Baseball America had two interesting articles about the draft over the last few days. They rated the top ten drafts of the decade (2010-19) and then ranked each team by the WAR produced by the players they drafted and signed.
The Pittsburgh Pirates made the top ten drafts list from their results in 2011 when they picked/signed six Major League players in the first nine rounds. That list includes Gerrit Cole, Josh Bell, Alex Dickerson, Colten Brewer, Tyler Glasnow and Clay Holmes. That draft haul earned them the #3 spot on BA’s list.
As for the rankings by WAR, the Pirates ranked 16th overall with their 58.6 WAR. That ranked them second among all NL Central teams, well ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds in the 29th/30th spots, but far behind the 91.6 WAR the St Louis Cardinals received from their picks. The Chicago Cubs ranked 18th.
It goes without saying that these rankings will change over the years. If a team made their best picks in 2018-19, then they could rate low on the list now, but end up much higher down the line. So this is more of a snapshot look at the results now and it currently shows that the Pirates have been average by league standards.
The Pirates have many new people in charge now, so those average results could change, though that doesn’t necessarily mean for the better. We won’t know that for at least 4-5 years as the new classes are picked and the recent draft classes from the old group get a chance to play out. The 2019 draft for the Pirates appears to have a lot of potential upside with six of their better picks being high school players. That could raise the bar a little, but the usual caveat about high school players being risky still applies.
