2011 Draft: Top Prep Players and Their Commitments

In the past three drafts, the Pittsburgh Pirates have spent a lot of money luring top prep prospects away from their commitments to major colleges.  In 2008 the Pirates signed Robbie Grossman for $1 M, stealing him from Texas.  They also signed Quinton Miller for $900 K, stealing him from UNC.  Jarek Cunningham had committed to Arizona State, and Wes Freeman had committed to Central Florida, yet both players ended up signing in the later rounds.

In 2009 the Pirates took their approach to the extreme, luring Zack Von Rosenberg (LSU), Colton Cain (Texas), Zack Dodson (Baylor), Brooks Pounders (USC), Trent Stevenson (Arizona), Evan Chambers (Tampa), Walker Gourley (East Carolina), and Joey Schoenfield (San Diego State) away from college commitments.

In 2010 the Pirates selected Jameson Taillon in the first round, signing him away from a commitment to Rice University with a $6.5 M bonus.  They also added Stetson Allie in the second round, signing him away from North Carolina for $2.25 M.  Other prep players included Nick Kingham (Oregon), Ryan Hafner (Missouri State), Jared Lakind (Arkansas), Bryton Trepagnier (Bossier Parish), and Logan Pevny (Farleigh Dickinson).  The Pirates did miss out on Jason Hursh (6th round, Oklahoma State), Austin Kubitza (7th round, Rice), Dace Kime (8th round, Louisville), and Zach Weiss (10th round, UCLA).

Grossman, Miller, Freeman, Von Rosenberg, Cain, Chambers, Stevenson, Taillon, Allie, and Kingham all were rated in Baseball America’s top 200 prospects before their respective drafts, and the Pirates paid a total of $14,378,900 to sign these ten players ($5,628,900 when you don’t count Taillon and Allie).

Below you will find the prep players that are included in Baseball America’s top 200 rankings for the 2011 draft, along with their college commitments.  I couldn’t speculate as to who the Pirates may target, as it all depends on who falls in the draft due to signability reasons.  Last year we would have never predicted that Stetson Allie would fall from a projected top 10 pick all the way to the second round.  That’s rare, and isn’t likely to happen this year, but anything is possible.  There are definitely some interesting names on the list, and this will be a good reference when the Pirates inevitably take some top ranked prep players in the middle rounds, hoping for more over-slot deals.  There’s also a lot of highly ranked offensive players, which could result in a change from the pitching heavy drafts we’ve seen from the Pirates the last two years.

I’ll take a closer look at some of the guys who are considered tougher signs in my draft preview on Sunday night.