A pitcher whose ERA (7.48) is higher than his K/9 (7)? To think that when he starts an inning, you're more likely to see him give up a run that get a strikeout--surely that's a rarity?
MLBTR says that his underlying data is more impressive though.
The international signing class is a scrap shoot but it seems like the pirates are playing in the higher cost range now. Year after year it was quantity over quality. Perhaps this change in approach will result in one of these kids getting to the show. For years it seemed like just throwing money away on kids that seemed to have little chance of success. I still like Campagna, great athlete but can't hit a lick. Maybe this year if he hasn't already been released!
International signing tracker is up for anyone interested. Will be updating throughout the day. Once we get the full list, we will have a separate article on that.
BA is listing Carlos Lorenzo; however, when I was trying to track down the final $20k spent in the 24 pool I was given the name Carlos Lorenzo, who to the best of my knowledge still has yet to hit a transaction log or anything.
Pitchers Adrian Florencio and Johan Montero were released today. Neither pitched during the last two seasons. Florencio was a solid prospect at one point, but clearly two full years out of baseball doesn't help
If you see a name being announced, feel free to mention it here. I mentioned all of the ones it was safe to announce except Cuban pitcher Yoslaniel Hernandez, who Anthony wrote about a few days ago after his signing was leaked by a Cuban reporter.
When I got the list of players signing about ten days ago, I was told that 2-3 players were still waiting for MLB identification/drug tests results. I was also told that players might not being signing on the 15th, which I took as the Pirates are at a ceremony right now at the Dominican Republic about to sign players, so they can't be at ceremonies in other countries. As an example, Shim signed a few days later because the Pirates wanted to be there in his home country for the signing. Those "might not be signing today" players could also just be the guy waiting on test results.
That's why I didn't put the names out there yet. There could be up to five players not signing today OR all 25 could be announced. I don't know that part. It will all be announced as soon as I'm given the okay or if the Pirates just mass announce them like they did the last time I got the names ahead of time.
Thanks John for the IFA Review. So far it looks like the Pirates will have 3 of the Top 60 (BA) Prospects, and they are not all MI's which is a plus. I know secrecy is not a big item, but the Pirates can never be sure. Of BA's Top 60 Prospects the pirates are favorites to sign the following:
1. 9th Ranked Johan De Los Santos, 6' LH hitting SS. If he is as good as his brother Yordany, we have a lot to look forward to as he develops. Yordany will probably play SS for Bradenton in 2025.
2. 20th Ranked Darell Morel, listed as a 6'5" SS, but who will probably be a CF/OF for the Pirates. Bats L with excellent power potential.
3. 57th Ranked and Rising is a 6'2" RH hitting CF Gabriel Rodriguez from Ven. The arrow up from BA is due to his exc contact skills starting to show more power development.
Biggest thing to remember is that even the best of these kids are 4 or 5 years away from possibly showing themselves in the upper levels of the minors.
BA list is ranked mostly based on expected bonus, not the talent. I will tell you that the sense I get from someone who has seen a lot of all three of them is that the ranking would go Morel/JDLS/Rodriguez in that order.
I've seen JDLS ranked 23rd by Pipeline, who actually tries to rank players by prospect status, which I'll point out is impossible for 16 year old kids. Let's just assume that is the perfect ranking for him according to the Pirates (they won't rank players like this, so it's just for fun), then the feeling I got is that Morel would be about 15th and Rodriguez would be about 40th.
Three in the Top 40 is even better than expected. I think the kid from Ven, Rodriguez has a lot going for him according to the write-up, but we are looking at kids who would be HS Soph's or Junior's in the US. Not sure anything in their lives will change like it does in the US, but they are quite a ways from maturity.
I think he started to turn singles and gap line drives into wall balls and HR's. Hopefully with pursuing guys like Morel and Rodriguez the Pirates are going after guys with more pop in the bat. Getting Jhonny Severino from the Brewers was a nice change - an infielder who posted 18 doubles, 6 triples, 16 HR, 58 RBI in just 300 AB in FCL and A.
It’s hard to get excited for IFA Signing Day given the Pirates piss poor record in developing these guys. That being said, I am happy for each of these kids. Congrats, boys! Go beat the odds!
Hopefully some of the recent changes leads to different results.
