At Pulling No Punches today, I’ve got a long look back at the history of the Pirates’ picks at 1-1 in MLB’s amateur draft. I do feel like the ending might undersell how important this pick is for the Pirates; my main point is just that the worst-run teams find ways to screw up that go way beyond the first pick in the draft, while well-run teams succeed in ways that go way beyond the first pick. I’m going to address this in the second part where I run down this year’s draft prospects.
I do think an interesting topic for an afternoon daydream is whether or not BJ Upton would be as productive a player if he had come up through Dave Littlefield’s farm system. Not counting this year, Upton had a very good offensive year in 2007 and a pretty good one in 2008, but since then a big portion of his value has come from his defensive ability in center field. That’s in stark contrast to his lack of defensive ability in the middle infield (his original position), which was pretty poor. Would the Pirates have had the same foresight? What would BJ Upton the Pittsburgh Pirate look like in 2011 had the Bucs drafted him instead of Bullington?
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
