Mike Leuzinger, who was the Pirates' area supervisor for Northern Texas and Oklahoma, is leaving the organization after the Pirates refused to let the Yankees interview him.

The Pirates have, of course, drafted a lot of players from Northern Texas and Oklahoma in recent years, including Josh Bell, Robbie Grossman, Vic Black, Colton Cain and Matt Curry. Leuzinger also signed Duke Welker, who came out of Arkansas, and Tony Watson, who came out of Nebraska. In his previous job with the Dodgers, he signed Matt Kemp, Javy Guerra and Andy LaRoche. The Pirates hired Leuzinger when Dave Littlefield was still in charge.

It's hard to tell exactly what it means to lose a scout this way, but it seems like a shame to lose a guy with Leuzinger's pedigree. You can't exactly credit Leuzinger too much for someone like Bell, who everyone knew about, but Kemp, for example, was a sixth-round pick, and Leuzinger found out about him through Kemp's American Legion coach and signed him for $130,000.