MLB Draft 2012: Teams That Must Select Pitchers to Secure Future

The MLB draft is known to be somewhat of a crapshoot in regards to a team's ability to properly evaluate the talent of prospective draftees. That is even more so the case when it comes to pitching, as we have seen countless top picks fall by the wayside, such as Brien Taylor for the New York Yankees and Paul Wilson for the New York Mets.

However, when a team does score big on a high-risk, high-reward pitcher, it benefits the organization for a long time (see Mike Mussina and Roy Halladay). Pitching talent is held in the highest regard for a reason, and that reason is that a team with stellar pitching is a team that plays into October.

The 2012 MLB draft will have its fair share of hits and misses in the pitching department, but there are some teams who need to take that risk and draft for the arms instead of the bats.

Here are three of those teams.

New York Mets

The Mets already have an impressive crop of pitching talent in their minor league system, but given their past failures in the area of evaluating pitching talent (Generation K), they could always use another arm in the farms.

Zack Wheeler, Matt Harvey and Jeurys Familia are all near a big league call up (especially the latter two), and the addition of another big-time arm could mean that the Mets will be set for the foreseeable future as far as their pitchers are concerned.

G.M. Sandy Alderson, who is constantly praised for his scouting talents, could choose to go with Max Fried, a left out of Harvard-Westlake High School in Studio City, California.

Fried would be the perfect change of pace in a rotation with Wheeler and Harvey who are both big, hard-throwing righties and will likely make up the front end of the Mets' rotation for the better part of the next decade. Fried hasn't a hard thrower (topping out around 93) and he's a lefty. His change up and curveball are what he makes his living on, coming in at around 82 and 75 miles per hour, respectively.

He won't ever be a No. 1 starter, but the Mets don't need him to be because they already have their ace and No. 2 starters for the near future in the minors. Johan Santana and R.A. Dickey will be in the twilight of their careers come the next few seasons and Fried could become part of a rotation that includes Wheeler, Harvey, Jonathan Niese and Dillon Gee.

Houston Astros

The Astros don't have much floating around the farm system in terms of pitching talent, The best they have is fireballing righty, Jarred Cosart, but he still has question marks that surround his talents.

They have the No. 1 pick in the 2012 draft and reports are that Houston will go with Mark Appel, a righty out of Stanford. His fastball consistently hovers in the mid to high-90s. His change up and curveball aren't as good as they will be one day, and that's always a positive sign in a pitching prospect.

The 21-year-old Jordan Lyles is the only pitcher currently in the Astros rotation who is younger than 27. Couple that with the absence of premier talent in the farms, and this seems like an easy choice for a team that is firmly in the midst of a rebuilding period.

The Astros will be moving to the American League next season, and they won't be able to get by in the higher scoring league without some quality pitching talent. Appel isn't as high of a risk as some of the top pitching picks that we've seen in recent memory, and scouts seem to be sure that this guy will become a top of the rotation starter when he refines his stuff.

Kansas City Royals

The Royals have Eric Hosmer, Alex Gordon, Mike Moustakas and Billy Butler, all young guys who will make up the foundation of the franchise for the better part of the next decade.  What they don't have, though, is pitching talent in the major leagues. Kansas City finished 27th in the league in ERA last season and we've seen more of the same from the team this season, as they are currently 22nd in the majors.

Their minor league pitching talent is plentiful, and the front office is hoping that the guys they have down there will make up the future rotation. Jake Odorizzi, Michael Montgomery, Chris Dwyer and Yordano Ventura have all shown glimpses of being MLB starting pitchers sometime in their future.

However, the Royals could use another arm, seeing as how the five starters that make up the rotation don't figure to be essential cornerstones in the structure of the Royals' future makeup.

The front office could draft Kyle Zimmer out of San Francisco, a righty who consistently reaches the mid-90s on his fastball and has the luxury of a hammer curveball in his arsenal. He shows a good change in velocity between the two pitches and even has a plus third pitch in a change up.

He's a converted position player, and can field his position well because of it. That wouldn't be what the Royals would draft him for, but he's super athletic and could blossom into a successful starter when his time comes.