Pirates Have "Inside Track" on Dominican Prospect Miguel Angel Sano

Here’s an excerpt from Dejan’s story linked above:

Statistics are scarce in the Dominican amateur ranks, so Sano’s prowess is evaluated almost entirely by scouting on sandlots. The consensus is that Sano will move to a corner outfield spot once he turns professional, probably right field to take advantage of the arm. The consensus of his offensive potential ranges from excellent to extraordinary.

“Based on what I’ve seen and heard from talent evaluators, his upside is that he’s Albert Pujols in Hanley Ramirez’s body,” Plummer said of the stars of the St. Louis Cardinals and Florida Marlins, respectively. “He might not stay at short the way Ramirez has, but he’s been compared to Pujols’ bat because of a short, compact swing with lots of power.”

That might sound like agent-speak, but the praise for Sano was equally effusive from others in the industry interviewed for this story, none of whom wished to go on the record in advance of the July 2 signing period.

If the Pirates somehow pull this off, it — and not drafting Pedro Alvarez — might be looked back upon as the turning point for the franchise.

It’s probably best not to get your hopes up, but, really, words can’t describe how big this would be.

The way I see it, the Pirates have almost cornered themselves into signing Cano. They opened the facility, are trying to make a splash there, and are trying to convince fans like me (the ones that have become cynics after all the years of losing) that they are serious about improving. That could actually be a good thing, as it looks (errr… pardon me… sounds) like the guy is a serious prospect.

The way I see it, the Pirates brass will show their true colors when Freddy, Nate, Ryan, Paul, etc. will near the end of their contracts, while the so called future stars are coming up. Will the Pirates continue to be the farm system of the Yankees, etc, or will they be REALLY SERIOUS about being competitive and not give their best players away?

To finish, I believe last year’s draft was a seriously good one for the Pirates. Some hope is there (on my part). However, those people need to do more to convince me they are serious about being competitive and taking the Pirates franchise to where it once was; one of the best franchises in baseball history.

Sano, that is.

… making reference to what may take place at or right before the end of the contracts for the other players.

You ask a very good question that could be answered in many, many ways.

Keeping in mind that Freddy was on ESPN just recently, I must confess that I wanted the Pirates to keep him at third base. The reason is that I don’t see him as a good defensive second baseman. O.K., let me not go in circles any more.

Here it goes. In my opinion, the Pirates should keep Freddy Sanchez until they can find a better option. At this time, it does not look like they have one. They seem to have one good prospect at AA, but the guy just seems to get hurt all the time (Ford?). I would like the Pirates to keep Sanchez until the end of his contract, including next season. He is not my favorite player, and I don’t like how he uses the Manny Sanguillen approach to hitting, but when he is healthy he can hit those doubles almost at will.

INCOMING,
RUN FOR COVER, PIRATE IN MONTANA,
RETREAT!

P.S. – I would love the Pirates to be as aggresive as the Penguins are. Do Mario and Shero know anaything about baseball? I like the “Rooney way” too.

Well…, I don’t think Mario and Shero were the ones responsible to the Penguins losing ways. Of course, they have benefited from their drafts. However, they aggresively signed their best players to long-term contracts and made a huge offer to Hossa. The mid-season trades the last two seasons have been awesome in my opinion. The Pirates have not received the memo yet. The point made was that the Penguins and Steelers “administrations” work hard at making the franchises serious and respectable.

If only I could do a fast forward to the time in which the “core” of the current Pirates that are worth anything will be given away for peanuts… or lost to free agency. Beware! Sarcasm ahead. I am sure they will have a great draft that year too, and open a baseball academy in Antartica or something. The sarcasm was not intended at any of you. That was the only way I could find to share the way I see the Pirates working. I hope you understand.

To finish my point/rant for today (I will let you have the final word if you choose to respond) I will say the following. The way I see it, the Pirates are in another “five-year cycle.” The point is that this looks to me like “The Neverending Story.” The serious teams have/make budgets to balance drafts and free agents, not the Pirates.

Signing Mr. Sano would be a fantastic move for the Buccos, but I just don’t see them winning this thing. It would be a fantastic move to promote their new Dominican academy. If the Pirates are going to compete long term, they have to develop young talent from all over. Sano would be a great start.

On another topic, Neal Huntington isn’t going to prove himself in the next round of negotiations with Ryan, Nate, and Freddy. The fact is the Bucs are no where near competing and the best course of action is to build long term. Those guys should probably be traded when their value can be maxed out for prospects. There is almost no talent in the system (especially pitching talent) and until the system can be rebuilt and produce a solid stream of talent there’s no point in throwing money at big league players. The Buccos are never going to have a payroll to compete with the big boys, so they’re going to have to take the Marlin-type approach and part with guys when they’re at peek value in order to constantly restock the farm system to produce new young talent.

I’d love to see them sign Sano, it would give us some hope. And hope is really all we have these days.

but I have no clue how a DNA test could “prove” someone’s age. Unless you could maybe prove who his birth mother is and you could independently confirm that she’s only 32 or something.