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Morning Report: The 2017 Draft Lacks Current Talent, But Has Potential Upside

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As you may have noticed, the draft coverage has started to pick up over the last couple weeks because there are more mock drafts to talk about. The mock drafts may not get the player right for the Pirates, but they give you a great idea of the type of talent that will be available when they make their first selection at 12th overall. You’ll probably get a draft article almost daily from now until June 12th, when the first day of the draft takes place and the Pittsburgh Pirates make their first four picks out of 42 total selections over three days.

Baseball America posted an article yesterday talking about the talent available in this draft class and it doesn’t sound like it’s a good year for the Pirates to have five of the first 88 picks. While no draft pick is a sure thing, you do have players who are safer bets to make the majors and their doesn’t appear to be many players who fall into that category this year according to John Manuel at BA. I’ve also read that same opinion from other sources, so the Pirates will have an interesting decision(s) to make with their draft strategy this year.

With the 12th overall pick, the Pirates are going to have numerous players to choose from with either very high upside, or high floor college players. It’s the most interesting pick of the draft and it’s also one that should eventually provide them with Major League talent. They also have the 42nd, 50th, 72nd and 88th picks, and that’s where things can get tricky with a weak draft class.

A draft class is considered weak based on current talent, but anyone who follows the minors knows that a lot can happen as far as development goes in the minors with young players. The choice this season will be whether to get as many as those safer bets as possible early in the draft, or stock up on high ceiling prep talent. There seems to be a lot of high risk vs high reward prep players this season and Manuel believes they are going to go off of the draft board in bunches with the 20-75 picks.

I’ve heard that same thought from other sources, though some say it could start a little later. With four picks from 42-88, the Pirates are right in that area where teams will be stocking up on high risk/high reward players and they could choose to be part of that rush to find raw talent. So the choice then becomes, do you get as many of those safer bet college players as you can with those other early picks, or do you make sure you get as many high risk/high reward players as you can before that well runs dry?

You can always find a player like Max Kranick or Gage Hinsz with an 11th round pick. A high school player who dropped due to bonus demands, but comes off of that big number going into day three because they want to go pro right away. You can’t really stock up on that type of player in the later rounds though, mostly due to the draft bonus pool. You have to get most of them in the early rounds or settle with going heavy on college picks like the Pirates did in 2015.

We will find out how they decide to attack the first day of the draft in just 17 days.

PLAYOFF PUSH

Bradenton leads their division by a half game with 22 games remaining in the first half.

West Virginia trails their division leader by 4.5 games, with 24 games left in the first half. They are in fifth place. The Power have a four-game series (May 25-28) versus first place Hagerstown this week.

PIRATES GAME GRAPH


Source: FanGraphs

TODAY’S SCHEDULE

Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Atlanta Braves on Thursday afternoon by a 9-4 score. The Pirates begin a three-game series tonight against the New York Mets with Chad Kuhl on the mound making his tenth start. He threw five shutout innings in his last start. Kuhl has an 8.20 ERA at home versus 3.80 on the road this season. The Mets will counter with 28-year-old right-hander Jacob deGrom, who has a 3.56 ERA and a 1.31 WHIP in nine starts this season.

In the minors, Tyler Eppler was supposed to start for Indianapolis tonight, but he pitched in relief last night. It now has Edgar Santana listed as the starter, but we have been told that he won’t be starting and they needed room for “some rehab innings” which probably means Josh Lindblom and possibly Antonio Bastardo, who is scheduled to throw today. West Virginia was rained out for a fourth day in a row on Thursday. As I said yesterday, their rotation plans keep on changing, so I’m not even going to guess who is starting for them today. Check the Prospect Watch tonight if they’re able to play their doubleheader. Bradenton doesn’t have a starter listed either, so this is a fun schedule. Altoona does have Tanner Anderson scheduled, so there’s one of the other starters. I’ll try to update this in the late morning.

MLB: Pittsburgh (22-26) vs Mets (19-26) 7:05 PM
Probable starter: Chad Kuhl (5.85 ERA, 17:33 BB/SO, 40.0 IP)

AAA: Indianapolis (25-20) @ Rochester (20-20) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: TBD

AA: Altoona (24-20) @ Erie (20-23) 6:35 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Tanner Anderson (3.73 ERA, 16:23 BB/SO, 41.0 IP)

High-A: Bradenton (28-20) @ Jupiter (17-30) 6:30 PM (season preview)
Probable starter:  TBD

Low-A: West Virginia (21-21) vs Hagerstown (27-18) 5:05 PM DH (season preview)
Probable starter: TBD

HIGHLIGHTS

Here is a double from Connor Joe’s recent 4-for-4 game. He has gone 2-for-15 since that game.

RECENT TRANSACTIONS

5/25: Gregory Polanco activated from the disabled list. Danny Ortiz optioned to Indianapolis.

5/23: Yunior Montero assigned to Extended Spring Training. Sam Street added to Bradenton roster.

5/22: James Marvel activated from West Virginia disabled list. Chris Harvey assigned to Morgantown.

5/20: Jhan Marinez added to Pirates roster. Josh Lindblom placed on disabled list.

5/19: Pirates claim Jhan Marinez off waivers.

5/19: Stephen Alemais placed on disabled list.  Cam Vieaux activated from West Virginia disabled list.

5/19: Jin-De Jhang added to Altoona roster. Zane Chavez placed on disabled list.

5/17: Gregory Polanco placed on disabled list. Danny Ortiz recalled from Indianapolis.

5/16: Pirates sign Haicheng Gong.

THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY

Three former Pittsburgh Pirates players born on this date, plus the debut of one of the best pitchers in franchise history, and a very historic pitching performance. The players born on this date include catcher Dann Bilardello, who played for the Pirates in 1989 and was a member of the 1990 NL East champs. Pitcher Chuck Hartenstein, who played for Pittsburgh in 1969-70, and pitcher Jack Cronin, who was a teammate in 1898 of the pitcher who made his debut on this date.

Sam Leever, who went 194-100 in 13 seasons in Pittsburgh, made his debut on this date in 1898 as a reliever. There were two interesting things of note from the post-game recap about Leever’s debut. The local newspaper praised his speed and control, saying if he listened to instructions, he should become a winner. Leever was quoted after the game, saying that he will work to become a better hitter. The Pirates lost to 11-7 to the last place Senators that day, but Leever obviously became a winner and went on to help the Pirates to four NL titles and one World Series title.

On this date in 1959, Harvey Haddix threw what is called by many, the greatest pitched game ever. He retired the first 36 batters he faced, only to lose the game in the 13th inning. While he got the loss, he is still remembered for this amazing feat 58 years later and it is unlikely to ever be topped. Here is the boxscore from that game.

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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