During my daily reading of Piratesprospects.com, I noticed the Pirates signed 1B Dennis Hurtarte. The linked article includes a couple of BP videos and a video of him fielding. The one thing I noticed is that inspite of being just 18, the kid is built like a mac truck, and his swing (BP only granted) mirrors that of a young Albert Pujols. I will follow this kid with great interest. The other things I took away from this is that this is the Pirates first signing of a player from Guatamala (3rd ever player signed from that country in MLB History) and that his agent has close ties with other organizations (the Mariners, Braves and Mets) but Rene Gayo and NH were able to get it done.

On the nationality front, you have to love that we are out there looking everywhere for talent. The fact that we have signed the first ever South African, Lithuanian, Indian, etc. is great. While none may pan out, you can't win without taking shots.

On the signing a player who's agent typically funnels players to other teams, this makes me feel especially good after the Sano fiasco. It's good to see them developing relationships with additional agents out there (I do wonder if this is a Buscon or a proper agent) and steering a kid away from his agents previous comfort zone.