Due to the fact that the Major League Baseball Draft is only a month away, things are continuously being updated as more and more draft information, as well as sheer speculation, is circulating across the baseball world. Therefore, MLB Pipeline has issued yet another mock draft, and this time they have the Braves selecting a different player than they did in the previous fake draft.
MLB Pipeline predicted that the Braves would select Mississippi State pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje in their previous mock draft. This time around, they predict that the Braves would select another player from the Southeastern Conference, this being University of Kentucky outfielder Ryan Waldschmidt. During his junior year, Ryan did nothing but absolutely nothing but mash. He hit.346/.473/.634 with 14 home runs and 24 stolen bases, while also striking out 17% of the time and walking 14% of the time.
It has been stated that his advanced analytics place him among the top 10 hitters in the draft. As we have seen, the Braves have a strong preference for selecting players based on stats of this kind. Kiley McDaniel, a former member of the Braves front office who is now an analyst for ESPN, has also made fun of Ryan in front of the Braves and has offered the following commentary regarding him:
