It was more than a decade ago, but Daniel Pierce clearly remembers his first Braves game.
Pierce recalled Chris Johnson playing third base at Turner Field on a Saturday night. Both the Braves and the San Francisco Giants wore throwback uniforms as part of “Atlanta Braves Heritage Weekend.”
It’s fitting, considering the former Mill Creek High School standout is about to make baseball history across the street from the Braves’ current home.
That’s where an MLB team is expected to make Pierce a first-round draft pick Sunday. The 18-year-old shortstop wasn’t shy about his excitement.
“I don’t even know what to think about it, you know, you always dream,” Pierce said. “You see guys up there, you know, ‘With this pick, they select …’ and the camera goes to them. It’s almost like I don’t even know what to do.
“I guess I’m going to just sit there and stare at the TV. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Pierce stayed calm and collected — like a professional shortstop should — as he discussed realizing a lifelong dream in Mill Creek’s field house. He described his draft process as surreal, stating he never thought he would be on the doorstep of a first-round selection.
A self-described late bloomer, Pierce said he didn’t begin to fill out his frame until late into his high school career. Weight-room gains gave way to an impressive 2024 summer season, where he hit .408 with two homers and 26 RBIs, according to Perfect Game.
That summer — combined with a strong senior year finish at Mill Creek — established him well within those first-round projections.
With his own expectations exceeded, Pierce plans to surprise his critics from the draft evaluation process. The 6-foot, 185-pounder mentioned one particular criticism he expects to erase with professional physical development.
“I saw some stuff that said, ‘He’s, like, maybe a 15-homer guy,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m not even close to my peak.’ I mean, when I get to my peak, I’ll have a lot more juice than I have now, and I think I’ll hit a lot more than 15,” Pierce said. “So I wish they gave me a little more credit on some power sometimes, but I know that’ll come.”
Daniel’s father, Paul, had a field-level view of his son’s development over the past four seasons. Paul was a Mill Creek assistant coach for Daniel’s first three seasons before taking the program over in 2024.
Paul’s two older sons also played with Daniel at Mill Creek. The Pierce trio is responsible for one of Daniel’s favorite baseball memories in a state playoff series his sophomore year.
“My middle brother started, my oldest brother came in to relief and I closed in a game to get us to the final four in a Game 3 series in the elite eight,” Pierce said. “So that’s kind of always been my high moment.”
Where will becoming an MLB draft pick rank on that list?
“I think it’s got to be one.”
Pierce’s predraft process has been larger than life lately. The last month has consisted of flying around the country to visit and work out for different teams in MLB stadiums.
Pierce mentioned Texas, Chicago, Milwaukee, Miami, Tampa Bay and Arizona off the top of his head.
“It’s almost like a life of a big leaguer because you’re home, you know, once every two weeks or so, maybe two days, and that’s all,” he said. “So, just traveling around with my parents and enjoying spots. Well, trying to enjoy because you ain’t there for long until you’ve got to fly back out and go somewhere else.”
Pierce cracked another smile when he mentioned New York, where he met Braves and Mets stars Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies and Francisco Lindor before a National League East tilt.
“Just me and all of them, I mean, big old dudes,” Pierce said. “It’s like, OK, I know how to put on weight, but those guys are pretty chiseled.”
Many projections have Pierce going in the middle of the first round. The hometown product hasn’t received many projections to the Braves. The front office has spent its past six first-round picks on pitchers.
Most of Pierce’s projections are for places further away, essentially relocating his life overnight. It’s a lot for any high school graduate to handle, but Pierce says he isn’t bothered by the thought of moving.
MLB.com’s No. 13 overall prospect is romantic about the draft, but he talks about his baseball career in straight business terms.
“If I went to college and got a four-year degree in marketing and a job opportunity came up that I had to take that’s, you know, one of these places, I’m going to have to go take that and move away from home anyway,” Pierce said. “So I just kind of look at it as it’s a job, and I’m being paid to play the sport I love.”
It’s a mature perspective not often found in high school prospects. Pierce credited his parents for his straightforward mindset and added that maturing as a hitter has taught him how to handle baseball’s challenges off the field.
“Even if you hit a homer in the at-bat before, OK, what if the next at-bat’s bases loaded, you’re down by two, you need a double, you need an extra-base hit to get some guys in, and that homer is irrelevant at that point?” Pierce said.
“So I think once I finally grew mentally on the game and kind of understood that it kind of carried into life, and I started looking at some things in life a little differently, it just kind of put me in a better place in all of it.”
The MLB draft will start at 6 p.m. Sunday at the Coca-Cola Roxy, the concert venue in The Battery Atlanta.
Just three days from his baseball future, Pierce is chasing a dream with a healthy mix of professional realism, fueled by the same childlike admiration that burned that 2014 Braves game so deeply in his memory.
“There’s always that kid when you’re younger that — I kind of grew up in this coach’s office right here, so I’ve kind of always been in here and grown up around the game,” Pierce said. “So for me, it was just remembering that kid’s dream, and then that kind of just lights a fire in me.”
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