The Pirates have selected five pitchers with their first pick in the MLB Draft over the past decade.
All five of them — Jameson Taillon (2010), Gerrit Cole (2011), Mark Appel (2012), Shane Baz (2017) and Quinn Priester (2019) — are right-handed.
But that could be changing, per a recent mock draft from MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo.
It'd be a well-received move by the club. The lack of quality left-handed arms is a problem throughout the Pirates' system, one fans and critics alike are quick to point out any time discussions of depth and prospects arise with the team.
Last season, the Pirates saw a wide variety of pitchers take the mound, yet just three of the team's regular contributors — Steven Brault, Francisco Liriano and Felipe Vazquez — tossed 'em southpaw.
The team won't have Liriano or Vazquez back for 2020, and while they've added veteran lefty Derek Holland to the mix, the pitching options remain overwhelmingly right-handed for the Pirates.
Now, with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2020 MLB Draft, Mayo sees the Pirates injecting some high-end talent into the discussion in the form of 20-year-old, 6-foot-2 Reid Detmers out of the University of Louisville.
Detmers pitched three years at Louisville, going 20-6 with a 3.20 ERA and 1.084 WHIP while ringing up 284 strikeouts. His best work came as a 19-year-old sophomore, when he went 13-4 across 113.1 innings pitched, posting a 2.78 ERA.
That said, his 2020 campaign was off to a stellar start as well before it was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic. Detmers went 3-0 with a 1.23 ERA/1.000 WHIP in his first four starts for the Cardinals before his season — and everyone else's — was shut down.
“We were just sitting at the field and we saw all the other conferences canceling games,” Detmers told Lookout Landing. “If I’m being honest, we didn’t think anything of it. It’s no big deal. Then it all hit, and we realized we weren’t going to be playing. It’s over. That’s it. They canceled the World Series. It’s over. It’s gone. Done. It was very emotional.”
Detmers was a first-team All-American in both 2019 and 2020, the 2019 ACC Pitcher of the Year and ranks fourth on Louisville's all-time strikeouts list despite playing just two full seasons and an abbreviated third. Brendan McKay, the fourth overall pick in the 2017 MLB Draft is first with 391 strikeouts in 54 games, while Kyle Funkhouser, a 2016 draft pick by the Tigers, is second at 376. Funkhouser, though, appeared in 73 games to Detmers' 41 across his collegiate career.
In addition, Detmers showed out for the USA Collegiate National Team over the summer of 2019, going 2-0 in three starts while allowing just one run in 12 innings. Should the Pirates take Detmers, it'd mark the second time he was drafted by a big-league club — the Braves took him in the 32nd round of the 2017 MLB Draft before he elected to head to Louisville.
HUNTER'S VIEW
Detmers appears polished and ready, bringing a four-pitch mix that includes a devastating curveball, a four-seam fastball, a slider and a changeup to the mound. His work at the collegiate level was stellar:
Reid Detmers, Filthy Curveball (one of his stadium record 16 Ks in 7.2 innings). 😮 pic.twitter.com/RBMiO3iW4L
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 23, 2019
He'll need to add some velocity at the major-league level, though, as his fastball usually sits around 91 MPH, well below the MLB average of 93.4 MPH. Because of this, many wonder about his upside in the bigs, especially when a guy like Minnesota's Max Meyer — who can top 100 MPH with his heater and boasts perhaps the best slider in the country to complement it — could also be available with the Pirates pick at No. 7. Mayo has Meyer going at No. 8, one pick after the Pirates' selection in his draft, while Kiley McDaniel's mock draft we examined yesterday had Meyer going No. 5 to the Blue Jays.
Meanwhile, Mayo had Arkansas Razorbacks outfielder Heston Kjerstad — McDaniel's pick for the Pirates at No. 7 — going No. 9 to the Rockies, with Emerson Hancock, another right-handed pitching prospect linked to the Pirates, going No. 6 overall to the Mariners.
Of course, mock drafts are mock drafts. They're educated guesses, and no sport's draft is as difficult to predict as baseball's. After Spencer Torkelson at No. 1 and Austin Martin at No. 2, this year's draft is as unpredictable as any.
But with Detmers, Meyer, Hancock and Kjerstad, we're starting to get a feel for who will be there for the Pirates when they take the virtual stage June 10 at No. 7 overall. Will the lefty get the nod?
That's for Ben Cherington and company to decide.
For me, Detmers is an intriguing pick, and adding that talented left-handed arm to the mix feels overdue.
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