Faced with difficult decision at No. 2, Pirates select Taillon over Machado

Faced with the difficult decision of going with a potential cornerstone shortstop or a potential ace of their  staff, the Pittsburgh Pirates selected right-handed pitcher Jameson Taillon (pronounced "TIE-own") with the second overall pick in the annual First-Year Player Draft Monday night.

The Pirates who have been known to shy away from top talent in the first round due to sign-ability reasons, targeted the top two players on the board at No. 2 in Taillon and high school shortstop Manny Machado.

The consensus is that the Pirates could not have gone wrong with either player as Taillon and Machado were the top two talents in the draft behind Bryce Harper who was selected No. 1 overall by the Washington Nationals.

After the Pirates passed on Machado, the Baltimore Orioles selected the talented shortstop with the No.3 overall selection. The right-handed hitting Machado batted .639 with 12 home runs and 56 RBIs for Brito Private School in Hialeah, a Miami suburb, this spring. He had 55 hits in 86 at-bats. The 6-foot-3, 190-pounder also scored 43 runs, stole 17 bases and hit 27 doubles and five triples.

In 11 games as a senior with The Woodlands (TX) High School this season, the 18-year-old Taillon went 8-1 with a 1.78 ERA. He also struck out 114 batters and walked 21 in his 62.0 innings of work during the season. In addition, Jameson whiffed 19 batters while tossing a no-hitter on March 23.

Taillon was rated by Baseball America as the best pitcher available in the draft and as the second-best overall player among the top 200 prospects in the country. In addition, he was rated by the same publication as having the "Best Fastball" and as being the "Closest to the Majors" among all high school pitchers.

"Jameson Taillon has a quality combination of present ability and future potential to become an above average Major League starting pitcher," said Smith. "He is a big, hard-throwing righthander with impressive secondary pitches for a high school aged pitcher. He also has strong traits mentally, physically, fundamentally and personally and we are thrilled to select Jameson with our first round pick."