Baseball America has issued a "report card" (subscribers only) for the Pirates' draft. As expected, there's a lot of praise for top overall pick Gerrit Cole and second-round pick Josh Bell, and Baseball America praises the Pirates for being "as aggressive as any team in the draft."
↵The Bucs spent heavily on Cole, which is expected, since the team that picks first in the draft generally must spend a fair amount of money. But they also broke the bank by signing Bell for $5 million, and also spent heavily on ninth-rounder Clay Holmes ($1.2 million), fifth-rounder Tyler Glasnow ($600,000) and seventh-rounder Jake Burnette ($550,000). BA describes Glasnow's curveball as the best of any pitcher the Pirates took in this draft, and BA also likes Holmes and notes that he can throw 94 MPH already.
↵After Cole, Bell and third-rounder Alex Dickerson, the Pirates' draft focused heavily on high-school pitchers. We'll hopefully see Cole in the majors within a couple years, and it's not out of the realm of possibility that we'll see Dickerson at that point also, but it will be a while before we see Holmes, Glasnow, Burnette or any of the other high-school pitchers the Pirates drafted.
↵For more on the Pirates, check out Bucs Dugout.