Okay, so the other day I got curious about who the Braves actually picked up in the 2023 draft. You know how it goes, you hear bits and pieces, but I wanted to actually sit down and see the list for myself.
Fired up my usual browser, nothing fancy. Just typed in something like “Braves 2023 MLB draft” or whatever. Got a bunch of results, naturally. I skipped past the ads and clicked on one of the sports sites I usually glance at.
Looking at the Top Picks
First name that popped out, right at the top, was Hurston Waldrep. Round 1. Pitcher out of Florida. Makes sense, pitching always seems like a priority, doesn’t it? Saw some quick notes about him having a good splitter. Interesting. Always need arms.
Then I scrolled down. Round 2, another pitcher, Drue Hackenberg. From Virginia Tech. Okay, seeing a pattern here maybe? Two college pitchers right off the bat. That tells you something, maybe they wanted guys who are a bit closer to contributing, you know, more polished than high school kids.
Scanning the Rest of the List
I kept going through the list, round by round. Saw names like Cade Kuehler, also a pitcher. Then some position players started showing up. Sabin Ceballos, an infielder/catcher. Garrett Baumann, another pitcher. It felt like a lot of college guys, especially early on.
- Waldrep (P) – College
- Hackenberg (P) – College
- Kuehler (P) – College
- Ceballos (INF/C) – College
- Baumann (P) – High School (Okay, broke the pattern here!)
Seeing Baumann listed from high school kind of caught my eye after all the college guys. A bit more of a project, usually. Always a gamble with high school picks, but the ceiling can be higher, I guess.
I didn’t dive super deep into every single name in the later rounds. Let’s be honest, beyond the first few rounds, it gets really hard to predict who’s going to make it. It’s more about depth and taking flyers on guys you hope develop.
My Takeaway
So, after looking through it all, my main thought was, yeah, they definitely seemed focused on adding pitching depth, especially from the college ranks early on. Waldrep and Hackenberg look like the key guys from this class, at least on paper right now.
It’s always fun to look back at these lists a few years down the road and see who panned out and who didn’t. Drafts are such a crapshoot. You just hope the scouting guys did their homework and maybe snagged a few future stars. We’ll see how it plays out for these 2023 picks. Just gotta wait and see.
