PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – As the Pirates ponder and some think will end up taking a high school shortstop Sunday night as the MLB Draft begins. It wasn't that long ago they did that in the first round, albeit not with the top overall selection.
It was in the middle of the Bucs three year playoff run and after taking high school players outfielder Barrett Barnes (2012), outfielder Austin Meadows and catcher Reese McGuire in 2013. Then Pirates general manager Neal Huntington took Mountain Pointe High School (Arizona) shortstop Cole Tucker with the 24th overall selection in 2014.
"I remember all of it," Tucker said of that day. "I've got it journaled down really well. It was unbelievable. It was a culmination of my childhood, it felt like. The game of baseball is accepting you. We are going to pick you. That's just a really cool feeling for any 17-year-old."
So far, the pick has paid limited dividends. Tucker is batting .213 with 3 home runs in 103 career Major League games. He's already been up a couple of times this year to a .188 average and can't seem to yet find a role with the Pirates.
It's not what you would hope from a first round pick, but the just-turned-25-year-old said those pressures are there no matter where you are drafted.
"You have expectations for yourself regardless," Tucker said. "I talked with Jarrod Dyson about this extensively because he was like a 50th round pick and I was a first round pick. He's like he treated himself on the inside like he was a first rounder. You are betting on yourself no matter what round you go in."
"It matters more to the outside world if you are a first round pick. These are our careers, so no matter how you get there when you show up. You want everything a first rounder should get."
Tucker said he tells draft hopefuls the road is long. He wishes them luck just because his went 'super-well', he knows it's a 'super nerve-racking, crazy, existential day'. Adding once it's all over, playing professional baseball for the first time is 'pretty sweet'.
So sweet after he was drafted he wanted to get to Pittsburgh as soon as he could to take his physical and then sign.
"I got on a plane here pretty fast after," Tucker said. "School was out; nothing was going on. I got here as soon as I could to tell them not to change their mind."
This year's first round pick won't have to worry about the Pirates changing their mind. It's Ben Cherington in the Bucs hoping their first 2021 pick is as anxious to join the organization as Tucker was.
