Colin Dunlap of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tweets that the Pirates could be considering Oklahoma high school pitcher Dylan Bundy with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 MLB Draft. (Other prospects who have been connected to the Pirates at first overall include Rice third baseman Anthony Rendon, UCLA pitcher Gerrit Cole, and Virginia pitcher Danny Hultzen.)
Just got a call after leaving Milwaukee from someone I trust who says #pirates seriously considering Dylan Bundy w/ top pick.
There's already a good comment thread up at Bucs Dugout about Bundy. There's also a good article about Bundy up here:
This season, Dylan has been clocked at 100 four times in one game. He’s averaging just above 95 mph a game. The first fastball — and second pitch of the game — against Edmond North on April 16 broke the magic threshold. The twist is that one Major League scout charting Bundy erroneously jotted down the first pitch was a fastball, clocked at 89. A former Owasso player, who tapped the scout on the shoulder to let him know that the first pitch was actually Bundy’s cutter, corrected him.
The concern with all pitchers drafted early in the first round is that they'll get injured or become ineffective before making an impact in the big leagues, as this recent Bucs Dugout fanpost makes clear. The Pirates know that, so my guess is that Rendon is still the odds-on favorite. But he has injury problems of his own, so I wouldn't rule out Bundy, Cole or Hultzen at this point. Other names could easily enter the fray as well.