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Pirates Draft: Day One

WTM has the story on the first day of the draft. He's not excited about a number of picks after first-rounder Andrew McCutchen, and it's easy to see why - a number of the hitters have fairly high strikeout totals, and the Pirates actually spent two of their first seven picks on relievers.

As WTM points out, it's odd that the Pirates would want the high strikeout guys in the first place, since the management frequently cited Craig Wilson's strikeouts at the major league level as a reason to keep him on the bench. This is backwards - strikeouts do not matter much at all for a player with a proven level of performance in the big leagues, but for a player who's several levels away from the majors, they might indicate that the player will have more serious trouble making contact as he advances.

As for the relievers - RHPs Jeff Sues of Vanderbilt and Justin Vaclavik of the University of Houston - they both throw in the low- to mid-90s, and it's possible that the Pirates see Sues as a starter. But Sues' college numbers aren't exactly thrilling, and it's very hard to see much upside if these guys continue to be relievers. Of course, it's always possible that the Pirates see something here that I don't yet.

As with most drafts, though, there are some intruiging picks, such as MI Cameron Blair, 1B Steven Pearce and OF Jarred Bogany.