The Pittsburgh Pirates have the first overall pick in the July 2023 MLB draft. Our draft preview looked at the top prospects for the pick.
At this stage, the draft is very much up in the air. Every Monday, we’ll recap notable performances from around the prep and college ranks, with video to give you an early look at who could be available to the Pirates. This is our fourth weekly recap of the weekend action for the top college draft prospects.
Dylan Crews was our first draft prospect profile. The LSU outfielder went 2-for-3 on Friday against Texas A&M, with a double, two walks and three runs scored. He went 1-for-4 with two walks and two runs scored on Saturday. He went 2-for-4 on Sunday, with two doubles, two runs and a walk. He’s now hitting .493/.639/.855 in 21 games.
LSU right-handed pitcher Paul Skenes is a top ten draft prospect, who is off to a tremendous start. He continued that strong pitching on Friday against Texas A&M, putting up 6.1 shutout innings on four hits, no walks and 11 strikeouts. He is 5-0, 0.59 in five starts, with a .115 BAA in 30.1 innings, to go along with a 4:59 BB/SO ratio.
Here’s a highlight video
Jim Schlossnagle on LSU’s Paul Skenes: “I’ve been doing this 33 years and Stephen Strasburg, Mark Prior and Paul Skenes are the best I’ve ever seen. He’s pitching in the wrong league, I’ll tell you that. He needs to be in the American or National League.” pic.twitter.com/gtKre6HrW5
— Harrison Valentine (@HValentineLSU) March 18, 2023
Chase Dollander is considered to be a top two pitcher in the class right now, along with Skenes. We took a closer look at him in our second prospect profile. The University of Tennessee right-hander went up against Missouri on Friday, and he got hit hard. He went 5.2 innings, with six runs on nine hits, a walk and four strikeouts. That hit total included five doubles and a triple. He actually did well after giving up four runs in the first inning, but this was his worst college start. Dollander has a 3.90 ERA in five starts, with a .248 WHIP and a 6:45 BB/SO ratio in 27.2 innings.
Florida outfielder Wyatt Langford has a chance to go #1. He was recently rated as the top draft prospect by The Athletic, with his athleticism being the thing that pushed him ahead of Crews for Keith Law. However, Langford is out of action for at least a month after injuring himself by getting hit with a foul ball off of his own bat. That’s going to cost him some big opportunities to prove himself in front of scouts.
Jacob Wilson from Grand Canyon University has a long shot at being the #1, but he’s still a top ten prospect now. The son of former Pirates shortstop Jack Wilson had a series against Sacramento State this weekend. He went 3-for-6 with a home run and four RBIs on Friday. He was 0-for-3 with a sacrifice fly and a walk during the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday. He went 2-for-4 in game two, with two runs, a double, an RBI, a walk and a stolen base.
Wilson is hitting .446/.458/.730 in 19 games. That line makes it look like he has drawn one walk, but it’s actually off-set a bit by four sacrifice flies. He has five walks and four strikeouts in 83 plate appearances.
Here’s his grand slam from Friday
Shortstop Jacob Gonzalez from Ole Miss is another early name to watch. He played against Vanderbilt this weekend in a big test. He went 1-for-4 with a double and a run scored on Thursday. He went 0-for-4 on Friday, as his team nearly got no-hit. He went 1-for-4 with a solo homer on Saturday. He’s hitting .333/.485/.520 in 20 games.
Here’s the homer
.@jakegonzalez717 goes yard to get the Rebs on the board!
Walker Jenkins is the first of two high school players we plan on adding, though if anyone else starts getting mentioned higher, they will be added too. Jenkins was our third player profile article. His stats are going to be hard to come by, but I’ll add updates where I can. For the two boxscores available, he went 3-for-8 with four runs scored. Here’s video of his first homer, which was not part of those limited stats.
Getting a look at OF Walker Jenkins (N.C.) tonight and he’s got a couple of hard hit balls after two ABs including this no-doubt HR to right-center. pic.twitter.com/PEyikwiGT8
— Carlos Collazo (@CarlosACollazo) March 15, 2023
