Baseball America mocks prep righty to Braves in 2023 MLB Draft
It's about that time: MLB Draft season is coming.
Baseball's draft is unique, as it's one of the few that can have players immediately out of high school mixing with university and junior college prospects. Taking place over the summer, it's the final event of the amateur baseball season that's already started across the season.
In a recent mock, Baseball America ($) had Atlanta taking prep RHP Travis Sykora out of Texas with the 24th overall pick.
Sykora, a 6'6, 220lb righty, is seen as one of the top prep prospects in the baseball hotbed of Texas, receiving a rare 10 grade ("Potential very high draft pick and/or elite level college prospect") by Perfect Game. Sporting a fastball already flirting with triple digits, accompanied by a cutter/slider and a tumbling changeup, Sykora is committed to Texas.
BA writer Carlos Collazo was joined by an anonymous "high-level" MLB scout for the selections, and the scout made the selection based on organizational philosophy, player value, and perceived draft tendencies.
Specifically, it was the "perceived draft tendencies" part of this that made the anonymous scout mock Sykora to Atlanta, noting:
For a risk-seeking team he could go earlier than this, but kind of looking around and seeing who was available and how the Braves last year went far and away the heaviest on high school pitching I wondered if they would continue that and Sykora could fit that mold. Even though the guys they took were smaller bodied compared to Sykora.
The reference to last year encompasses Atlanta's recent embrace of prep arms, as their first three selections (and four of the first five) in the 2022 MLB Draft were prep arms, with Atlanta taking Owen Murphy in the 1st, JR Ritchie in the Competitive Balance-A round, Cole Phillips in the 2nd, and Seth Keller in the 6th.
Other options at that 24th overall spot included prep righty Charlee Soto, taken one pick later by the Padres at #25 and prep lefty Thomas White, taken at #28 to the Astros.
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