6/6 Draft: May, Buster, Candy Man, Law, Smiley, Lincoln, Hughes, Cole Train, Glasnow, Meadows, Fraze, Kuhl

• 1968 - The Bucs selected HS outfielder Dick Sharon first (#9) in the draft; he spent three years in MLB as a reserve. They did hit on their 11th rounder, C Milt May, who played six of his 16 big league seasons with the Pirates and 14th rounder RHP Bruce Kison, who spent half (1971-77) of his career with Pittsburgh and won a World Series game in his 1971 rookie season. Pittsburgh also selected RHPs Wayne Garland, who pitched nine years for the O’s and Indians, and Paul Mitchell, who worked six years for four teams. 
• 1972 - High school SS Dwayne Peltier was the Bucs first round (#23) pick; he never made it to the show, stalling out at AA ball. But the second round pick did - LHP John “The Candy Man” Candelaria, who pitched 12 years for the Bucs and won 124 games. 2B Willie Randolph, who played 18 years, mostly with the Yankees, was a seventh round selection. Shaler grad Ken Macha was picked in the sixth round. 
• 1978 - The Pirates picked HS first baseman Brad Garnett in the first round (#19) of the draft; he never advanced beyond Class A. In fact, none of their first 17 selections made it to the majors. They did get a couple of MLB keepers in the later rounds - Butler and Point Park RHP John Stuper (18th round), LHP Dave Dravecky (21st round) and SS Vance Law (39th round), Pirates Cy Young winner Vern Law’s kid who played for 11 seasons in the show.

John Smiley - 1987 Topps Rookie

•  1983 - The Pirates selected high school OF’er Ron DeLucchi first (#12) in the draft, but he never made it past Class A ball. Their only notable selection was twelfth rounder LHP John Smiley, who lasted 11 years, won 126 games and was twice an All-Star. 
• 2006 - The Pirates selected RHP Brad Lincoln from the U of Houston as their first round draft pick, the fourth overall player selected. He signed for a $2.75M bonus. RHP Jared Hughes (fourth round) and OF Alex Presley (eighth round) were also members of that draft class. The Pirates really missed the boat with Lincoln in a pitching-rich class - the draft’s following picks were #6: Andrew Miller, #7: Clayton Kershaw, #10: Tim Lincecum and #11: Max Scherzer. OF Travis Snider, who would later join the Pirates in an ironic swap for Lincoln, was the #14 selection of the Toronto Blue Jays. 
• 2011 - The Pirates drafted RHP Gerrit Cole of UCLA first overall and signed him to a record $8M bonus/minor league deal (his agent, Scott Boras, turned down an $8.5M major league deal, saying that Cole would make more in the long run under the MiLB arrangement, and the Cole Train has done pretty well financially in the show). The Bucco choice was made after a media debate whether Cole’s college teammate, RHP Trevor Bauer, would be the better choice (he went third to the D-Backs) or if the Pirates should get a hitter like 3B Anthony Rendon (sixth round to the Nats). Pittsburgh then signed high school phenom OF Josh Bell for $5M (now a Nat) to lure him away from a commitment to Texas. They also signed California prep pitcher Tyler Glasnow (now a Ray) in the fifth round (152nd pick) for $600K. Alex Dickerson, who was dealt to San Diego for Jaff Decker & Miles Mikolas and is now a Brave, was the third round choice. The Pirates invested a MLB record $17M on its draft 2011 picks before a cap was established in 2012, most likely because of the Bucs free spending. One fish that they didn’t land was Trea Turner, who they drafted in the 20th round out of high school. He spurned the Bucs offer and instead went to NC State, becoming a 2014 first-rounder of the Padres.

Reese McGuire/Austin Meadows - 2013 Bowman Dual Draftees

• 2013 - There was plenty of talent but not much local shelf life for this group. The Pirates picked high school players OF Austin Meadows (#9) and C Reese McGuire (#14) in the first round of the draft. Meadows received slot value to sign, $3,029,600, while McGuire inked a $2,369,000 deal that was $200K under slot. U of Delaware P Chad Kuhl was selected in the ninth round and was inked at slot value, $145K. Meadows was sent to Tampa as part of the Chris Archer deal and later went to Detroit, Kuhl is pitching in Colorado after recovering from TJ surgery and McGuire was traded to Toronto as part of the Drew Hutchison package and is now a White Sox. Adam Frazier was a sixth round selection who is currently with Seattle while OF JaCoby Jones, traded to Detroit for Joakim Soria, was a third-rounder. He’s playing for Kansas City. Shane Carle, a 10th rounder, was sent to Colorado for Rob Scahill, rejoined the organization briefly and then was shipped to the Braves. He last tossed MLB ball in 2019.