The first round of the draft couldn’t have worked out much better for the Pirates.
The Pirates not only drafted one of the players they had been focusing strongly on for weeks, but another talent unexpectedly fell into their laps Thursday night.
The Pirates selected outfielder Austin Meadows from Grayson High School in Loganville, Ga., with the ninth overall pick. At No. 14, the Pirates chose a second left-handed hitter, catcher Reese McGuire from Kentworth High School in Covington, Wash.
Most draft pundits expected Meadows to be gone by the ninth pick. However, McGuire had been linked to the Pirates for weeks.
“These were the two best players available on our board at the time we selected and we really like that we were able to draft both players,” Pirates general manager Neal Huntington said. “We feel very fortunate and we’re very excited about having a chance to bring both of them into the organization.”
Meadows was rated as the fifth-best overall player in the draft and the third-base position player by Baseball America, who also ranked him as the best athlete and the second-closest player to the major leagues among high school players.
Meadows was a 2013 Rawlings preseason first-team All-America then hit .535 with 14 doubles, one triple, four home runs and 28 RBIs.
“I don’t think it’s fair to label him as a true five-tool player at this stage of his career because that’s a lot to put on a young player,” Huntington said. “He does have all five tools and some play better than others at this point but we feel he has a chance to develop into above average major-league hitter and outfielder.”
Meadows was the second player selected in the first round from Loganville, a town with a population of 10,000 in suburban Atlanta. Cleveland took outfielder Clint Frazier with the No. 5 pick.
Meadows was excited to be drafted by the Pirates because center fielder Andrew McCutchen is one of his favorite players.
“He just makes the game look so easy,” Meadows said. “I can’t wait to meet him and hear what he has to say.”
Baseball America rated McGuire as the fifth-best position players and 12th-best overall player in the draft as the well as the second-best defensive player among high school players.
He was also a Rawlings preseason All-America pick and hit .436 with 13 doubles, three triples, four home runs and 20 RBIs. The Kentwood coaches also entrusted game-calling duties to McGuire, something almost unheard of on the high school level.
“We like the fact that he is so advanced that he calls his own games, but we also like the swing, the swing mechanics and the bat speed,” Huntington said. “We feel he can be a two-way catcher in the major leagues.”
McGuire has been a catcher going back to his Little League and dreams of the day when he can put the gear on in a major-league game.
“It’s what I’ve wanted to do my whole life,” McGuire said.
It was the first time the Pirates selected a high school position player in the first round since drafting McCutchen in 2005. He has gone on to appear in two All-Star Games and finished third in the National League Most Valuable Player voting last year.
“We have a lot of faith in our development people and if there is a high school player who we feel is ready for professional baseball and we can get him three extra years of development in our system then it’s a positive,” Huntington said.