Pirates Sign Two Minor Leaguers, Purge Littlefield Draftees

Thanks to WTM, who mentioned this in the comments:

Pittsburgh Pirates
Signed: RHP Mitchell Fienemann, RHP Harvey Garcia
Released: RHP Carlos Amaro, RHP Jorge Charry, RHP Matt Foust, RHP Ivan Rusova, RHP Wardell Starling, RHP Malvin Vasquez, C Juan Garcia, C Christopher Jones, C Aeden McQueary, 1B Alex Vargas, 2B Matt Cavagnaro, OF James Barksdale, OF Caleb Fields, OF Mike Goetz, OF Albert Laboy, OF Joe Munoz
Optioned to Triple-A: C Robinzon Diaz, OF Steven Pearce

Consecutive Pirates’ picks in the ’07 draft, Foust (sixth round, Nebraska) and Garcia (seventh, P.R. Baseball Academy) failed to do much of anything outside the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League. Foust struck out 64 and walked 63 in 90 pro innings, while Garcia batted just .145/.184/.214 in 117 at-bats, all in the GCL.

Fienemann is Australian and appears to be about 18, so he may turn out to be a real prospect. Harvey Garcia was acquired by the Marlins from the Red Sox in the Josh Beckett trade, pitched a bit for Florida in 2007, and missed all of 2008 with shoulder trouble. He's 25.

The list of guys the Pirates released includes a couple of former semi-prospects in Starling and Laboy. Starling struggled to strike out batters as he moved up the chain and didn't pitch in '08, and Laboy had a semi-promising year at Hickory in 2007 but flopped last year. The dismissals of the Pirates' sixth- and seventh-round draft picks in 2007 are sad; it hasn't even been two years since that draft. The likelihood that the Bucs get anything from the 2007 draft is rapidly dwindling--first-rounder Danny Moskos is going nowhere, and all the only semi-prospects left are Brian Friday, Quincy Latimore, Andrew Walker, Tony Watson and Harrison Bishop.