The Pittsburgh Pirates have signed 30th round pick David Andriese, Pirates Prospects has learned. The right fielder was a college senior at UC Riverside, so his signing was expected at some point. He’s the last college senior in the Pirates’ draft class to sign. Andriese will report to Jamestown.
Most college seniors are strictly organizational fillers, but Andriese is an interesting guy. He was ranked the 50th best college senior in the draft by Baseball America. He’s shown a good ability to get on base the last two years, with a .374 OBP in 2013 and a .378 OBP in 2014. He also upped his stolen base totals this year, with 12 steals. That was almost double his total from the previous three years. He doesn’t have much power for a corner outfielder, so his value will rely on the ability to get on base and steal bases once he’s on.
The odds of Andriese being more than an organizational guy in A-ball are still small, but he’s got a better chance than most college seniors to exceed that upside.
