Baseball America released their latest 2021 mock draft update on Monday morning. This one is a bit different than before. They do the entire first round, going 29 picks deep. They also brought in an industry insider to make all of the odd numbered picks, while the BA staff alternated picks with him, selection for all of the teams with even numbered picks.
Nothing has changed here as far as the Pittsburgh Pirates go. They still have Vanderbilt right-handed pitcher Kumar Rocker going with the first overall pick. The Pirates don’t select again until the first pick of the second round, so while this doesn’t add a second name attached to the Pirates, you can look at the bottom of this list and see if any of those players pique your interest, maybe they slide down a few spots to the Pirates. It’s obviously early in the process here and the draft has been pushed back until the July All-Star break now, so there’s even more time left than usual once we hit the new year.
For non-subscribers, I’ll give a little bit of info here without spoiling their entire article. College catcher Adrian Del Castillo went second in this mock, which has to be intriguing for a team like the Pirates, where catching prospects are harder to find than 2020 season highlights not named Young Hayes. The next two picks are both high school shortstops in Jordan Lawlar and Marcelo Mayer. Jack Leiter, a rotation mate of Rocker’s at Vanderbilt, rounds out the top five picks.
The top 29 has nine college pitchers, two high school pitchers, five catchers (three college/two prep), six high school shortstops and four college outfielders. That’s basically the entire top 29, except one college shortstop, one college third baseman and one high school outfielder. So in the early stages, it looks like a strong year from hitters in general, catchers and young shortstops.
