Kevin Gorman: Will MLB draft yield an Andrew McCutchen or Bryan Bullington for Pirates?

Once upon a time, I considered myself something of a draft junkie, tracking and charting every pick of the NFL and NBA drafts long before it was my job to do so.

But the MLB draft doesn’t have the same cachet, as it involves a mix of high school and college prospects who have yet to become household names.

That’s why I’m not as familiar with Oregon State catcher Adley Rutschman, who is expected to go first overall Monday to the Baltimore Orioles, as I am with NFL top pick Kyler Murray or NBA projected No. 1 Zion Williamson of Duke.

Never mind that Rutschman, a switch-hitting catcher who led Oregon State to the 2018 College World Series championship, is being called the best MLB draft prospect since Bryce Harper.

What registers to me is he could become the first catcher drafted by the Orioles since Matt Wieters.

And that brings back memories.

Most of them are bad for the Pirates, who infamously passed on Wieters to select left-hander Daniel Moskos from Clemson in 2007. Not only did the Pirates use the fourth overall pick on the No. 8 prospect but took the fifth-ranked pitcher first.

That wasn’t even the best part. Where Moskos said he preferred to be a starter, scouting director Ed Creech projected him to be a closer and general manager David Littlefield demanded we take a wait-and-see approach.

“The important thing is the end game,” Littlefield said, “how they get there.”

Where Wieters became a four-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove winner, Moskos pitched in 31 games for the Pirates in 2011 as neither a starter nor closer.

Instead, Moskos became a cautionary tale, just like John Van Benschoten and Bryan Bullington before him, and a big reason why Littlefield is no longer the Pirates GM.

Teams aren’t allowed to trade their picks, so there will be no draft-day drama like the Steelers moving up 10 spots to select the player at a position of need like Devin Bush.

Where the NFL and NBA drafts often provide immediate-impact players, most drafted in MLB require years of development in the minor leagues before they reach the majors, if ever.

“The thing to remember about the baseball draft is that these players are three, in a very good and very quick scenario, to five to even seven years away from helping our major league team, so a major league baseball draft is not need-based,” Pirates GM Neal Huntington said Sunday on his weekly radio show on 93.7 FM. “You need to take the best player available.”

So the best player available at the time of the draft doesn’t necessarily become the better major-leaguer. The Pirates were celebrated for selecting Pedro Alvarez with the second pick, only to see Buster Posey become a superstar. They took Tony Sanchez in the same draft as Mike Trout, and Jameson Taillon ahead of Manny Machado, Chris Sale and Christian Yelich.

We also have watched the Pirates select Mark Appel eighth — even though he swore not to sign unless he went first overall — and pass on the likes of David Dahl, Addison Russell, Corey Seager and Michael Wacha.

Sometimes, you get Neil Walker, Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole and they serve as foundation pieces to end a 20-year winning drought. Sometimes, you get Taillon, Josh Bell, Cole Tucker, Kevin Newman, Mitch Keller and Ke’Bryan Hayes and hope they serve as the foundation for the next postseason run.

Sometimes, you get a Moskos or Sanchez. Sometimes, you use first-round picks to take Austin Meadows and Shane Baz, only to include both in the Chris Archer trade.

And, sometimes, there are players you draft who don’t sign.

Greg Brown inadvertently touched on a topic that made Huntington squirm, asking on the radio show if the Pirates would be interested if TCU left-hander Nick Lodolo was available.

Three years ago, the Pirates used the No. 41 pick to select Lodolo out of high school. Instead, he opted for college. Now, Lodolo is projected as a top-15 pick.

No wonder Huntington was diplomatic in his response.

“The age-old adage is that the right high school player gets there faster than the wrong college player,” Huntington said. “So, yes, the typical pathway is the college player gets there a couple years earlier than the high school player does, but there’s a lot of very good high school players taken in the first couple rounds that got to the big leagues in a hurry and are excelling.”

In this case, the right high school player for the Pirates might now be the wrong college player. The MLB Draft is a crapshoot that way. You can win the lottery or endure a comedy of errors.

You can’t predict the end game. You just hope they get here.