I allowed my Baseball America subscription to lapse (More of cost and speed receiving the paper than interest),but I have tried to catch up a bit over the last few days.
The Pirates are in the 8th slot,the Indians are in the 15th position,while the Giants are seated in the 20th hole.
Pittsburgh is a hard team to figure.
Their recent successes in the first round have been high schoolers and their college first rounders (Gerrit Cole is too soon to rate either way) have been less than strong.
The Pirates are not afraid to take a high school arm,so the best pitcher in the draft of the high schoolers is Lucas Giolito,who has been dealing with an elbow issue,although a recent video shows Giolito healing well.
Giolito is a consideration as if he was without health questions,there would be no doubt that Giolito would be off the board.
High school lefty Max Fried is a teammate of Giolito and also could be a Pirates pick.
The Pirates need bats in their system more than arms,although I usually like to take the best player available.
Florida Gator catcher Mike Zunino would be a great choice if he fell to to 8 and might erase the Matt Wieters nightmare,but that would be a tacit admission of the mistake of taking Tony Sanchez a few years back.
I really like three high school outfielders in this draft.
Byron Buxton will be long gone by the Pirates pick,but I also like Albert Almora,who also might be gone,but I like Courtney Hawkins and he should be available.
The word is the Pirates are looking for a shortstop and Carlos Correa of Puerto Rico was thought to be maybe drop to the Pirates,but his stock has rose to the point that he will not likely be available.
Arizona State's Deven Marrero is a player mentioned often as a Pirate target,but his questions (Hitting and maturity) has made Pirate fans furious at this possibility....
The Indians love college players and last years pick of Francisco Lindor was the Indians first high schooler in the first round since 2001.
The Indians will likely go back to the college pitcher well that they usually plunder and since the Ubaldo Jimenez trade cost them their 2009 and 2010 first round college arms in Alex White and Drew Pomerantz.
Duke's Marcus Stroman is short,but might be the most pro ready pitcher available and Oklahoma State's Andrew Heaney looks like the Indians type.
Cleveland also has a system that lacks hitters other than Lindor and a few others that have a few questions,so hitter makes sense.
I like Clemson third baseman Richie Shaffer as a nice college bat and any of the non-Marrero players above available would be super,although as much as I like Courtney Hawkins,I would bet that he is not the Indians type to select....
The Giants have taken bats in three of the last four drafts in round one and the only arm selected (Zach Wheeler) was traded to the Mets last season,so this pick seems to scream pitcher.
With the contract extensions given to Matt Cain and Madison Bumgarner,the Giants can take the best pitcher on their board and not worry about a player being the faster to move through the system.
If the elbow has scared teams off Lucas Giolito,the Giants might be in a position to gamble and I also like Lance McCullers Jr as well as Ty Hensley another arm off the Oklahoma high school conveyor belt.
If the Giants prefer a college arm,look at the above arms and add Mississippi State's Chris Stratton to the mix.
If the Giants want a bat,I like Stanford's Stephen Piscotty as a local product that the Giants might be interested in.
Piscotty can play third or the outfield and might be a sleeper for the Giants.....
Thanks to Kendall Morris for his help with research and allowing me to catch up a bit.
I will be watching the draft for the first hour and then moving to game three of the Devils-Kings.
I will be adding posts with quick looks at the Pirates and Indians picks and maybe the Giants...
Photo Credit: Steve Nesius-Reuters
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