{"id":80059,"date":"2024-07-14T20:36:58","date_gmt":"2024-07-15T00:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=80059"},"modified":"2024-07-14T20:36:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-15T00:36:58","slug":"pirates-draft-konnor-griffin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/07\/14\/pirates-draft-konnor-griffin\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates Select High School Outfielder\/Infielder in First Round of 2024 Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Sunday, the Pittsburgh Pirates selected shortstop\/outfielder Konnor Griffin from Mississippi in the first round of the June Amateur Draft. If the reader is confused, it\u2019s because once again, Major League Baseball held its June Amateur Draft in July. The Pirates selected ninth this time. It was their lowest draft position since Ben Cherington became general manager.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Jim Callis:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I do think the Pirates really like Konnor Griffin. And I think if he got there, that would probably be the guy they would take.&#8221; <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wgVX40bsJX\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/wgVX40bsJX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jim Rosati \ud83c\udff4\u200d\u2620\ufe0f (@northsidenotch) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/northsidenotch\/status\/1812551663414292970?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 14, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Pirates Select High School Prospect Konnor Griffin in First Round of 2024 Draft<\/h2>\n<p>Cherington stayed true to his \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/07\/11\/pirates-possible-picks-mlb-draft-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">best player available<\/a>\u201d philosophy with this pick of a young high schooler. The right-handed hitter is listed at six-foot-four and 215 pounds. Scouts say he has the potential to be a five-tool player and project that he could develop into a 30-30 player. He\u2019ll provide above-average defense at shortstop or in center field due to his speed and strong arm. Scouts give his arm a 70 rating. It will be interesting to see at which position the Pirates decide to employ him.<\/p>\n<p>Griffin is said to have plenty of baseball smarts, too. The more one reads the accolades about him, the more one wonders why he was rated as low as the No. 9 prospect in the draft. Griffin is committed to Louisiana State University. Undoubtedly, the Pirates received some assurance that he was amenable to signing before drafting him. As a high school player, he\u2019s a long way from the major leagues but appears to be worth the wait.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Konnor Griffin by the numbers \ud83d\udc40 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lEWDBbCvzQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/lEWDBbCvzQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Young Bucs (@YoungBucsPIT) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/YoungBucsPIT\/status\/1812646116967460916?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 15, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>The Last Word<\/h3>\n<p>Griffin joins <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davishe01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-14_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Henry Davis<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gonzani01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-14_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nick Gonzales<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=johnso008ter&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-14_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Termarr Johnson<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/skenepa01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-14_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul Skenes<\/a> as No. 1 draft picks of the Pirates in the Cherington era. Gonzales and Skenes are key members of the major league club. Johnson is further away but is highly regarded. He went 1-for-2 with a run scored in Saturday\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/07\/02\/pirates-chandler-johnson-futures-game\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Futures Game<\/a>. It can be difficult to evaluate the Cherington era as a whole. This season\u2019s major league team is a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/06\/28\/pirates-midseason-report-card\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">disappointment<\/a> because the Pirates were expected to be contenders.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, there\u2019s no doubt that the minor league system is in much better shape than it was when Cherington arrived. He\u2019s stockpiled pitching depth and drafted well. Gone are the days when the Pirates used No. 1 picks on the likes of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/moskoda01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-14_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Daniel Moskos<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bullibr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-14_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bryan Bullington<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=tuckeco01,tucker002col&amp;search=Cole+Tucker&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-14_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cole Tucker<\/a>. The development of hitters can be questioned, with Davis being the highest-profile player struggling mightily with the bat. Nonetheless, Cherington appears to have made another good choice with Griffin. Time will tell.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Lauren Witte\/Clarion Ledger \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Sunday, the Pittsburgh Pirates selected shortstop\/outfielder Konnor Griffin from Mississippi in the first round of the June Amateur Draft. If the reader is confused, it\u2019s because once again, Major League Baseball held its June Amateur Draft in July. The Pirates selected ninth this time. It was their lowest draft position since Ben Cherington became [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5010,"featured_media":80078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1071,35],"tags":[3215,2552,4875,28625,3605,6371,5779],"class_list":["post-80059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pirates","category-mlb","category-news","tag-ben-cherington","tag-cole-tucker","tag-henry-davis","tag-konnor-griffin","tag-nick-gonzales","tag-paul-skenes","tag-termarr-johnson"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5010"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}