2012 Draft Review

It is really too early to tell if the 2012 draft is good or bad, but you really ought to grade it now anyway.  It is a matter of expectations.

First off any draft where you don't sign your number one pick ought to drop the draft a letter grade, and when you are picking in the top 10, it ought to drop your draft two letter grades.  Although getting a comp pick makes the top possible grade the Pirates can receive as C+.

Losing Appel is a major blow to the draft, but can pay off next year.  Getting the 9th overall pick is  going to be good news because this year the Pirates will probably draft in the top 3rd for the first time in a long time.  They also won the Competitive balance draft lottery and will get an extra pick at the end of round one.  Next year's draft the Pirates ought to be able to get a lot.

Still that does not help this year's draft and Appel was the first pick.  He did not sign despite being offered over the slot money.  The Pirates are not completely to blame because their hands were tied.  You cannot give up a draft pick next year for him.  The Pirates knew the risks and took it.  They could have drafted someone else who would have signed.  Appel was the best on the board, but at the end of the day, he is not a Pirate.

The Pirates draft gets worse from there.  The C+ would have still been possible if they had signed the man that they drafted as insurance against Appel not signing: Walker Buehler.  A young high school arm was clearly not going to sign for under 100,000 which is what needed to happen for a 14th rounder.  But when Appel was not going to sign, they should have put a full court press with their 3 million to get Buehler.  Perhaps they should have given up on Appel early enough to try and do this.  I really thought they would.  They did not.  A big failure.

The Pirates hung this draft on Appel.  They did go with quality in the first couple of picks.  Barrett Barns was probably about right for a Comp round and the fact that he signed under is a bonus.  Wyatt Mattheson and Jon Sandfort are good picks.  Failing to sign Brandon Thomas hurt as well, but the pick was not bad.  With the exception Kevin Ross at round 8 the rest are picks designed to save money for Appel.  We signed them, but they are not adding a lot to the system.  DJ Crumlich is killing the ball in State College, so maybe we have something there.

They did get a few guys in the later rounds that have upside, but are still a bit of a long shot.  Max Moroff and Hayden Hurst got extra money to come probably from the Appel failure.  But without Buehler, it is not enough to make up for the loss and the money left on the board.

Of the other late round picks I am intrigued that John Kuchino from Ohio State took extra money to sign.  He seems like a decent reliever, but little else.  The only one who excites me in the later rounds is Jimmy Rider.  Rider is one of the all time hit leaders at Kent State, and did pretty well in the College World Series with a homer and a double off some of the best college pitching.  He is defensively limited being already a 2nd baseman, but he may make it as a back up one day.  I like the pick at any rate.

Overall this draft did not add a lot to the system.  I expect that this draft is lucky to receive a D as a grade and only got that because of the late additions of Ross, Moroff and Hurst, and the fact that the comp pick of Barnes mitigates the loss of Appel somewhat.

Next it is time to re-look at the past drafts.