MLB Power Rankings:Where we care what you've done for us lately when we break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world each week.
We're almost there. You can smell it in the air, can't you? That's right ... the NHL playoffs! Ha. I kid, of course. No one actually watches hockey (if it even exists). But people do get amped up for baseball, and the season is upon us. So, in that vein, we've got our final installment of preseason power rankings ready for your digestion. Play ball.
FanHouse continues its 2009 MLB Preview with a look at the Pittsburgh Pirates.
For the better part of the last decade, the Pittsburgh Pirates aimlessly wandered through the wilderness of baseball with Kevin McClatchy and Dave Littlefield at the helm. Finally, they lost their jobs and Frank Coonelly and Neal Huntington took over. For more than a year, the new front office has been working on digging out of the hole dug by Littlefield during his reign of terror. There's only one real problem: The hole dug by Littlefield was so deep that it's going to take more than a year to dig out of it.
There comes a point when being hard-headed stops being useful and starts being stupid. After locking heads with Scott Boras on second overall draft pick Pedro Alvarez's contract for over a month, someone either in the Pirates' offices or in the Alvarez camp realized that refusing to budge was going to keep Alvarez from playing this fall and set his development back a full year. Accordingly, the two sides agreed to a revised deal last night that will get Alvarez into the Pirates' system as soon as possible.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the deal isn't much different from the originally signed $6 million bonus for a minor league contract beyond the fact that it's now a major league deal, which puts Alvarez immediately on the 40-man roster. The bonus is $6.35 million, but it's payable over four years instead of being immediately due. In the end, it's hard to say one side benefited more than the other.
It's likely that a lot of people will be unhappy with the Pirates because negotiating this deal after the deadline sets quite a precedent for Boras in the future, but the Pirates can't be concerned with that. I mean, have you seen the Pirates play lately? They're terrible. They need all the help they can get and a player of Pedro Alvarez's quality certainly qualifies as "help."
From The Windup is FanHouse's daily, extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.
There is one name that strikes fear into the heart of baseball fans and it's not Rodriguez or Santana or Sabathia or Ramirez. It's Boras. Signing or drafting a Scott Boras client means that your team is going to be put through every wringer possible as Boras tries to hustle, hassle, and finagle every last dollar out by exposing loopholes in agreements that no one ever even knew existed. At best, it's annoying for the fans to deal with. But a guy like Boras is exactly what baseball needs.
If you're unfamiliar with the most recent Boras saga, allow me to get you up to speed (for all of the details, read Dejan Kovacevic's excellent piece at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's PBC Blog). In June, the Pirates drafted Pedro Alvarez with the second overall pick. After little contact the day of the August 15th deadline, the sides worked out a $6 million signing bonus on the cusp of the midnight deadline. Things got suspicious from there when Alvarez never reported to Pittsburgh for his physical or to sign the contract in person.
After nearly two weeks, word broke last Wednesday that the Pirates had placed Alvarez on the restricted list for not signing his deal and that the player's union (the MLBPA) was filing a grievance alleging that the contract had been signed after the midnight deadline. From there, the finger-pointing started between Boras and Pirates' CEO Frank Coonelly (formerly the MLB General Counsel in charge of draft slotting) with the Royals' first round pick, Eric Hosmer (who signed after the deadline with an extension from the commissioner's office) dragged into the feud.
Remember two weeks ago when the deadline for signing draft picks came and went without a lot of drama from Scott Boras? How it seemed like he caved to the Pirates' and Royals' offers for the second and third picks, Pedro Alvarez and Eric Hosmer? When it comes to Alvarez, at least, things are never that simple with Boras. What seemed to be resolved on August 15th with the Pirates and Alvarez slowly devolved when Alvarez never showed up in Pittsburgh to take a physical and sign his contract. Today, things apparently hit the fan.
The ball got rolling when the MLB Players' Association filed a grievance with the Commissioner's Office (more details being constantly updated here), charging that Alvarez signed his contract after midnight on the 15th. The Pirates responded by refuting that charge and placing Alvarez on the restricted list, saying that Boras had since tried to renegotiate the contract and his client has refused to officially sign the deal that was agreed on in principle the night of the 15th.
What does all this mean? Where does this go? It's a good bet that this is rooted in Boras's dislike of the August 15th signing deadline, even though there's not much being said right now beyond run-of-the-mill finger pointing. As it stands, Boras feels the Pirates signed Alvarez to an illegal contract and the player's union is on his side. The Pirates feel that Boras is posturing for more money and the MLB higher-ups are on their side. A hearing is scheduled for September 10th, but I imagine both sides will have a lot to say before then.
To fans and the media, what a team does in the MLB Draft pales next to a big free-agent signing or blockbuster trade.
Part of that is the gaudy figures thrown around during the hot stove season. The Red Sox, this year's top spender in the draft, couldn't even buy one year of Gil Meche if they shifted their draft outlay to the open market. Most of it stems from immediacy, though. A big winter signing answers the question who will help me today? A big haul in the draft answers who will help me tomorrow, but in most cases tomorrow is years away, if it ever comes at all.
Still, as the cost of free agents escalates, the draft continues to become the most important way to ensure long-term success. With that in mind, and with the deadline to sign picks in the books, here's a look at three teams who won and three teams who lost in the 2008 draft
After last night's midnight deadline for signing draft picks, it appears that the Boston Red Sox became the first team in history to exceed the $10 million mark in total signing bonuses.Given the way the Red Sox have been run under Theo Epstein, that's not a huge surprise. What is surprising is their competition in the race to $10 million this year. It wasn't the Yankees or Dodgers or Mets or another similarly deep pocketed team. It was the Pittsburgh Pirates.
