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Two Possibilities for the Pirates with the First Overall Pick of the 2023 Draft

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MLB Pipeline posted their first podcast of 2023 yesterday. They answered eight prospect related questions, with Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis both chiming in with their opinions. One of the questions was regarding the first overall pick in the 2023 draft. That pick belongs to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Shortly after the Pirates won the draft lottery last month, both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline released mock drafts. They both went with LSU outfielder Dylan Crews for the selection of the Pirates.

While it has been a month since those mock drafts were released, you don’t expect changes at the top of the draft class with seven full months left and nobody playing games during the winter. That being said, both Callis and Mayo went with someone else besides Crews as their first overall draft pick guess.

Mayo went with Tennessee right-handed pitcher Chase Dollander, saying that a pitching prospect like him hasn’t come along since Steven Strasburg or Gerrit Cole, and that makes him more rare than what Crews offers. Dollander ranks second on their draft top 100 list.

Here’s a video of him from the summer.

Callis went with Florida outfielder Wyatt Langford, saying that he’s very similar to Crews, except Callis believes he has a little more speed and athleticism. Langford is ranked as the third best prospect on the draft top 100. Pipeline’s tools ratings have Langford and Crews even in hitting (60), speed (55) and fielding (50), with Langford holding the edge in power (65-60) and Crews holding the edge in arm (55-50).

Here’s video of Langford.

John Dreker
John Dreker
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.

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