The Pirates are the “strong favorite” to sign Mexican pitching prospect Luis Heredia, according to Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The Pirates have been scouting the 16-year-old right-hander more aggressively than any other MLB club and have close ties to Veracruz, Heredia’s team. Not only do the Pirates have connections to Veracruz, which controls Heredia’s rights, Pittsburgh’s Mexican scouting suprevisor, Jesus Valdez, has known Heredia since the pitcher was five.
Veracruz cannot entertain formal offers until Thursday, but many teams other than the Pirates appear to have interest. The Yankees, Blue Jays, Rangers, A’s, Giants and Braves all scouted Heredia in Mexico last week, according to Kovacevic.
Heredia may not be going anywhere right away. I heard that there is some in-fighting between his family and Veracruz…family trying to get the contract voided. Veracruz gets 75% of the money paid, while the family only gets 25%.
This could get interesting…
Keep us posted on any new developments
Two down and one to go. Let’s keep this thing rollin’, Neal.
If the Pirates add three pitchers with ace upside in the span of a few days/weeks…after having none in the system or in Pittsburgh for 18 years…I might defecate all over myself.
I honestly don’t understand how there are any questions surrounding the current management team after this. Then again, the collective Pirate fan base, as a whole, is a bigger joke than the current team. Probably still PO’d that Jack “1st Ballot Hall-of-Famer” Wilson got traded.
Just think if the Pirates sign this guy and tank for the rest of this season — They will get Rendon! The Pirates are gonna put this together soon!
Heredia would ne nice to add to Teheran, Minor, Vizcaino, Delgado, Lopez, Beachy….
The Braves did suspicously pull two offers to overslot late round guys at the last minute. Maybe they scouted Heredia and liked him enough to divert funds to enter the bidding.
If the Braves could add this guy it would make me feel a lot better about now signing Sabol or Alvord!:)
I would be nice to see the Yankees scoop this guy up to put a nice cherry on top of their farm that has made some nice strides this year.
I hope any team but the Yankees or Red Sox sign him.
If he doesn’t sign with the Jays, I really hope he signs with the Pirates. They could use the pitching depth.
I agree with you no Yankees or Red Sox.
Completely understandable. I’m sure it is the last place any non-Yankee fan would want him to sign. If it’s not NY, I would like to see Pitt get him. It seems kinda like Sano last year thus far (by whose after him).
kcuF “Mirror” the Yanks, no offense.
I wonder why he wants to sign with a team having, potentially, the number one overall pick. Maybe because he thinks it’s a quicker path to the Show?
Most likely but it’s hard to say when he can reach the show. He is only 16 and I’d have to think it would take at least 6-7 years so who knows what the roster may look like by then.
Money is a huge factor as well.
I don’t think it matters where *HE* wants to go — Veracruz has his contract…for now.
Pirates Latin America scouting director Rene Gayo has developed a close relationship with the kid’s family. Much like he did with Sano.
How exactly does that work where a scout knows a kid since he was 5? He must come from a baseball family right?
He’s a stalker?
Didn’t Sano sign with someone else last year? The Pirates were the leader all summer it seemed like and then he went somewhere else. And this kid is probably at least 6 years away from the majors. He’ll start at the very lowest level and go through one level a year, maybe 2 one year. I mean, he’s 16 … he won’t be up until he’s at least 21.
bw831, Sano ended up signing w/ the Twins. There’s conflicting stories about why the Bucs didn’t get Sano. Some folks blame his agent and some blame the Pirates front office. It hurts that the Bucs didn’t get him given their lack of elite middle infield prospects, but what’s done is done. Signing Heredia should help Pirate fans forget about Sano (at least a little bit :).
derek: If I’m not mistaken, Huntington stepped up and took it on the chin for Sano. It may have been a little of both sides responsible, but I thought Huntington openly shouldered some of it.
As for Sano, he is now a 3B in the Twins organization — a move many thought he’d make, regardless of who signed him. My understanding is that Heredia is very advanced for a 16 yr old, much like they say Taillon is for an 18 yr old (but not AS advanced as Taillon). You can NEVER have enough arms in the organization…especially when there were NONE before.
Lazo, with Colton Cain, Quinton Miller, Bryan Morris, Trent Stevenson, and ZVR already in the pipelines and Taillon, Allie, and hopefully Heredia coming aboard, the Bucs will have a great amount of elite, ace-type pitching prospects with Rendon in the mix for the 2011 draft. If just half of these guys pan out, the Bucs pitching staff will be the envy of the league!
Derek: here is to hoping these high-ceiling pitching prospects PROGRESS in the system (esp ZVR, Cain, Miller, Stevenson & Dodson).
On a side note: if we’re #1 overall next year: Rendon or Purke? A power LHP that dominated his FR year at a D1 school (including the CWS), or a thumper at 3B…moving Alvarez to 1B. I like the power at the corners…but do you bypass a STUD LHP (possibly ready in less than a year)?
If the Pirates have the top pick in the 2011 draft and Rendon and Purke put up stats worthy of being chosen in the top 2, it will be a good problem for the Pirates. Like you said earlier, you can never have enough arms in the system. Having said that, the Bucs currently have no power hitters in the system, so adding Purke to the system would be a plus. I think if I were Neal, I would select Purke. You?
Derek: I think the Pirates select Purke, however much they need infielding prospects.