Sean Black

A converted shortstop who pitched sparingly until his senior year at New Jersey's Lenape High, Black burst onto scouts' radars in 2006 after running his fastball up to 95 mph, and the Nationals took him in the second round of the draft that year, but he turned down an above-slot offer to enroll at Seton Hall. He has not developed as hoped with the Pirates, posting a pedestrian 4-6, 3.99 line as the staff ace this spring. Black pitched in the 89-93 range most of the spring, sitting around 90-91, but he touched 94-95 in the early innings of several starts down the stretch. Now and then he'll show an average or slightly better curveball, but he has not been able to repeat the pitch. He also flashes an average changeup, but he struggles to throw it consistently with the same arm speed as his fastball. Scouts are divided on his arm action--some have no qualms with it, while others say it's too short and fluttery in the back. The bigger problems with his delivery are issues of balance and tempo. An organization that regards those things as fixable--and some do--could take Black in the top five rounds, but he will not approach the signing bonus he turned down coming out of high school.