It went all the way to the wire,but Neal Huntington was able to wait out Scott Boras and sign the Pirates top pick in Vanderbilt third baseman Pedro Alvarez minutes before the signing deadline.
The news is even better for Pirate fans as Alvarez was signed to a minor league deal with a six million dollar bonus.
The bonus was actually smaller than the Giants gave to the fifth pick,Florida State catcher Buster Posey and showed that not only could the Pirates compete financially for top players,but that they will be reasonably responsible on the fiscal ledger as well.
No word on where Alvarez might appear,if anywhere for the last two weeks of the season,although if the Bucs want him to get an extra week of play in,he could be assigned to State College as their season ends a week later than the full season teams in the system.
Pedro becomes the top prospect in the system as soon as the deal is officially finished.
Check these highlights of the newest Pirate!
The Pirates were not able to come to terms with second round pick,Tanner Scheppers of Fresno State.
Scheppers was not near full health and simply overpriced himself for the risk of an inured player.
Scheppers can return to Fresno State for the 2009 season,will be eligible for the draft and the Pirates will not have any rights to him.
However,Pittsburgh will have a compensation pick early in the second round for losing Scheppers.
Again,full compliments to the staff on this one.
I would have liked to have seen Scheppers signed,but given a choice between a questionable health risk in Scheppers vs bringing in Robbie Grossman and Quinton Miller-I take the latter.
Every time.
I was hoping for one final signing from the mid to late rounds such as catcher Jason Haniger,pitcher Wesley Wright or third baseman Zack Wilson,but in all likelihood that wasn't going to happen.
Either the wait to the final whistle tactics of Boras killed that due to time constraints or perhaps the final move was made when Quinton Miller was signed,one doesn't know.
For the first time in a long time,I see light at the end of the tunnel in Pittsburgh.
Will all of these players turn out?
Of course not.
But the effort shown in attempting to truly bring in the "New Culture" that Neal Huntington and Frank Coonelly has talked about from day 1 and the financial backing that Bob Nutting has provided for the amateur draft has given me hope that at least there is a plan in place and the Pirates have smart people operating that plan.
The job is far from done.
Other than Alvarez,some of these players will not rocket through the system and now with many of the valuable marketing chips moved away (Jason Bay,Xavier Nady),the progress will not be as immediate or as noticeable to the casual fan.
The draft will need to continue to be attacked in the manner that was done in 2008.
Washington was similarly depleted in their farm system and for two seasons,seemed to be turning things around with an aggressive plan to restock the system.
They seem to have taken a step back in 2008 with a "slot" style draft and not signing their top pick in Missouri righty Aaron Crow.
The Pirates cannot afford to take that backwards step.
Keep attacking,Be aggressive in the draft,be forward thinking when you trade the veteran parts that still need to be moved and continue to try to build a contender and not fall into the trap for just being .500.
Great work and compliments to the Pirate front office and these last few weeks have made it fun to be a Pirate fan for the first time in a long while.
Back later with the Pirates loss to the Mets and anything I can scoop up.
Photo Credit
Huntington:Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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