out a lot and as a 40 runner is probably limited to left field. Clemson right-hander Spencer Strider (4) returned this year as a starter after missing 2019 due to Tommy John surgery. He’s been up to 97 mph with good characteristics on the fastball, but the breaking ball needs work. He has a chance to start, as does Texas right-hander Bryce Elder (5), a strongly built pitcher with a high arm slot who has nothing plus but throws strikes with all of his offerings.
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Yeah, read Law’s take on all teams. Pretty useless fluff piece. Doesn’t really say anything about his feelings on how teams did, just gives 1-2 sentences on each player (mainly taken verbatim from his pre draft write ups). Grow some balls Law and give letter grades.
 
Skeeter31 said:
Yeah, read Law’s take on all teams. Pretty useless fluff piece. Doesn’t really say anything about his feelings on how teams did, just gives 1-2 sentences on each player (mainly taken verbatim from his pre draft write ups). Grow some balls Law and give letter grades.
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It's really difficult to put a letter grade on one-eighth of a regulation draft. It would be like posting final grades after the first quiz, but I get your point. Just looking at it and having followed it only intermittently, I would say the Orioles, Tigers, and Cardinals did the best (Cardinals aren't mentioned by most observers as having done that well, but they got two really top-notch high school players with their first two picks). The thing that struck me about Law's piece is that he didn't have a whole lot of positive things to say about a lot of the guys who were drafted.
 
50PoundHead said:
It's really difficult to put a letter grade on one-eighth of a regulation draft. It would be like posting final grades after the first quiz, but I get your point. Just looking at it and having followed it only intermittently, I would say the Orioles, Tigers, and Cardinals did the best (Cardinals aren't mentioned by most observers as having done that well, but they got two really top-notch high school players with their first two picks). The thing that struck me about Law's piece is that he didn't have a whole lot of positive things to say about a lot of the guys who were drafted.
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Really like what the Cubs (Howard, Carraway, and Moreno) and Jays (Van Eyk and Frasso) did as well. Toronto has one *ell of a core with Vlad Jr., Bichette, Biggio, Martin, Jansen, Groshans, Ryu, Pearson, Woods Richardson, and Manoah.
 
A little draft tidbit for you all. If you remember the movie “Little Big League”, then remember Ashley Crow. She played the mother in the film. Her real life son is Pete Crow-Armstrong, who was the Mets first round pick
 
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