Brewers: Crew Adds Talented Righty In FanSided Mock Draft

As we close in on the 2021 MLB Draft, FanSided has done their own mock draft of the first round with team sites making individual selections. As such, we made the pick for the Milwaukee Brewers.

The mock draft started off about as expected, with the high school shortstops and Vanderbilt pitchers going early on. Those guys were never really Brewers targets.

Targets for Milwaukee started going off the board with the 7th overall pick as the Royals unexpectedly took Texas RHP Ty Madden. That led to a domino effect where the Washington Nationals selected Will Bednar of Mississippi State.

Bednar was going to be my selection if he was on the board, but he wasn’t. Backup options like Sam Houston OF Colton Cowser, UCLA SS Matt McLain, and Kansas State LHP Jordan Wicks went off the board to the Mets, Mariners, and Phillies respectively.

That left us with our next best choice.

With the 15th overall pick in the 2021 FanSided Mock Draft, we had the Brewers select Ole Miss RHP Gunnar Hoglund.

It’s not ideal to be selecting a pitcher who just underwent Tommy John surgery this spring, but that was the best pick on the board for Milwaukee in this draft.

We’ve taken a more in-depth look at Hoglund before. He wouldn’t be a bad selection at all. Prior to surgery, Hoglund was a surefire Top 10 selection in the first tier of college arms alongside Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker. After undergoing surgery, he dropped into the second tier for the Draft, but he’s still a first tier talent.

There’s risk, as there is with anyone coming off TJS, but the Brewers have done this before with Drew Rasmussen and were successful with it. That success could give them the confidence to pull the trigger on Hoglund.

Hoglund has great command and his stuff could tick up if the Brewers pitching development staff gets their hands on him. He’s a near lock to remain in the rotation and when he does start pitching in games again, he could move quickly through the farm system.

Hoglund is a near lock to remain in the rotation in the future. He has top of the rotation upside, which is great value for the 15th overall pick. Guys like that with a high floor as well aren’t very easy to find at that point.

This is just one of a few possible ways the Brewers could go in the first round this year. Who do you want the Brewers to pick?