Some may consider investing $3.15 million in a kid who may or may not be 16 years old risky business, but apparently that group does not include the Minnesota Twins, who just bought themselves a few years of Miguel Angel Sano for that very price. Sano, if you'll recall, is the uberprospect who teased Pirate fans into thinking he might actually sign here for what seems like forever, but his signing means that ship hath finally sailed. He's going to the land of Favre, Prince, and Rose Nylund, while Pirate fans took another fastball to the gut. So it goes in the City of Champions.
Sano's agent, Rob Plummer, had this to say:
Sano's agent, Rob Plummer, had this to say:
"You know, I feel like I was in touch with the Pittsburgh fans on this, from reading the blogs and message boards, and I feel bad for them," Plummer said. "Sano could have been a Pirate. And when the fans see the figure Miguel signs for, they'll know that."Thanks for rubbing it in one last time. And why was this deal not done, you ask? Take it away, Mr. Plummer:
"I think contracts are made entirely of relationships, that people should have a comfort level," Plummer said. "Things fell apart because Pittsburgh never believed I had other teams interested in Miguel. I gave Neal every opportunity to sign Miguel for a reasonable amount, but he was afraid he was bidding against himself. When he sees the signing, he'll see that."I find it hard to believe that Neal Huntington felt that no other team was involved in the Great Chase for Miguel Angel Sano. Everybody and their uncle knew there were other teams interested in Sano. We've been hearing about this kid for months. This appears to be a personal relationship gone bad between Plummer and Huntington, and once again, the big losers are (drum roll, please)....the Pirate fans. Easy come, easy go. At least we have that Zach Duke near-complete game to ease the pain this week.
Sano to sign with Twins [PBC Blog]
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4 comments:
That's not the whole story....the Pirates couldn't really have done much more here:
ESPN.com's Jorge Arangure:
"From my understanding, the Orioles were given a chance to match. The Pirates were not given that chance."
"@battlekow Yes the Pirates would have offered more."
"@Zach_Young Realistically, it's hard to blame the Pirates when they weren't give a chance to match the offer."
(from twitter.com/jorgearangure)
Dejan at the PBC Blog you reference:
"Plummer said earlier today that, even if the Pirates had come back with more money, he would not have signed with them because he appreciated how the Twins dealt with him.
Huntington and Plummer had agreed last month that the Pirates would get a call once he reached agreement with any team, but both sides acknowledged today that Plummer never called them back."
Of course the easy angle to take is that the Pirates weren't willing to pay the cash, but that's definitely not the case. Just a crazy agent.
Maybe I didn't make my point clear enough, but I'm not blaming Neal and the Pirates at all on this one (hence the comment, "I find it hard to believe that Neal Huntington felt that no other team was involved in the Great Chase for Miguel Angel Sano"). I just don't believe this was an agent who wanted their client to sign with the Pirates.
Pirate fans ARE losers in all of this because some of us actually thought we might get this kid.
Did anyone really expect anything else? No agent wants one of his clients going to a team that he feels will continue to be a laughing stock and cheapen his clients ultimate $$ value and hurt his future chances to represent more top players.
After reading Dejan's report, I do believe that Plummer, like Boras and most of the other scumbag agents, is a complete A-hole but if the Pirates are ever going to win these kinds of players from these kinds of agents they'll have to overpay right out of the box instead of hoping and waiting for other teams to set the bar for them.
It was a combination of a jaggoff agent and a naive and frugal Pirates organization dragging their feet that lost Sanos.
Of course the Pirates had to use the Dodgers and the fear of losing 100 games as motivation to win and officially eliminate the chances of getting the No. 1 pick in the next draft. Couldn't have maybe found some motivation to play well in May guys? No matter, the Pirates will ultimately take someone much farther down in the draft rankings anyway where the won't have to deal with Boras or others like him.
Rob Plummer is a douchebag of the highest order. I will never defend the Pirates front office, but I have heard this guy interviewed on the radio in Philly and he is quite nefarious.
He was involved in another scandal regarding a player from the Dominican Republic and was quick to throw the Diamondbacks under the bus. All the while pledging he did not want to be involved in underhanded dealings. Yea, right.
Given his involvement in the shady underworld of baseball prospects in the Dominican Republic I would not be surprised to see this guy meet an untimely ending. Just sayin'
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