Pittsburgh Pirates: Looking at Previous #1 Overall Picks

1996

With the top overall pick in the 1996 MLB Draft the Pittsburgh Pirates selected pitcher Kris Benson out of Clemson University. While Benson ended up having some solid numbers for the Bucs, he, like many other picks throughout baseball history, never lived up to the status of being the number one overall pick in the draft.

Benson pitched 782 innings across 5 seasons with the Pirates putting up a 4.26 ERA, 4.22 FIP and 1.41 WHIP. Benson ended up being about 5% better than the league average during his time in Pittsburgh with a 105 ERA+, 96 ERA- and 95 FIP-. This, after all, was in the steroid era so it’s not surprising that his league and era adjusted stats reflect this.

Another notable pitcher the team drafted was Chris Capuano in the 45th round. The lefty didn’t sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates but got re-drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 1999 draft, this time in the 8th round. Capuano ended up spending 12 seasons in the Majors and had a few solid seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers. He even made the All-Star game in 2006.

One lefty reliever that’s a bit forgotten in Pirate history is Mike Gonzalez, who was also selected in the 1996 draft. Gonzalez had some solid seasons with the Bucs. From 2004 to 2006, the southpaw had a 2.08 ERA, 2.58 FIP and 1.20 WHIP through 147.1 innings. He even took over as the team’s closer in 2006, racking up 24 saves. He only allowed 5 home runs and struck out batters at a healthy 28.8% rate. Although, this did come at the cost of his control. He walked 11.1% of all the batters he faced. However, he ended up pitching 11 years in the big leagues and finished his career with a K/9 rate over 10 and strikeout rate over 25%.

A total of 8 players from this draft made it to the Majors. Rob Mackowiak and Willie Harris were the only players to more than 500 games at the big league level, but Harris didn’t sign with the Bucs that season.