Kiley McDaniel from Scout.com released his last mock draft, just over an hour before the start of the draft and he has pitcher Luis Ortiz going to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Ortiz’s name was first mentioned with the Pirates a couple weeks ago. Early in the year, he was always rated higher, but time missed due to a forearm strain seems to have dropped his stock. He returned and looked healthy, touching 95 MPH in his first game back. When at his peak, he is a workhorse type pitcher, with a fastball that hits 97 MPH, an average change-up and a slider that could be a plus offering. He has good control of all of his pitches.
McDaniel mentions that the Pirates hope for someone to fall to them, which is most likely the case with most teams picking this late. We are hearing a lot of top names could slide down, so don’t be surprised if the Pirates jump on one of them, looking for high upside with their first pick.
We have a full scouting report and video for Ortiz here in our draft preview.
You can view the rest of today’s draft news here, plus check out our final thoughts going into tonight.
