The Sports Monitor

No surprise yesterday as UCLA's Gerrit Cole was selected No. 1 overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the baseball draft. The big surprise to me is the statistics put up by a supposed elite college pitcher: six wins, eight losses and a 3.31 ERA. I'd expect him to lead his team or conference in strikeouts and reach double-digits in wins. Oh, that's right, Cole's teammate did all that. Trevor Bauer went 13-2 and set a Pac-10 record with 203 strikeouts. His ERA was 1.25. And this stat really stood out: he ended the season with nine straight complete games. But back to Cole. My big question: If he's struggling to get college hitters out with a fastball that can hit 100 mph, how is he supposed to get major leaguers out? The Pirates feel pretty confident he will. "We felt he'd have the biggest potential impact for us of anybody on the board," general manager Neal Huntington said. The Pirates obviously project him to be an outstanding pitcher. And...

Gerrit Cole looks like the No. 1 pick overall in tonight's baseball draft. Ordinarily, I'd say that might be a good choice. However, that first overall pick belongs to the Pittsburgh Pirates, so I'm skeptical that they'll make the right choice. The Pirates have a long and storied history of losing for nearly 20 years. Along those same lines, they have a long and storied history of making bad selections in the first round of the draft. Remember Bryan Bullington at No. 1 overall? How about the great John VanBenschoten? He's the guy that led college baseball in home runs and the Pirates thought he'd be better as a pitcher. Then there's J.J. Davis, Bobby Bradley and Sean Burnett. Ugh. That's why I'll watch with trepidation tonight to see who the Pirates select. Normally, I'd be all for drafting a pitcher who has a fastball that can hit 100 mph. But Cole's dominance just isn't there for a first-round pick. He's not even the bes...

The Pittsburgh Pirates and the baseball draft are almost an annual joke. Starting with the failed picks of the 1990s through Tuesday, the Pirates made money the deciding factor over athletic ability for many of their picks. There have been a couple exceptions, Andrew McCutchen being one, and Pedro Alvarez last year being the other. But more often than not, the Bucs went with budget, and it cost them. There are two ways to build a franchise these days: buying players or drafting players. Obviously, the Pirates aren't in position to buy players like the Yankees or Red Sox. The only recourse they have is to draft good ones, like the Tampa Bay Rays have done. Boston College catcher Tony Sanchez doesn't qualify as a fourth overall pick, however. ESPN and Baseball America had Alvarez rated as end-of-the-first-round talent. As an aside, you can see how Keith Law of ESPN.com rates the Bucs . The Pirates disagreed. At least that's what general manager Neal Huntington said. The Pirat...