The last three years, the Pirates have used its first round draft pick on a pitcher. In 2010, the team took high school pitcher Jameson Taillon. The Pirates took back-to-back college pitchers in 2011 and 2012 with Gerrit Cole (UCLA) and Mark Appel (Stanford), but Appel decided to return to school for his senior year. With Appel’s decision to return to Stanford, the Pirates received two first round picks and a whole lot of money to sign them.
While General Manager Neal Huntington has taken pitcher four straight years in the first round (pitcher Victor Black and catcher Tony Sanchez were taken in the 2009), the Pirates are known for taking the best over all player in the draft that was still on the board. In 2013, it was time to take a position player.
With Austin Meadows, Braden Shipley and Reese McGuire all on the board for the Pirates at number nine, the Pirates had plenty of choices. Pittsburgh took the All-American high school outfielder Meadows. The pick comes as a little bit of a surprise since the team has been linked to McGuire, but the left-handed power hitter that the MLB Network crew compared to Jay Bruce fits the Pirates mold just fine.
The Georgia native was ranked as the No. 6 prospect by Baseball America heading into the draft. The 6-foot-3 Meadows hit .535 last year with an OBP of .633. Meadows hit four homers and had 28 RBIs in 24 games for the Grayson Rams.
