While Major League Baseball is looking for something that resembles a more normal season in 2021. So is college and high school baseball which had their seasons cut severely short in 2020 due to the pandemic.
The 2021 MLB Draft will be held during the All-Star break in Atlanta. As high school and college teams get ready to return to the field, Baseball America released its first mock draft of 2021. It is worth mentioning that we are very early in the process and that things will change dramatically between now and July. Still it is as good a time as any to examine the draft class.
The Braves will have the 24th pick in the draft and Baseball America projects them to take Kansas State left-hander Jordan Wicks.
Wicks shares similar traits with Shuster at the same time and trended up after an impressive summer in the Northwoods League. Wicks has a changeup that gets plus-plus grades from evaluators, and while his fastball isn’t overpowering in terms of velocity at 89-91 mph, hitters don’t seem to pick it up. The industry does admire Wicks despite his middling velocity, and if he throws harder this spring, look out.
Atlanta has leaned heavily on college players in recent drafts so it wouldn’t be a big surprise to see them go this way again.