Every Sunday, we are going to take a look at two top draft prospects in this upcoming June amateur draft. The Pittsburgh Pirates make their first selection with the 18th overall pick. They also have the 37th overall pick. Our players featured each week will be those who are ranked on prospect lists in the general area of the 18th pick, while also showing some players who could be available when the Pirates make their second pick. The first day of the draft is June 3rd, just 15 days away. You can check out our draft preview here.
Here are links to the previous Draft Prospect Watch articles, covering a total of 28 players so far:
Matthew Allan and Zack Thompson
Will Wilson and Brandon Shewmake
Corbin Carroll and Maurice Hampton
Cameron Misner and Brennan Malone
Jackson Rutledge and Shea Langeliers
Michael Busch and Quinn Priester
This week we are going with two players who were mentioned on the new MLB Pipeline mock draft from Friday. We are running out of names to cover here with 28 players already mentioned. Everyone in that mock draft from the 12th spot to the 28th spot is covered in one of the links above. So while it might be a stretch for the Pirates at 18th overall either way, we are going with the players who went 11th and 29th in that mock draft.
We start with the higher ranked player in UNLV shortstop Bryson Stott. I don’t want to get hopes up and say that he’s a possibility, but there is a way he could fall to the Pirates. This class is strong at shortstop, so if teams go for pitching early before the quality at that spot things out, you could see Stott dropping. Just keep in mind that I haven’t covered him until now because I was trying to be more realistic with the players, staying away from the consistent top ten picks, while preferring to go with guys ranked lower than 18th overall because the Pirates also pick 37th overall.
Stott is a 21-year-old left-handed hitter, who stands 6’3″, 195 pounds. He has above average grades in everything except power, where he gets a 45 grade, though he should hit double digit homers as a pro. He’s going to get on base often, with a decent slugging percentage, while stealing some bases and playing solid defense at shortstop. He has the athleticism and arm to play elsewhere if needed.
Stott went undrafted out of high school, but he stepped right in at UNLV and posted a .738 OPS at a freshman, showing an ability to put the ball in play at a high rate. As a sophomore, he really took off. Stott posted a .998 OPS, with a 32:18 BB/SO ratio and 14 stolen bases in 16 attempts. He’s hit even better this year, putting up a .369/.498/.636 slash line in 51 games, with ten homers and 15 steals. He has 50 walks already. Stott is selling out some for more power, seeing his extremely low strikeout rate double this year, but it seems to be paying off.
Here are some videos, starting with this one from Prospect Pipeline
Here’s some game action from 2080 Baseball
and finally, Scout Trio has one with batting practice, fielding and game action
Our second player is also a college shortstop, UNC Wilmington’s Greg Jones, who at 21 years old, is a draft-eligible sophomore. He’s a switch-hitter, standing in at 6’2″, 175 pounds and he has game-changing speed. MLB Pipeline gives him an 80 grade for the speed, which if you’re unfamiliar with scouting grades, is as high as you can go.
After a solid freshman season last year, Jones has really taken off in 2019. He’s hitting .333/.482/.533 in 55 games, with 37 stolen bases. The big key here is that he went from 33 walks and 70 strikeouts last year, to 47 walks and 39 strikeouts last year. He is currently a shortstop, though some scouts think he might end up in center field, where his speed and arm will play up. Jones has shown improvements defensively this season, nearly cutting his error total in half. He has some raw power, but his ability to get on base and steal bases would make him more of a lead-off hitter type.
Here are some videos, starting with one from last year posted by Fangraphs.
Here’s a more recent one from Perfect Game Baseball, though it’s not the greatest of highlight videos
