SAN FRANCISCO — When the Red Sox decided to pursue David Price over Zack Greinke last winter, they also sent a valuable message to their scouting department.

"The fact that [Dave Dombrowski and Mike Hazen] were able to make the moves they did without costing us a draft pick this year is huge," said director of pitching analysis and development Brian Bannister. "That just motivates everyone involved in the amateur process knowing that we have a No. 12 guy out there somewhere."

Boston does indeed have the 12th pick in Thursday's MLB Draft — another chance to bring impact talent into a farm system that ranks among the league's best. The Sox will also pick 51st on Thursday night.

While director of amateur scouting Mike Rikard has said, as all people in his position do, that the team will take the best player available at No. 12, the Sox may be better positioned to take a pitcher at that spot than in years past. Not only did Boston promote Bannister to his new role this past winter, but it also installed Chris Mears as a national cross-checker for pitchers. Mears had been an area scout with the team, most recently responsible for the scouting and signing of Andrew Benintendi.

A pitcher who made it to the big leagues for Dombrowski's Tigers in 2003, Mears can narrow his focus to the pitching side of things in his new role.

"I've always had that level of comfort as a pitcher and in evaluating pitching," said Mears, who had spent time the past few years giving extra looks to pitchers the Sox targeted in later rounds. "It's one of those things where I think I can help out especially by organizing all these guys. With the staff we have, it's always going to be a lot of really good looks on these guys, and then [it's] maybe having the one person to help organize it all to help line up our draft board."

"It's an impactful position because there's so many pitchers in the draft, and it allows one person to get a little bit deeper on them and see a lot of young pitching," said Amiel Sawdaye, the club's vice president of amateur and international scouting.

Sawdaye pointed out the team had employed a national pitching cross-checker in the past before a hiatus the last several years. The hope is that Bannister, Mears and a renewed emphasis on pitching can end an extended lull in the homegrown development of pitchers. While the Sox have reaped the rewards of homegrown position players — six of Tuesday's eight starters were homegrown, not including Hanley Ramirez — they have struggled to develop impact arms.

It's been a decade since the Red Sox drafted a pitcher who contributed even one win above replacement to Boston at the major-league level (Boston selected Daniel Bard and Justin Masterson in the 2006 Draft).

"It's a renewed emphasis because having guys come up and contribute internally and have that controllability and that cost efficiency is huge," said Bannister. "We have to in a way pretend like we don't have the luxury of going out and signing big names and do or die with our development. If we have that approach, we will develop guys more often."