Kovacevic Chats Draft With Pirates Execs
There’s been quite a bit of conjecture that the Pirates will draft Pedro Alvarez with their #2 pick. Alvarez, a Scott Boras advisee, may require a Major League contract. The Bucs’ new management team will be making a statement to fans if they pony up for Alvarez.
Devan Kovacevic did a Q&A on the draft with Pirates GM Neal Huntington and team president Frank Coonelly. He didn’t shy away from tough questions, touching on the Matt Wieters subject. Kovacevic also referenced Alvarez, asking how a player demanding a big league deal would impact the team’s draft choice. Said Coonelly:
The preference is to sign any amateur player to a minor-league contract. It gives the club more flexibility. With a player signed to a major-league contract right out of the draft, you have to use an option immediately to get him to the minors. If he has a minor-league contract, you can have him for three years in the minors before having to use an option. Does that mean I’m saying the Pirates would never consider that? No. We would if there were a unique set of circumstances.
So…is Alvarez special enough to warrant it for the Pirates?
Baseball Blogs Weigh In: 2008 Amateur Draft
With last year’s top pick, David Price, making his pro debut yesterday, we are now two weeks from the 2008 "Rule 4 Draft" and the top of the draft is not as clear this time around. There are five candidates that could go in the top slot: Buster Posey, the FSU catcher; Vanderbilt’s third baseman Pedro Alvarez; San Diego lefty Brian Matusz; Southern California high school catcher Kyle Skipworth, and Georgia high school shortstop Tim Beckham. Earlier this week we heard that the Rays were leaning towards Posey or Alvarez, while the Pirates were said to be torn between Alvarez and Beckham with the second pick. Recent mock drafts from Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo, have Beckham going to the Rays with the top pick.
Let’s take a look at what is being said about the upcoming draft in the Blogosphere…
- Minor League Ball ranks the top 30 prospects, with Posey and Beckham at the top of the board, while Alvarez’ injury knocks him down to #8.
- Baseball Mastermind would like to see a push for a little more hype in the baseball draft and feels that baseball fans would benefit from more debate on the merits of the available talent. They also can’t see the Rays taking Alvarez with the top pick now that they have Evan Longoria locked up to a long-term deal.
- DRays Bay wonders if recent reports of the Rays drafting Beckham or Posey were just smoke-screens to lower the price on Alvarez, who is a Scott Boras client.
- Rays of Light note that Alvarez would be the ideal choice, but believe signability may be too big of a factor to ignore, making Posey more attractive.
- Bucs Dugout feels a team should select the best available player with the second pick, but suggests that a team like the Pirates, that is still several years away from contending, may be better off drafting high school talent. The idea is that an Alvarez will not help a Bucs club in ’09 or ’10 while a Beckham will remain under the team’s control for more years.
- Camden Depot doesn’t sound very excited about the prospect of the Orioles drafting Matusz.
- McCovey Chronicles is hoping that Alvarez falls to the Giants at #5.
Cork Gaines writes for Rays Index and can be reached here.
Odds and Ends: Griffey, Baek, German, Wells
Here’s today’s link collection.
- Hal McCoy seems fairly certain that Ken Griffey Jr. will play out the season with the Reds.
- Dejan Kovacevic has heard that the Pirates are torn between Pedro Alvarez and Tim Beckham at #2.
- Cha Seung Baek has been DFA’d, and this time he might be claimed. He could have a career as a fifth starter somewhere.
- John Brattain explains why he feels teams are colluding against Barry Bonds.
- The Rangers DFA’d reliever Franklyn German; Evan Grant explains why.
- The Indians claimed reliever Oneli Perez from the White Sox. Baseball America says the six-fingered pitcher has attitude questions.
- According to Buster Olney, David Wells is still waiting by the phone hoping for a team to call.
- RotoAuthority examines Daniel Cabrera‘s hot start.
Pirates Likely To Draft Pedro Alvarez
John Perrotto of the Beaver County Times chronicles the Pirates’ recent draft blunders. So many wasted picks. Under different management, the Pirates could have David Wright, B.J. Upton, Carlos Quentin, Tim Lincecum, and Matt Wieters in the organization. Sounds like a fantasy team. Such hindsight cherry-picking is unfair, but the Pirates should have Upton and Wieters right now.
Anyway, the depressing trend of bad picks for the Pirates is likely to change this year. For the first time, the Bucs might give out a Major League contract to a draft pick. That pick would be Pedro Alvarez, who Perrotto believes the Pirates will take at #2. Rumblings do not indicate the Rays want Alvarez. Both Jonathan Mayo and Baseball America believe the Pirates will get their man.
