DownSwinging.com

Interesting that just days after I wrote the Huntington article that has some people fired up, I get to write about the Pirates again. This time though, in a less favorable light. Yesterday was the first day of the MLB first-year player draft, with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd rounds being drafted including the compensation rounds for free agents. After the initial Strasburg excitement subsided, the Pittsburgh Pirates, with the fourth pick, selected…….Tony Sanchez? Catcher from Boston College?

Really, it wasn’t unexpected. I mean, I had read yesterday morning that they were probably going with Sanchez, so it wasn’t a shock or anything. But I immediately thought, “Really Huntington? Wrong time man.”

Maybe the pick had something to do with the fact that two years ago the Pirates skipped over top catching prospect Matt Wieters who has just entered the majors with much fanfare, and Pittsburgh wished they had their own catcher that was causing such jubilation. It wasn’t like that though. Actually, the Pirates made the exact same mistake they made two years ago, when decided to pass on Wieters to save on bonus money. When the Pirates selected Sanchez, they were getting a good catcher, particularly defensively, and they knew that. But they also knew that if they didn’t take him, he probably wouldn’t go until the end of the first round or maybe even the compensation round. I mean the guy was losing weight on the Subway diet. Why did they take him then? It wasn’t because they thought he was extremely under-valued, its because he was cheap, and that’s just too bad.

To credit the Pirates, they have said that the reason they did this was that so they could still have some money to sign more picks later on in the draft, so it wasn’t just that they were completely stingy, it’s just that they want to spread out what cash they have. Fine. It’s not like it’s the worst idea in the world, I just don’t like it.

When you have a pick like fourth, and especially after you have shown to your fans that you are committed to rebuilding, I think that you’ve got to go out and get a guy that has a super-star potential. It’s not like they weren’t available at that point.

High school pitchers Zach Wheeler (taken 6th, San Francisco) and Tyler Matzek (11th, Colorado) were still available. As was Mike Minor out of Vanderbilt, considered a guy with lower upside but a safe bet at least. Aaron Crow was still an option, and certainly will want to sign after having played a year in independent ball. And, while it would have been a stretch, Michael Leake from Arizona St., who was rising up the boards after pitching well at the end of his season, was still there and would have been a better pick than Sanchez.

The bottom line you is that you have to have some great players to have a winning a team, and the only way the Pirates are going to get some is by taking a chance on some guys in the draft. Sure, Sanchez will catch for them, but by avoiding some of the great young arms in the draft, the Pirates skirted around the chance at injecting serious talent into their organization yet again.

Update: It seems that most of the Pirates blogs out there agree and are upset by the Pirates picks yesterday. This one talks about Sanchez’s slow bat and inability to hit breaking pitches.