Pittsburgh Pirates: A Look at Neal Huntington’s Draft History

Tonight is the 2017 MLB Amateur Draft.  Neal Huntington has been drafting for the Pittsburgh Pirates since 2008.  Here is a look at what he has done in those years.

Neal Huntington took over as the Pittsburgh Pirates General Manager in 2007 toward the end of the season.  He took over for the often criticized Dave Littlefield.  One of the biggest criticisms of Dave Littlefield was his poor draft results.  This was shown in his first selection, when he took Bryan Bullington and called him a projectable number three starter. This was also shown in his last draft when he took Danny Moskos.

In 2007, the MLB Draft was broadcasted for the first time by ESPN, the analysts did not even have tape ready for Moskos as many viewed him as a second day prospect.  To make matters worse, Moskos got shelled the very next day during College World Series play, after many scouts talked about how he likely projected as a bullpen arm at best.  To add even more negativity of the Moskos pick, he went under Tommy-John Surgery later that summer.  All in all, it may have been the final straw in Littlefield’s tenure.

Now not all of Littlefield’s pick were terrible.  He was the man who drafted Andrew McCutchen in 2005, when he was drafted number 11 overall.  However, over the last few years, it has come out that Littlefield was set on drafting shortstop Cliff Pennington instead.  This was the case until many of Littlefield’s own scouts “begged” and eventually sold Littlefield on McCutchen.  Also, the former GM drafted Neil Walker, who turned into a solid ball player in his tenure with the Buccos. The biggest issue was the talent he passed on.  There is a link for more on this subject later in the article.

Huntington’s Team

Finally, Neal Huntington took over.  He immediately spoke about how he was going to put a preference on building through the draft.  Luckily for Huntington, his first pick was number two overall, followed by a number four overall pick in 2009, then again in 2010 he was given the number two overall pick, and finally, in 2011 it was all capped off by the number one overall pick in 2011.   So for this article, we will take a slide by slide look at Huntington’s draft, starting with the 2008 draft. The article will cover up through 2012, as players drafted by the Pirates after that have yet to make an impact at the big league level.

2008 Draft

The 2008 draft saw the Pittsburgh Pirates receive the second overall pick in the draft.  The only team ahead of them was the Tampa Bay Rays.  The Rays took the top prep player available in shortstop Tim Beckham.  Beckham was drafted as a shortstop, and quite frankly, was not considered the top overall talent in the draft.  That player fell to the Pittsburgh Pirates at number two in Pedro Alvarez.  Alvarez was a stud third base prospect out of Vanderbilt University.  Luckily for the Bucs, the Rays took Evan Longoria two years prior with the number three overall pick.  This allowed them to pass on Alvarez.  Here is what MLB.com wrote up on Alvarez on draft day:

“About as safe a bet as there is, Alvarez is a polished and poised hitter and should hit for average in the big leagues.  He’s got power now and should have at least average power in the future. Alvarez entered the season as the top player, talent-wise, in the Draft.”

As it turns out, Alvarez’s Pittsburgh Pirates career full of unpredictability and instability.  He had some really good years and some really bad years.  His best year was in 2013, when he hit 36 home runs, 100 RBIs, and was elected to the all-star game. However, that was his peak and the years that followed saw him struggle.  His struggles specifically came at third base.  When the Bucs tried to transition him to first it was even worse.  Finally, after the 2015 season, the Pittsburgh Pirates parted ways with him.

Notable picks:

Jordy Mercer: A career Pittsburgh Pirate thus far.  Mercer has been on the Pittsburgh Pirates roster since 2012, and a mainstay at shortstop since 2014 when he played in 149 games. There is nothing flashy about the third round pick out of Oklahoma State, but he has just provided good all-around play.

Justin Wilson: Wilson was a fifth round pick out of Fresno State University.  Wilson had a strong, but somewhat short Pittsburgh Pirates career.  The lefty came up throwing mid to high 90s from the left side.  He made appearances in 2012, 2013, and 2014, although he only saw 8 games in 2012.  After the 2014 season, the Pittsburgh Pirates traded him to the New York Yankees for catcher Francisco Cervelli.

Other Picks:

Chase D’Arnuad fourth round, Robbie Grossman sixth round, Matt Hague ninth round.

