The draft

I don't usually spend much time worrying about the draft, so I've been milling around the internets today looking to educate myself enough to do an intelligent post about what the Buccos might do next week.

Charlie had a good post about the draft a week ago, and I don't think much has changed since he's done it. No one is really sure what the Pirates are going to do, as this is kind of a weak draft crop and the Pirates have a lot of needs. Baseball Prospectus says as much, that they're the first "wild card" team in the draft. Keep in mind that this is the only time all year that the Pirates and "Wild Card" will be in the same sentence.

As the Pirates usually do when they can't find anything else in the draft, they seem to be leaning towards college pitchers. The two I've seen mentioned in association with the Bucs most frequently are Greg Reyonlds of Stanford and Brandon Morrow of Cal. You can read about them at the Baseball America Prospect Tracker. They've got Reynolds at #5 and Morrow at #11, but they make a terrifying comparison for Reynolds... Bryan Bullington. To be honest, both of these guys seem to have a lot of Bullington in them, they don't seem to project out much beyond the middle of the rotation, don't have electrifying stuff, etc. Of course, considering Bullington and maybe even Maholm (I know, I know, I just don't see him ever being a top of the rotation guy, I think he's a solid #3, but I don't know beyond that), Ed Creech seems to love these kinds of picks.

One other rumor that I've heard repeated in a couple places, including here, is that the Pirates are looking to draft Doug Drabek's son, Kyle Drabek, a pitcher for The Woodlands High School in Texas. Drabek probably has a considerably higher upside than the other two guys mentioned (he probably also has a mullet and a kick ass mustache, or at least he better), but high school pitchers do carry some risk, especially Drabek who's been tagged with the dreaded "bad makeup" label. He'd be a decidedly un-Pirate like pick.

Of course, all bets are off if Evan "Please don't call me Eva or ask about her, we aren't related even though are first names are similar and our last names are identical" Longoria is still available at #4 (which seems unlikely), who's an infielder and considered by most to be the best college hitting prospect in the draft.