Pittsburgh Pirates Take Another Step in the Right Direction

The Pittsburgh Pirates bucked one trend, by drafting a Scott Boras client with the second overall pick.

It didn’t take long for them to buck a few others.

With their second round pick, No. 46 overall, the Pirates drafted Fresno State pitcher Tanner Scheppers. Scheppers is a high-risk, high-ceiling prospect, as he was Baseball America’s tenth ranked prospect before he contracted a stress fracture in his right shoulder.

In other words, he’s someone Dave Littlefield never would have drafted.

Over the past few years, Pirate management has often fallen into the trap of making “safe” picks. I put safe in quotations because there is nothing “safe” about picking players in the first round who never become successful major leaguers. What I instead mean by safe is players who don’t have signability issues, don’t have injury problems, and project to get to the majors quickly.

Alvarez, projected to get eight figures of guaranteed money, certainly doesn’t fit into the first of the three “safe” principles. Scheppers might not fit into any of them.

A converted shortstop, Scheppers could hit 99 miles per hour on a radar gun before his injury. In 12 games this year, he went 8-2 with a 2.93 ERA, 109 strikeouts, and 34 walks in 71 innings.

His injury isn’t that serious, but it is an injury to his throwing shoulder nonetheless, so there is risk there. Also, as a converted shortstop, Scheppers’ delivery is pretty raw and he needs to work on other attributes, such as holding runners. Throw in some recovery time and careful pitch counts to take care of his shoulder, and it might take Scheppers some time to get to the majors.

What might even be more impressive is that, given the number of Pirate first-round pitchers who have had arm surgery in the past ten years, they picked Scheppers anyway.

Fans are all too familiar with the likes of Sean Burnett and Brad Lincoln, and publicity would be pretty bad if yet another young Pittsburgh pitcher had to go under the knife. But management believed Scheppers was the best pick, so they took him. That simple.

And you know what? He’s exactly what the Pirates need. We need players with the potential to be really good major leaguers. We don’t need players who will definitely be fringe major leaguers, perhaps a little better.

Tanner Scheppers has the potential to be a top of the rotation starter, so he’s worth the risk. If he fails to live up to that potential, or gets hurt, and never quite makes it, is that really worse than drafting another Bryan Bullington?

General Manager Neal Huntington has promised Pirate fans that, no matter the circumstances, he will draft the best overall player with every pick.

So far, he’s keeping his word.