On a differeny subject: there was a lot of whinning after the players completed their trainning by the Seals. What didn’t get coverage in the local media was Coach K. and Duke’s basketball team went thru the same trainning the next day and the players loved it. Big difference between paid baseball players and college players wanted to get better to get to the next level.

“HS players, esp pitchers have a higher attrition rate for whatever reason. Nothing new there.
ZVR and Cain were the two highest paid bonus babies. They are in A/AA ball. If they came out of college this summer, where would they go…to A Ball, probably. Where did Cole go? A ball. So the fact that they are this far from the majors is not that surprising.

Most HS players take 6 yrs or more. There are exceptions, but on average it takes them a long time.

Again, when 7 out of 8 ‘bomb’ out, and they’re high schoolers, well, that is kind of to be expected. See this link (and read the two links in the first paragraph). http://viewfromthebleachers.com/blog/2012/08/23/success-rate-of-mlb-draft-picks-by-slot/

Plus, when you’re in the minors, you’re working on things. They may still turn it around. Sure, it doesn’t look good, but we drafted essentially 2nd and 3rd rounders. Beats drafting ‘pure’ 8th rounders or 10th rounders, of which the odds drop even more.

Take a look at how many HS pitchers were drafted in the first 3 rounds. Let me know what THEIR success rate was. In the 2009 2nd round only 4 players have played in the majors. All were college players. One, Andy Oliver, is now a Bucco. In the 3rd round, 2 have played in the majors. All are college players.

A quick check 2nd and 3rd rd 2009 HS draftees shows only this guy http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=erlin-001rob with a half decent ERA.

You’re talking in generalities, Tony, without knowing the facts.
I understand your frustrations, but look at Locke and Fearsome…2006/2007 draftees…just now on the cusp.
Foo

We have one player from the ’08 system in the majors fulltime: Pedro.

More are coming….will they be any good, nobody knows. But it is nice to know that the ODDS are now better that they WILL be good.

This ain’t a FB or B’ball draft. It takes longer for baseball ‘recruits’ to make it to the majors. And when the historical ‘make it’ rate is 1 or 2 players a draft, well…

If Liriano’s deal had been for 1 year, we could have been staring at the possibility of replacing 3 spots in the rotation a year from now.

The realistic possibility of Wandy turning down a $13M option makes me hope my son turns out to be LH and loves baseball

I suggest some – not all but some – of the overslot picks developing into average or above major league players.

I suggest finding undervalued MLB talent and bringing it to Pittsburgh through trade or FA.

I suggest signing Cuban talent that is MLB ready (i.e. Cepedes)

I suggest hiring talented baseball men or women to develop our minor league talent instead of people with very thin resumes.

I’m not hating – it is painful for me to type this. I want to share meaningful Pirate games with my children, who are baseball fans. I am expressing my view based on the actual data – not on “expert projections”.