Keith Law released his second mock draft on Tuesday afternoon and he has a brand new name for the Pittsburgh Pirates. After picking Vanderbilt’s Tyler Beede in his first draft, he has the Pirates going with high school right-handed pitcher Luis Ortiz. Law has Beede falling out of the first round completely.
Like Beede, Ortiz is a player that has dropped in the rankings, but unlike Beede, it wasn’t due to performance. Ortiz missed time with what was called a forearm strain, though Law points out in his scouting report that it likely means he had a sore elbow and didn’t want to scare off teams by revealing that. The injury wasn’t anything serious, as Ortiz returned to action and was hitting 95 MPH. He has topped out at 97 in the past.
He is a big kid at 6’3″, 220 pounds and has been rated much higher, especially coming into this season when some had him as a top ten pick. Ortiz offers a three pitch mix, with that plus fastball, a slider that is a plus pitch at times and a change-up that rates as average. He also has average control already on all three pitches, making him a polished high school pitcher with big upside when you add everything up.
We posted video of Ortiz in an earlier link, which you can view here.