must.not.stoop.to.casual.pirate.fan.ranting…..

The “high probability backup” talk still scares me. There was never any talk about former top 5 catchers Wieters or Buster Posey possibly backing up anyone. They were seen as virtually guaranteed starters with a high probability of mashing at the major league level.

I WILL NEVER STEP FOOT INSIDE PNC PARK AGAIN UNTIL NUTTING SELLS THIS TEAM. WE ARE THE WORST FRANCHISE IN PRO SPORTS,

…and I have to say that this draft thus far would fit pretty seamlessly into Ed Creech’s record.

Happy talk about fixing things on day 2 aside, I think we could take nothing but tough signs through the end of tomorrow’s picks, and this would still be a C-/D+ at best. It’s bad enough up to this point that I might have to push our notional year of earliest contentionback to 2013.

Just terribly disappointing.

From USSMariner…

In case you’ve forgotten, Baron’s a catcher with great defensive tools and a questionable bat. The M’s think there’s more offense in there, and he could be a Yadier Molina type long term. I know, it’s not that exciting, especially considering some of the names that were on the board, but this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. We knew this was coming.

Well, personally, I’d rather hate, act childish, and continue to drive the point home a la NuttingHostage until enough people finally take a stand and force this owner to get rid of the team.

If Rosa Parks hadn’t ‘whined or complained’ and refused to sit in the back of the bus where would we be today?

Hmmm, yes, the selection of a baseball player in the draft is EXACTLY like the civil rights movement. The best thing the P-G could do would be to disable comments… it’s a freaking cesspool over there.

Yes, the first pick may stink. But the other three are great high-upside power pitching and athletes. I’ve seen nothing but praise for Pounders and Chambers, at least.

And hopefully we realized that the #1 priority for the future is signing Sano.

If the Pirates really couldn’t take an expensive 1st round pick and also sign Sano, they made the right move going cheap in the first. Sano is a superior talent to all but the top two overall picks in the draft. It’s just disappointing that we can’t have it both ways…

The scariest development from here is that the Orioles went cheap at 5th overall as well and are preparing to throw money at Sano just like the Bucs.

Since they already had a deal in place with Sanchez how soon does he report? And does he automatically go to State College or where ever they deem him worthy?

I smell the scent of ‘bitch’ in this thread…. it must be lingering from the McLouth trade comments.

Can someone please light a candle and place it next to a photo of DL, someone in Pittsburgh must miss him, right?

From the PG article this morning.

“We think we can get a number of good players by allocating resources across a large number instead of a small number of players,” Pirates general manager Neal Huntington said. “We were excited about what we were able to do last year, but one could argue that we’ve got $3 million, $3.5 million available to distribute over a large number of players that was tied up just in Pedro Alvarez. If that type of talent was on the board and available this year, in our minds, we would have taken it. We feel that this pick gives us the best ability to maximize our returns over the full draft.”

This tells me that there were picks last year they didnt have the money to sign, which is borne out further by some of the late signings after they passed on Scheppers. NH likely wants to avoid that happening again. If there were an Alvarez level player @ #4 I dont doubt they would have taken him, but there simply wasnt. While I liked Aaron Crow, if not selecting him in favor of Sanchez leads to signing 2-3 2009 versions of Robbie Grossman or Quinton Miller projects, I can make peace with that.

Of course they have a budget, they have to. Not to delve into personal matters too deeply, but I run the staffing function for a large division of a company whose name would be familiar to nearly everyone reading this board. Even though we are perceived to have deep pockets we have budgets for talent and there are most certainly times where it makes sense to hire a less expensive person to free up dollars to ensure that we can capture another desired candidate who might require a signon bonus or higher salary. Not a perfect analogy I realize but I view NH as doing the same thing here.

Today will be where the rubber meets the road. If they start grabbing guys in similar fashion to last year (like Grossman, Freeman and Miller) then we’ll know. I dont plan on viewing this draft piecemeal. I for one plan to wait for the entire list of selections before I form any lasting judgements.

And as always I will anxiously await the updates to WTM’s site for his views.

Every pick from 3 to 10 overall was also a reach, as well. It was just a crazy draft, without much huge-time talent after the first two selections.

BA on the Pirates’ draft thus far:

John: Then we have to ask about, well, the instant analysis of “losers” seems ridiculous to say but it is what it is. What teams left you wanting a bit more? I would say I wasn’t hot on the Fuentes pick with Boston, and also Cincinnati, with Mike Leake seeming a bit too high at 8. And last, I’d say the Yankees, because I really have questions about Heathcott’s makeup

Jim: I don’t want to use the word losers either. I’ll start with the Pirates. I believe they’ll sink their savings into boosting up later picks, but I don’t love Tony Sanchez at No. 4. Great defense, not sold on the bat. The Orioles could have spent on a better pitcher, but Hobgood is pretty good. I can’t really pan any other picks.

