MLB Pipeline and Baseball America both released mock drafts today. The MLB draft is just ten days away now, with the Pittsburgh Pirates making four selections on day one of the draft. Their first pick is 18th overall and both mock drafts have the Pirates selecting a high school player who we have covered here before.
We start with the one from Pipeline, which has the Pirates selecting Texas (Lake Travis HS) third baseman Brett Baty, who was one of the first players we covered in our weekly Draft Prospect Watch articles. That link has a full scouting report and video, so it’s worth checking out. The quick summary on Baty is that he’s a lefty bat, with tremendous raw power and the ability to hit the ball out to any part of the park. He may end up at first base, but since he’s a high school player, that wouldn’t be a problem like the current Bell/Craig situation going on now.
Besides the lack of defensive value, his main drawback has been his age. He’s older than many of last year’s high school draft picks are right now. Baty turned 19 in November. Those drawbacks are what make him a possibility for the Pirates at 18th overall. If he was a year younger and guaranteed to stick at third base, he would be talked about as a top five overall pick because the bat is that good.
Baseball America has the Pirates taking right-handed pitcher Brennan Malone out of the IMG Academy, which is in Bradenton and not far from Pirate City, so he’s likely someone who they have seen often. He’s someone we covered here back in mid-April (link has three videos and a full scouting report). Malone is an athletic 6’4″ pitcher with a mid-90s fastball and he controls a nice four-pitch mix, with all three off-speed pitches looking at least average.
BA also mentions that the Pirates have show interest in high school pitcher Quinn Priester, who Pipeline had going to the Pirates in two different mock drafts recently. Pipeline interestingly enough, still had him on the board in their current mock draft, though he went 19th overall to the St Louis Cardinals. BA also notes than Clemson shortstop Logan Davidson is a possibility for the Pirates. They have Davidson going to the Cardinals at 19th overall. We covered him when BA ranked him 18th overall in the draft class back in mid-April.
On a final note, Keith Law posted an updated top 100 draft prospects list recently for ESPN Insiders. He had Texas Tech third baseman Josh Jung ranked 18th overall, which is exactly where he was back on May 1st when Law put out his top 50 prospect list we posted a scouting report and videos for Jung.
For reference, Law has Baty ranked 17th, Malone rated 21st, Priester 20th and Davidson 27th
