Going into the 2013 MLB Draft, the Pirates were hoping to be able to land Reese McGuire or Austin Meadows with the No. 9 pick. As they say, you can’t predict baseball. The Pirates, who had two first round picks, were able to land not just Meadows, but also McGuire at the No. 14 spot.
“I would like to thank out scouting department for their outstanding work, time, energy and effort. The exhausting work is tremendous for our strength as an organization,” Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington said. “That said, we have two players selected. There are two guys we feel very good about. Where we were able to select them and the upside that they have.”
As they have in the past, the Pirates stuck with their philosophy of taking the best players available. This year, they both happened to be position players. The slot for Meadows is $3,029,600, while the slot for McGuire is $2,569,800.
“These were the best players available on our board. We really liked the upside,” Huntington said. “I don’t know if there are any safe players in any draft. We liked the players at these slots.”
While preparing for the selections, Huntington said that with two first round picks, the team was able to narrow their field down a little bit more. Huntington said that with the two picks so close to each other, it was that different from selecting No. 8 overall last season.
Huntington said that the Pirates valued Meadow (.535 AVG, OBP of .633, 4 HR, 28 RBI) over McGuire (.436 AVG, .559 OBP, 13 2B, 4 HR, 20 RBI), but were thankful that McGuire fell to 14.
“We liked Meadows ahead of McGuire,” Huntington said. “If he had been taken, we would have been disappointed, but we would have called another player’s name in the draft.”
For the first time in Huntington’s tenure as Pirates general manager, the team selected a high school bat in the first round. We’ve seen them take high school arms (Jameson Taillon), college arms (Gerrit Cole) and a college bat (Tony Sanchez), but the high school bat was a first for Huntington.
“We believe in our development system completely. If we get an extra three years with them, we consider that a good thing,” Huntington said. “That doesn’t mean we would shy away from a college player. We develop them the same. If we can get an 18-year-old, we can consider that a positive.”
When looking at Meadows, some experts have compared him to Jay Bruce. He’s a powerful left-handed hitter, but Huntington doesn’t think comparisons like that are fair.
“That’s a little much to put on the man. We like the athlete, frame, tools package; there’s a lot to like,” Huntington said. “He does a lot of things on the baseball field very well. There’s a lot to like about this young man. Different scouts rank players differently. Do we think he will be a quality Major League player with power? Yes, we do.”
As for McGuire, the concern about drafting a catcher is whether or not they will be able to stay at the position. To many times, players that have been drafted as catchers have had to convert to a different position. Huntington said while he didn’t talk to or watch him in person, he doesn’t see that with McGuire.
“We really like the receive, the block, the throw; he’s called his own game forever,” Huntington said. “That’s very unique in this industry. The defensive package is unique. We believe there are the attributes for him to be a Major League caliber hitter.”
A couple years ago, the Pirates took Josh Bell in the second round of the draft despite Bell saying he was going to the University of Texas. Remember, high school players are able to go to college and are eligible to be drafted again after their junior season. Despite a strong commit, the Pirates were able to convince Bell to sign with them for a nice piece of change.
Meadows and McGuire have both committed to different colleges, Clemson and University of San Diego respectively, and until they are signed, Huntington said it will be a challenge.
“They love baseball. We’ve had good dialogue with them to this time,” Huntington said. “Until they’re signed, it’s challenging. We have two young men that love to play the game and are excited to be Pirates draftees.”
