Pirates Sign Robbie Grossman

Illinois,

Although you are clearly making this comment in regards to another poster, I thought I would give you my take. The thing that really excites me about Grossman is the simple fact that he was ranked as the 49th best prospect in the draft by BA. The Pirates as I’m sure you know full well, simply have to have these types of talented players in the minor league system if they ever hope to have a championship caliber season.

In regard to the so called “tweener” tag that has been applied to an 18 year old athlete, I really don’t put much stock in it. Sure he doesn’t look like he projects to be a 35 home run type player as a true corner outfielder, but not many players do. He can still be a productive player if he gets on base at a solid clip and “only” hits 20-25 homers will a fair amount of doubles.

Likewise, just because he does not have blazing foot speed does not mean he cannot be an above average center fielder at the big league leavel. A competent defender who has moderate power and “just” average speed is still a very valuable thing to have, especially from the center field position.

Also keep in mind that this kid is 18. He could very easily gain a ton of muslce and start hitting for power within the next 4 years, or he could just as easily slim down and become more of a slashing center field type. Thats the thing with the drafting players so young, much of their development is still unknown. The best way to go about it to to get as many talented athlets as possible, and see what happens in a few years. Obviously, it doesn’t hurt that this kid works his butt off as well.

That was really long winded, thanks for reading.

Did you read this?
http://users.rcn.com/wtmiller/positions/2008draft/grossman.htm
Probably not, so here goes:

“I’ve found conflicting opinions about Grossman. Baseball America rated him the 49th best prospect in the draft and thought he had a chance of sneaking into the supplemental or late first round, but he apparently fell due to his commitment to Texas and the fact that he fell off in 2008 after hitting .450 in 2007. Scouts clocking him also found that he’d lost some speed, going from above average to average and leading to characterizations as a "tweener” rather than a centerfielder. He also does not have a good arm. MLB.com characterizes him as lacking any above-average tools and playing above his abilities, which combined with the tweener tag gives him some things in common with Nate McLouth, who’s a good example of why it’s a mistake to dismiss players based on tags like that. BA did characterize him as having raw power potential and he showed good power in a workout at PNC Park. Although the writeups at BA and MLB.com sounded rather negative, the fact is that BA rated him as roughly a supplemental first round talent. The negative scouts’ comments probably represent disappointment at his senior season rather than a negative overall assessment. I saw one post online saying that Grossman suffered from being pitched around his entire senior year."

WTM very clearly makes the point that there was a lot of conflicting info out there on the Internet about Grossman and his potential. This happens a lot. There are a lot of “experts” throwing info around on various blogs and other sites about this and that guy, but you shouldn`t take everything you read-positive or negative-as a definitive report about a guy`s baseball tools, even if it is from MILB.

You do know that Grossman is still a teenager, don`t you, IPF? There is room for growth and improvement all the way around. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn`t. It`s part of the crapshoot with drafting and player development.

The Pirates obviously watched this guy over and over and we also impressed with his workout at PNC Park. They wouldn`t have given him the big contract if they didn`t think he could have a big league career down the road, just like they wouldn`t have given #16 HS OF Freeman reportedly so much money to sign.

BTW-I think ElliottBayBucco is pretty funny.