You also can’t help but wonder with the odds on these guys, is it poor development, or is just bad luck? The fact that some teams seem better than others at it would suggest against that, but you never know.
Signing Matt Hague is a giant step forward for this club, but do we have anyone else involved in the development of the overall system hitting instruction. Not meaning the hitting coaches on each MiLB Team, but do we have somebody in our management team who can help design the entire instructional hitting system?
Hitting instruction has seemingly gone from 20 mph to 90 mph in just the last 10 years with the advanced technology these kids have grown up with. And yet, we still have a lot of swing and miss in MLB! It will take someone who has played the game and has a grasp on how to apply the advanced tech now available, and still be able to control what happens when these kids go elsewhere during the off-season. Cannot afford guys coming back with "new" approaches like Jared Triolo in 2024, and who knows what happened to Jack Suwinski between 2023 and 2024?
I fear we as fans are looking at Matt Hague as a hitting savior, which is unfair to him.
First thing I hope he gets away from is the whole “choose your own development path” approach of the last regime. These young men need coaches not advisors.
Skenes 4th is not unexpected, even if it’s likely he’s better than Wheeler and Sale. Skubal & Skenes are the two guys I would choose between if I had to win a game for my life in 2025.
Brett de Geus!!!!!!!!! Why? I’m hoping he doesn’t make it through the offseason on the 40 man
A pitcher whose ERA (7.48) is higher than his K/9 (7)? To think that when he starts an inning, you're more likely to see him give up a run that get a strikeout--surely that's a rarity?
MLBTR says that his underlying data is more impressive though.
The international signing class is a scrap shoot but it seems like the pirates are playing in the higher cost range now. Year after year it was quantity over quality. Perhaps this change in approach will result in one of these kids getting to the show. For years it seemed like just throwing money away on kids that seemed to have little chance of success. I still like Campagna, great athlete but can't hit a lick. Maybe this year if he hasn't already been released!
International signing tracker is up for anyone interested. Will be updating throughout the day. Once we get the full list, we will have a separate article on that.
https://bucsondeck.substack.com/p/2025-international-signing-period
I don't see a tracker yet, so I'll post here:
BA is listing Carlos Lorenzo; however, when I was trying to track down the final $20k spent in the 24 pool I was given the name Carlos Lorenzo, who to the best of my knowledge still has yet to hit a transaction log or anything.
Trying to figure out what is going on still.
Pitchers Adrian Florencio and Johan Montero were released today. Neither pitched during the last two seasons. Florencio was a solid prospect at one point, but clearly two full years out of baseball doesn't help
If you see a name being announced, feel free to mention it here. I mentioned all of the ones it was safe to announce except Cuban pitcher Yoslaniel Hernandez, who Anthony wrote about a few days ago after his signing was leaked by a Cuban reporter.
When I got the list of players signing about ten days ago, I was told that 2-3 players were still waiting for MLB identification/drug tests results. I was also told that players might not being signing on the 15th, which I took as the Pirates are at a ceremony right now at the Dominican Republic about to sign players, so they can't be at ceremonies in other countries. As an example, Shim signed a few days later because the Pirates wanted to be there in his home country for the signing. Those "might not be signing today" players could also just be the guy waiting on test results.
That's why I didn't put the names out there yet. There could be up to five players not signing today OR all 25 could be announced. I don't know that part. It will all be announced as soon as I'm given the okay or if the Pirates just mass announce them like they did the last time I got the names ahead of time.
BA has a summary up on each team’s int’l class. The South Korean and Ugandan kids are both IFs. The Cuban kid is a LHP who’s up to 93 now.
The kid from Uganda is listed as an OF on the sheet I have from the team, while the one from South Korea is listed at third base.
They’re starting to get these signings listed at mlb.com and MiLB.com. They show Muhoozi as a SS.
I strongly approve of this “flipping” business. 😃
Thanks John, I think I read the pirates are signing a rhp out of Australia, Robinson Smith. 6'4" 175 lbs with very good control and projectable.
https://www.fieldlevel.com/app/profile/robinson.smith/baseball/videos/1939372?m=3
Thanks John for the IFA Review. So far it looks like the Pirates will have 3 of the Top 60 (BA) Prospects, and they are not all MI's which is a plus. I know secrecy is not a big item, but the Pirates can never be sure. Of BA's Top 60 Prospects the pirates are favorites to sign the following:
1. 9th Ranked Johan De Los Santos, 6' LH hitting SS. If he is as good as his brother Yordany, we have a lot to look forward to as he develops. Yordany will probably play SS for Bradenton in 2025.
