The Pirates have made three selections in the Rule V draft, and I'm having trouble understanding two of them.
First, the Pirates selected 23-year old Gustavo Nunez from the Tigers. Nunez is a shortstop (he also plays some second base and outfield) that has never played a game above the AA level. In fact, Nunez was in A+ ball at the beginning of last year before being promoted after hitting .304/.368/.431 in 62 games. After his promotion to AA, he struggled mightily to the tune of a .215/.252/.289 line. Now Nunez will have to stay in the major leagues all season with the Pirates for them to retain him, and that is just not going to happen. This is extra interesting because the Pirates DFA'd Pedro Ciriaco yesterday, who is basically the same player as Nunez except you could actually argue that he would be ready for the major leagues. Nunez would be a utility bench player if the Pirates hold on to him, but there is no way he is going to be any better than Ciriaco would have been, so I don't get losing Pedro to draft this guy. In my opinion, there is no way that Nunez ever wears a Pirates uniform unless it's in spring training.
The second guy the Pirates selected was in the AAA phase of the draft; they nabbed Aaron Poreda, a left-handed pitcher from San Diego. Poreda is 25 years old and has actually had some major league experience. He pitched 31.1 innings combined for the White Sox and Padres in 2009 and posted a 2.70 ERA with 8.1 K/9. He spent all of last year in AAA and posted a 5.43 ERA with 10.2 K/9 and 8.1 BB/9. Control is a huge issue with him, but there looks to be some upside with the good strikeout numbers and former big league success (in an extremely small sample). The Pirates will not have to have him on the big league roster, so there is no reason to dislike this pick.
The last guy the Pirates drafted was yet another catcher. His name is Francisco Diaz and he is 21 years old. He had played in the Phillies organization but never got above A- ball. In 2011 Diaz hit .211/.315/.257. He had a strong year in 2010 with a .307/.376/.387 line, but last year really killed his stock. He has only played 65 games the last two years, so there could be some injury issues there. I don't understand this one either because the Pirates seem to have enough mediocre catchers in the system. Diaz will play A ball and at the age of 21 you really can't predict much with him. It was a no-risk pick and the Pirates will hope he can develop into something.
The Pirates lost one player in the Rule V draft, and that was pitcher Brett Lorin. Lorin played in Bradenton last year and made 17 starts (with 8 relief appearances) and posted a 2.84 ERA with 7.6 K/9 and 1.5 BB/9. That's a pretty good season right there, so it's not surprising to see another team (Diamondbacks) take a shot at him in the triple-A portion of the draft.
Overall it wasn't a great day for the Pirates at the Rule V draft, but none of this should have any real impact in the scheme of things.
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