Have the Pirates Changed Their Ideas About Drafting Hitters?

Has the new scouting director changed direction?

Charles McAdoo Photo Credit: WTM

The Pirates just conducted their first draft with their new director of amateur scouting, Justin Horowitz, with Joe DelliCarri having moved upstairs. It’s interesting to wonder whether Horowitz will bring in a different perspective in any way. Comparisons are a bit difficult, though, because the track record before this year was limited.

This was the fifth draft for this front office. The first, in 2020, was an obvious anomaly, lasting just five rounds and coming with practically everything shut down. The 2021 draft was also an anomaly, as Henry Davis’ under-slot deal let the Pirates go hog wild with above-slot prep players. So, there are really just two valid comparison points.

One difference that leaps out is the greater attention to college hitters. The Pirates selected just four in 2022, only one before round 10 and two before round 15. In 2023, it was five, although two, Mitch Jebb and Garret Forrester, came in rounds 2 and 3. The other three came in rounds 13, 16, and 18, with only the first of those, Charles McAdoo, bringing much offensive potential. This year, they took seven despite taking prep players with four of their first five picks. And none of the seven look like strictly defense-oriented players.

Before getting further into this, a little background. Eric Longenhagen posted some thoughts about the draft at FanGraphs that included some discussion of attitudes around MLB about college hitters. Specifically, he said teams are getting wary of college power numbers and are leaning more heavily toward contact ability. He pointed to two possible factors. One is the belief that power can be taught and contact can’t. The other is an apparently widespread suspicion, driven by an offensive explosion in college ball, that some hitters are sneaking in juiced bats.

Whether the Pirates are buying into this or not, they seemed at least somewhat interested in hit-first college hitters in this draft. Three of their four earliest college-hitter picks fit that profile. That’d be OF Will Taylor (5th round) IF Duce Gourson (9th), and C Camden Janik (12th). One pick in the middle of these, C Derek Berg (10th) from West Point, looks like more of a power-over-hit guy, but I’m not sure what you can make of Patriot League numbers. It’s also likely the Pirates were more interested in Berg’s defense and athleticism.

Taylor is a very patient, all-fields hitter whose speed, following a football injury, gets oddly divergent writeups from different sources. Gourson looks a lot like a Nick Gonzales Lite. He’s also one of several draftees who had a down junior year after a big sophomore year. Janik looks like . . . well, a Nick Gonzales Lite, only a catcher, which wouldn’t be a bad thing at all. He had a puny 4.1% K rate this last year.

Where it gets curious is after these picks. Power-hitting hasn’t been much of a thing with the Pirates and their college picks. Until Charles McAdoo in 2023, their limited college-hitter picks had tended to be contact-oriented hitters like Tres Gonzalez and Tanner Tredaway. Gonzalez is struggling pretty badly at Altoona, and Tredaway was released after just 45 very rough games.

McAdoo’s been a different matter. In his first full year, he tore up High-A and is putting up nearly identical numbers for Altoona. The one difference between his 336/415/561 line for Greensboro and 278/374/528 line for Altoona has been BABIP. He had an unsustainable .410 for the Hoppers but is now (as I write this on July 20) at a more realistic .327 for the Curve. His K rate is up only marginally at the higher level and his walk rate is up from 10.5% to 13.3%.

So, has there been a “McAdoo Effect.” In the later rounds this year, the Pirates took OF Ian Farrow (14th), 3B Ethan Lege (15th) and OF Andrew Patrick (17th). Farrow slugged .750 with 15 home runs as a senior this year to earn second-team All-American honors. Lege hit 13 home runs and slugged .645 as a senior this year, with just 16 strikeouts. His season ended early due to a fractured thumb. Patrick hit 20 home runs and slugged .733 as a junior last year, then had a down year this year after missing time with a broken thumb. He does strike out a lot, as does Farrow.

The Pirates have not previously made anything like this sort of effort to find power-hitting under this front office. It may not go anywhere, but power has been a marked deficiency in the system, something that’s especially evident from the vacuum in outfield prospects. Hopefully, at least one of these guys will adapt to pro-pitching as well as McAdoo has so far.

---

This site is 100% reader-supported, with no revenue coming from ads. If you enjoy our work, consider becoming a paid member today.

You will not only help the site grow but also get access to our fantastic premium content, which includes our Top 25 rankings and full-player write-ups, video breakdowns, and any features that come from my on-site trips.

Bucs on Deck Top 25: Midseason updated list