Braves draft left-handed pitcher Minor in first round

The Braves took a player some considered a sleeper at No. 7 in the major-league draft Tuesday — left-hander Mike Minor out of Vanderbilt — but only because he doesn’t throw in the upper 90s.

After Minor beat Cuba twice last summer for the USA Baseball college national team, the Braves believed they were onto something special.

“He was the ace of the USA Baseball national team last year that had a number of pretty good pitchers, including Mr. Strasburg,” said Braves scouting director Roy Clark, referring to Stephen Strasburg, the Nationals’ No. 1 pick with the 100 mph fastball.

“This guy is a winner,” Clark said. “I was hoping we’d have an opportunity to select him. Now, I’m hoping we have an opportunity to sign him.”

Clark said the Braves haven’t begun negotiations but hope for smooth sailing.

“I think he wanted to be a Brave, as much as we wanted him to be a Brave,” Clark said.

Minor, the 6-foot-4, 195-pounder from Chapel Hill, Tenn., grew up a Braves fan. The Braves’ highest pick since Mike Kelly went second in 1991 called getting drafted by them “awesome,” He said he doesn’t think it’ll take him long to sign.

“I see it happening pretty quick, in the next week or two,” Minor said.

The assumption was that the Braves wanted East Paulding right-hander Zack Wheeler, who went to the Giants at No. 6. Minor said he was pleasantly surprised Wheeler was taken a pick ahead of him.

“All morning I was talking to my advisor and it was going up and down, and I really didn’t think the Braves would actually pick me because of the Wheeler kid,” Minor said.

Clark said Tuesday night, the Braves got the one they wanted.

“I know the baseball world thought we were taking Zack Wheeler,” Clark said. “We are very pleased with the guy we got. … Put it this way, he was in the top three on our board, and we picked him seventh.”

Minor’s fastball consistently hits 89-91 mph and touches 93 mph. He throws both a slider and a curveball but his change-up is his best pitch, one he has been throwing since he was 12.

He was originally projected as a second-rounder by Baseball America, rated only the 10th-best left-hander available. Clark said that’s because his numbers at Vanderbilt this season were misleading. He went 6-6 with a 3.90 ERA in 17 games (16 starts). He gave up 109 hits in 110-2/3 innings but struck out 114 and walked 37.

Clark said Minor’s season turned when coaches let him call his own games, like he had done for USA Baseball.

“That’s when he just took off,” Clark said.

Minor had 10 complete games in 48 starts for Vanderbilt in his career. He went 3-0 with an 0.75 ERA in six outings for Team USA last summer and 8-2 with a 1.17 ERA in two years with them overall.

Minor becomes the third Vanderbilt left-hander taken in the first round in the past six years. David Price was the No. 1 pick in 2007 by the Rays. He pitched in the World Series last year.

Minor, 21, is the first college pitcher taken by the Braves since closer Joey Devine in 2005 from N.C. State. Devine was rushed to the majors only to give up grand slams in his first two appearances and a home run in the season-ending playoff loss that year. He was eventually traded to Oakland for center fielder Mark Kotsay.

The Braves sent their second-round pick to the Dodgers as compensation for signing Derek Lowe, but with their third-round pick, they took David Hale, a hard-throwing right-hander from Princeton.

Hale, taken 87th overall, went to the Walker School in Marietta and played in the East Cobb League, where the Braves have tracked him for four years. Clark said he can touch 96, 97 mph with his fastball and has a sharp breaking ball.