The Pittsburgh Pirates have signed three international players, all from the Dominican Republic. The biggest name among the group is outfielder Eddy Vizcaino, who played in the Dominican Prospect League. They also signed a pair of middle infielders, William Calderon and Melvin Jimenez. The Pirates were nearing their international bonus pool limit before acquiring $269,900 worth of bonus pool space from the Oakland A’s in the Ike Davis trade. We have some scouting reports for the three new players from their time in the Dominican Instructional League. There is also a video of Vizcaino at the bottom.
Vizcaino is a left-handed hitting corner outfielder with above average range and a good arm. He is a line drive contact hitter that showed occasional pop. He has average speed and like the other two players, Vizcaino has room to fill out. He played in the DPL in 2013.
Jimenez is also a lefty hitter that makes solid contact. He showed good hands at shortstop, solid overall defense and displayed a great work ethic. He is 19 years old.
Calderon plays second base and shortstop, but his defense isn’t as good as Jimenez. He is a switch-hitter that makes contact. Jimenez is raw and inexperienced, but showed potential. None of the three were described as fast(or slow), but Jimenez and Calderon were both described as good base runners.
The Pirates have now signed 13 players this July 2nd signing period. The signing tracker has been updated. There was no bonus information for any of the players.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
Any names for the July 2nd 2015???? I have heard that some agreetments has been done with some dominican prospects just awaiting for the date to annouce it.
MLB Trade Rumors just reported that the Pirates won the bidding for Jung-ho Kang, an infielder from Korea. Pretty interesting.
Yeah, very surprising but in a great way. Nice gamble with our need for depth at 2b, ss, and 3b. The price will be interesting. Just realized he is just 27, so maybe the power breakout has a chance of carrying over somewhat.
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It would appear that the Pirates are after quantity with their International picks instead of quality.
Not a bad idea considering the track record of high-priced players. It’s tough to go any quality considering the international cap restraints. You spend a lot for one player and your budget is shot. You go over the cap and you severely handcuff yourself the next two years
There are several teams that went way overboard and it does not appear that a cap means much to them.
It’s all personal opinion. If a team wants to pay double for every player and decide to punt the next two years, who is to stop them? I think it’s a huge risk, especially since you won’t see any kind of payoff at all for 5-6 years, if any of them make it. I’d rather go with the constant influx yearly
You have to at least admit it is interesting that the Pirates seem to be one of the only teams in baseball who actually think the int’l bonus rules are prohibitive.
I don’t agree with going over the Int’l bonus because of the penalties, but I’m sure if they right player comes up they would. These players are too far from the majors and there has never been a guaranteed star among them. I think you stick with quantity while getting some quality at the same time. I’d rather have 20 players for $150K than one player for $3M.
These teams that are going over are taking huge chances that nothing good is available the next two years, all while paying every player double what they are worth. I’d rather go with the constant influx of talent rather than putting all my eggs in one basket, especially with 16 year old players. They always say, you never know how money will change one of these players, for most, this is their one huge payoff and the Pirates have seen numerous examples of players getting six figure bonuses and that’s the last time they gave full effort because with six figure deals, some of them can be set for life already. The other thing is, you don’t know how they will adjust to the move to the U.S. and we saw that this year with Michael de la Cruz, he didn’t handle being away from home well.
Quantity each year is the best route to go in my opinion under these current rules. Pirates had no problem spending when the rules allowed it, so it’s hard to knock them when they go with what I think is the best route possible now. They even acquired more money, so it’s not like they sat on the amount they were initially given.
I, personally, can’t really argue much with your logic. Just find it interesting that MLB clubs are thinking differently in such large numbers.
That’s how you play that game: you need to sign a bunch of them to have decent odds of any one of them panning out.
“Quantity has a quality all its own.” — Stalin.
A Stalin reference? Really?
I am not against quantity way.
So you’re saying that the Pirates Prospects book I’m expecting in the mail today is already obsolete? 🙂
I’ll be back later today after the inevitable post on improving pitcher hitting appears. That should be a fun one.
If Clint says they are going to fix the pitchers hitting problems, then they are going to fix the pitchers hitting, but pitchers have to want to hit for
that to happen, maybe they should work on bunting? what a revelation! Like you, can’t wait for that column.
Might help if they actually let them hit in spring training, instead of using the DH for most of it.
There are blank pages so you can write in the info above. Then after you do that, you can put your own name in the author section 🙂