Tim Benz: You’re happy with the Pirates draft. I’ll be happy when the “prospects” grow into good MLB players.

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Kudos to the Pittsburgh Pirates who landed a spot in the 2027 World Series. Okay, maybe 2028. Anyway, order your tickets now!

At this point, all of the guys the Pirates drafted in the opening rounds of this week’s 2021 Major League Baseball Draft should be with the Big League club. Most of them will be around 24 years old.

Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker, Gerrit Cole, and Starling Marte were all around that age when they were called into the majors. They reached the playoffs together in 2013.

Sunday’s first-round pick, Louisville wide receiver Henry Davis, will be a little older. He will be 27 or 28 years old. Hopefully it hasn’t been traded yet. Of course, Cole, Jameson Taillon, Josh Bell, and Joe Musgrove were all moved around this time. But it will be different for Davis.

Right. It will be different. Of course, he…. will.

And that group of 2021 draft prospects will be different as well.

At least, that’s what the leaders, Pirate optimists, Buccos die-hards and MLB pimps insist.

This last tweet is from the same point of sale which had the Pirates taking Jordan Lawlar No 1 as late as last week. Lawlar didn’t go all the way to number 6 with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Do not worry. I’m sure they understood Monday’s tweet correctly.

Yes, the Pirates made it through the draft. They were smart to “go under the slot” on the projected signing bonus with Davis as the first round pick. Why pay the most for the country’s most proven prospect (Vanderbilt pitcher Jack Leiter), when you can pay a little more for the 37th (Anthony Solometo), 64th (Lonnie White Jr.) and 72nd (Bubba Chandler) caps. ) combined?

This is the code. The Pirates cracked him. Not the other 29 MLB teams, but the franchise that has had four winning seasons since 1992. They get it. And that’s just another meager half a decade until they prove all the skeptics wrong.

I mean, I remember when Jason Schmidt, Kris Benson, and Bobby Bradley were supposed to be the top three in a playoff rotation. Admittedly, this is nothing compared to what the 2005 rotation would look like when Ian Snell and John Van Benschoten (did he become a positional player?) Joined Kip Wells, Oliver Perez and Ryan Vogelsong. Or when Cole, Taillon, Stetson Allie (has he ever become a positional player?) And Tyler Glasnow were going to take down the National League.

Oh, I still have my (Zach) Duke, (Chris) Duffy and (Ryan) Doumit “3D bobblehead” sitting under my Cutch-Marte-Gregory Polanco “Dream Outfield” poster.

I guess nothing from this past is a prologue, is it?

You see, this year it’s just about the rankings of the project. It has nothing to do with how talent is developed. Or how long the organization is willing to retain this talent before selling their prospects to another club. Or the budget to add major leagues helps keep the window open to discord.

Do you take back my sarcasm? In the words of David Spade in “Tommy Boy,” “Good. Because I put it quite thick.

Awesome. What do the top farming systems rankings give you?

As much as the NCAA recruiting rankings do. Steelers fans tell me they win the draft every year and have gone eight of the past 10 years without a playoff win.

Look, if GM Ben Cherington wants to split the signature pool money, fine. Go ahead.

I just wanted Leiter to be the # 1 choice as opposed to Davis. Having said that, I preferred Davis to Lawlar or shortstop Marcelo Mayer. Going with a strong, powerful receiver with a clear path to the majors instead of throwing even more talent on the Pirates’ already crowded midfield system is a better second choice.

What I don’t understand is the presumption of success for a franchise that didn’t get any benefit of the doubt points. What makes me cringe are the ratings the Pirates have been wise to pass on pitchers like Leiter and his Vanderbilt teammate Kumar Rocker.

But Solometo? Of course “he’s a thief. ”

It’s a club that drafts pretty much every year, but has made six times the playoff total since 1979. Knowing that, I’m supposed to believe in their tactic of withholding money for the best prospect possible – i.e. who the Texas Rangers picked No.2 instead of hometown kid Lawlar – in order to spread the money towards more options in the hope of a bigger collective ?

Because their track record is so good, I guess?

However, those of us who are skeptical are called stupid – for having trusted our eyes over some three decades of history.

So, please save this column for October 2027 or 2028. Sub-tweet it with a sarcastic “I told you so” before the first game in Boston against the Red Sox.

Hope this will happen. I want to be wrong. I want Baseball America and all future prospectors to be right. I want the Pirates to be good again. I want it.

Sadly, I gained my cynicism and my desire for proof before renewing my faith in the process this team preaches.

Here is the crowd ranking thing about prospects. Deep down they feel the same. This is why it is easier to celebrate something that is not earned. Just celebrate a subjective ranking and a theoretical future that remains to be determined. This way you can never lose.

Except on the pitch in big league stadiums. This is something that we have seen for quite a while now.

See you in the 2022 draft when the Pirates could claim another title.

Tim Benz is an editor for Tribune-Review. You can contact Tim at [email protected] or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication, unless otherwise specified.



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