2009 Draft

The 2009 draft was a tough one for Neal Huntington and the Pittsburgh Pirates.  The biggest issue was that the Pittsburgh Pirates gave up a hefty amount the previous year to Pedro Alvarez.  With that, the organization decided they needed to be creative with their ’09 draft.  The best way to do that?  Take a college catcher.  Catching is just about the hardest position to draft, as many Pirates fans know.  However, taking the best available college one, in a system that could use catching help, was a move that would help save some money and fill an organizational need.  So the Bucs selected catcher Jorge “Tony” Sanchez with the fourth overall pick.  Sanchez was out of Boston College.  Here is the write-up from MLB.com:

“College catchers are always a premium commodity and Sanchez has emerged as one of the better options in this year’s group. He’s a solid catch-and-throw guy behind the plate, with good overall defensive skills. He also can swing the bat some, with a little power, giving him an intriguing all-around package. He’s struggled with conditioning in the past, but he seemed driven to get himself into shape. The benefit has been an outstanding junior season that will probably move him off the board early on Draft day.”

Sanchez ended up proving to be a reach.  After hitting .309 in 2009 and .287 in 2010, Sanchez started to struggle. He ended up hitting a combined .246 over his next two seasons.  Finally, in 2013 he made his big league debut for the Bucs.  He ended up playing in a total of 51 games from 2013-2015, and was a .259 hitter with a sub .700 OPS.  He also struggled defensively behind the plate throwing out 17% of runners.  The Pittsburgh Pirates released Tony Sanchez in January of 2016.

Notable Picks:

There are no current Pittsburgh Pirates on the roster from the 2009 draft.

Other Picks:

Vic Black second round, Brock Holt ninth round, Phil Irwin 21st round, Jake Lamb 38th round (Unsigned).

2010 Draft

The 2010 draft represented a lot of hope, yet some disappointment for fans.  First off, fans were excited mainly because the Bucs had the number two overall pick.  The Pirates had a great opportunity to add another premium prospect.  Unfortunately, the draft boasted one of the best prospects to come through the draft in recent history in Bryce Harper.  He would go number one overall without question.

Up until draft day, the Pittsburgh Pirates were pondering who to take with the number two pick, stud pitching prospect Jameson Taillon or potential impact shortstop Manny Machado.  Ultimately Huntington decided to take the pitching prospect in Jameson Taillon.  First off, he had taken two position players with his top picks in his first two drafts.  Second, there were some medical questions regarding Machado’s knees and whether he would stick at shortstop.  Thus, he would have to move to third base where the Bucs believed Pedro Alvarez would be locked in. Here is what MLB.com wrote about Taillon:

“Taillon is the complete package in a high school pitcher, with tremendous size, stuff and a feel for pitching. He has three plus pitches in his fastball, slider and curve. Even his changeup, while not used that much, is solid. He uses his size to his advantage and has tremendous mound presence. As impressive as his stuff is, his makeup might be even better. A commitment to Rice might sound intriguing, but if he goes at the top of the first round, and everything points to that happening, it likely won’t be an issue.”

Taillon’s story has been well documented.  He was long considered one of the best pitching prospects in baseball from day one.  His most impressive performance may have come against Team USA in the 2013 World Baseball Classic.  After that, he faced Tommy-John for 2014 into 2015, then ended 2015 with a Sports Hernia.

Finally, in 2016, he made his debut in the bigs and showed why he was a number two pick.  Taillon threw 104 innings for the Bucs and posted a 3.38 ERA.  Entering 2017 he was projected to be a big part of the rotation.  He pitched really well in the early going, but toward mid-May had his two worst starts of the year.  It was then announced that Taillon would need surgery for Testicular Cancer.  Once again, Taillon battled through it and now, as I write this, is preparing to make his return tonight.

Notable Picks:

Nick Kingham: Kingham was a fourth round pick and was considered a top 100 prospect entering the 2015 season.  However, the big righty underwent Tommy-John Surgery in 2015 and was only able to accumulate 46 innings in 2016.  Kingham entered 2017 with an ankle issue out of Spring Training, but he seems poised to make his big league debut any week now.

Brandon Cumpton: A ninth-round pick out of Georgia Tech, Cumpton had a lot of success in the minor leagues.  The righty owns a 3.62 ERA in 502 innings pitched.  He made his big league debut in 2013 appearing in six games including five starts.  The righty posted an impressive 2.05 ERA.  In 2014 he was given more of a chance, starting 10 games and making an overall 16 appearances.  He did not have as much success posting an ERA of 4.89 in his 50 innings of work.  Cumpton missed all of 2015 with Tommy-John.  He then required shoulder surgery in 2016.  He just made his first appearance this year in AAA.

