The Draft

The MLB draft is kind of hard to follow from a blogger's perspective. Except for the rarest cases, the players taken don't make any kind of immediate impact and half of even the first rounders are hit or miss anyways. Still, I can do a quick write up about guys that will be available at the four slot when we pick in the first round. After that, hell, I've got nothing.

David Price- Hands down the best prospect in the draft. Lights out pitcher from Vanderbilt. Going to Tampa Bay in the one slot. Forget about this guy.

Matt Wieters- Best college hitter in the group. He's a catcher, but may be moved from there. May go to the Royals at two, but may possibly fall further because he's represented by SCOTT BORAS (oooooo).

Rick Porcello- Best high school pitcher in the draft. This is who most people think the Royals will take. Also a Boras client.

Josh Vitters- A high school third baseman who is supposed to be a hell of a hitter. The Pirates are likely interested. Unfortunately, so are the Cubs who pick right before the Pirates.

You'll note that four players are listed here. That means one of the will be available when the Pirates pick at #4. Most indications are that it will be Wieters available at #4. If we don't take him, we're going to be making a big mistake.

Beau Mills- Great numbers in college, but at Lewis-Clark State. I don't even know where that is. He seems to be for real as a hitter, but it's hard to say for sure. I believe he's a first baseman.

Devin Moscaro- I don't know much about him besides that he's a high school catcher from Punxsatwany. Taking him at four would be a huge reach, but we're the Pirates. He'd be a great PR pick....

Mike Moustakas- High school third baseman. Some have him ahead of Vitters, some don't. Regardless... BORAS!!!

So what do I think we should do and what do I think we're going to do? If Wieters, Porcello, or Price is available, we should take them. If we pass on Wieters, we're making a mistake, because he's going to be a stud. We will pass on Wieters. If Vitters is there, we'll take him, and it might not be a bad pick. Mills also wouldn't be a bad choice, but we should start him in Lynchburg and let him hit. Instead, we'll probably stick him in State College and hold his hand through the minors and he won't get to Pittsburgh until he's 26, meaning it'll be a wasted pick. If we take Moscaro, I'll scream. Other names to watch from the four slot are Ross Detwiler, Daniel Moskos, and Nick Schmidt. They're all college pitchers I see in the top 15 of mock drafts, meaning that if Vitters is gone, they're likely who we'll consider. I'm seeing us picking one of them and DL making a statement like this.

Well, we considered several other players for this slot, but we've already got a first baseman in Pittsburgh in LaRoche, Neil Walker is the third baseman of the future, and we've already got two catchers at the big league level. This is a pick to fill a need on the Pittsburgh Pirates and it really makes the most sense when you think about it.

Other recommended reading (and sources for most of the information here)
John Sickel's Minor League Ball- great stuff, has profiles on most of the top prospects up, rankings, and a giant five round mock draft. This is where I go for my draft stuff.
Jeff Passan's mock
Baseball America- This is their Super Bowl.

The draft will actually be televised on ESPN 2 today at 2 PM. Postman R will be liveblogging at the Fanhouse, with contributions coming from all of the Fanhouse writers, myself included.