Arms race: Brewers use nine of their 10 draft picks on pitchers on final day of MLB Draft
There was an unmistakable, overriding theme for the Milwaukee Brewers on the third and final day of the Major League Baseball draft.
Pitching, pitching and more pitching.
Of the 10 total picks the Brewers made from Rounds 11-20 on Tuesday nine were pitchers, with only high-school shortstop Josh Adamczewski briefly breaking the run when he was chosen in the 15th round.
Adding in the choices from Sunday and Monday, Milwaukee landed a total of 16 arms with its 21-pick total – easily the organization's largest haul since the draft was reduced from 40 rounds to 20 in 2021.
"Yeah, there was a lot of pitching," vice president of domestic scouting Tod Johnson conceded.
But there most certainly was a method behind the approach.
"As far as fitting position guys into rosters and getting enough playing time for position guys to develop now with the new structure in the minor leagues, and having fewer spots available and one less affiliate as well – it's certainly something probably more actively did today," Johnson explained. "But yeah, it was more tilted (toward pitching), for sure."
Of the 16 pitchers taken by the Brewers – one on Day 1, six on Day 2 and nine on Tuesday – there were 12 right-handers and four left-handers, nine were either college or junior-college and seven were high-schoolers.
"Definitely with today's group, there's some pretty interesting guys in there," said Johnson.
Now, will the Brewers sign all 16? Certainly not. The deadline to sign draft picks, July 25, is already looming. But they should be able to land a good number by the time the dust is settled.
And those signings will provide a minor-league system that's currently brimming with top-shelf position players at the higher levels a nice influx of arms.
"The high-school kids, some have college commitments, so they're going to have to make their decisions there," Johnson said. "And so, that'll be a discussion we'll have over the next couple of weeks and see if they're ready to get started with their pro careers or choose to honor college commitments.
"But we're excited about the talent and upside of that group. We like the college arms we drafted. We think there are good options to go out and get some innings at the the lower levels pretty quickly, and we'll see how that develops."
Of the seven high-school pitchers the Brewers selected on Tuesday, six are committed to major Division I programs – 11th-round RHP Bishop Letson (Purdue), 12th-round LHP Bjorn Johnson (Auburn), 17th-round RHP Jacob Gholston (Oklahoma), 18th-round RHP Dylan Watts (Auburn), 19th-round RHP Isaac Morton (Texas A&M) and 20th-round LHP Justin Chambers (Arizona State).
Bryant University RHP Brett Wichrowski and Ohio State RHP Josh Timmerman were the two college pitchers chosen.
Johnson (6 foot 3 and 201 pounds) and Gholston (6-6, 200) could be two difference-makers down the road if they choose to forego school.
"He's a super-athletic lefty with a really good arm," Johnson said of Bjorn Johnson, the Gatorade state player of the year in Washington. "He's got a really good breaking pitch and throws a ton of strikes. Pretty projectable with a good frame to add strength and a good delivery. Just feel like he's another good ball of clay that we could give to (player development) and see where we go from there."
And of Gholston, Johnson said: "Really physically projectable. He's fairly thin still. Can add a lot of strength, and we just like the way his arm works great. He's really competitive, too. I think he came into the year and was throwing 88 to 90 and then by the end of the year was up to 92-94 at times, and the breaking stuff was getting better as well. He's a really good strike thrower and a really good competitor."
Milwaukee's lone non-pitcher pick on Tuesday was the left-handed-hitting Adamczewski of Lake Central High School in St. John, Indiana. He's committed to play collegiately at Ball State.
"He's an interesting kid," said Johnson. "He's from pretty far south Indiana. We really like his swing. He was kind of late to get on the radar as sometimes northern, midwestern kids can be. Give him a chance to play shortstop if we sign him.
"Just, really like the swing and the bat and like his feel to hit."
Summing up the entirety of Milwaukee's draft, there were 11 college and 10 high-school players chosen and aside from the 16 pitchers three shortstops and two third basemen added.
Not drafted at all were any catchers, first basemen, second basemen or outfielders, although position players sometimes shift over the course of their minor-league careers.
"I think everyone's pretty happy about who we got, how it worked out," Johnson said. "We try and measure drafts, after a couple years to see how they look. We focus on how our process was. 'Did we follow how we lay out our process? Were we disciplined to that? Did we make decisions that reflected good process and results?'
"You know, it takes a long time to get there."
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers use nine of 10 picks on pitchers on draft's final day
