The struggle to sign Alvarez just another setback

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.

The main issue during the negotiations between the Pirates and Alvarez appear to be over a "recommended" signing bonus, one that Alvarez's super-agent Scott Boras has been known to request for his clients. While the Alvarez camp continues to ask for what they feel to be a deserving sum of money for a signing bonus, the Pirates feel the current offer is beyond fair, and refuse to budge on their dollar amount.

It's understandable that complying to the money asked by Boras for the sake of signing a player is an easy out, and an example has to be set that not every asking price will be handed out. But when the future of this team could have benefit from a young talent who could be on the field ready within three years, around the same time when recent trades with the Yankees and Red Sox are expected to pan out, isn't the risk worth the potential reward? Every year you hear about the future. As cliche as it sounds, the future is now in terms of setting up what could be a formatable product come 2011.

Naturally, only time will tell whether or not the Pirates will be able to sign Alvarez, and for that matter whether or not Alvarez will pan out to be an above average ballplayer. If anything baseball history has taught anyone, it's that predicting the future of a young player before they ever swing a bat at the major league level can be next to impossible. But for the Pirates, and more so for the fans, taking a risk and pulling the trigger on Alvarez now is a decision that needs to be made. It would be far more of a risk to see talent slip through the hands of the Pirates and watch the Vanderbilt standout reek havoc on the rest of the league in a Mets uniform.