The only way the Pirates do t go for Crewes is if they decide to play poor. I think this year they go with the best player available regardless of the amount of money required to sign him, mostly because they've been pretty good this season and want to maybe be done tanking. The other reason is that Crewes is the better prospect and plays everyday. Us hyping ourselves up for Skenes is because Nats are picking 2nd. The wisdom has always been if you have two equal talents available, take the one who plays everyday. The only way Crewes goes 2nd to Skenes is if he stops hitting like 3 months ago. He hasn't, he's going number 1.
Whispers *It’s actually quite debatable if Crews is the best player*
He’s undoubtedly the safest prospect, that still has quite a high ceiling, but if you could turn injuries off, I’m certain Skenes would be the number one pick this year. Skenes has had the more rare season by some distance AND when you factor in how awful LSU’s rotation has been outside of Skenes, he’s been exponentially more valuable to LSU than Crews has been even while only posting every fifth or sixth day.
Think about it this way, who was more important to our championship run, Stras or Rendon? Who was the better player? I’d argue that Stras was on both accounts.
Also, Langford probably has more upside than Crews even amongst the regulars. The additional power potential/more dynamic running probably means that if Langford hits his ceiling, he’s a more valuable player than Crews at their peaks.
Still think that Crews goes number one because of the longer track record of production and the general safeness of going bat over pitcher, but there’s absolutely a world in which Crews isn’t the most impactful player drafted in the top three in a retrospective five or six years down the road.
To wit:
https://twitter.com/nationalssource/status/1658139382715498496?s=46&t=Q_qc3R_qyMHAAFvlywNqzQ