Casey Sadler: Sadler was a 25th round pick, but he found a lot of success in the Pittsburgh Pirates minors.  Throwing over 500 innings and posting a sub 3.40 ERA.  He got to make his major league debut in 2014 pitching in six games in relief.  He made his first big league start in 2015, throwing five innings and giving up two earned runs.  Sadler ended up requiring Tommy-John and missed all of 2016, and he has made two appearances in AAA this year so far.

Other Picks:

Stetson Allie second round, Mel Rojas Jr. third round, Jared Lakind 23rd round.

2012 MLB Draft

The Pittsburgh Pirates saw a major improvement in their 2011 record, and because of this had the lowest pick in Neal Huntington’s tenure.  There was something else different about the 2012 MLB draft.  The MLB instituted Bonus pools and assigned slot values for each pick.  This changed the landscape of the draft by essentially capping how much money teams could spend.

Due to this, top prospect Mark Appel fell to the Bucs at number eight.  Appel was widely expected to go number one or two, but because of bonus demands slid.  The Bucs took him, and in previous years probably could have signed him.  In the end, it was probably better off that they did not sign the Stanford product.  Appel has been a bust of a pick, having an ERA of 5 in his minor league career.  Meanwhile, the Bucs gained the number nine pick in the 2013 draft, and turned it into top outfield prospect, Austin Meadows.

Notable Picks:

Jacob Stallings: Stallings was a seventh round pick out of UNC.  The 6’5” catcher has put together a nice minor league career thus far.  He has accumulated a career minor league average of .238, but he did have a Double-A average of .275 in 2015.  Also, he has helped the Bucs out in the big leagues over the last two years.  He has only played in a combined seven games over the last two years, but he has a batting average of .364, 2 RBI, and a .818 OPS.  Stallings projects to be a backup catcher at best if he ever gets a consistent roster spot.

Max Moroff:  A 16th round pick, Moroff received an above-slot bonus of 400,000.  This was a bonus comparable to what a fourth or fifth round pick would receive.  All he has done in the minors is get on base.  His average has been mediocre at .256, but his career OBP is an outstanding .358.  Moroff has been called up over the last two seasons, and has appeared in nine career games.  He has not done much with his opportunity, putting together a slash line of .118/.211/.176.  Still, he is a late round pick that has reached the Pittsburgh Pirates roster.  Moroff is currently coming off the team’s bench.

Other Picks:

Barrett Barnes Comp A, Wyatt Mathisen second round, Adrian Sampson fifth round, Walker Buehler 14th round (unsigned), Taylor Hearn 22nd round (unsigned).

2013- Present

Since 2013, Neal Huntington has drafted nothing but hitters with his first round picks.  In 2013 he drafted Austin Meadows and Reese McGuire.  He also added Adam Frazier in the sixth and Chad Kuhl in the ninth.  Then in 2014 and 2015 Huntington invested in two shortstops in Cole Tucker and Kevin Newman.  Also in 2015, they took Ke’Bryan Hayes with a first round compensation pick, and Connor Joe the year before with their 2014 comp pick.  Last year Will Craig was chosen in the first, another hitter from Wake Forest. They did break the trend when they drafted Nick Lodolo at pick number 41, the very last pick in the first round.  Still, that was 41 picks into the draft.

Overall, Neal Huntington has had a somewhat positive draft record.  Although Pedro Alvarez never completely worked out, he still played in a Bucs uniform for 6 seasons.  The jury is still out on most of his picks, so it is really hard to judge Huntington’s draft success 100 percent.   Still, he looks to have drafted two top flight arms in Taillon and Cole, and very well could add two others in Kingham and Glasnow.  Plus he was able to sway one of the top hitting prospects in 2011, Josh Bell, to forgo college.

Next: When Littlefield Passed on Kershaw

If anything else, Huntington has not really made any questionable picks other than one year.  His 2009 draft was by far the worst draft of his tenure.  There are no notable prospects/players from that draft left in the organization.  Tony Sanchez was a reach, and Huntington even admitted it after the fact.  Still, outside of 2009, Huntington has seemed to have taken an aggressive approach to getting the best talent throughout each draft.