Back in the Fall of 2020, when it became a fait accompli that the Pirates would have the Number One overall pick in the 2021 Entry Draft, it was lead pipe lock that the pick would be spent on Vanderbilt University pitcher Kumar Rocker. Best pitcher in college and a cinch to be an Ace #1 starter for any team. Then it was well, maybe it'll be pitcher Jack Leiter, also from Vanderbilt and the son of a former major league pitcher. Either way, the Bucs would have pitcher around whom they could build a pennant winning pitching staff.
As months went on, other names began to surface. This high school shortstop or that college outfielder and on and on. Somehow, Pirates fans began to condition themselves that somehow, someway, the Pirates would screw up the whole deal.
Tonight they made the pick, and it was catcher Henry Davis from the University of Louisville.
Did, in fact, the Pirates screw it up? I don't know, and neither does anyone else at this point. Davis' college credentials are certainly solid, and God knows that the Pirates have lacked depth throughout their organization at the catcher position (among many other positions), so perhaps he'll be the goods. The next Johnny Bench or Buster Posey or, and I'll settle for this, Jason Kendall. Or maybe he'll fizzle like Brian Bullington or Tony Sanchez. Judging a college or high school baseball player and projecting how he'll be three or four years later when he gets to the Majors is the biggest crapshoot in professional sports.
As a Pirates fan, I hope, I mean, I REALLY hope that this is the right pick and that Davis will be star for the five or six years he'll be a Pirate before he becomes unaffordable to the Suits in the front office. Let's also hope that among the couple of dozen players the Pirates draft over the next two days there will be five or six or seven players who can surround Davis and form a nucleus of teams that will contend for division titles, pennants, and reach the World Series. Always remember, the Pirates didn't draft Dave Parker until the 14th round way back in 1970.
It will also be interesting to track the careers of Rocker and Leiter over the next decade or so.
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The name Henry Davis stirred a memory for me, as I am sure it did for others, of a former linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Davis played 56 games for the Steelers from 1970-73 as Chuck Noll was transitioning the Steelers from the worst team in the NFL to a team that would fashion a Super Bowl Dynasty. He passed away in 2000 at the age of 57.
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