2. 20th Ranked Darell Morel, listed as a 6'5" SS, but who will probably be a CF/OF for the Pirates. Bats L with excellent power potential.
3. 57th Ranked and Rising is a 6'2" RH hitting CF Gabriel Rodriguez from Ven. The arrow up from BA is due to his exc contact skills starting to show more power development.
Biggest thing to remember is that even the best of these kids are 4 or 5 years away from possibly showing themselves in the upper levels of the minors.
BA list is ranked mostly based on expected bonus, not the talent. I will tell you that the sense I get from someone who has seen a lot of all three of them is that the ranking would go Morel/JDLS/Rodriguez in that order.
I've seen JDLS ranked 23rd by Pipeline, who actually tries to rank players by prospect status, which I'll point out is impossible for 16 year old kids. Let's just assume that is the perfect ranking for him according to the Pirates (they won't rank players like this, so it's just for fun), then the feeling I got is that Morel would be about 15th and Rodriguez would be about 40th.
Three in the Top 40 is even better than expected. I think the kid from Ven, Rodriguez has a lot going for him according to the write-up, but we are looking at kids who would be HS Soph's or Junior's in the US. Not sure anything in their lives will change like it does in the US, but they are quite a ways from maturity.
Rodriguez is actually the perfect example of how much things can change. I get the sense that he wasn't a top 100 prospect when he agreed to a deal
I think he started to turn singles and gap line drives into wall balls and HR's. Hopefully with pursuing guys like Morel and Rodriguez the Pirates are going after guys with more pop in the bat. Getting Jhonny Severino from the Brewers was a nice change - an infielder who posted 18 doubles, 6 triples, 16 HR, 58 RBI in just 300 AB in FCL and A.
It’s hard to get excited for IFA Signing Day given the Pirates piss poor record in developing these guys. That being said, I am happy for each of these kids. Congrats, boys! Go beat the odds!
Hopefully some of the recent changes leads to different results.
You also can’t help but wonder with the odds on these guys, is it poor development, or is just bad luck? The fact that some teams seem better than others at it would suggest against that, but you never know.
My personal belief for Pirates failures in this are are threefold:
1. Crappy player development, especially for hitters.
2. Quantity over quality approach hurt.
3. Bad talent evaluation by LA Scouting Department.
I’m pretty sure #2 negatively affected #3 reason.
All reasonable takes.
Signing Matt Hague is a giant step forward for this club, but do we have anyone else involved in the development of the overall system hitting instruction. Not meaning the hitting coaches on each MiLB Team, but do we have somebody in our management team who can help design the entire instructional hitting system?
Hitting instruction has seemingly gone from 20 mph to 90 mph in just the last 10 years with the advanced technology these kids have grown up with. And yet, we still have a lot of swing and miss in MLB! It will take someone who has played the game and has a grasp on how to apply the advanced tech now available, and still be able to control what happens when these kids go elsewhere during the off-season. Cannot afford guys coming back with "new" approaches like Jared Triolo in 2024, and who knows what happened to Jack Suwinski between 2023 and 2024?
I fear we as fans are looking at Matt Hague as a hitting savior, which is unfair to him.
First thing I hope he gets away from is the whole “choose your own development path” approach of the last regime. These young men need coaches not advisors.
I would say not having Haines as hitting coach is a giant step forward.
The jury's still out on Matt Hague, as far as I'm concerned. We'll know way more in September.
I wondered about this also. It seems like some of our hitting issues are hitters not reaching their expectations in the minors.
Skenes 4th is not unexpected, even if it’s likely he’s better than Wheeler and Sale. Skubal & Skenes are the two guys I would choose between if I had to win a game for my life in 2025.
Thanks for the great intel on this international class! Great write-up!
More "Baseball Wit and Wisdom" to bridge us over the icy shores of the Great Lakes as we make our way south to pitchers/catchers:
"You gotta be a man to play baseball for a living. But you gotta have a lot of little boy in you."
-- Roy Campanella