<img alt="2022 Major League Baseball Draft" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/k-sJwsWKYWHrfYhcPBpzhitDV18=/0x0:3674x2449/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73428901/1241968724.0.jpg">
Photo by Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images
Everything you need to know leading into the draft on July 14 We are just a few weeks away from the 2024 MLB Draft, and over the next couple of weeks we’re going to be rolling out a series of articles previewing the draft. To start it all off, this post is a brief primer with all of the information you might need to keep up with and prepare for the basics of the draft.
When, Where, How to Watch
The most fun part of the draft might be actually getting to watch it go down, and the event itself has become an integral part of MLB’s All Star Week. Day One of the draft, featuring the first round, second round, and first two compensation rounds, will be on Sunday, July 14 in Fort Worth, Texas. The full draft will run through Tuesday, July 16. This season, the start of the first round has moved a couple of hours, and will now begin at 5:00 pm ET. The second and third days of the draft, however, will each begin at noon.
Day One of the draft will be streaming on ESPN and MLB.com. Most years, you can also catch it on MLB Network, and we’ll have an update on the morning of the draft to confirm the relevant TV and online streams. Day One is typically a deliberate affair, so if you’re only interested in the Braves’ picks you will have a couple of hours to kick around before they’re on the clock. Days Two and Three will both stream on MLB.com, and will go through picks much faster.
What picks do the Braves have?
For the second consecutive season, the Atlanta Braves will be on the clock at 24th overall, immediately following the Los Angeles Dodgers. They will then pick at 62nd overall, which is their final pick of Day One. Between now and the draft, the Braves could make a trade for a compensation pick similar to what they did in 2022 when they acquired the 35th pick overall, though this is fairly unlikely.
Each team is allotted a certain amount of money for each pick based on where they are drafting in the first ten rounds. The total of this allotment is called the team’s “pool.” In signing players, a team can’t exceed its pool without penalties. These penalties are incremental; for the first five percent in excess of the pool, the penalty is simply a tax on the amount of overage. Consequently, teams, including the Braves, will almost always exceed their pool. What teams likely won’t do is go over this five percent threshold, at which point the penalties involve forfeiting a future draft pick.
For players picked after the tenth round, every team is allotted $125.000; any signing bonus above that number counts against the pool.
The allotment for the Braves’ first-round pick is $3,556,300, but Atlanta will likely not reach this number on this pick, as they have signed their first pick in the draft to an underslot deal in every single draft under Alex Anthopoulos so far. They have an overall bonus pool of $7,765,000 and we’ll likely see at least a couple of meaningful Day Two picks as the Braves tend to spread their money out across multiple picks.
Who will the Braves draft?
Short answer: No one knows exactly. There are a few trends we can expect the Braves to follow, but there generally aren’t very strong connections leading into the draft, as Atlanta doesn’t let much information leak out. In many past seasons, the connections have mostly surrounded college talent, specifically college pitching, and that largely reflects the team’s preference over the past five drafts. The exception was 2022, when the Braves’ favored college talent came off the board early, and they drafted prep pitcher Owen Murphy with the 20th overall pick en route to going prep heavy in that draft.
We have covered a few mock drafts on the site and will continue to get more as they come in. So far, many of those have again strongly leaned toward college, with Kentucky outfielder Ryan Waldschmidt and Mississippi State pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje being the two most-common selections. The Braves typically strongly favor players with high athletic ceilings, regardless of which side of the ball they are on, and as mentioned, have mostly drafted players to underslot deals in the first round. Atlanta’s draft strategy isn’t publicly known, but the general feel is that they will wait and hope for players projected to the top half of the draft to slide (like Hurston Waldrep last year) and if no such player is available, they go down a bit on boards to save money and grab a wider array of players with their later picks.
What you can expect from us
Our draft coverage this season will be led by our minor league crew: myself, our resident draft expert Matt Powers, and Brady Petree. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be profiling many of the players connected to the Braves so far, along with detailing the depth in both the system and this draft, which are relevant to how Atlanta proceeds. On the day of the draft, all Day One picks will get individual write-ups immediately after selection. For Days Two and Three, we will have profiles on players we deem to be meaningful picks —typically through the fifth round, but it can vary. (We’ve had guys like AJ Smith-Shawver as a seventh-round pick that we were high on.) After Days Two and Three, we will have overall recaps of the events, including the lesser picks. Following the draft, I will post a signing tracker to, well, track the signings.
