Pittsburgh Pirates Draft: Five College Pitchers To Keep An Eye On

The Pittsburgh Pirates could focus on college pitcher's in this year's draft. Who are some arms they should keep tabs on?

The Pittsburgh Pirates best pitching prospects are still over a year away, at the very least. While you have some good talent like Quinn Priester, Mike Burrows, and Luis Ortiz, who are MLB-ready or near MLB-ready (Ortiz has already played a handful of MLBe games), the overall minor league pitching depth is lacking past the lower levels of the minor leagues.

Guys like Anthony Solometo, Bubba Chandler, and Thomas Harrington are all stationed at High-A Greensboro. The Pirates also have a handful of teenage pitching prospects like Michael Kennedy, Jun-Seok Shim, and Pitterson Rosa, all of which have a ton of talent but are 19 or younger. Jared Jones is the closest MLB-ready young pitching prospect, who is 21 and at Altoona.

Because of the lack of soon-to-be-ready pitching talent in the Pirates’ system, it would be wise for them to take focus on college pitchers in this year’s draft. Earlier this week, we looked at five college outfield draft prospects for the Pirates to consider, another weak link in the system and another potential focus for this year’s draft. So let’s take a look at some college pitchers that could be or should be on their radar.

Note that I will be leaving off guys I’ve covered extensively. So Brandon Sproat (who was part of my first three-round mock draft and my second five-round mock draft), as well as Quinn Mathews (who I discussed here as well as here), will not be included, even if they are two college pitchers the Pirates should have on their radar.