The Pirates Clinch!!!

[love_that_reefer]

The Pirates have clinched the No. 1 pick in next June's First-Year Player Draft.
The Pirates are 56-101 this season while the Mariners are 61-96. They can still tie for the majors' worst record, however the Pirates hold the tiebreaker advantage for the No. 1 pick since they had the worse record last season. Early buzz has Rice third baseman Anthony Rendon as the top overall talent in next year's draft class, though he is currently recovering from a major ankle injury.

This is only the 4th time the Pirates will get the #1 overall pick. The first three were Jeff King, Kris Benson and Bryan Bullington. The Pirates are going to have to keep drafting well if they are to overcome the curse of Barry Bonds. Pirates have done well with Alvarez, Walker and McCutchen as first rd picks plus they got a good catcher in Tony Sanchez last year so I believe the Pirates will get themselves a can't miss prospect.

[Kingdom]

Hopefully they don't opt to draft the cheaper, safe pick again. Who's the early hyped prospects for next year?

[Foster]

Me

[Witlon]

Offically no ties as of today. Anthony Rendon, here we come.

[love_that_reefer]

Hopefully they don't opt to draft the cheaper, safe pick again. Who's the early hyped prospects for next year?

Anthony Rendon seems to be the favorite along with UConn OFer George Springer and UCLA RHP Gerrit Cole.

[Kingdom]

Three college guys, outstanding.

I've heard of Cole from having seen a couple of the college world series games.

[realmofotalk]

I had no idea UConn was a factory for MLB players. Charles Nagy, Roberto Hernandez, Jeff Fulchino, two Blue Jay legends (past) Pete Walker and (present) Jesse Carlson, and the immortal Jason Grabowski.

[realmofotalk]

Hopefully they don't opt to draft the cheaper, safe pick again.

Arizona and San Diego will be all over the cheap kids, mindful of the fact that there will be no further compensation for failure to sign their pick again.

[Kingdom]

Seems like the Dodgers tend to be keen on that. Wait.. wait. My bad. I mean to say, the McCrockofshits are keen on that.

[missionhockey21]

Hopefully the Pirates will make the right, and obvious, choice. They are starting to get a respectable group together and hopefully they can hurry along the process before the Alvarez's or whoever are traded away due to salary/contract reasons. It would be nice to see a Pirates team that isn't joke, apparently they once existed.

[Sabu88]

The Pirates have focused on pitching the last few drafts. It has to be Rendon, moving Alvarez to 1B.

From there, you pretty much have 4-5 position players set (Walker, Alvarez, Rendon, Tabata, Mccutchen)

The Pirates need some luck if they want to be successful.

Rendon will help

[Witlon]

Don't forget Tony Sanchez, as well, assuming he recovers from the broken jaw. Club seems to be high on him...

[Sabu88]

I'm not really high on him, as I'm not really too high on Tabata long term.

Being a Pirates fan (somehow) and following the team 24/7 you see and hear things that dont bode well for Sanchez. My Tabata thing, I think he lacks the adequate power and I don't think he can sustain his average. If he bounces down to a .270 hitter with 10 HR, it's nothing i'd consider core worthy. That's just my opinion of what I see of him though. I hope he proves me wrong.

[love_that_reefer]

Tabata has speed working in his favor. I don't see him hitting for power but can see him hitting a lot of doubles and stealing 30+ bases. The kid's only 21 and should get better and better. I like him. Plus the Pirates have to be pleased with what they got for Dotel. Plus if they trade Doumit, they should get a nice package for him too. This team should be better next year without Andy LaRoche.

[Sabu88]

Andy Laroche didnt even see the field.

I'll agree on Tabata. I just hope his D improves to go along with it.

I ****ing hate Ryan Doumit