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Pirates Draft Prospect Watch: Dylan Crews and Jacob Wilson Show Off the Power

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The Pittsburgh Pirates have the first overall pick in the July 2023 MLB draft. Our draft preview looked at the top prospects for the pick.

Every Monday, we’ll recap notable performances from around the prep and college ranks, with video to give you an early look at who could be available to the Pirates. This is our seventh weekly recap of the weekend action for the top college draft prospects.

If you missed it from Thursday, we covered the mid-week games here.

Dylan Crews was our first draft prospect profile. The LSU outfielder went 1-for-4 with a triple, walk and two runs on Friday against Ole Miss. He homered in his first two at-bats on Saturday, finishing 3-for-5 with six RBIs. He went 3-for-4, with three singles and a walk on Sunday.

Crews has a .496 average through 39 games, with 12 doubles, one triple, 11 homers, 44 walks and nine HBP.

Here’s the first homer from Saturday

Here’s the second homer

LSU right-handed pitcher Paul Skenes is a top five draft prospect, who is off to a tremendous start. He was our fourth prospect profile. His last two starts were his worst of the year, though neither was terrible. He took on Ole Miss on Friday and put in a quality start, though once again he was far from his early season domination. He gave up three runs on four hits and three walks in six innings, while picking up 11 strikeouts. Three of the hits he allowed went for extra bases, including a homer.

Skenes is 7-1, 1.97 in 59.1 innings, with a .153 BAA and a 115:12 SO/BB ratio.

Here’s one of his strikeouts.

Chase Dollander is considered to be a top two pitcher in the class right now, along with Skenes. We took a closer look at him in our second prospect profile. The University of Tennessee right-hander went up against Vanderbilt this weekend. Dollander has slipped a bit in the rankings, but this start should help. He pitched a complete game in a contest ended early due to the ten-run rule. He went seven innings, allowing one run on six hits, three walks and nine strikeouts.

He is 5-4, 3.81 in 54.1 innings, with a .221 BAA and an 80:19 SO/BB ratio.

Florida outfielder Wyatt Langford has a chance to go #1. He was rated as the top draft prospect by The Athletic, with his athleticism being the thing that pushed him ahead of Crews for Keith Law. Baseball America had him ranked second in their latest update. He was our sixth draft prospect profile. He did not have a strong weekend.

Langford went 1-for-3 with a walk against South Carolina on Thursday. He was 1-for-5 with a single on Friday. He went 0-for-3 with a walk on Saturday. He’s hitting .370/.527/.739 in 34 games, with 23 extra-base hits and 37 walks.

Jacob Wilson from Grand Canyon University has a long shot at being the #1, but he’s still a top ten prospect. The son of former Pirates shortstop Jack Wilson went up against Utah Tech this weekend. He went 1-for-5 with a double on Friday. He had a 2-for-5 night on Saturday, with a grand slam. He had just one hit on Sunday, but it was another grand slam.

He’s hitting .424 in 34 games, with 12 doubles, four triples, four homers and 15 walks.

Here’s his Saturday homer

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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