Kiley McDaniel from ESPN posted a combo article of his updated draft rankings, as well as a mock draft covering the early picks. The Pittsburgh Pirates have the first overall draft pick this year, with the draft taking place just over two months from now. The Pirates have the highest draft bonus pool this year.
McDaniel ranks LSU outfielder Dylan Crews as both the top prospect in this draft, and the top pick in his mock draft for the Pirates.
Crews went 2-for-5 with a single and a double in a 10-0 win over Southeastern on Tuesday. That gave him a .486/.633/.851 slash line through 44 games this year, with 13 doubles, 13 homers, 49 walks and ten HBP.
He’s been the top rated player and the pick for the Pirates in almost every single rankings/mock since the start of this year. McDaniel ranks him as the only player in the draft class with 60 Future Value. Paul Skenes, Wyatt Langford and Walker Jenkins are the only players with 55 Future Value, ranking 2-4 on the prospect list.
The top seven spots are seven of the eight players we have been covering here all year. Jacob Wilson didn’t make that top seven, but he’s still top ten in both the mock and rankings.
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.
I love Crews, but with Nicky G and Termarr’s struggles (so far) I am leery of taking a hitter. But then, don’t all Pirate pitchers miss great lengths of time with injuries?
D**ned if you do and d**ned if you don’t???
With the benefit of hindsight, who would you have selected in those drafts?
I was a huge Zac Veen guy and he, too , stinks.
Hitters are safe, they say!
I wanted him over Nicky, too.
That’s a good question. One of the guys I liked, influenced by him being from Pittsburgh, was Austin Hendrick but he is struggling in A ball. Maybe Veen? Probably Detmers, though, who could be part of our rotation.
Langford went 2-3 with a HR and 2 BBs in a midweek game against Florida State and is now at .403/.543/.784. That’s a .381 ISO compared to Crews’ .365 ISO. Just keeping Langford in the conversation 😉
And the gap between the two has closed significantly with the Friday night games
FWIW I do think Langford is slightly better than Crews
Also, I’d put Jenkins above both of them
My man!
Happy to see somebody say it.
https://lsusports.net/sports/bsb/roster/player/dylan-crews/
60 future value, who else has been a 60 the past few years?
Rutschman.
🚩🚩 Crews has 10 HBP!!! Not another #1 pick with a bullseye on him at the plate!!!!!🎯🎯
Dylan Crews all the way…
That’s the safe bet 😉
And Bradenton
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/gamefeed?date=5/4/2023&gamePk=729683&chartType=pitch&legendType=pitchName&playerType=pitcher&inning=&count=&pitchHand=&batSide=&descFilter=&ptFilter=&resultFilter=&hf=scoreboard&sportId=14
Priester is good for the second outing in a row
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/gamefeed?date=5/4/2023&gamePk=722710&chartType=pitch&legendType=pitchName&playerType=pitcher&inning=&count=&pitchHand=&batSide=&descFilter=&ptFilter=&resultFilter=&hf=playerBreakdown&sportId=11
SEC baseball is in the news for all of the wrong reasons
Because of Alabama’s manager betting against his team? I don’t know how they do it, but the SEC get the best athletes out of high-school. And, isn’t Texas and Oklahoma going into that league?
This is the game
https://lsusports.net/boxscore/alabama-810/
And here’s the story
https://www.espn.com/college-baseball/story/_/id/37409279/alabama-fires-baseball-coach-brad-bohannon-amid-betting-probe
I think Anthony posted a video of the Crews HR from that game
Ouch.
The Pirates need to draft the player that will biggest bang for their Money and also the quickest to get to the major league level.