5 early picks play into Braves’ Draft strategy

ATLANTA — Though the Braves are set to make their earliest selection since they took Chipper Jones with the top overall selection in the 1990 MLB Draft, the fact that they own the No. 3 pick this year is trumped by the reality that they own five of the first 80 selections in a Draft that will not feature a once-in-a-generation talent like Bryce Harper or Manny Machado.

“Depth is paramount in this Draft,” Braves general manager John Coppolella said. “This is a Draft that is short on star power, but is long on talent. I think there is very little difference between the player you’re going to be getting with any of the first three picks or the player you’d be getting with picks 11 through 13.”

The 2016 Draft will take place from Thursday through June 11, beginning with the Draft preview show on MLB Network and MLB.com on Thursday at 6 p.m. ET. Live Draft coverage from MLB Network’s Studio 42 begins at 7 p.m., with the top 77 picks being streamed on MLB.com and broadcast on MLB Network. MLB.com’s exclusive coverage of Day 2 begins with a live Draft show at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, with exclusive coverage of Day 3 beginning at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

• 2016 MLB Draft: June 9-11 on MLB Network, MLB.com

MLB.com’s coverage includes Draft Central, the Top 200 Draft Prospects list and Draft Tracker, a live interactive application that includes a searchable database of over 1,500 Draft-eligible players. Every selection will be tweeted live from @MLBDraftTracker, and you can also keep up to date by following @MLBDraft. And get into the Draft conversation by tagging your tweets with #mlbdraft.

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Despite not having a top 10 selection in last year’s Draft, the Braves ended up with two of the elite players — top overall pick Dansby Swanson and left-handed pitcher Kolby Allard. Swanson was acquired from the …

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