In the spring of 2004, the Pirates front office settled in for a high school baseball game. General manager Dave Littlefield was at the helm as the team played out the 12th of what would be 20 consecutive losing seasons. He, assistant GM Roy Smith, minor league director Brian Graham, director of baseball operations Jon Mercurio and minor league field coordinator Jeff Banister, according to a report from the Beaver County Times from that year, sat down to watch a catcher from Pine-Richland High School named Neil Walker.
The Pirates must navigate the hometown issue once again this year with Plum outfielder Alex Kirilloff, who is expected to go in the first round of the MLB draft June 9. Pitt right-hander T.J. Zeuch, a native of Mason, Ohio, is also rated as a high draft pick. Geography alone won’t cause a team to select a player, nor will it dissuade them completely.
“It is a factor,” general manager Neal Huntington said. “We’re not ignorant to the fact that a local player is a player that has a different level of interest for those in the area. The bottom line is the player still needs to play and justify the selection of trade acquisition cost or free agent cost.”
The Pirates own the 22nd overall selection. Baseball America rated Kirilloff as its No. 14 prospect and projected in a mock draft that the Washington Nationals will take him 29th. ESPN baseball analyst Keith Law published a mock draft last week that had Kirilloff going to the Los Angeles Angels at No. 16; MLB.com’s mock draft had Kirilloff going there as well.
Baseball America had Zeuch going to the Angels at 16, and Law projected that the Los Angeles Dodgers will take him at No. 32. MLB.com’s mock draft had the Pirates taking Zeuch.
Kirilloff hit .544 with 3 homers, 17 extra-base hits, 17 walks and 1 strikeout through his first 19 games. He has good power and a strong arm. The 6-foot-7 Zeuch missed the first month of the season because of a strained groin, but pitched well after returning. In 10 starts, he had a 3.10 ERA and struck out 74 batters in 69⅔ innings.
“I think I’ve probably learned over the years we need to be a little bit aware,” Huntington said. “I used to vocalize that it didn’t matter at all. It matters. We need to make the move for the right reasons.”
The Pirates drafted Walker in the first round in 2004 and created some enthusiasm for a team that finished 32½ games out of first place. Both the principle owner and front office changed before Walker debuted, but the current front office and generation of fans got the highs and lows of his time with the organization. They saw Walker become an everyday player for his hometown team and help drag that team out of the doldrums, and they also saw him traded a year before free agency rather than given a contract extension.
“It isn’t what his hometown is, he is a good-looking young player with outstanding hitting ability,” Littlefield told Baseball America after drafting Walker in 2004. “We feel he has a chance to develop into a fine major league player.”
The Pirates haven’t faced this conundrum on a high level very frequently. Twenty-two rounds of the draft came and went before the St. Louis Cardinals took Matt Adams, a Philipsburg native who played at Slippery Rock, in 2009. The closest analogy is Punxsutawney native Devin Mesoraco, who went 15th overall in 2007. That was the year Littlefield chose Daniel Moskos, rather than Scott Boras client Matt Wieters, Madison Bumgarner, Jason Heyward, Todd Frazier and Josh Donaldson. That was Littlefield’s final draft.
The hometown thing works both ways. The St. Louis Cardinals did not draft David Freese, who grew up just west of the city, but he interacted with their scouts during his senior year at South Alabama.
“The idea that there was a possibility of being drafted by your hometown team can get you going a little bit,” Freese said. “It can be exciting. I think especially coming from a fan’s perspective, I think that excites the city when you take a hometown kid.”
The Cardinals later traded for Freese. When he got the call from GM John Mozeliak, Freese thought the unidentified 314 area code meant a friend from home was pranking him.
“It was awesome,” he said. “It was whole, don’t tell anybody until tomorrow, you’re going to get on the horn and tell your folks and a couple friends that you trust.”
A few other players have had the joy and pressure of playing near home. Glen Perkins, a St. Paul native who attended the University of Minnesota, has spent 11 seasons with the Twins after they drafted him 22nd overall in 2004. The Pirates took Joe Beimel out of Duquesne in 1998. Adam Wainwright’s hometown of Brunswick, Ga., is 4½ hours southeast of Atlanta, but his in-state Braves drafted him in the first round in 2000. New York Yankees reliever Dellin Betances, a New York City native who went to high school in Brooklyn, now goes to work in the Bronx.
The Pirates aren’t the only team dealing with a hometown decision. One of the best prospects in the draft is high school left-hander Jason Groome, from Barnegat (N.J.) High School. The Philadelphia Phillies, just across the state, have the first overall pick.
Bill Brink: bbrink@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrinkPG.
First Published: May 27, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
