The Dodgers selected Maddux in the first round of the 2021 MLB First-Year Player Draft out of UMS-Wright Prep School in Alabama as the 29th overall pick on Sunday evening.

No, not Greg Maddux, who achieved baseball immortality in 2014 when he was inducted in the sacred Halls of Cooperstown after his brilliant 23-year MLB career, during which he won four Cy Young Awards, was an eight-time All-Star, an 18-time Gold Glove winner (that not a typo), a four-time ERA title winner, a World Series Champion in 1995, and actually retired from the game in 2008 as a Dodger, but 19-year-old left-hander Maddux Bruns, who was named after him. Then again, had Maddux Bruns been born a few years later, he very well could have been named Kershaw Bruns, although he wouldn’t have been in this year’s draft class.

“I just grew up watching [Clayton Kershaw], and I always wanted that big curveball that he has, and I got it,” Bruns said. “I just like the way he pitches, and he seems like a good guy, so I do want to emulate myself after him.”

Good choice.

Baseball America (subscription required) had the 6’2 / 205-pound Saraland, AL native ranked as the 48th-best prospect in this year’s draft, saying: “There’s likely not a pitcher in the 2021 class who has as much pure arm talent as Bruns.” MLB.com had him at 49th, FanGraphs (subscription required) 52nd, and ESPN 87th.

As a senior at UMS-Wright Preparatory School in Alabama, Bruns posted a perfect 7-0 record, with a minuscule 0.86 ERA, having allowed only 13 hits and six earned runs over his 49 innings of work. He has a four-seam fastball that topped out at 98-mph this past season, up from the low-90s the year before. Prior to being selected by the Dodgers in the first round on Sunday, Bruns had committed to Mississippi State University in Starkville.

Per our friend Eric Stephen over at TrueBlueLA, the 29th pick has a recommended slot value of $2,424,600, which is more than half of the Dodgers’ total bonus pool of just over $4.6 million. This is the same slot value for the 29th pick in 2020, which went to (now) 22-year-old right-hander Bobby Miller, who received $2.2 million to sign with the Dodgers. Miller is currently 1-2 with a 2.48 ERA in his 11 games (nine starts) with the Dodgers Advanced Single-A Great Lakes Loons.

Rounds 2-10 of the 2021 MLB Draft will take place on Monday and rounds 11-20 on Tuesday.

Welcome to the Dodger family, Maddux (Clayton) Bruns!

Play Ball!

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