Kiley McDaniel of Scout.com released his third mock draft today, and has a pretty favorable result for the Pittsburgh Pirates. With the 9th pick in the draft, McDaniel has prep catcher Reese McGuire. With the 14th pick in the draft, McDaniel has prep left-hander Trey Ball. If the Pirates could get both prep players, that would be a pretty impressive first round.
McDaniel takes a different approach, listing at least four options for each pick, along with a “hoping for” section. He mentions that he’s tired of the standard mock draft form forcing him to pick one of several names he hears teams are interested in, so he gives choices in this one.
With the number nine pick, McDaniel lists D.J. Peterson as the second option, Trey Ball third, and Hunter Renfroe fourth. He also lists Dominic Smith as an other option. In the “hoping for” section he has Clint Frazier and Austin Meadows, who both went with the previous two picks.
With the number 14 pick, McDaniel had Hunter Renfroe, Alex Gonzalez, and Phil Bickford respectively as the 2-4 options. He also listed Tim Anderson and Austin Wilson as other options. In the “hoping for” section he has Peterson, Smith, and Ryne Stanek. All three went in the 11-13 range. Peterson has been the guy who has been most linked to the Pirates, although if Trey Ball and Peterson were both on the board, I’d have to go with Ball.
I kind of like this style of a mock draft better. It shows that Reese McGuire isn’t likely to fall to 14th overall, since the Blue Jays, Mariners, and Padres all have him in their “hoping for” list. It also shows that Trey Ball falling to 14 might not be out of the question, since there aren’t many teams prioritizing him ahead of the Pirates. He has Toronto with J.P. Crawford over Ball, and they’ll have Crawford available to them. The only other team that has Ball rated high is Kansas City, who has Austin Meadows ahead of him. If they take Ball, that means the Pirates would have Meadows or Frazier available to them, which might be better than McGuire.
