Article: Brewer Fanatic 2022 Draft Coverage, March 24

[Jeremy Nygaard]

Major League Baseball officially announced details for this summer’s Draft late last week. The draft, for the second year, will coincide with MLB’s All-Star Week. While the All-Star Game festivities and draft will take place July 17-19 in Los Angeles, the Draft Combine will be in San Diego’s Petco Park from June 14-20.

The Draft will consist of 20 rounds completed across three days. 

• Sunday, July 17: Rounds 1 and 2, compensatory and competitive balance rounds.
• Monday, July 18: Round 3 through 10.
• Tuesday, July 19: Rounds 11 through 20.

MLB recently announced recipients of picks in the Competitive Balance rounds. The Brewers received the sixth pick in Round B (following the second round). These picks are awarded based on a secret formula that includes revenue and winning percentage and market size. The fifteen picks that are awarded remain the only draft picks that can be traded.

The Brewers are currently slotted to pick 27th, 63rd, and 70th.

The lack of high-quality college pitching has been a topic all spring, but so has Ben Joyce’s fastball. Joyce is pumping 103 mph for the Tennessee Volunteers. 

New Brewer, Andrew McCutchen has taken notice.

Maria Torres of The Athletic goes in-depth on Joyce, who probably isn’t a Day One pick at this point, but - except under extreme conditions - helium is a gas and Joyce may have plenty of both by the time July comes.

Speaking of helium, Torres also put together a nice write-up of prep lefty Brandon Barriera. Barriera is not prototypically-sized (6-1, 170), but is an analytics darling: the spin rate of his curveball is nearly elite compared to pitchers in the MLB. 

Barriera is ranked 15th by Baseball America and 21st by MLB.com but he doesn’t crack the Top 30 at The Athletic due to Law’s concerns about his ability to throw strikes.

Jeremy's Top 10 MLB Draft Prospects 

I’m going to switch my Top 8 to a Top 10. There’s been some movement within it as well.

1.) Druw Jones, OF, Georgia prep (Vanderbilt commit)

2.) Termarr Johnson, 2B, Georgia prep

3.) Elijah Green, OF, Florida prep (Miami commit) (Baseball America breaks down his game.)

     There are just too many already-legendary tales that you hear about these three to have anyone else included.

4.) Brooks Lee, SS, Cal Poly

     Lee dropped, but he continues to rake (batting .438) and will be an easy pick for a team looking to add a ready-soon shortstop to their system.

5.) Jacob Berry, 3B, LSU

     There may be some questions about where he fits defensively, but the switch-hitter can hit and hit for power. 

6.) Jace Jung, 3B, Texas Tech

7.) Dylan Lesko, SP, Georgia prep (Vanderbilt commit)

8.)  Kevin Parada, C, Georgia Tech

9.) Chase DeLauter, cOF, James Madison

10.) Robert Moore, 2B, Arkansas

MOCK DRAFTS / PROSPECT BOARDS

• Baseball America - v1.0 (2/10/22) / Top 200 (3/14/22)
• MLB.com - Callis - Top 10 (12/15/21), Mayo - Top 20 (7/20/21) / Top 100
• The Athletic - Law Top 30 (3/10/22)
• ESPN - Early Draft Rankings (7/26/21) ($$$ - ESPN+) / McDaniel’s Draft Rankings (2/24/22)
• Fangraphs - The Board / 2022 MLB Draft Rankings and Offseason List Primer (11/30/21) 
• Just Baseball v1.0 (2/10/22)
• Prospects Live v1.0 (1/24/22)
• My MLB Draft (1/18/22)

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