I've been a lot less present since the format switch here and this is my first FanPost since that switch, so I apologize in advance for any formatting errors I make or if this was covered and I just missed it, but I was here constantly this summer and don't recall either of these new articles being mentioned at all.

During the 918-comment monolith (as of Friday night at 9:30) regarding Dejan Kovacevic discussing the Navy SEALS training, there's a tiny 5-comment blurb on Miguel Sano. Since Ballplayer: Pelotero came out (and is on Netflix right now; I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it), I've been defending the Pirates to a bunch of people that I know, especially following this Jeff Passan piece. It was brought to my attention that Plummer is still in contact with DK regarding Sano. From this entry on DK's blog:

As recently as last year, Plummer posted on my Facebook page that Sano "SHOULD HAVE BEEN A PIRATE," repeating a regular refrain about how they failed to pay his asking price.

The old DK PPG articles are a little difficult to find, this one containing the timeline appears to be gone completely. Because of that, I'm relying on Tim Williams at Pirates Prospects for those original comments Rob Plummer posted. Tim covered the subject very well in 2009 over this initial post and this final one. DK also covered this pretty well as it was happening, with his wrap-up story here from the PPG blog. The other primary contributer is Jorge Arangure from ESPN; his 2009 article is here (ESPN Insider only).

I'm not going to go back through the whole thing; if you're reading this, you probably remember the story unfolding with vivid detail. If you're unfamiliar with the story, the above links paint a pretty encompassing portrayal of what went down. My issue is with these two, relatively new (to me) bits, both dated July 2nd, 2012:

In the Passan story, Passan quoting Rob Plummer:

"I want to get the biggest signing bonus possible," he said. "I want to be like Scott Boras of the Dominican Republic."

And in the aforementioned DK Trib Blog post, basically a response to the Passan piece:

People who elect to spin this as blaming someone other than the Pirates’ front office for the failure to sign Sano will remain 100 percent wrong. And I could get, under oath, Plummer and Sano and everyone else associated with the process to back me on this simple fact: If the team had produced the $4 million Plummer was demanding, Sano would be with the Pirates.

In short, the Pirates had an offer of $2.6 million out of Sano. Plummer was originally asking for more than Michael Ynoa (he wanted to break the record $4.25 million), and his demand at the time when Sano finally signed was $3.1 million. Minnesota offered $3.15 million, which Plummer brought to the Orioles (which they declined). Plummer then took the Twins' offer without giving the Pirates the same chance to match.

What I don't understand is not offering the team that has had the most interest all along a chance to match the highest offer. This does not guarantee that the client gets the most money; quite the opposite. Technically, DK's assertion that Sano would have been a Pirate if they'd offered $4 million is correct; but it's terribly misleading. If the Pirates were the top offer at $2.6 million, why add the other $1.4 million? It's possible to blame NH & co. for rankling Rob Plummer to the point where he would sacrifice getting top dollar for himself and his client, but there's no way to spin that without calling Plummer's ethics into question.

Either way, Sano apparently parted ways with Plummer in January of 2012 and is now being represented by SFX agent Troy Caradonna. I believe that Rob Plummer did a terrible disservice to his client and that his repeated hand-wringing about the Pirates not meeting his demands is terribly unprofessional and more than a little childish.