Draft: Pittsburgh Pirates Scouting a Local Prospect

In their update, they project the Pittsburgh Pirates to take third baseman, Cam Collier.  Collier is a 17-year-old who is coming out of the college ranks and the son of a former big-league Lou Collier. Cam Collier is who I wrote about a few weeks ago, and I also believe he could be the pick.

The interesting part of the mock draft came in their breakdown of the pick.  They mentioned that the Pittsburgh Pirates have been scouting a local player actually.  Here is what Baseball America is reporting:

"“It sounds like the Pirates have been doing some work on Pennsylvania high school shortstop Cole Young as well, but this spot seems high for him considering the players available.”"

This is an interesting development as he is from Noth Allegheny High School, which is just north of Pittsburgh. Young is a high upside prep player who is currently projected to go in the 15-25 range.  So why are the Bucs investing time and resources into him if he is not worth their top selection and won’t be there at pick #36?

Maybe the Pittsburgh Pirates are operating similarly to how they did last year.  We learned last year that the Front Office built up relationships with a lot of these prospects. Because of this, they were able to work out deals behind the scenes.

This led to the Bucs being able to land the top draft prospects that they did.  Could the Bucs be doing something similar with Young in hopes they can get him to fall to pick #36?  That would be a heck of a start to the Draft.