Braves draft Brewton-Parker fireball pitcher Wiggins  

Johnnie "Trae" Wiggins, a left-handed pitcher on the Brewton-Parker College baseball team the past three years, fires a pitch in a February 2004 game at the Brewton-Parker field on the Mount Vernon campus. Wiggins was selected by the Atlanta Braves in the seventh round of the 2004 Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft on June 7. (BPC Photo by Charles Conkin)

By Bill Glass

BPC Public Relations

Johnnie "Trae" Wiggins entered the Brewton-Parker College baseball program three years ago as a junior varsity player, and leaves it as a seventh-round selection by his home-state team in the 2004 Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft. 

Wiggins, a left-handed pitcher from Stockbridge, on June 7 was taken as the 221st overall selection by the Atlanta Braves on the first day of the two-day draft. 

The progress Wiggins made in his three years is reflected in that he even vaulted ahead of many better-known Georgia prospects that were taken midway through the draft.

"I was never the best player on the teams where I played and was always told that I would not make it at the next level," Wiggins said from his home before he departed for camp on June 10 in Orlando, Fla. "I guess that gave me the drive to keep pushing myself, to prove that I could do it." 

Wiggins has worked hard over the last three years to improve his mechanics and add to his arsenal of pitches. His showing in the major-league draft is a testament to that hard work and to the efforts of the Brewton-Parker baseball coaching staff led by head coach Chad Parker. 

"He has worked as hard as anyone I have ever coached," said Parker, who was in Stockbridge with Wiggins when he received the Braves' call. "You just do not go from pitching 83 mph to being clocked at 97 mph without hard work." 

Wiggins began to attract the attention of scouts with his velocity during his sophomore season in 2003, and this past spring would find upward of 40 scouts with their radar guns zeroed in on him from the stands whenever he pitched.

During the spring, Wiggins posted a 5-5 record and, in a scouting report posted on www.mlb.com, offered "a true slider, potential K (strikeout) pitch, cut fastball and a curve ball with tight down rotation around the plate. He likes to get in on right hand hitters' hands with a cut fastball (87-89 mph) with some sink and run."

Although Wiggins has offered some tendencies of wildness, one baseball scout was quoted as saying, "We can teach control, but there is a limit to what we can do to develop a pitcher's velocity: you either have it or you don't."

One Braves scout was quoted as saying, "We can teach him to pitch easier than we could teach someone else to throw hard."

The Braves gave Wiggins a signing bonus of $97,000; in addition, they will pay his costs for completing his degree at Brewton-Parker. 

Wiggins is majoring in broad field social science and secondary education, and after his baseball career is over he plans to be a high school government teacher. 

"I have always wanted to play pro ball," Wiggins said. "I knew that I had the work ethic necessary, but somewhere along the line the talent has to kick in." 

As far as the Braves are concerned, the talent is there. 

Now Wiggins will keep taking his dream one step at a time. After reporting to mini-spring training with the other players drafted by the Braves, Wiggins started advanced rookie league ball on June 15 with the Braves in Orlando, Fla. 

He will have a lot of friends from Brewton-Parker rooting him on as he pursues his professional baseball career. 

"This will bring a lot of favorable attention to our baseball program," Parker said. "Trae Wiggins represents the college very well. He is a good Christian kid."  

-BPC-

(From left) Brewton-Parker head coach Chad Parker, Johnnie "Trae" Wiggins and Al Goetz, Southeast area scout for the Atlanta Braves, at the Wiggins home in Stockbridge on June 7 after he was drafted by the Braves in the seventh round of the Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft.

(Photo courtesy of Chad Parker)