Frank Foreman's Pittsburgh Pirates fan blog

The Pittsburgh Pirates and first-round draft pick Pedro Alvarez are mearly days away from the midnight deadline on Friday to reach an agreement on a contract, yet appear to be headed in seperate directions. Why this is important, besides the obvious fact that Alvarez is a highly-touted third baseman with an upside potential to become the Pittsburgh version of Evan Longoria, is that the Bucs aren't doing everything in their power to get the deal done. That, in a nutshell, has been one of the many front office blunders that have transpired over the last decade.

Now I'm not one to blast the Pirate organization for past mistakes, or even hammer down on recent decisions that can easily be second-guessed. In all honesty, I like the way that the new owernship and president Frank Coonelly are visioning the future ballclub. Howerever a failure to sign top talent before they even graduate from their colegiate careers is exactly what can't happen to this organization. They finally spend a top draft pick on the best avaliable player, yet remain on the brink of letting him slip out of their hands and into a dangerous situation. If that's not taking one step forward and two steps back, I don't know what is.

Continue reading "The struggle to sign Alvarez just another setback"