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New Mock Draft from Callis Has Hard-Throwing Prep Pitcher for Pirates

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Jim Callis at MLB Pipeline posted his latest mock draft on Friday morning and he has the Pittsburgh Pirates taking right-handed pitcher Shane Baz.

We have mentioned the 17-year-old, 6’3″ Baz here before because he has gone to the Pirates in previous mock drafts, plus MLB Pipeline has him rated 12th overall, matching up with the first pick of the Pirates. As a refresher, he’s a prep pitcher out of Texas, who has solid control over five pitches that all rank as average or better, including a fastball that has touched 100 MPH recently. He has a strong commitment to TCU, but the Pirates also have a large bonus pool this year due to five picks out of the first 88 in the draft, so they could spend big on Baz if they believe his potential upside is a legit top of the rotation starter.

Callis also mentions something we touched on earlier this week, and that is the Pirates are showing interest in advanced college bats. He mentions three players we have covered here recently, Missouri State 3B Jake Burger, UC Irvine 2B/OF Keston Hiura, and Vanderbilt outfielder Jeren Kendall. The other player Callis mentioned hasn’t been covered here yet, and that’s Kentucky first baseman Evan White, so I want to make sure to cover him now just in case.

White is a 6’3″, righty batting, lefty throwing first baseman, who is extremely athletic and gifted on defense. He’s a 60 runner, with a strong arm, so he has the ability to play outfield as well, though MLB Pipeline has said he has Gold Glove potential at first base. He’s a line drive hitter, who works gap-to-gap and has a solid approach at the plate. He doesn’t have current power, but he has plenty of room to fill out still.

The other reason White isn’t considered a home run hitter is the approach, which has led to 23 doubles this season. A line drive hitter who uses the gaps isn’t going to hit a lot of homers until he fills out. That’s similar to the approach Josh Bell had in the lower levels of the minors, where even in batting practice he wasn’t hitting homers, but he would hit lasers to the gaps and straight away center field that hit the fence on the fly consistently, sometimes on one hop.

I’ve included this highlight video, which isn’t the best example for him because it shows the power he has when he does pull the ball on a few of the homers, but he generally is going to hit line drives and use the middle of the field. The second half shows his athleticism at first base, and you can see how he still has room to fill out, plus you could easily picture him in the outfield if that’s where a team wants him to play.

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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