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New Mock Draft from Keith Law has Pirates Going for College Bat

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Keith Law posted his second mock draft on Tuesday morning for ESPN Insiders. He has the Pittsburgh Pirates taking Baylor catcher Shea Langeliers.

Langeliers is a player we covered earlier in our draft coverage, posting his scouting report and some videos here. At the time, he wasn’t hitting much, which could have possibly been due to him recently recovering from a broken hamate. He is now hitting .304/.372/.485, with eight doubles, a triple and seven homers in 41 games. The real selling point here is elite defense. He has thrown out runners on 13 of 23 attempted stolen bases, with just two passed balls and no errors. MLB Pipeline gives him a 60 grade for defense and 70 for arm.

Langeliers isn’t a name we have heard tied to the Pirates before. Almost every previous player has been a shortstop or a prep pitcher, with the occasional third baseman in there. While you never draft for need, the Pirates could use a top tier catching prospect.

The problem here isn’t just the lack of connections, but it’s unlikely that he drops this low. Assuming that Law is on to something though, I can’t imagine the Pirates passing on Langeliers, unless someone better also drops 8-10 spots. On Friday, both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America had Langeliers going to the Minnesota Twins with the 13th pick.

The draft begins in just six days, so expect a plethora of mock drafts leading up to next Monday.

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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