Strong hitting pool seems to fit Brewers' Draft mold
MILWAUKEE -- For the third straight year, MLB’s three-day, 20-round Draft coincides with All-Star Week, beginning with the first 70 picks on Sunday night on MLB Network, MLB.com, ESPN and, for the first time, ESPN+. Coverage begins at 5 p.m. CT with a pregame show on MLB Network.
Brewers scouting director Tod Johnson offered some insight heading into his seventh Draft at the helm.
What is your overview of this Draft class?
“The college class is really good. I think we all kind of knew that because of the five-round Draft in 2020; more kids made it to college that year, and that group is now juniors this year and eligible. So, it’s a really good, deep, college crop, especially on the hitting side. The pitching side is probably more average. The high school arms, that group is about average, I would say, as well, and then the [high school] hitter side, I would say is above average, as well. Overall, a lot of pretty good hitters. Somebody was quoted as saying they heard that 40 out of the first 50 picks [would be] hitters. I guess it’s possible.”
Your last three first-round picks (four, if you count 2021 supplemental first-rounder Tyler Black) have been college hitters. Does a college-hitter-heavy Draft play into the Brewers’ philosophy?
“Our process, and just the way the Draft works, and where we’re picking, [has led them to take college hitters]. We feel we’ve gotten really good value out of the college guys we’ve drafted. Garrett [Mitchell] and Sal [Frelick] and Joey [Wiemer], those guys have all moved their way to the cusp of, or into, the big leagues, and Eric Brown [Jr.] is working his way up. And other guys like Robert Moore are working their way through the system.
"Is there good value there? Yeah, I think it has fallen that way for us. We have had pitchers and high school players and all demographics in our mix every year for our first-round pick. Just the way it’s worked out, it’s ended up that we’ve gone with a college bat most of those times. And I think if you look at the Draft, we’re not unusual, necessarily, in that, either.”
Prospect experts generally consider the Brewers better stocked on the hitting side than the pitching side. Is this Draft an opportunity to address that?
"I think every Draft, every signing class, it’s an opportunity to add depth across the organization. Do I feel like we need to target extra pitching in this Draft because Baseball America says we don’t have a ton of pitching prospects? No. … We are going to continue to draft the guys who we think are going to be the most valuable players for us, whether that’s for our big league team or as potential trade assets.
"Do we have [prospects] like Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff ready to step in? Maybe not. But Jacob [Misiorowski] was from the Draft and is throwing really well in Appleton right now. Carlos Rodriguez is throwing very, very well with Biloxi. Justin Jarvis is throwing really good. And the other thing is Burnes was a fourth-round pick. Woodruff was an 11th-rounder. Freddy [Peralta] was a piece of a trade as a very low-level Minor League guy who our people did a really good job on. Aaron Ashby was a fourth-rounder. It’s not like those guys were Corbin Burnes when we got them. They worked hard and our player development guys did a really good job with them to turn them into those assets and those really quality, franchise-changing pitchers.”
In an era with so much data and video, is it more difficult to find hidden gems in the Draft?
“I don’t know. In the high school demographic especially, there’s a lot more opportunities to scout those players against each other and Perfect Game showcases and tournaments leading to that. Last year, Luke Adams, who we think has a chance to be a really good player -- he’s currently doing a really good job as a 19-year-old at Carolina -- he was a 12th-rounder as a high school bat that was off the radar. He wasn’t ranked by any of the big services, and he even got some big league Spring Training time this spring, which was great for him.
“So, to say there’s [fewer off-the-radar players], yes, probably. But if you go way back, everybody was off the radar. There was no radar, honestly, back in the first 20 years of the Draft and, like everything else, there’s a lot more information out there today than there ever was.”
Looking back on last year’s Draft class, what stands out?
“I’m certainly excited about how all those guys are playing. They’ve worked hard to get to where they are. Jacob’s put in a ton of work to get stronger and find his pitch mix. Eric’s worked through a bunch of nagging injuries this year to really put together a pretty good season for his first full season [note: Brown Jr. landed on the injured list this week with a fractured left shoulder blade and is expected to miss about eight weeks]. I’m never satisfied though, honestly, so I always look back and say we could have taken this guy or that guy or whatever, and look at this guy who’s doing well over here. That’s just me.
“We try to make our process better every year and focus on that and try to make sure we’re following our process and really are disciplined in that, because that’s really all we can affect. Jacob hopefully gets to the big leagues and fronts our rotation or maybe is our fourth starter behind some other really good guys. But the process that led us to take him is what I focus on, and what I look at is how are we going to make that better every year? It’s human nature to look back at [who we might have missed], but I also try to look at that relative to how our process worked and did we use the right process to get to the guy we took.”
BREWERS DRAFT BREAKDOWN
• First pick and bonus slot: The Brewers’ first pick is No. 18 overall, which has a bonus slot value of $4,021,400.
• Additional Day 1 picks: After pick No. 18, the Brewers also have pick 33 (slot value: $2,543,800) and pick 54 (slot value: $1,546,100).
• Total bonus pool: The total available for the Brewers is $10,950,600, which ranks 12th among the Draft bonus pools this year.
Supervising Club Reporter Adam McCalvy has covered the Brewers for MLB.com since 2001.