Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Welcome to MLB Draft week. I’ll be finishing up this profile series with at least one more later in the week, but I might be able to squeeze and extra one or two profiles out prior to Sunday. Today’s profile is on Coastal Carolina shortstop Eric Brown, who has some helium heading into draft day.
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Previous Profiles
- Peyton Graham (June 15)
- Drew Gilbert (June 21)
- Ryan Cermak (June 22)
- Thomas Harrington (June 27)
- Peyton Pallette (June 28)
- Landon Sims (June 29)
- Malcolm Moore (July 5)
- Cade Horton (July 6)
- Walter Ford (July 7)
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Vitals
5’10, 190 pounds
Position: Shortstop
Bats: Right
Throws: Right
DOB: Dec. 19, 2000
Location
Conway, S.C.
Year: Junior
Rankings
The Athletic: 43
Baseball America: 55
CBS Sports: 28
ESPN: 28
MLB Pipeline: 63
Prospects Live: 51
Slot recommended bonus (No. 29): $1,950,900
Note: All information of draft prospects compiled from Internet sources, scouting reports and videos.
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The Dodgers have been linked to lower-ceiling/higher-floor shortstops in drafts past — Logan Warmoth (2017), Jeremy Eierman (2018), Logan Davidson (2019), Nick Loftin (2020) — and Brown kinda falls into this category. He had a good showing in the 2021 Cape Cod League, hitting .282/.375/.436 with five home runs and 13 stolen bases in 33 games. With Coastal Carolina this season, he hit .330/.460/.544 with more walks (39) than strikeouts (28).
Brown has one of the more unconventional pre-swing setups in the draft. He holds his hands high and actually brings the barrel of the bat in front of his head — a less extreme version of Julio Franco, if you will. He employs a big leg kick and, despite all that, the swing works. He has above-average bat speed and, more importantly, has good strike zone judgment and pitch recognition. That’s how he’s been able to draw more walks than he struck out in his collegiate career. Whichever team ends up with Brown might get him to tone down the pre-swing setup and smooth out his swing, but the results are hard to argue with. He has sneaky pop if a team can get him to elevate more frequently, and we all know the Dodgers are quite good at that. He , consistently, hits line drives all over the field and his offensive profile as a shortstop is plenty good.
While he has good speed, it’s more noticeable when he’s underway. He’s a good athlete who has enough arm and instincts to stick at shortstop. If he has to move to second base, for whatever reason, he has a chance to be a plus-defender at the keystone.
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Video
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It wouldn’t be surprising to see the Dodgers target a player like Brown at No. 40. Not only that, they might be able to save a few bucks against their league-low bonus pool. Brown has a chance to be a solid regular. If he’s able to implement some of things he could be taught at the next level, he could take off.
