Back in 2016, the Pittsburgh Pirates were prepared to graduate a very talented class of prospects to the majors, which helped their farm system to rate so highly in the previous years. The group included Jameson Taillon, Tyler Glasnow, Josh Bell, and Adam Frazier.
Prior to that season, I started taking a deeper look at the Pittsburgh Pirates’ scouting department. There had been some early draft mistakes by the Pirates, specifically the 2009 draft. In my analysis at the time, I noticed that the Pirates had overhauled their scouting department not long after that draft. The scouts with the bad track records were let go, and the scouts who consistently made solid picks remained.