FanHouse Miguel Angel Sano

After being heavily pursued by the Pittsburgh Pirates -- and seemingly no one else -- since early July, Miguel Angel Sano will reportedly sign a $3.15 million deal with the Minnesota Twins. Sano, the 16-year-old Dominican phenom, is a shortstop but is expected to be converted to the outfield eventually.

Pirates general manager Neal Huntington and Latin American scouting director Rene Gayo had been hot on Sano since the international signing period began on July 2. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, though, Sano's agent, Rob Plummer, said the relationship between the two sides became strained in the process.

Just 21/2 months after the Cardinals agreed to a $3.1 million contract with 16-year old Dominican prospect Wagner Mateo, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting that the club is voiding the deal due to a pre-existing condition that Cardinals discovered during their physical exam. It was originally reported on Friday by ESPN's Jorge Arangure that the physical turned up vision problems that could potentially affect the signing, though the club had not elaborated beyond that initial report.

It's not immediately clear what Mateo's vision problems are or what the Cardinals' plan is going forward with Mateo. The voiding of the contract suggests that it's a serious condition, but it's also possible that the Cardinals are playing it safe given the amount of money and young age of the player involved. If that's the case, Mateo could potentially sign, for much less money, with another team somewhere down the road.

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About eight years ago, the hardest part of Lee Banks' job as coach of a youth travel team based in southeast Virginia was picking a shortstop.

"It was a lot of fun," Banks recalled to FanHouse last week. "You just sat back and let 'em play and try not to mess it up."

Back then, the team (now known as the Tidewater Orioles) had on its roster B.J. Upton, David Wright, Ryan Zimmerman and Mark Reynolds.

There is very little in baseball that's less precise than Latin American scouting. Starting on July 2 each year, big-league teams go out and sign 16-year-old kids from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and really anywhere other than Puerto Rico in hopes of unearthing the proverbial next big thing. This year, Miguel Angel Sano is drawing a lot of attention from several teams, and speculation is rife that he may command a signing bonus upwards of $2 million.

Sano is a 6-foot-3 monster who has been compared to everyone from Hanley Ramirez to Alex Rodriguez, and he recently turned 16. With the history of prospects from the Dominican and Sano's impressive stature at such a young age, it comes as no surprise to see that ESPN is reporting that MLB officials are looking in to some irregularities regarding his age (subscription link), including doing a DNA test to prove that he is related to the woman assumed to be his mother due to allegations from the Twins that Melania Jean Sano had a child that died at birth that Sano may be impersonating in an attempt to appear younger.