Baseball America released their first mock draft of the year and they have the Pittsburgh Pirates selecting Indiana catcher Kyle Schwarber. This might seem like an odd choice to some with the Pirates having Reese McGuire at West Virginia and Jin-De Jhang at Bradenton, both legit prospects, but there are two things to point out. First is that you always take the best player available, because nothing is a guarantee as far as the future and that leads to the second point, very few people think Schwarber will stick at catcher.
He is a strong lefty bat with good size and power. His future is likely at first base, or at a corner outfield spot, with DH also likely if he goes to an AL team. Schwarber is hitting .345/.452/.598 with 32 walks and 24 extra base hits in 44 games for the Hoosiers. All of his value is in his bat, but he is projected to hit in the middle of the order in the pros, so you can live with the limited defensive value. I’ve included a video below from Baseball America.
This is the first of many mock drafts you will see in the upcoming weeks from major sources. The draft starts on June 5th, four weeks from today, with the Pirates making their first three selections that day. Check back a little later today for our second preview of players in the Pirates range. You can check out the first one here.
