Comments on: Pirates Lose the Scout Who Signed Josh Bell, Robbie Grossman

By: Rebel

Rebel — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 14:46:18 +0000

He also signed aaron baker who was used to get d lee from baltimore. Plus Barnes.

By: Stephen Stull

Stephen Stull — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:06:56 +0000

I will never understand this organization. If you can’t “afford” to spend on free agents you have to have the best scouts available to make sure you draft and trade effectively.

I am just about done with this franchise, seriously, it’s ridiculous.

By: TonyPenaforHOF

TonyPenaforHOF — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 13:50:01 +0000

So we just lost one of our best employees in one of our weakest areas? That isn’t great leadership, heck that’s not even average leadership. That’s poor leadership.

No organization can afford to lose talented people. An organization with such poor results as the Pirates can afford it even less.

Nutting made a mistake keeping this leadership team in place.

By: Lee Young

Lee Young — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 13:13:57 +0000

Why does the money bother you? We had to buy him put of college. It was the price of business.

Nutting gets blamed for not spending and then he gets blamed for spending too much?

Can’t have it both ways, Fred.

By: Fred Langford

Fred Langford — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 23:32:26 +0000

I can agree with that for the most part…it was the money that was the issue. 2.5 mil quite a lot for an 18-19 year old that was raw and did not compete against high level competition. It was all about the 6’4″ 225 and 100mph. I don’t fault the reasoning…but 20 something teams passed on him either because of the pricetag or his rawness.

By: Lee Young

Lee Young — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 23:18:30 +0000

Only about 20 percent of 2nd rd picks become viable major leaguers, so it was worth the risk imho.

Every team knew he was a big gamble, which is why teams passed on him in the first and cop rounds.

He was worth a 2nd rd gamble in my mind.

Foo
.

By: Fred Langford

Fred Langford — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 23:07:48 +0000

All good points buccos21. I think they just got enamored with an 18-19 year old kid that could throw 100mph and had a decent secondary pitch. This has been happening for so long in baseball…arrogant front office guys think they can teach a kid control…sometimes they are right and often they fail. ou do have to question how many teams passed on him. That proves NH was rolling the dice big time. Another issue now that isn’t talked about much is Allie was old for a hs senior so now that he did convert it puts him further behind other kids his age. We have a hitter that will still be in SS ball at 22 instead of 21 if he had been a normal age as a senior. He could jump to The power but it would be a big jump considering what he did in Rookie ball last year. If he does make it he will be 26-27 before he gets to the mlb. 25 if he really gets it together.

By: Fred Langford

Fred Langford — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 23:00:03 +0000

This statemnt is true under the new system but under the old system you could overspend and still sign a lot of draft picks. I don’t feel like we signed less players than other teams on average in past drafts under Huntington and this year’s draft we didn’t do things any differently than oter teams. Pretty much all teams adhered to the rules.

By: jalcorn

jalcorn — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 22:06:22 +0000

Your evidence has a huge caveat because the Pirates have consistently drafted over slot and thus are choosing to take greater risks with signings. The strategy employed dictates that they will sign less players than other teams. It has little to do with the team name at the top of the contract,.

By: beatembuccos21

beatembuccos21 — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 21:36:00 +0000

From your first paragraph, I would hope that the scouts are doing a great deal of due diligence. But with Stetson Allie now a hitter, it makes me wonder how good of a job the Pirates did in feeling him out and understanding what it was that he wanted to do. I believe that was a Brian Tracy signing.

Also, I really want to agree with what you wrote about amateurs wanting to sign with the Pirates. But a quick check from the last two drafts would suggest the opposite. Among teams in the NL Central, the Pirates failed to sign 9 of their top 32 picks from the 2011 and 2012 drafts combined (top sixteen picks from each draft were looked at). Other than the Reds (5/32) no other NL Central team failed to sign more than three of their top 32. And only the Brewers (8th rounder in 2011) failed to sign a top 10 pick. I’m sure there are some circumstances that could plainly explain what went on with each of those nine players that didn’t sign with Pittsburgh. But to suggest that players ‘want to join’ the Buccos doesn’t seem accurate to me. In fact, based on the evidence of which players signed compared with typical signing rates in the NL Central, I could make the opposite case.