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.

Why do they love him? Well, a fastball that tops out at 103 mph is a good start. His excellent command is another. His tight curveball and brutal slider are a third and forth. He’s 6′ 5”, and perfect. You hear it everywhere. “Stephen Strasburg will likely win one Cy Young and a couple dozen Stephen Strasburg’s in his career,” say the guys at Beyond the Box Score. He’s got the stats to back it up too, Strasburg is pulling a 1.32 ERA, a 16.1 K/9 ratio and 10.3 K/BB walk ratio. He’s unstoppable. When UVA was preparing to face Strasburg last week, Karl Kuhn said he was told, “God isn’t going to give you more than one run.” You know what’s the best part of Strasburg? They’re calling him major-league ready. Some are saying he’s just going to skip the minors, and start playing for the Nats this summer.

But be careful, Stephen, you’re not there yet. You may be the greatest thing to walk on a baseball diamond, but take note of your supposed comparables, Mark Prior and Brien Taylor. Sure, Prior was dominant for awhile, but what’s he up to these days? And Taylor? He was the second first overall pick to never make the majors. Are there No. 1 draft pick success stories? Sure there are plenty of them. But there’s also of plenty mediocre players who never quite got there (and some who married crazy wives).

So there it is Mr. Strasburg. You’ll have your chance to be great. I hope, for your sake, you follow through.

Obviously the big news today was that after the Rockies tough start, their manager Clint Hurdle was fired. Some people are really pumped about it. If you didn’t read about it yet, you can find the details here. Of all the news sources, I decided to give the link to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, pretty much ’cause they could probably use the extra hits on their website/newspaper.

Cubs Pitcher Carlos Zambrano received a six-game suspension today for his ejection and ridiculous outburst. If you haven’t watched it yet, it’s definitely a good viewing, especially the bit at the end when he really decides he hates gatorade. This guy makes a case that it’s unfair that pitchers get a six-game suspension so they lose a start when a hitter only gets one. It’s an interesting point I sort of agree with (I think rather than give pitchers a two-day suspension, they should just give more hitters three-game suspensions).

I always get frustrated when I hear casual fans talking about Derek Jeter’s gold gloves and his amazing defense. Apparently Colin Wyers of the Hardball Times does too, as some of his readers actually thought Derek Jeter’s defensive play was worthwhile.

Another story on Hardball Times caught my eye. This one talks about the winning and losing teams in the selection of the 64-team NCAA Division I baseball tourney, which started today, as well as each team’s statistical odds of making the trip to Omaha. I suspect a particular sect of our readership will be pleased to note that Elon has been given just over a 12 percent shot of making the final eight.

Interesting piece of news regarding Chien-Ming Wang’s injury problems, which might have something to do with a piece of advice from Brian Cashman. I found it particularly noteworthy since I fully expected Wang to recover this season.

Lastly, today brought the much-awaited arrival of Orioles’ catching prospect Matt Wieters. As one writer aptly put it, “Matt Wieters has already been crowned the savior of baseball, the greatest ballplayer that ever lived and a first-ballot HOF’er… .” Needless to say there is a lot of expectation on this kid.