Right-hander Garrett Fulenchek, the Braves second round pick at No. 66 overall, might have been an unknown quantity to most. He is a high school pitcher from Howe, Texas, a town of about 2,600 people, and he didn’t make much of a splash until a fall showcase event.
But Braves scouting director Tony DeMacio said the power pitching right-hander has long been under the watchful eye of Braves area scout Gerald Turner.
Turner is the same scout who signed Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons, a second round pick from Curacao by way of Western Oklahoma State, and Evan Gattis, the 23rd round pick from Forney, TX, who became one of baseball’s most remarkable success stories last season.
“You can’t get anything by Gerald out in Texas,” DeMacio said.
Fulenchek is a 6-4, 205 pounder with a fastball the Braves clocked at 90 to 94 mph, with movement.
“He’s a great projection,” DeMacio said. “He’s a big-bodied kid. He’s strong. And everything he throws moves. He already knows how to spin the breaking ball. We think he’s going to throw harder, first of all, because he’s going to fill out in that 6-4, 6-5, frame, and he’s going to be a big man. We like his projection.”
Fulencheck, like the Braves’ top pick outfielder Braxton Davidson, is only 17 years old. He celebrates his 18th birthday on Saturday.
The Braves have a long history of drafting high school talent, and these top two picks are reminiscent of the approach the Braves took in the late 1980s and early 1990s when they built their farm system with high school talents like Chipper Jones and Ryan Klesko, Tom Glavine and Steve Avery.
“It’s nice to have two 17 years old that have great upside,” DeMacio said. “It’s the way the board falls sometimes. Sometimes you get the college guys that have good upside. We were fortunate enough to get two young kids. And that’s a good thing. Now we can mold them the way the Braves mold them and hopefully they’ll become the players that we think they can become.”
