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.
