OT: Pirates' #1 Draft Pick...
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In all seriousness, it seems like a good pick. I have no idea who the kid is but he won the NCAA batting title last year and had something like 12 HRs in 16 games this year.
Poor kid, worked hard his whole life to get drafted and ends up going to the pirates.
That's like the Browns drafting you as a QB.
I actually don't think that the Pirates are a bad situation for a high-end prospect talent that he seems to possess. If he has the talent and lives up to the potential, he will be successful and make lots of bank in his career, even if not paid by the Pirates. Gonzales was a near consensus best player available at #7, so it was the right pick on paper. You rarely need to worry about getting blocked by an elite player sitting at the MLB level with the Pirates and the argument that they keep talent in the minors too long compared to other teams has sort of been debunked in recent years. The developmental staff has turned over since claims of holding back guys like Cole from achieving peak performance pre-free agency, so that is a bit of an unknown right now.
While the Pirates may not pay up during the years of control, neither do other teams, including the big market teams. They also pay to scale in the minor leagues and draft (for a while they were actually paying well above slot until MLB changed the draft rules). The lucrative opportunity comes for ALL baseball stars' careers at free agency. The successful Pirates' alum, that didn't lock themselves into a hometown discount, ended up with some massive bank accounts at the peak of their MLB careers; it just won't be paid by the Pirates payroll.
The bigger problem for the Bucs has been their poor draft selections for so many years. Even at the time of the pick, you knew it was a stretch. WIth both of the 1st round picks this year, I don't think you will find any that say they weren't good picks where drafted.
The reality of it is, Pittsburgh won't see the kid on the field for at least 3-4 years and then if he's any good, he will be traded away because the Pirates will continue to be cheap and not pay their talented players.
If baseball isn't played this year, will any one really care? I don't think so.
If baseball isn't played this year, will any one really care? I don't think so.
The kid is thrilled and he should be. Worst case scenario he makes a lot of money 3 years down the road in arbitration. And if he is real good, free agency. These kids get slotted money according to where they are picked and don't make all that much anywhere till arbitration.
Thank you for a reasonable post.
If this were two years ago I'd agree with you. I think it'll be interesting to see if a new front office and development team moves people through the system faster.
Unfortunately, it is the same ownership group and they have proven that they are cheap. Maybe it will change, but I doubt it.
Some of the so called experts say this kid has an excellent chance to be a quick mover. If he progresses as expected we could see him in 2023-24.
I just wish the Pirates would have a different owner. I'm just so fed up with nutjob. The city of Pittsburgh deserves much better than this clown. The best stadium in baseball should have a championship team.
The system is rigged against the Pirates, there should be *real* revenue sharing and/or a salary cap. Some will say baseball is a free market economy, but that is not true at all, the Pirates aren't allowed to just move to Boston or NY to increase their revenue.
So start with a broken system, add in a cheap owner only looking for profits, and then mix in some idiotic baseball decisions...and you get a dysfunctional outfit not worth spending much time or money on. Did I mention they are even terrible at PR?
I do enjoy the sport of baseball so I go to several games per year, always with free tickets though I do buy stuff there when not in a suite. And I'll watch them on TV frequently for a few innings at least. But there is no way I would significant put energy, emotion, or money into that clown show.
So start with a broken system, add in a cheap owner only looking for profits, and then mix in some idiotic baseball decisions...and you get a dysfunctional outfit not worth spending much time or money on. Did I mention they are even terrible at PR?
I do enjoy the sport of baseball so I go to several games per year, always with free tickets though I do buy stuff there when not in a suite. And I'll watch them on TV frequently for a few innings at least. But there is no way I would significant put energy, emotion, or money into that clown show.
No kidding. For example, take a look at this five year stretch between 2006 & 2010.
2006: Brad Lincoln over Kershaw
2007: Daniel Koskos over Bumgarner
2008: Álvarez over Posey
2009: Tony Sanchez over Trout
2010: Taillon over Machado, Sale
They should become the Northeast Pirates of Pittsburgh. They could hammer down that Portland, Maine fan base, among others.
Like picking stocks! Win some lose some, but in this case Lose them all!!!
No one at the time truly questioned Alvarez over Posey. Alvarez was a big ticket item that was probably the expected most pricey player in that draft (and he ended being the most expensive).
Taillon's comparison out of HS was Roger Clemens. He was just as highly regarded as Machado and the question was whether you wanted a high end SP or high end SS. He just did not pan out, which happens with a lot of prep arms. He has certainly been snakebitten.