Odds and Ends: Bay, Roberts, Cliff Lee
And here we have some random links I’ve collected over the past day or so.
- The Bucs will try to fill their open 40-man spots through low profile moves, not unlike the Jason Michaels one. They won’t move Jason Bay or Xavier Nady until they’re truly out of it. 4.5 games out of the wild card, they still have a prayer here on May 9th.
- Keith Law’s top 60 prospects list for the June draft has been published. Shortstop Tim Beckham heads the list.
- Gordon Wittenmyer looks back on the Cubs players rumored to be traded for Brian Roberts.
- Juan Uribe, partially on the strength of a great takeout slide, still has life with the White Sox.
- Nick Piecoro reminds us that the D’Backs were close to acquiring Cliff Lee in a deal for Carlos Quentin this winter. That would just be unfair, Lee as a part of that rotation. Ken Davidoff notes that the Mets discussed Lee as well.
- So…did the Yankees really have a shot at Micah Owings in the Randy Johnson deal?
Pirates Acquire Jason Michaels, Brewers Mull Turnbow
After being designated for assignment back on May 5, Jason Michaels has been traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates for, what else, a player to be named later. As Tim noted on Monday, Michaels has been pretty terrible so far this year. Not that he was so hot during his tenure in Cleveland. He wasn’t able to get his OBP above .330 or his SLG above .400. Not so hot for a corner outfielder.
The Pirates options OF Nyjer Morgan to Triple A to make room for Michaels. The Bucs now have two open spots on the 40-man roster. Feel free to speculate.
In other recently-designated news, it is believed that the Brewers have placed reliever Derrick Turnbow on waivers. The former closer was DFA a week ago, so something needs to be done soon. Tom Haudricourt believes he could clear waivers by Friday.
If he clears, he could accept an assignment to Triple A with the Brewers. Otherwise he’d become a free agent and forfeit the remainder of this $3.2MM salary.
Posted by Joe Pawlikowski.
Odds and Ends: Botts, Red Sox, McLouth
Roundup of links!
- According to Jamey Newberg, Jason Botts has cleared waivers. He probably won’t get another chance with the Rangers though.
- Gordon Edes notes that the Red Sox have five picks in the first three rounds of the June draft. Even though they don’t start until the 30th pick, the Sox have had much success in recent years.
- No extension talks have begun with Nate McLouth, but Dejan Kovacevic does expect it to happen.
- I updated the fantasy baseball closers depth chart over at RotoAuthority.
- SI.com’s Jon Heyman says Freddy Garcia is "progressing nicely" in rehab and will throw off a mound about a week from now.
- Marc Topkin wonders if the Rays should consider Jason Michaels (among others) if they aren’t satisfied with their current right field options.
Pirates Hope To Retain Meek
Dejan Kovacevic fills us in on the Pirates’ attempts to retain 25 year-old reliever Evan Meek.
Meek was a Rule 5 pick who the Bucs just couldn’t hide in their big league pen all year. Meek was designated for assignment yesterday but the Pirates are trying to make a deal with the Rays rather than return him.
Baseball America says that Meek "uses a low-90s fastball that has good sink and run to pick up strikeouts and groundballs." As you might guess, control has been an issue.
Odds and Ends: Morris, Moeller, de la Rosa
Let’s kick things off with an odds and ends post today. By the way did anyone watch Max Scherzer‘s debut last night? Damn.
- Dejan Kovacevic notes that even if Matt Morris considered retiring and abandoning his ’08 salary, the Players Association would’ve strongly objected.
- Rays Senior VP of Baseball Ops Gerry Hunsicker indicates that the team will spend money to improve the team if they’re still contending a few months from now.
- According to Jon Heyman, catcher Chad Moeller will remain with the Yankees.
- Another fine piece from Bob Nightengale of USA Today (hat tip to ShysterBall). The article discusses the pros and cons of young players leaving money on the table in exchange for security.
- The Rockies may complete their long-rumored Jorge de la Rosa acquisition. The Rox have question marks in the rotation after Aaron Cook and Jeff Francis.
- Good point from Ken Davidoff – the Phil Hughes/Johan Santana question can’t be answered yet.
Matt Morris Retires
According to Justin Rodriguez of the Times-Herald Record, pitcher Matt Morris has retired. He confirmed it with Rodriguez; Morris has no desire to battle his way back or work out of the bullpen.
Morris finishes with a 3.98 career ERA in 1806 innings, including a respectable 121 wins. Kind of nice that the career ERA didn’t get pushed over 4.00. Retired at 33 with $60MM earned…can’t say I don’t envy him!