A Toy Story– Pirates Take Walker Buehler in 14th Round: Videos & Scouting Report

Remember when you were little, and you would get in the toy aisle of your favorite store?  So many choices – it was always so bright, each of those toys glimmered in your eyes.   It was never easy to pick just one toy, was it?  We think that’s the way the Pittsburgh Pirates view the MLB draft.  The team picked a bright, shiny, expensive toy late Monday night in Mark Appel, and then yesterday the Pirates grabbed another one.

The Bucs always pick expensive toys, and they did it again when they selected Walker Buehler in the 14th round.  Baseball America rated him the 50th best prospect in the draft.   He was named a 2012 Rawlings second-team All-American.  He was supposed to go much earlier in the draft, but all of the rules have changed this year.

The right handed pitcher attended Henry Clay High School in Kentucky.  He took a 16-12 record, 2.11 ERA and 234 strikeouts into Kentucky’s High School Region Tournament.  As always, the career won-loss record is deceiving, which is quite apparent considering his career ERA is 2.11, with only 75 walks in 166 innings.  He has seven losses over the last two years when his team has scored a total of three runs in those seven games.

He’s not a big guy, and he needs to put some weight on his 6’2″ frame. It’s obvious when you watch the video below, but he can still bring it. He throws a big curveball in the video, and it appears that his changeup has some sink.   It’s easy to see this teenager really bringing it if he were to add about thirty pounds.

Buehler has committed to Vanderbilt, but if he went early in the draft it was thought he would sign. What happens now will be interesting: could the Bucs peel a few dollars back so that Buehler could get almost third round money?

It’s easy to pick out the big toys, getting them past the new cash register this year is a different story.  But the Pirates have always seemed to make it happen in recent drafts.  Let’s trust the Bucs can walk out of the store with both Mark Appel and Walker Buehler.

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Buehler is on twitter:   @buehlersdayoff   (the Vanderbilt background scares me quite a bit….)

Some raw video footage of Buehler is here:

Video of Buehler is here: