Draft Notes: Gilmartin, Moranda, Mueller, Rasch, Moore, Kubitza
June 10, 2011 at 9:04 pm by Capitol Avenue Club under Atlanta Braves
A few notes about Braves’ draftees.
- Braves’ first-rounder Sean Gilmartin will get the start in Florida State’s super regional opener against Texas A&M. The game is Saturday June 11th at 4:30 PM EST and will be broadcast on ESPNU.
- The Braves have signed 13th rounder Tony Mueller. He was expected to sign quickly. He’ll likely report to extended Spring Training to tune up before he starts his pro career in either Danville or Orlando later this month.
- Braves’ 11th rounder Seth Moranda “said he’d turn pro if the money was right” [fresnobee.com]. Since the money is unlikely to be right I figure the Braves don’t have much of a shot at signing him.
- Meanwhile, the Braves probably have a much better shot at signing 41st rounder Keelin Rasch. Also in that article is confirmation that the Braves would convert Rasch to a catcher as a pro if they sign him. He’d played 3rd base in high school and has a plus arm.
- The Braves’ 14th round pick ended up being one of the best prospects they ended up taking: Vanderbilt closer Navery Moore. He has a year of college eligibility remaining, so I figured he’d be tough to sign away. However, the Braves do have something working in their favor: ““It’s definitely exciting when you can get drafted to a team that has previous Vanderbilt players there and creates that comfortable atmosphere,” Moore said.” If Atlanta a) signs his set-up man (6th rounder Mark Lamm), b) sells him on their development plan, and c) gives him an opportunity to both sign and finish his degree, they might have a chance of signing him. That would be a huge boost to their draft class.
- From 3rd rounder Kyle Kubitza’s twitter feed:
Whether this is an indication that he’s signed or a reaction to the news that he’s been drafted I don’t know–the update was posted around 2 PM EST today.
UPDATE: Kubitza tells another twitter user that he has officially signed.
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Does the drafting of gilmartin make a mike minor trade more likely?
could you send an update or even a comment when Gardner Adams signs. Asbury is a small school in fact Adams is the first “professional athlete” in the schools 110 year history, so I would like to keep tabs on him.
You’ll probably know before I do, I just get my information from google news.
Richard, I went to Asbury (seminary). Very cool for Gardner and I’ll be pulling for him
I agree with your assessment of the 14th round pick, Navery Moore. If the Braves can get him signed, he could be pitching in the Atlanta pen within a couple of years. Since their pick of Gilmartin was shaky at best, the least they could do is go over slot to sign some of their better picks in the later rounds.
@5 He’s not looking too bad today
@5 I would not call picking Gilmartin shaky at all. He looked awesome today until he got tired in the 7th inning.
@6 and @7 – When players like Mikie Mahtook, Levi Michael, Brian Goodwin, and Henry Owens were still available when Gilmartin was picked…..yes he was a VERY shaky pick. It was made for financial reasons not because he was the best player available. The Braves minor league system is in desperate need of position prospects but they take a pitcher with a very limited upside. It makes no sense at all.
I guess we will find out,I thought the same thing about Minor,wasn’t too thrilled,I was hoping we get White well Minor has turned out to be alright and getting better.I hope this kid can do the same as Minor and add some velocity to his fastball and come in and contribute
I don’t think Gilmartin has to add any velocity from what I saw. He was 88-91 with his FB and hit 92 several times, his change was NASTY(he threw it any time in the count for strikes), his slider has the makings of a plus pitch and his couple of curveballs were decent pitches as well but the thing I liked the most he pounded the strike zone.
@9, while Minor has been “alright” they could have drafted Shelby Miller or Jacob Turner, both of whom are considered future front line aces. Miller is rated almost as highly as Teheran. Had the Braves picked him they would now have 2 of the 3 best pitching prospects in baseball. Again, Minor is OK but I would have preferred the kid with the biggest upside, not the one who agreed to sign for close to slot money,.
Then again, they could have drafted Tyler Matzek or Matt Purke, both of whom were just as highly regarded at the time.
I personally wanted them to draft Matzek, I was clearly wrong about that. Miller, Turner, Purke, Matzek, and Wheeler were considered the elite prep arms. Atlanta would’ve drafted Wheeler if he fell to them, the other 4 were too expensive. Of the four that fell to them, two have worked out, two haven’t.
Roy Clark wanted Purke and asked ownership for permission to draft/sign him. They said no.
CJ, Don’t get me wrong I didn’t like the pick either. I wanted one of the young prep arms but now that we have Gilmartin i’m going to look at the bright side of the pick.