Neither of those guys were stretches; they were examples of the Pirates really trying to knock the pick out of the park and they paid a ton of cash for both guys. Same thing with Cole. And then Mark Appel the next year. And Austin Meadows the next year. And then Cole Tucker. All those picks were either high upside and/or expensive.
I think the other picks listed above can certainly be questioned but a lot of teams passed on Trout so the Pirates were not the only one in that boat. He went in the 20s. That was more scouting (the pick of Sanchez) than anything else.
They hit a point starting with Alvarez where spending money in the draft no longer was an issue. Before that point, Moskos, Lincoln, Bullington, etc ... I fully support and understand attacking them. After that point, they have always spent for first round players unless they made a pure scouting decision.
That's nice in theory. But baseball doesn't have a National Broadcast contract like Football. The greatest accomplishment of Pete Rozelle was convincing people like the Mara's of New York to agree to go under the umbrella of a Major Network and evenly split that money. It made the league what it is today.
That won't happen in baseball. The rich get richer because they have individual broadcast contracts for radio and TV. The owners with the richest deals would love to have a cap. But it can't happen unless all broadcast revenue is shared
A couple of those picks like Sanchez and Moskos were signability picks. But picks like Alverez and Taillon were legit. Those players that they didn't pick weren't super stars when the draft happened and the Pirates weren't the only team that passed on them.
Sanchez was not signability. Sanchez was in the Stephen Strasburg draft. The thought with his pick was that the draft was basically a two player draft and the rest of the first round was a question. So, the Pirates went with a guy that they felt would be able to fast track to the majors given his defensive skills and showed enough with the bat that he could grow into a solid MLB hitter. Unfortunately, they were wrong.
But, that draft in particular was regarded as being pretty weak outside of Strasburg with Ackley being the consensus clear second best player in the draft. No one expected some guy from New Jersey picked in the 20s to become the best player since prime Barry Bonds. Faulting the Pirates for not picking Trout is like faulting the Steelers for not picking Tom Brady in 1999 or 2000.
Agree. But I remember at the time that Sanchez was considered a reach. At any rate going back and cherry picking guys that weren't taken and went on to become super stars is foolish. And that goes for any sport and any draft.
Yeah, he was considered a reach but my point is that it was not a money related reach. It was purely due to scouting. That was the year that they started spending a lot on the HS arms (and that was the year that none of them were any good, I mean, I think Von Rosenberg is a good punter now for LSU but that does not quite count).
I agree with you on cherry picking guys. Listing a guy picked at the end of the first round when they had a top 5 pick is not really a valid argument concerning what they were doing.
I think where it gets more interesting is when there was a real case or argument to be made. For example, the Pirates did, at that time, go back and forth over Taillon and Machado and decided to go with the pitching. Hindsight tells us that they made the wrong decision. And, it probably would have been the wrong decision even if Taillon never started getting hurt. But, this is a much more interesting what if because it was feasible that they would have went the other way.
The year that they drafted Gerrit Cole, they could easily picked Trevor Bauer and no one would have questioned them at the time. Bauer outperformed Cole at UCLA and was unique. And some thought at that time that they could have went with Anthony Rendon as well. In that case, I think they made the right pick though I guess you could make an argument for Rendon.
He will make the same amount of money over the next eight or so years after having been drafted by the Pirates than if he had been drafted by someone else in the same position and ended up with the same career.
His signing bonus is slotted, minor leaguers pretty much make the same amount no matter which organization they are in, pre-arbitration guys for the most part have their salaries set by their service time, arbitration guys are subject to that process, which works the same way for all teams. Sure, it won't be exactly the same, but he will make essentially the same amount of money for the Pirates as he would if he was drafted 7th by the Yankees.
Gonzalez is unlikely to be a shortstop at the major league level.
However, if you did end up with three high level shortstops that would be a great problem to have.
Actually, I think it is brilliant. Seems to be the new trend in baseball. Load up on shortstop prospects and then disperse throughout your infield, with the best one staying at SS. I guess it’s because it’s easier for shortstop prospects to transition to other positions such as 1B or 3B. Royals are also doing this.
I love baseball and I live the Pirates what I hate is the example Red Sox and Cub fans set. We lose year after year but love us anyway. Pirates ownership needs to step it up and put a winning team on the field.
Right. If you can handle shortstop defensively then you can play any other position in the field with the exception of catcher (and you wouldn't want to turn a good shortstop into a catcher in any event). Second base is an easier version of short. If you have the athleticism to play short playing third or first is easy (the question would be if you could hit enough to play there). And the same for the outfield, also knowing that a good shortstop would easily have the arm to play right or center.
And if you did end up with three high level shortstop prospects you can easily trade one of them for something else. Teams will give up a lot for a high level shortstop prospect.
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