After the second day of the draft concluded, we heard that most of the first 11 pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates intended to sign. It’s been tougher to find information on the third day players and their intentions. Eight of the players are seniors, so you can almost guarantee they will sign right away. You can see the full list of players on our draft tracker. If you see an “NCAA SR” next to their name on that list, just assume that they will sign, and we will confirm their signings when they become official.
Here are some notes on other players who aren’t seniors:
**First baseman Dustin Williams from Oklahoma State (36th round) is playing in the College World Series. He went 1-for-3 with a walk on Sunday in a win over South Carolina. His team plays Saturday on ESPN2 at 3PM against UC Santa Barbara. Since he is still playing, we won’t hear about his intentions until after his team either wins, or is eliminated.
**Another first baseman is likely returning to school. 31st round pick Ben Miller from Nebraska will try to go back as a senior and improve his draft stock according to this article from Omaha.com.
**Garrett Brown was an intriguing name taken on day three in the 23rd round. He’s very athletic, with plus-plus speed, but he’s raw at baseball due to concentrating on football only for two years in college. He has said he will sign and will be reporting to Bristol. This article is very interesting on his draft process. The Pirates told him he would be a day two pick in the ninth or tenth round, then he ends up going 13-14 rounds later, and his bonus will be “about $3,000”. Dropping in the draft likely didn’t hurt his bonus, as it was probably agreed to ahead of time.
**12th round pick, catcher Arden Pabst, has said that he will sign. In this article, he talks about how he’s anxious to get started and the process he went through with Tim Osborne, the area scout
**Oregon State’s John Pomeroy (13th round) has told numerous sources he intends to sign.
**18th round pick Kevin Mahala is also expected to sign according to multiple articles, though one article from earlier also said he is expected to return to school. So I won’t say it’s 100% certain until we hear otherwise.
**22nd round pick Brandon Bingel noted that he expected to be drafted by the Pirates around the 25th round and he was in touch with them. He doesn’t say whether he would sign, but it sounds like the intentions are there from both sides.
