The Athletic sends prep third baseman to Atlanta in latest mock draft

With the MLB Draft just 45 days away and college getting to the start of postseason play, the Mock Draft industry is getting back after it with their projections.

Keith Law of The Athletic just recently put out his first mock draft of the year ($), and it has Atlanta making an unusual selection: 3B Aidan Miller of JW Mitchell High in Trinity, FL.

Law's writeup explains that it's a value selection for Atlanta, as Miller's been slipping down the boards thanks to injury issues in his senior season:

Miller missed a good chunk of the spring with a broken hamate and never quite looked like the hitter he was last summer and fall, but that is probably going to be an opportunity for a team drafting later in the first round that’s willing to take a little risk.

It's an atypical selection for Atlanta, who has blended college and prep two-way players with their recent first-round picks but when they went to the prep ranks, took pitchers - JR Ritchie in 2022, Carter Stewart in 2018 (who did not sign), and Joey Wentz & Ian Anderson in 2016.

Atlanta hasn't taken a prep position player in the 1st round since 2015, when they took DeSoto Central (Mississippi) High School third baseman Austin Riley. The position players taken by Atlanta in the first round after Riley were all college players: Shea Langeliers of Baylor & Braden Shewmake of Texas A&M in in 2019.

Matter-of-fact, Atlanta has a bad history with first round prep position players if you look past Riley - the only other prep position player to make it to MLB since 2004 was Jason Heyward, taken in 2007 out of Henry County High School.

A lot of other mock drafts have Atlanta taken pitchers in the 1st, including Baseball America (RHP Charlee Soto, prep) and MLB Pipeline (RHP Bryce Eldridge, prep, although he is a two-way player that is more highly regarded as a hitter than a pitcher).

If I were doing a full mock draft this early (we usually wait on Locked On MLB Prospects until after the conference tournaments), the selection would be someone like RHP Cade Kuehler of Campbell - a high-velo righty with a power slider/cutter that should be able to move quickly once he makes the transition from thrower to pitcher.

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