Atlanta Braves 2012 Draft Review
The 2012 draft for the Braves is one to forget. Only three players who signed made it to Atlanta, and all three wound up being traded.
Lucas Sims was the pick at number 21 in the first round. He was out of Brookwood High School in Snellville, Ga. Sims made it to Atlanta five years after he was drafted, in 2017. He pitched in 20 games (10 starts) with the Braves and had an ERA of 5.96 with a 3-6 record.
Sims was traded to the Reds in the summer of 2018 in the Adam Duvall trade.
The Braves could have had Marcus Stroman, who was taken with the very next pick by Toronto. Jose Berrios was taken by Minnesota with pick 32. Mariners slugger Mitch Haniger was taken at 38 by the Brewers, while Joey Gallo went to Texas at pick 39.
Alex Wood was Atlanta’s second round pick, the 85 player taken overall. It didn’t take Wood long to show he was a good selection, as he made the big leagues 13 months after being drafted.
Wood pitched for parts of three seasons for the Braves, from 2013-2015. He was 21-20 in 86 games (55 starts) with an ERA of 3.10. Unfortunately, Wood was the primary price to the Dodgers to get Cuban slugger Hector Olivera, which was a monumental disaster.
Wood made the All-Star team in 2017 when he went 16-3 for the Dodgers. He was with Cincinnati last season, but he returned to pitch for the Dodgers in 2020.
Atlanta’s third round pick was Bryan De La Rosa, a small catcher out of Boca Raton, Florida who hit .196 in his five seasons in the Atlanta organization. The fourth-round pick was outfielder Justin Black. He hit .196 in his four seasons in the Braves system. Outfielder Blake Brown, the fifth-round pick, was only in the organization for three seasons and hit .223.
The only other pick who made it was Shae Simmons, who made it to Atlanta in 2014 and then missed all of 2015 with arm issues. He pitched in a total of 33 games with the Braves and had a 2.54 ERA, and he was then included the Luiz Gohara trade to Seattle.
This was an awful draft by the Braves.
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