Mock drafts, particularly in baseball, are a fool’s errand in a lot of ways. Each team values players and organizational need differently and after you get beyond the top 10 picks or so, things get incredibly random. This is particularly true this year with the lack of development due to the COVID shutdown and the lack of data from the 2020 season. At the end of the day, there seems to be a lot of guessing.
That said, what we CAN get from mocks is rumors of connections that teams have to specific demographics to help all of us understand their decision-making process and give us a general idea as to who they could be looking at. All spring, we have heard the Braves connected to college arms mostly (with a few notable exceptions) and MLB Pipeline’s latest mock draft has the Braves taking an arm that they have been connected to more than once.
This pick, for all the reasons above and more, shouldn’t be taken as gospel given the uncertainty at the bottom of the first round, but Michael McGreevy, the RHP out of UC-Santa Barbara, has been consistently linked to the Braves this year. He features a fastball that currently sits in the low 90’s, touches a bit higher, and a lot of folks think has some projection given that he is young for the class as well as his 6’4 frame. He also possesses at least three others pitches that should be average or better in his slider, curveball, and changeup and the dude throws a ton of strikes.
Pipeline also mentions St. Mary’s LHP Ky Bush which, again, is another name that has been mentioned to the Braves this spring. Bush has been rising into late first round consideration recently as a big lefty with a quality fastball/slider combination and improved stuff and command this season.