Baseball America's Ben Badler reported that the Pirates signed 20 year old Cuban RHP Cesar Lopez in September for $600K. The delay in completing the deal is the wait for his visa, which often requires quite a bit of hoop-jumping for Cuban nationals.
He's said to have a low-nineties heater with two other pitches, a change and slider. And for the money they're offering, the FO must believe he knows how to throw those three pitches. If he ends up a bookend to Luis Heredia, it's been a very good year for Latino signings.
The last Cuban that the Pirates signed was RHP Yoslan Herrera in 2007 for $750K. He spent last year pitching AAA ball for the Twins, and none too well, may we add, so the Cuban pedigree isn't always all that.
We should find out soon enough. At his age, Lopez should start pitching in the US at one of the A level teams as soon as his visa problems are ironed out.
(Badler's article is behind a subscription wall; we found out about the signing from Tim Williams of Pirate Prospects.)
Also in Latino news, Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com reports that "The Pirates have reportedly signed right-hander Leandro Rodriguez out of the Dominican Prospect League, according to the DPL website.
The site describes the 17-year-old Rodriguez as having a "loose" arm and said the Pirates signed him for $80,000. The club has not announced the signing."
Well, at least they're trying. To me, the thing that's the most frustrating about the current front office is that it is so demonstrably competent in some ways, far more so than its predecessors going back to the early 90s. Why is that frustrating, you ask? Because in a way it's almost harder to take their disingenuousness and dishonesty and bad trades in light of the things they do really well. It's like "boom or bust"---mostly "bust"---as opposed to "dependable mediocrity". Man oh MAN it's hard to root for these guys. Not for the Pirates, but for the current front office. In my book they are very hard to take.
ReplyDeleteI have to hope, Will, that they're done with their cattle call, sign everybody they can and hope a couple of them can play this game era.
ReplyDeleteThe system is probably a year or so away from being restocked; now it's going to be a case of evaluation rather than numbers if they're to progress.