Pirates Prospects Daily: The How of the MLB Draft

This site was built on the MLB Draft.

The very first boost this site received was following the 2009 draft, when Rob Neyer linked to one of my articles praising day two of the draft. It wasn’t a good article, in hindsight. It was hopeful. It was the narrative that I wanted to happen. The Pirates drafted a defensive catcher who wasn’t rated first overall, but its okay, because they also took a lot of lottery tickets out of high school.

That was a scouting department that would be overhauled in the next few years, eventually building up to the core of today’s group. The development group still had issues, but I believe those have been improved upon.

I don’t know if we can point to Henry Davis in 2021 as a sign that those issues are fixed. Nick Gonzales might be the better sign. And, Mitch Keller.

Personally, I don’t remember much about the 2021 draft. For years, I led the Pittsburgh draft coverage. Some years, the content you read on sites like the Post-Gazette after day one were completely fueled by my research and questions for the scouting department. When the Pirates drafted Davis, I was in the middle of moving my life to Florida to get back on track before the 2024 season. I figured two years would give me enough time to fight through the depression from a divorce, mixed with figuring out what, if anything, I wanted to do with this site. As the Pirates made picks, I sat on my bed, surrounded by stuff in boxes, with a laptop plugged into the wall. I don’t think I participated on the conference calls that year. I just reacted to every pick like it was the first time hearing their name, because in my situation that year, it was.

The benefit of the first round pick is that you can talk about it ahead of time. You can study up on the players, act as a scout, and say which one you’d pick. When a team has the first overall pick, you can really go to town with this. We’ve been discussing the draft all year with John Dreker’s amazing coverage. John and Wilbur Miller have been huge each year for the draft coverage, both leading up to draft day, and beyond. This week, we’re doing a Roundtable series, breaking down the top five prospects for the 2023 draft.

My approach, however, has been to save my close look at these players for this time period. Over the last week, I’ve been studying each of these players in a way I never really have. Not as a niche media member trying to provide information, but as a scout who has the power to make the pick. After 14 drafts — some of which I don’t remember — I wanted to give a new look to the coverage.

Tomorrow, I’ll have an article drop with some draft coverage you’re going to want to spend all weekend reading up on. We’ll also have our picks in Roundtable, and I’ll have a column explaining how I see each player.

The approach here isn’t to say what the Pirates should do. For as much public information as I can consume and conglomerate, I lack the information the Pirates and every MLB team has. So, when it comes to Sunday, I’ll be like everyone else reacting with my projections on what the pick could mean for the Pirates. On Monday, we’ll all watch the other shoe drop in mystery. By the end of Tuesday, the Pirates will have moved into the future with their new draft class, and we’ll all be forced to ride along, regardless of whether you like the picks.

My own approach isn’t to like or dislike any pick. I’m not here to post blind positivity for Twitter likes. I don’t even think their servers could handle my heat during the draft this year. I’m not here to prove myself as a scout or someone who belongs in the game. I already know that I am that, and I smoke too much weed and care too little about time to ever really make it in a Capitalistic simulation like Major League Baseball. My approach has always been to explain two things that are niche questions in media.

Why?

How?

Why did the Pirates make the picks they did?

How will those players reach the majors?

Everyone will memorize who the players are, what they could become, where they could end up playing, and when they could arrive in the majors.

One flaw I see every year is blind optimism in response to the “How” question. There are some players who we break down in detail the “how” on their upside, looking at every fear they present. Others? We just point to the numbers and the scouting upside grades and skip to the where/when of the inevitability of that scenario.

My focus tomorrow is going to explore all of the questions for each pick, including how they could reach their upsides.

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I watched this podcast the other day with draft prospect Max Clark. I personally would not take Clark in their position, but the video is good if you want to know more about the player. He’s extremely knowledgable about the game, and just seems like a baseball junkie.

Pirates Notes

The Pirates lost another one to the Dodgers, with Roansy Contreras continuing to struggle in the bullpen.

**P2Live: Blown Late-Inning Chances and Dismal Outing from Contreras Sink Pirates

The Pirates optioned Luis Ortiz to the minors, bringing up Yohan Ramirez in relief. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more of this heading into the All-Star break.

**Pirates Option Luis Ortiz; Recall Yohan Ramirez

Yesterday I wrote about a change that has been taking place with Jack Suwinski, among other notes.

**Pirates Prospects Daily: Jack Suwinski’s Eye, Josh Palacios Dance, Paul Skenes