<img alt="2022 Major League Baseball Draft" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/k-sJwsWKYWHrfYhcPBpzhitDV18=/0x0:3674x2449/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73428901/1241968724.0.jpg">
Photo by Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images
Everything you need to know leading into the draft on July 14 We are just a few weeks away from the 2024 MLB Draft, and over the next couple of weeks we’re going to be rolling out a series of articles previewing the draft. To start it all off, this post is a brief primer with all of the information you might need to keep up with and prepare for the basics of the draft.
When, Where, How to Watch
The most fun part of the draft might be actually getting to watch it go down, and the event itself has become an integral part of MLB’s All Star Week. Day One of the draft, featuring the first round, second round, and first two compensation rounds, will be on Sunday, July 14 in Fort Worth, Texas. The full draft will run through Tuesday, July 16. This season, the start of the first round has moved a couple of hours, and will now begin at 5:00 pm ET. The second and third days of the draft, however, will each begin at noon.
Day One of the draft will be streaming on ESPN and MLB.com. Most years, you can also catch it on MLB Network, and we’ll have an update on the morning of the draft to confirm the relevant TV and online streams. Day One is typically a deliberate affair, so if you’re only interested in the Braves’ picks you will have a couple of hours to kick around before they’re on the clock. Days Two and Three will both stream on MLB.com, and will go through picks much faster.
What picks do the Braves have?
For the second consecutive season, the Atlanta Braves will be on the clock at 24th overall, immediately following the Los Angeles Dodgers. They will then pick at 62nd overall, which is their final pick of Day One. Between now and the draft, the Braves could make a trade for a compensation pick similar to what they did in 2022 when they acquired the 35th pick overall, though this is fairly unlikely.
Each team is allotted a certain amount of money for each pick based on where they are drafting in the first ten rounds. The total of this allotment is called the team’s “pool.” In signing players, a team can’t exceed its pool without penalties. These penalties are incremental; for the first five percent in excess of the pool, the penalty is simply a tax on the amount of overage. Consequently, teams, including the Braves, will almost always exceed their pool. What teams likely won’t do is go over this five percent threshold, at which point the penalties involve forfeiting a future draft pick.
For players picked after the tenth round, every team is allotted $125.000; any signing bonus above that number counts against the pool.
The allotment for the Braves’ first-round pick is $3,556,300, but Atlanta will likely not reach this number on this pick, as they have signed their first pick in the draft to an underslot deal in every single draft under Alex Anthopoulos so far. They have an overall bonus pool of $7,765,000 and we’ll likely see at least a couple of meaningful Day Two picks as the Braves tend to spread their money out across multiple picks.
Who will the Braves draft?
Short answer: No one knows exactly. There are a few trends we can expect the Braves to follow, but there generally aren’t very strong connections leading into the draft, as Atlanta doesn’t let much information leak out. In many past seasons, the connections have mostly surrounded college talent, specifically college pitching, and that largely reflects the team’s preference over the past five drafts. The exception was 2022, when the Braves’ favored college talent came off the board early, and they drafted prep pitcher Owen Murphy with the 20th overall pick en route to going prep heavy in that draft.
We have covered a few mock drafts on the site and will continue to get more as they come in. So far, many of those have again strongly leaned toward college, with Kentucky outfielder Ryan Waldschmidt and Mississippi State pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje being the two most-common selections. The Braves typically strongly favor players with high athletic ceilings, regardless of which side of the ball they are on, and as mentioned, have mostly drafted players to underslot deals in the first round. Atlanta’s draft strategy isn’t publicly known, but the general feel is that they will wait and hope for players projected to the top half of the draft to slide (like Hurston Waldrep last year) and if no such player is available, they go down a bit on boards to save money and grab a wider array of players with their later picks.
What you can expect from us
Our draft coverage this season will be led by our minor league crew: myself, our resident draft expert Matt Powers, and Brady Petree. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be profiling many of the players connected to the Braves so far, along with detailing the depth in both the system and this draft, which are relevant to how Atlanta proceeds. On the day of the draft, all Day One picks will get individual write-ups immediately after selection. For Days Two and Three, we will have profiles on players we deem to be meaningful picks —typically through the fifth round, but it can vary. (We’ve had guys like AJ Smith-Shawver as a seventh-round pick that we were high on.) After Days Two and Three, we will have overall recaps of the events, including the lesser picks. Following the draft, I will post a signing tracker to, well, track the signings.
Link to original article