John: On Sanchez, Jim, do you think that’s really going to come back and bite the Pirates again? How can they keep skimping on the draft? It bit them in 2007, will it in ’09?

Jim: I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt. They told me if they did something like that there, they’d spend the money elsewhere in the draft. They spent a lot on later rounds last year, so we’ll see. Also happy for former BAer Chris Kline, the area scout on Sanchez. But as much as I’ve heard raves about the defense, I’ve heard a lot of people lukewarm on the bat. I might have popped Hobgood, Borchering or Tim Wheeler in that situation.

John: I agree, and I’m also very happy for Chris. I hope Sanchez isn’t Daniel Moskos part II. -Baseball America

John is John Manuel, and Jim is Jim Callis.

I won’t know what to think until:
the entire draft is over
all of the picks have been signed or not
several years down the line

if you are going to make later rounds a priority, then signability is important. I simply did not see that many players taken 5-25 who are significantly better prospects than Sanchez, and at the same time, as likely to be easily signed and for less than slot money. It’s a move brought on by a system that prevents trading down.

So far I’m disappointed. That could change today and tomorrow, and with some luck change a whole lot in the next few years if the players they draft end up being better than any of us expected. However, I have to admit that at this moment I’m disappointed with what I’ve seen in this draft from the Pirates.

I agree with what some others have said in that this strategy of reaching on the first pick in order to free up money to sign some more difficult picks later isn’t necessarily bad. What seems bad to me so far is that a) there may have been better reach picks than Sanchez and b) so far they don’t really seem to be following through with the second part of the strategy. The high school pitcher apparently will require above slot money to get, but is he worth it? I’m all for signing guys above slot, but I’d like to see more upside.

All this being said, I’m going to have to give the front office the benefit of the doubt. So far they’ve made some moves that seemed questionable at the time and, at least to me, most of them have ended up working out better than I expected. What makes this more difficult, however, is that it comes on the heels of another benefit of the doubt move in the McLouth trade. To be honest, I feel better about the McLouth trade than the draft so far.

Here.

Two good catchers left on the board. Stassi is better than Sanchez, and I didn’t have Bailey too far behind Sanchez, either.

Most of these guys look to have slid on signability (particularly Dwyer, who has all kinds of leverage as a draft-eligible freshman), though some are just hard to assess due to a lack of PT (Younginer, Songco). You also have the obligatory shortstop who can’t hit (Jackson), the guy who mysteriously lost his stuff (Volz), and the tools guy who somehow doesn’t get results (den Dekker).

Any of the top three pitchers on the list would go a long way toward mitigating yesterday’s disaster.

From the Baseball America Top 100

30. Max Stassi, c, Yuba City (Calif.) HS

38. Sam Dyson, rhp, South Carolina

41. Zack Von Rosenbuerg, rhp, Zachary (La.) HS

43. Brody Colvin, rhp, More HS, Lafayette, La.

45. Madison Younginer, rhp, Mauldin (S.C.) HS

47. Keyvius Sampson, rhp, Forest HS, Ocala, Fla.

55. Chris Dwyer, lhp, Clemson

59. Jeff Malm, 1b, Bishop Gorman HS, Las Vegas

60. A.J. Morris, rhp, Kansas State

62. Jason Stoffel, rhp, Arizona

63. Kent Matthes, of, Alabama

64. Angelo Songco, of, Loyola Marymount

65. Brian Goodwin, of, Rocky Mount (N.C.) HS

68. Dane Williams, rhp, Archbishop McCarthy HS, SW Ranches, Fla.

74. Jacob Stewart, of, Rocky Moutain HS, Fort Collins, Colo.

80. Ryan Jackson, ss, Miami

81. Austin Maddox, c, Eagle’s View Academy, Jacksonville, Fla.

82. Brooks Raley, lhp/of, Texas A&M

83. Andrew Doyle, rhp, Oklahoma

90. Ryan Buch, rhp, Monmouth

92. Kendal Volz, rhp, Baylor

94. Matt den Dekker, of, Florida

96. Luke Bailey, c, Troup HS, LaGrange, Ga.

Who do you guys like out there?

Still, if you’re going to spend, you may as well spend on something worth having, right?