Just looking at Pitt's last decade or so of 1st round drafts. They weren't quite bad enough to have as many Top-5s overall as TB did, but they didn't have anywhere near the success in picking either:
1996 - RHP Kris Benson (1st overall): Won some games for them but largely derailed by injuries
1997 - JJ Davis (8th): A HS 1B picked just before Michael Cuddyer and Jon Garland, he had 100 ML ABs and is out of baseball.
1998 - Clint Johnston (15th): HS LHP picked right ahead of Lidge & Kip Wells, he was in a few games in Low-A for Pittsburgh and then disappeared for 4 years until resurfacing w/the Toronto system. Injuries, I assume, were the problem. Hasn't played since 2005.
1999 - RHP Bobby Bradley (8th): A HS played picked right ahead of Zito, Sheets, and Brett Myers (9th, 10th, 12th) he never played in the majors and looks to be out of baseball
2000 - Sean Burnett (19th): 2001 - John Van Benschoten (8th): 2002 - Bryan Bullington (1st): These 3 were real killers. One HS pitcher (Burnett) and 2 via colleges, all were stymied several times by injuries and never matched the draft day hope. Bullington, in particular, was the "safe" pick over HSer BJ Upton meaning that Pitt passed on the risky upside in favor of the more likely quick help and wound up getting neither. They released him last Spring and he's resurfaced with Cleveland. Burnett & JVB are still with the team and pitched a few innings in MLB this year.
2003 - Paul Maholm (8th): Pitching well enough for Pitt
2004 - Neil Walker (11th): A HS catcher taken while higher ceiling/bigger money stars like Jared Weaver and Steven Drew were still available. He's still in the Pirate system although not too promising at this point.
2005 - Andrew McCutcheon (11th): A very promising lead-off type OFer in the Pitt system, probably will see him next year.
2006 - Brad Lincoln (4th): RHP out of Univ Houston. Now coming back after missing all of 2007 w/injuries
2007 - Daniel Moskos (4th): A LHP out of Clemson U., they reportedly were scared off by $$ demands of college catcher Matt Weiters this year's minor league player of the year (next pick by Balt). At least he hasn't been hurt yet.
2008 - Pedro Alvarez (2nd): Fortunately the signing thing straightened itself out.
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