Baseball America released their fourth mock draft today, this one coming out just six days before the actual draft takes place. They seem to really like one player for the Pittsburgh Pirates and they realize he isn’t a need for the team, but he would be too good to pass up in the 24th spot. For the second time, they have high school outfielder Monte Harrison going to the Pirates.
As BA points out, Harrison is a toolsy outfielder, who would be entering a system filled with players in that mold, but he has such a huge upside, that it would be tough to rank anyone else ahead of him that deep in the draft.
In their first mock draft, BA went with Indiana catcher Kyle Schwarber for the Pirates pick, but they now have him nine spots higher. He was also their choice in the third mock draft last week.
Two weeks ago, the second mock draft had Harrison as the Pirates pick. We did a draft preview with a focus on Harrison last week, complete with video and a scouting report. He was also recently picked by Jim Callis in his mock draft as the Pirates choice.
From earlier today, MLB.com ranked pitcher Luis Ortiz as the 24th best pick in this draft. He was in our draft feature this week and also the Pirates pick in Keith Law’s second draft, so it sounds like two names are getting a lot of mention in the Pirates range right now.
If the experts are right, it looks like the Pirates are going the prep route and getting either a high upside righty, or a toolsy outfielder on June 5th.
