MLB Draft Primer: The 2016 College Pitchers

The MLB Draft is just about a month away from now as the first round starts on June 9th.

The Pirates have two first round selections in the MLB Draft at number 22 and number 41.  By using mlbpipeline.com, Baseball America, other stat sites, and watching games, RumBunter will be providing scouting reports on players.  Specifically,  players who the Pirates could look to take with their pick.

So far, David Slusser has written and posted a slide show on the prep arms to watch at the draft this year.  There will be a link at the end of this article.  This article will be sharing with you the top college arms that could be available for the Pirates at number 22.

The Pirates seem to have strayed away from taking prep arms. Last year, Neal Huntington and company only drafted one prep arm out of all their picks.  This also included six college arms in the top ten rounds.  The Pirates have not used a first round pick on a college arm since 2012 (Mark Appel who they did not sign) and in 2011 when they took Gerrit Cole.  Before those two picks you have to go pre-Nel Huntingon in 2007 when they selected Clemson left-handed pitcher Daniel Moskos.  The Pirates of recent have selected more position players than pitchers, but they could buck that trend this year by spending a first round pick on a deep college pitching class.

The class itself is led by Florida left-handed pitcher AJ Puk.  Puk will be the top college pitcher off the board and some believe that he could go number one in the draft.  Following him would be Virginia right-handed pitcher Connor Jones and Mississippi State right-hander Dakota Dudson.  These three will likely to be off the board well before the Pirates pick. This article will not cover all the college arms that could be available, but rather the ones who are candidates to go at #22.

So who would be the most ideal college arm for the Pirates to pick up at #22?

Next: Not Mark Appel, but another Stanford Kid!