I don't even know where to begin.
Look, this is not a high-risk move, so I don't have much of a leg to stand on when criticizing Team Neal for signing two young pitchers from India, who are pitchers only by virtue of winning a contest in their home country. Their ascent to the major leagues is not by virtue of, you know, actually playing baseball for most of their lives, like most other players, but because they won a reality TV show. There are movies that are less ridiculous.
But whatever. They've received something like $15,000 and $20,000 dollars, so it's not like the club is spending Burnitz money on these guys. It does, however, smack of quite a bit of crazy. I guess when your organizational pitching depth is as bad as the Pirates', and when more and more teams are starting to adopt a sabermetric-friendly model for doing business, you have to start thinking more and more "outside the box." In this case, that box appears to be the Western Hemisphere. After all, Moneyball is all about exploiting market deficiencies, right? Well, I can safely say that if there is a market for unknown pitchers from India (and with a billion people, the chances are at least decent), then the Pirates have cornered it.
I will also add that their blog is unintentionally hilarious.
Look, this is not a high-risk move, so I don't have much of a leg to stand on when criticizing Team Neal for signing two young pitchers from India, who are pitchers only by virtue of winning a contest in their home country. Their ascent to the major leagues is not by virtue of, you know, actually playing baseball for most of their lives, like most other players, but because they won a reality TV show. There are movies that are less ridiculous.
But whatever. They've received something like $15,000 and $20,000 dollars, so it's not like the club is spending Burnitz money on these guys. It does, however, smack of quite a bit of crazy. I guess when your organizational pitching depth is as bad as the Pirates', and when more and more teams are starting to adopt a sabermetric-friendly model for doing business, you have to start thinking more and more "outside the box." In this case, that box appears to be the Western Hemisphere. After all, Moneyball is all about exploiting market deficiencies, right? Well, I can safely say that if there is a market for unknown pitchers from India (and with a billion people, the chances are at least decent), then the Pirates have cornered it.
I will also add that their blog is unintentionally hilarious.
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