One of the big stories after midnight last night was that the Pirates managed to sign their first round pick, Pedro Alvarez, to the biggest signing bonus in franchise history ($6 million). Picking the best talent available and signing him to a big deal hasn't exactly been the Pirates' MO over the past (see: Brian Bullington over B.J. Upton and Danny Moskos over Matt Wieters), but it's also not hard to do. Where the Pirates really made their impression was later in the draft.
In addition to signing Alvarez and their third-through-fifth round picks at about slot level, the Pirates broke out the checkbook for sixth rounder Robby Grossman and 20th rounder Quentin MIller. Some rated both of them as high as second or third round talents that dropped because of their commitments to Texas and UNC, respectively. The Pirates paid both of them in the neighborhood of $1 million to convince them to sign, way above their slot values.
All told, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is estimating that the Pirates broke the $9 million barrier and came close to paying out $10 million in signing bonuses in Neal Huntington's first draft as Pirates' GM. He inherited a team in quite a hole last September, but it certainly looks like he's making strides towards digging out of that hole.
The August 15th deadline for signing draft picks has created some interesting drama in mid-August that didn't previously exist. With most high draft picks waiting until the 15th to sign, there was a ton of tension as midnight approached last night. One of the most interesting subplots, however, has been how Scott Boras has handled negotiations for his top prospects.
A year ago, he represented Mike Moustakas and Matt Wieters, picked second and fifth overall, respectively. After demanding huge signing bonuses for both of them, it was reported the he called the Royals and Orioles after 11:30 PM and mostly gave in to the teams' demands, with Moustakas signing for $4 miilion with the Royals and Wieters getting $6 million from Baltimore. That's certainly a lot of money, but it's not even close to what Boras had reportedly been asking for.
A similar scenario played itself out last night with second overall pick Pedro Alvarez (picked by the Pirates) and third pick Eric Hosmer (again, the Royals). After reportedly asking the Pirates for an eight-figure signing bonus for Alvarez and a major league contract and a similarly huge bonus and big-league signing contract for Hosmer, both players signed for $6 million bonuses and minor league deals within minutes of the midnight deadline.
So what's the deal? Two years, four demands that Boras has seemingly caved on. Is the superagent losing his touch?
Now that the exciting action of MLB's amateur draft has completed it's first round, it's time to take a look at our country's next millionaires. Here's a quick glance at the first round selections by the teams of the AL West.
Pittsburgh Pirates (2)- Pedro Alvarez, 3B, Vanderbilt (pictured)- Are you ready to live in a world where the Pittsburgh Pirates drafted the best player available to them, even though his agent is Scott Boras and he's going to command a big pile of cash? Anyways, Alvarez has some serious left-handed thump that should play almost perfectly to PNC Park and he should be on an extreme fast-track to the big leagues, as he's been compared with guys like Evan Longoria and Ryan Zimmerman. The pick is really a great step in the right direction for the Pirates new front office.
Cincinnati Reds (7)- Yonder Alonso, 1B Miami (FL)- I think this may have been the first surprising pick of the day, given that Justin Smoak was still on the board. He's a very good hitter with a good approach at the plate, but the most optimistic description of his defense I heard given was that he's "adequate" at first base. That's not exactly a ringing endorsement, which might make this pick a little questionable for an NL club. Still, Alonso CAN rake and Great American Ballpark is a great place for hitters.
Wait, can this be right? Since Neal Huntington and Frank Coonelly took over the baseball operations for the Pirates last fall, fans have been wondering how the new front office will handle the draft after Dave Littlefield's second to last blunder (taking relief pitcher Danny Moskos instead of Matt Wieters or Matt LaPorta with the fourth overall pick last year for what's widely believed to be monetary purposes).
Fans have at least a partial answer after Coonelly and Huntington's first first round draft pick, with which they've selected Vanderbilt third baseman Pedro Alvarez. Alvarez was widely thought to be the top prospect in this year's draft before a hand injury, which the Pirates don't seem to think will bother him long-term. Honestly, the kid can swing a bat with just the kind of power the Pirates always seem to be sorely lacking
Another reason Alvarez may have dropped out of his favor is his agent, the notorious Scott Boras. Rumor has it Boras is going to ask for at least $7 million and maybe more for a signing bonus for Alvarez. That doesn't seem to bother the Pirates, maybe because Alvarez told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this week that he'd be honored to be chosen by the Pirates. Negotiations might get a little sticky, but it's nice to see the Pirates' new front office actually following through with their promise to pick the best available player in this draft.
There comes a point when being hard-headed stops being useful and starts being stupid. After locking heads with 
Remember two weeks ago when the deadline for signing draft picks came and went without a lot of drama from Scott Boras? How it seemed like he caved to the Pirates' and Royals' offers for the second and third picks, Pedro Alvarez and Eric Hosmer? When it comes to Alvarez, at least, things are never that simple with Boras. What seemed to be resolved on August 15th with the Pirates and Alvarez slowly devolved when Alvarez never showed up in Pittsburgh to take a physical and sign his contract. Today, things apparently hit the fan. 
After last night's midnight deadline for signing draft picks, it appears that 
The August 15th deadline for signing draft picks has created some interesting drama in mid-August that didn't previously exist. With most high draft picks waiting until the 15th to sign, there was a ton of tension as midnight approached last night. One of the most interesting subplots, however, has been how Scott Boras has handled negotiations for his top prospects. 
Now that the exciting action of MLB's amateur draft has completed it's first round, it's time to take a look at our country's next millionaires. Here's a quick glance at the first round selections by the teams of the AL West.
