The Brewers held picks 27, 28, and 38 in tonight's first (and supplemental) rounds of the June MLB Draft.
The first selection was a foregone conclusion of most draft analysts and a name that's been thrown around a lot in the previous few weeks: Clint Coulter, a high school catcher from Washington. You'll probably hear a lot about Coulter's personal story, he was a state champion wrestler in high school in addition to his baseball career. He's a righty bat and is known for his power potential, but unlike a lot of high school catchers, a lot of people I'm reading actually give him a good chance of staying at catcher-- he's not a "high school catcher" in name only, like Brett Lawrie was when the Brewers drafted him. Coulter already came out and said tonight that he plans to sign, so there's no real concern that he doesn't end up a Brewer.
At 28 the Brewers picked Victor Roache, a college outfielder from Georgia Southern. He's a huge guy at 235 pounds and another right-handed power bat, but he comes with a big injury question as he missed much of this year with a broken wrist. He hit 30 home runs in his college sophomore year. However, according to Tom Haudricourt he still won't even be able to play at all for 4-6 more weeks. The scouting consensus seems to be that this is a high-risk/ high-reward play for a reasonable slot price. Roache might have gone much higher with a healthy college season this year but scared away teams with his injury. On the other hand, some are saying he could have been had with a later pick.
With their final first day pick the Brewers took Mitch Haniger, another college outfielder. He produced in college and has power potential, and probably has a "projectable body" or something scouts say that sounds like that, at 6'2" and 180. He is yet another right handed bat that will slot into a corner, though he did play center in college and I wouldn't be surprised to see the Brewers try him there until he proves he can't do it as they have with so many other defenders.
The scouting department has produced a significant amount of interesting outfield prospects in the past few years, some of home still have a good chance to contribute at the big league level, like Logan Schafer and Caleb Gindl. The jury is still out on some other high picks like Kentrail Davis who haven't reached that level. The system hasn't graduated a starters since Braun and Hart and hopefully the top of this draft helps to change that trend. The two righthanded outfielders in particular will help balance out a system topheavy with lefty outfielders.
Another point worth noting is that the Brewers didn't go overboard by picking any player who will expect much more than their slot amount. That puts them in good position to make some aggressive plays in the coming rounds tomorrow, in contrast to a team that might have to allocate more money for a first round pick who expects more than their slot value to sign.