Jim Callis from MLB Pipeline posted a new mock draft on Friday morning. The Pittsburgh Pirates have the first overall pick on July 9th. Callis has the Pirates going for the consensus top player with that pick.
LSU outfielder Dylan Crews has been ranked first overall by almost everyone this year, and he has gone to the Pirates in every mock draft since they started for this draft class. He was just selected as the top prospect and as the Pirates pick in an article from ESPN yesterday.
Going into the weekend, Crews is hitting .486/.633/.851 slash line through 44 games this year, with 13 doubles, 13 homers, 49 walks and ten HBP.
While our entire draft coverage has pointed to Crews going first overall, plus everyone seems all in on him, Callis gave some good reasons why he believes the Pirates will take him.
He notes that not only do his stats back up his preseason rankings, he has also displayed more speed and a better chance of sticking in center field than he has in the past.
We have seen some scouting reports believe that Florida outfielder Wyatt Langford might be the better pick here because he’s performing well and he was considered to have slightly better overall tools than Crews, but these comments by Callis seem to clear up that debate.
The Pirates have the highest draft bonus pool this year. Callis doesn’t believe that the Pirates could repeat a 2021 draft plan, where they took catcher Henry Davis at a slight discount, then spread the savings around to other high profile picks like Bubba Chandler, Anthony Solometo and Lonnie White Jr.
He believes the five players at the top of this draft class are better than the choices in 2021, but also separated from the rest of the 2023 draft class, making it harder to pass on them for any type of savings. Davis wasn’t a downgrade from the top in 2021, while going anywhere outside of the top guys here would be a downgrade.
