{"id":696476,"date":"2026-06-10T22:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T22:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/696476\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T22:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T22:17:10","slug":"latest-draft-predictions-send-uc-santa-barbara-ace-to-the-pirates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/696476\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest draft predictions send UC Santa Barbara ace to the Pirates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Latest draft predictions send UC Santa Barbara ace to the Pirates<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a> have come out with their right foot forward this season. Going into Wednesday’s matchups, they hold third place firmly in the National League Central with their 34-33 record.<\/p>\n

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However, this is a tough division this season as everyone has come out to play. The Cincinnati Reds<\/a> are the worst team in the division, and they are only two games under .500.<\/p>\n

So, the club will have to keep its foot on the gas pedal if they want to make the postseason for the first time since the 2015 season.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Oneil Cruz is Pirates’ big trade deadline question<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest draft predictions send UC Santa Barbara ace to the Pirates<\/p>\n

While the fans are locked in to what the team is doing right now, it’s never a bad idea to think about the future. And with the Pirates holding the No. 5 pick in this year’s draft, another game-changer could be headed to the organization.<\/p>\n

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There are some rumors that the top four picks could be a total shake-up, with Roch Cholowsky not going No. 1 to the Chicago White Sox<\/a>. This could set up a snowball effect where UC Santa Barbara pitcher Jackson Flora lands with the Pirates, per The Athletic’s Keith Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“This pick is based solely on the scenario that has unfolded above. I imagine this would be an absolute dream for the Pirates, picking fifth and getting the best pitcher on the board.”<\/p>\n

Flora is a 6-foot-5 righty that can touch the triple digits. His combination of height and arm strength has scouts salivating.<\/p>\n

He has two different sliders that work well off his fastball and a kick change that tends to fall off the table with a good command of the strike zone, which has helped separate him from other arms on the board.<\/p>\n

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Pair him with Paul Skenes<\/a> in a few years, and this could be an absolute nightmare for opposing batters.<\/p>\n

More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Latest draft predictions send UC Santa Barbara ace to the Pirates originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[2318,2319,301728,363,7647,9882,10000,2240,99,119850],"class_list":["post-696476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-draft-predictions","tag-mlb","tag-national-league-central","tag-oneil-cruz","tag-paul-skenes","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-sports","tag-uc-santa-barbara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}