The first day of the 2014 amateur draft was yesterday and the Pittsburgh Pirates added four new players to the system. Below, you will find highlight videos of all four players. The Pirates Prospect player pages for all four players can be found in the link under their name. For a recap of the draft from day one, check this link here. Three of the videos were provided by Big League Futures, a site that does fantastic work getting videos and scouting reports all season long. The Mitch Keller video was from Baseball Prospectus.
Cole Tucker 1st Rd, 24th overall
Connor Joe 1st Rd, 39th overall
Mitch Keller 2nd Rd, 64th overall
Trey Supak 2nd Rd, 73rd overall
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
One thing about videos, they give you mechanics and that is something you need to see. I look at these videos and I wonder how much Pirate management and coaches see that they need to change with these guys if they get them signed. It would be great to talk to the scout that pushed the most for Tucker just to hear what he sees in this guy. I like what I have seen from him, I guess the question is always going to be that they could have done better, but maybe not, time will tell.
Man does Supak pitch downhill. Everything is down and more down in that video. He is pretty over the top on the fastball. I can’t help but think of Clay Holmes when I see Supak. They are gonna be mirror images size-wize.
Tough to totally tell how much from the angle on the vid but Keller definitely has some armside run on his fastball. The breaking pitch looks nice and according to the stats on the vid he already has decent separation on the change. His delivery is deliberate but has a little deceptive jerk in there…small but enough to destroy timing. Gotta love a kid with some deception in an era of cookie cutter deliveries.
Thanks for the videos. Now I know I am totally puzzled by this draft.
Wow Joe really holds the bat in close to his neck perpendicular to his body…he also barrels everything in that video. Nice simple swing. He’s fun to watch. Hopefully he can exceed his ranking. Despite being announced as an OF he def looks like a C.
Just a small sample here but it seems like Tucker takes a lot of pitches and is pretty patient. Also seems like he has a lot of moving parts to his swing…especially from the left side. He’s got the bat always moving and quick swing and reminds me a little of a young Chase Utley a little from the left side. He definitely seems like he plays at high energy all the time.
After all the angst, I guess, what do we REALLY know about these kids and what will happen to them?
Albert Pujols 13th rounder. Mike Piazza 62nd
I posted this after another article but gonna post here also about where the picks would be ranked: I would give the ss the benefit of the doubt and put him around 12-14. I doubt the Joe kid would crack the top 20 right now but he may fit in around 19 or 20 depending on who you ask. I feel like if Keller signs quick and pitches really well he could end up ending this summer as the Bucs highest rated prospect from this draft. Right now I almost think he would have to be ahead of Joe somewhere around 17-20? The 4th kid they picked somewhere in the mid to late 20’s? Just PTOOMA