Milwaukee Brewers 2022 Mock Draft Roundup 1.0: All Over The Board

Mock Draft season is always a fun time. With the MLB Draft approaching, more and more mock drafts are popping up across the internet. Who do the experts have the Brewers selecting? Let’s take a look.

Making a mock draft is an inexact science, especially in the MLB Draft. The Draft is a crapshoot and it doesn’t go according to “team needs” or even necessarily a “best player available” approach either. BPA is generally the prevailing strategy, but it’s not always the case. Some teams will take a lesser player to save on their bonus pool to sign a player they really like later on in the draft.

With teams not being able to trade up or down and the manipulation of bonus pool money, mocking the MLB Draft is extremely difficult. It’s even more difficult the later in the first round you go. With the Brewers selecting 27th overall, there’s going to be a lot of variety.

Who do the Draft experts have the Milwaukee Brewers selecting in the first round in this MLB Mock Draft Roundup?

MLB Pipeline – Sterlin Thompson, OF, Florida

Pipeline has the Brewers going with a college outfielder for the 3rd year in a row. This was their write up on the selection:

The Brewers are a good bet to take an accomplished hitter, such as DeLauter, Graham, Thompson, Gilbert or Melton from the college ranks, or Toman.

They give a solid list of options, most of whom are college outfielders.

The Athletic – Justin Crawford, OF, Bishop Gorman HS (NV)

Crawford was projected to go a dozen or so picks earlier. Sometimes, the money and high school picks later in the first round can get tricky. But Crawford has elite speed and is a good defender. The pick may test the old cliche of “best available,” which is something the Brewers say a lot; the outfield, particularly center field, is not a weakness in their farm system after devoting early picks to the position over the last couple of years. I’ve heard a handful of scouts point to the high school talent in this draft being especially strong, and Crawford has the natural tools that are harder to develop. — Will Sammon

Brewers beat writer Will Sammon made this selection of a high school hitter, a demographic the Brewers have drafted just once in the first round in the David Stearns Era. But as he points out, Crawford is projected much higher and if he falls to this point, the Brewers could jump on him like what they did with Brice Turang in 2018.

Prospects Live – 27. Gabriel Hughes, RHP, Gonzaga

The Brewers will be smitten to see another power-righty fall into their lap here with Hughes still on the board. Most see them going with one of Beavers, Delauter, Jones or Thompson. Hughes is too talented to pass up this late.

You can never have enough pitching and a Friday night ace like Hughes would be a great addition to the Brewers pitching development program. He’s a big guy with a big fastball and a wipeout slider to go with great control of the strike zone.

Baseball Prospect Journal – Chase DeLauter, OF, James Madison

DeLauter’s season ended early due to an injury. When healthy, DeLauter is a 6-foot-4 and 235-pound outfielder with five-tool potential. He has an easy left-handed swing and hits for average and power. Scouts project him as an above-average hitter with above-average power in pro ball.

DeLauter has some small school questions and struggled against higher level competition this spring. He was regarded as a Top 10 talent earlier in the year but has been dropping down boards considerably as the season has gone on and could be available still at the 27th pick.

Bleacher Report – Blade Tidwell, RHP, Tennessee

Tidwell missed the first six weeks of the 2021 season with shoulder soreness, joining a long list of top-tier college arms who dealt with injury issues this spring. With a fastball that touches 99 mph and a 60-grade slider, his pure stuff stacks up to any pitcher’s in the class, and the Brewers have done a great job developing high-octane arms in recent years.

The difference between Tidwell and the other top tier college arms with injuries this spring is that Tidwell came back from his this season and performed well down the stretch while others had significant enough injuries to miss the whole season. Tidwell also would likely thrive in the Brewers pitching development system.

Baseball America – Cooper Hjerpe, LHP, Oregon State

A data-oriented pitcher like Hjerpe just makes too much sense with a team like the Brewers to not make this connection. At this point on the board there are players from every demographic who could make sense, though we have mostly tagged them with college players this spring.

There’s a lot to like with Hjerpe and if he’s on the board for Milwaukee, he makes a lot of sense, as BA points out.

Clearly there isn’t much consensus as to who the Brewers will select at 27 overall. With picking so late in the first round, so many players could go off the board by then that it’s impossible to truly know who will be available for them. However, most of these mocks indicate that Brewers are likely to go back to the college ranks for the first round and there are some common names that come up as options.

We are a week away from the first night of the MLB Draft, and the only thing that’s clear about who the Brewers will pick is that it’s completely up in the air.