6/4 Draft: Cobra, Berra, Caveman, KY, Benson, Capps, Swags

• 1970 - The Pirates selected HS pitcher John Bedard with their first pick (#13) of the draft. While Bedard never made it past A ball, the FO hit paydirt later, picking OF Dave “The Cobra” Parker in the 14th round and C Ed “Otter” Ott in the 23rd. Other team’s selections who eventually made a stop in Pittsburgh were Phil “Scrap Iron” Garner, “Goose” Gossage, “Doc” Medich and Rick “Big Daddy” Reuschel. It was a great year for nicknames and players! 
• 1971 - The Pirates selected SS Craig Reynolds (#22) first in the draft, followed by RHP Doug Bair (#46) in the second round. It was slim pickings that year; they were the only two selected who saw any big league time. Both did have long careers, though not as Pirates, with each player earning a 15 year big league tenure. Reynolds suited up mostly for the Houston Astros. He got into 38 games as a Pirate and hit .225 between 1975-76, while Bair got into four games in Pittsburgh in 1976 and then worked from the bullpens of six other clubs. 
• 1975 - Yogi’s son Dale, a high school SS, was the Bucs first pick (#20) in the draft. They also signed RHPs Don Robinson and Ernie Camacho, who were the only other picks to play in the majors. The Caveman pitched for 15 seasons, with the first 10 as a Pirate (65-69-49/3.85), Dale spent 11 years in the show, the first eight with the Pittsburgh (.238) and Camacho was in MLB for a decade, making seven appearances as a Bucco in 1981. 
• 1980 - SS Rick Renteria (#20) was the Bucs first selection in the draft; he ended up with 186 MLB games, mostly with Seattle and later managed. OF Joe Orsulak, picked in the sixth round, had a 14-year big league run as a reserve OF’er, and third-round RHP Tim Burke carved out an eight-year career in the bullpen with Montreal and then the New York Mets. 

Rick Renteria -  1986 MLB Photos/Sports Memorabilia

• 1990 - The Bucs picked HS righty Kurt Miller in the first round (#5) of the draft; he went on to win two games in his career. Other guys they signed who were more successful were 1B Kevin Young (seventh round), RHP Brian Shouse (13th round), RHP Rick White (15th round), 1B Mark Johnson (20th round; he was first selected in 1989) and C Keith Osik (24th round). 
• 1996 - Clemson RHP Kris Benson was the Bucs top pick and the overall number one selection in the draft, signing for a $2M bonus. They also inked OF Tike Redman (fifth round), IF Willie Harris (28th round) and OF Rob Mackowiak (53rd round). One that got away was LHP Chris Capuano (45th round), who went to college and signed with Arizona in 1999. LHP Mike “Gonzo” Gonzalez (17th round) was also selected, but didn’t sign; the Pirates got him in the next draft. 
• 2002 - The Pirates selected RHP Bryan Bullington with the first overall pick of the player draft, bypassing BJ Upton, Prince Fielder, Zack Greinke, Khalil Greene, Nick Swisher, Matt Cain, Cole Hamels, David Wright and Jeff Francoeur. Bullington received a $4M signing bonus after four months of negotiations but never left much of an MLB mark. RHP Matt Capps (seventh round) and OF Nyjer Morgan (33rd round) were also members of that draft class. 

Brian Bullington - 2003 Topps Pristine

• 2012 - The Pirates had pre-draft favorite RHP Mark Appel drop in their laps at the eighth spot because of perceived signability issues. Well, those issues weren’t perceived; they were real as he and agent Scott Boras turned down the Pirates' reported bonus offer of $3.8M, the biggest deal they could tender without losing a first-round draft pick the next year. Appel was the only unsigned first rounder of the draft, and was picked by Houston the following year, signing for $6.3M. He made his MLB debut in 2022 with the Phils but was released this season. His pick nullified a reported pre-draft deal with OF David Dahl, who was selected 10th by the Colorado Rockies. The Pirates received a bonus pick for 2013 (which became prep OF’er Austin Meadows the following year), and used their 2012 sandwich pick (#45) to select Texas Tech OF Barrett Barnes, who signed for $1M. C Jacob Stallings (7th round) and HS pick SS Max Moroff (16th round) both appeared for the Pirates before moving on. One notable "wrong sport" selection was prep star Hayden Hurst, who played two seasons in the minors, first as a pitcher and then as a first baseman, after signing for $400K as a 17th rounder. He went on to South Carolina to play football, became a first-round pick in the 2018 NFL draft, and is now playing for the Carolina Panthers. 
• 2018 - The Pirates picked South Alabama OF Travis Swaggerty, who was compared to Austin Meadows, in the first round (#10) and inked him to a $4.4M contract. Injury-bitten, Swags finally got his MLB call up in 2022. At #36 in the Competitive Balance round, they selected Florida prep RHP Gunnar Hoglund and then used the second round (#51) to add Texas high school RHP Braxton Ashcraft. Hoglund turned down a reported $2M offer from the Bucs to pitch at Ole Miss while Ashcraft agreed to a $1.825M payout. Later in the draft, they selected RHP MIchael Burrows in the 11th round, signing him for $500,000, and LHP Cam Alldred, who ended up the first of the class of ‘18 to make an MLB showing, in the 24th round. He inked a $100,000 deal.