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Pirates Notes: 2017 MLB Draft Order is Set, Pirates Lose Two Coaches to Marlins

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With Mark Trumbo signing with the Baltimore Orioles yesterday, that set the order for the 2017 MLB draft, which will be held on June 12-14 this year. The Pittsburgh Pirates will have four draft picks on that first day, starting with the 12th overall pick.

The Pirates originally had the 13th pick, but they moved up one spot when the Colorado Rockies signed Ian Desmond. Pittsburgh will also had the 42nd overall pick for being unable to sign Nick Lodolo in the 2016 draft. Their second round pick will be 50th overall, and they received the 72nd overall pick in the Competitive Balance lottery. The first two rounds, including the competitive balance picks following the second round, have been covered live the last few years on MLB Network.

On day two, the Pirates will make their first selection with the 88th overall pick, which is their spot in the third round. That gives them five picks in the top 100 spots. Each pick after the third round will be 30 spots later, so they pick 118, 148, 178, etc. They draft bonus slots haven’t been announced yet. Last year, they were made public in early April, so then we will know exactly how much the Pirates have to spend in the draft. We might hear the slot amounts sooner this year, since the draft order was set later last year.

Coaching Losses

The Pittsburgh Pirates lost two of their lower level pitching coaches to the Miami Marlins. Jason Erickson and Mark DiFelice will both be pitching coaches for the Marlins, getting promoted one level higher than their 2016 assignment for the Pirates.

Erickson was a 2009 draft pick (24th round) of the Pirates and has been a player/coach in the system since his playing days ended at the end of Spring Training in 2012. He started shortly after as a player/coach, working up to the pitching coach for Bristol this past season. He moves up a level to take over the pitching coach duties at Batavia this season.

DiFelice was the pitching coach for Jamestown in 2014, then moved to the West Virginia Power in 2015, before returning to the New York-Penn League in 2016 with Morgantown. He will be the pitching coach for Greensboro (Low-A) in 2017.

Both of these coaches worked under Jim Benedict, who moved on to the Marlins to be their Vice President of Pitching after the 2015 season.

The Pirates also lost Cole Durham, who has been a strength and conditioning coach in their system for four seasons, last with the Bradenton Marauders. He takes the same job with the Cincinnati Reds, moving up to Triple-A.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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